Topic: Huge Nintendo DS Japan Update

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Nintendo displays its Nintendo DS game pages to all.

Nintendo has finally opened up its full Japanese Nintendo DS website, revealing more insight to the line-up, including which games will come out with the system's Japanese launch on December 2nd.  The confirmed first party launch titles are:

Made in Wario

Super Mario 64 DS

Pokemon Dash (a new Pokemon racing game)

Band Brothers (a new rythm/music composition game using the touch screen and wireless connectivity)

Intuition Hitofude (a new puzzle game)

 Other Nintendo-published titles featured on the website include Balloon Trip, Metroid Prime Hunters Tournament, Nintendogs, Mario Kart, Advance Wars, Yakuman, and a new RPG developed by Cing.  None of these have launch dates.

Of particular interest is Super Mario 64 DS's interface, showing exactly how the stylus will be used to emulate the N64's control stick.  Other titles on Nintendo's page seem to have similar interfaces.

[Mario]

Whoa, I need new pants.

[ruby_onix]

I must say that I'm not too enthused about the idea of playing Mario 64 with a stylus.

I could see playing it with the D-pad. You only ever needed two speeds in Mario 64. Walk and run. They could have you walk by default, and run old-school Mario style by holding down the "B" button. An 8-directional D-pad would be adequate for running recklessly around the world of Mario 64. For the finer movements, you could always adjust the camera angle.

But, maybe that's just me. I just don't think the stylus could ever work as good as the controls in the original. I hope I'm wrong. Or that the D-pad method I described is available in an options menu. Because I really like the idea of playing through Mario 64 again as Luigi. Especially if he jumps higher than Mario does.

[Bill Aurion]

"I just don't think the stylus could ever work as good as the controls in the original."

Thinking about something before you see it and feeling it for yourself are two different things...

[Pale]

So uhh..... What the hell is pokemon dash and why isn't it a real pokemon game? =P

[joshnickerson]

Pokemon Dash looks... interesting, to say the least. The characters look partially cel-shaded, but I never really liked top-down racers.

Oh, and a new Pokemon RPG has been confirmed too. Probably launch in Japan next year or the year after.

[Pale]

Well, i'm not really seeing how these announced launch titles can coincide with any of the Warp Pipe speculation...

Mini Games in Mario64x4 won't exactly scream online play...

[MarioAllStar]

So you actually move around with the stylus? DO you do it by pressing the "buttons" on the bottom screen shown in the new screenshots?

[Bill Aurion]

Doubt it...Those buttons are probably used to zoom in and out of the map...

[MarioAllStar]

So do you think you do it by moving where Mario is on the map? I'm really confused here. There old system was fine for me (directional pad, press a button to run), but I guess I'll have to give this a try.

Also, if you move with the stylus, and for most people that's with the right hand, do you use the stylus to jump?

[joshnickerson]

Hmmm... what about camera control?

[couchmonkey]

I don't know how Mario 64 will control, but it certainly seems like better use of the DS' capabilities.
There are a lot of games in that list.  If all of those come out in the next year, I don't think it will matter so much that the launch lineup is a bit...crap.

[Ian Sane]

What's this "Another" game?  It looks really neat.  The new Advance Wars looks really spiffy as well.

This Japanese launch lineup isn't great but it's got some variety and some originality.  It's not amazing but the Japanese launch lineup is perfectly acceptable.  Now why can't some of those games be ready for the American launch?  If the DS was going to launch in America first why didn't they aim for these games to be finished for that launch instead of the Japanese one?  It looks to me that those in charge of the software only cared about Japan and whoever decided to launch first in NA didn't take that into account.  If they were going to launch in NA first they should have had American teams working on games.

It looks to me that Nintendo did have decent plans for a launch lineup.  They just stupidly set the American launch to be first and thus completely wanged the American launch lineup.  If all of your games are being made in Japan you should launch in Japan first.  I'm thinking NCL and NOA didn't pay enough attention to what each other were doing.

[Bill Aurion]

"Another" looks to be a point and click adventure/mystery game, the first for Ninty since the Famicom Detective games that never left Japan...Hopefully this one will make it stateside... ^_^  

[PaLaDiN]

It looks like Mario Kart is using Karts again.

[Koopa Troopa]

Quote
"Another" looks to be a point and click adventure/mystery game, the first for Ninty since the Famicom Detective games that never left Japan...Hopefully this one will make it stateside... ^_^

::changes underpants::  


By the way, did you guys notice that Baby-Mario cloud game is looking like a new Yoshi/BMario platformer?

[couchmonkey]

Yeah, that game looks cool.
Sad there's no sign of Super Mario Bros. DS, but I think the games that are there are  still very exciting!  I want to try this Hero game...it looks cool.

[FFantasyFX]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
It looks to me that Nintendo did have decent plans for a launch lineup.  They just stupidly set the American launch to be first and thus completely wanged the American launch lineup.  If all of your games are being made in Japan you should launch in Japan first.  I'm thinking NCL and NOA didn't pay enough attention to what each other were doing.

Actually, I think Nintendo of America's preeminent goal is to get the DS out before Thanksgiving, consequences on the launch lineup be damned.  From a monetary point of view, it makes perfect sense to have your new product out before the busiest holiday shopping week of the year.  I'm still baffled that none of these other titles could be available for the North American launch (how much effort would it take to port a game like Wario Ware?), but the silver lining in the launch lineup is that this will cause early adopters to take a second look at games they might not typically consider buying - 3rd-party games at that.