Geartest.com Games - Nintendo DS - Hands-on preview of the Nintendo DS dual screen wireless mobile game console, GameBoy & GameBoy Advance SP

Nintendo DS - dual screen Gameboy portable multimedia game handheld with Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt demo shown onscreen - prototype images and photographs mobile game e3 voice communication

Nintendo DS hands-on preview

Geartest.com Staff
October 21, 2004.

NOTE: This preview is based on a late, pre-release model of the Nintendo DS wireless mobile game console. Some aspects of it may differ from the final production model, scheduled to be released four weeks from now on Nov. 21, 2004.

The Nintendo DS is the namesake company's newest entry into the handheld mobile games market. Nintendo dominates the portable gaming category with its phenomenally successful GameBoy and GameBoy Advance SP devices, and is now preparing to meet competition from the Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) head-on, as it fends off other portable game contenders such as the PalmOS-based Tapwave Zodiac, and Nokia's N-Gage QD.

We spent a couple of hours in a hands-on preview of the Nintendo DS, without any of the packaging, instruction manuals or additional accessories that will ship with the final product.

Initial impression & details

The most striking features of the Nintendo DS are the twin LCD screens. Both the top LCD display and the touch-screen on the lower half of the oblong clamshell are bright, crisp and clear when viewed indoors under dimmed lighting.

Physically, the Nintendo DS is a comfortable size for adult hands, which is the market that Nintendo says it is going after -- people in their late teens and early-20s. The device's weight is a little lighter than one would expect, given that it is approximately twice the size of the GameBoy Advance (GBA) SP. This is probably due to the construction of the plastic body, which is a neutral and understated silvery-grey color. It doesn't feel like a fragile device but it doesn't feel as durable as the GBA SP.

The Nintendo DS controls are familiar to anyone who has used a GBA SP, with the power button and four-way directional pad to the left of the touch-screen, and the Select, Start and four action buttons (X,Y,A,B) to the right. The plastic keys feel identical to those on the GBA SP, which is a little disappointing. A slightly more "up-market" feel would have been ideal for Nintendo's new flagship device.

A built-in microphone and a pair of status indicator lights, one for power, the other for an unidentified function -- possibly wireless network detection -- are on the front edge of the Nintendo DS. Tucked beneath the leading edge are a volume control slider and headphone jack. Nintendo's representative said that there are no applications that use headphones or the microphone at this time.

The front of device has a slot for GBA cartidges (GameBoy titles will not work on the Nintendo DS) and the back has a slot for the new, proprietary Nintendo DS media card which is approximately the length and width of a standard CompactFlash card, but as thin as an SD memory card. According to Nintendo, the new media card is supposed to hold up to one gigabit (Gb) of data, or approximately 125 megabytes (MB) -- slightly less than a standard SD card.

The Nintendo DS is a wireless networking device that uses Nintendo's own proprietary networking protocol and an unidentified version of the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard.

Geartest.com tested the wireless functionality of the Nintendo DS using the PictoChat wireless instant messaging software built into the device, as well as a networked game of Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, the game demo that will be bundled with the Nintendo DS on the launch day -- Nov. 21 in North America and Dec. 2 in Japan.

Europe and Australia will have to wait until 2005 before it sees the Nintendo DS on retail shelves.

[Nintendo DS wireless, PictoChat IM & screen design >>]
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