Staff Special | Nintendo DS Page 1

Staff Special | Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS: Deviously Shrewd or Disastrously Stupid?
The Cubed3 Staff take a look at Nintendo's latest plans for world domination...

Article by Cubed3 Staff

Cubed3's JB thinks it could look like this...

The truth is nobody knows what it will look like yet...or how it might work

Not even our very own tempo88, thank god...

Nintendo DS
It is the biggest news in gaming at the moment, everyone has a view on it, browsing various messageboards from all over Europe, the USA and even Japan it is interesting to see the views of different types of gamers. The hardcore seem to be keeping pretty quiet about it, it would seem that Nintendo being more 'commercial' doesn't appeal to a select few. The more casual gamer seems to be a bit sceptic about the whole situation. In their view it will just be another kiddy device from a company notorious for their pinks and Princesses. Want a more balanced view on the announcement, what it means and what it could all lead to? The Cubed3 staff aim to remove the bias and deliver the concise view...hopefully.

The phrases 'Nintendo' and 'Game Boy' are almost common-place in the English language nowadays. As has been illustrated in several prior C3 articles, the Kyoto company is a prominent figure in the ever-changing world of videogaming entertainment. Just like Sony will always primarily be linked with electronics and Microsoft with home computer systems, the word 'Nintendo' conjures up images of nothing other than things likes 'family fun', 'pure videogaming' and 'fat, hairy plumbers'. Well, okay, perhaps that last one was made up, but you get the drift.

Unfortunately, though, this strong company is no longer in the lofty position it once was a decade ago and the competition is only proceeding to get larger and be recognised on a more regular basis as a source of 'cool gaming', making the previously taboo subject of videogames acceptable in today's society. Sony's PlayStation easily squeezed the Nintendo 64 out of the market and the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's XBOX are keeping the GameCube at bay on an all-too-frequent basis. But hey, there is always the trusty Game Boy series to fall back on, right? Around since 1989 and still going strong today, the various line-up of Game Boys have seen off stiff competition from the likes of Atari's Lynx, Sega's Game Gear, Bandai's WonderSwan and, just recently, Nokia's N-Gage - what could touch that sort of record? Sony's PlayStation Portable, that is exactly what. So in my eyes Nintendo has taken the wise option and instead of panicking to rush out the follow-up, as I like to call it the Game Boy Evolution, it has knocked-up something very similar to the old Game & Watch machines in order to steal some of the PSP's thunder.

Step up to the mic Mr DualScreen! Now, I am pretty sure you all have your opinions of this new 'portable' (we have to remember, nobody has said 'handheld' specifically), I mean hey, you only have to type 'Nintendo' into Google's News page and you will be bombarded by articles claiming to have the latest scoop on the system that no one has seen yet. Yes, even C3 has been doing the same. But why? Speculation is a wonderful thing, that is why. What is better than sitting down and letting your imagination run wild after only hearing a few snippets of information? Everyone is creative, and Nintendo has unleashed that creative side in nearly all of us - with people even drawing sketches of what they believe the system will look like.

So what do we know? It is not the successor to the GC or GBA; it is to be the third pillar in the Nintendo Empire; the price-point is likely to be around the

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Staff Special | Nintendo DS

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