Nintendo DS: touching new games

By Guy Cocker on 15 June 2005, 11:35am

Crave took time out yesterday to see how the Nintendo DS plans to compete with the Sony PSP, due out in September. The DS is currently outselling the PSP in Japan and Nintendo seems determined to offer a varied mix of gaming treaures. This year's line-up was a mix of updated GBA titles (Mario Kart DS and Advance Wars Dual Strike), home console conversions (Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and Viewtiful Joe) and most interestingly, innovative takes on the touch-screen functionality (Nintendogs and Meteos).

Our pick of the afternoon was the wonderful Nintendogs, a title that we've had our eye on since it was released in Japan. It's the sort of game even your mum would love, as you head off to a pet shop to choose your new puppy, interacting with it through the screen by throwing a ball or patting it on the head. Even the most hard-nosed journalist couldn't help going "Awww" as the cute little doggie rubbed up to the screen so you could stroke him. We still don't have a UK release date, but you could always import the US version in August. In the meantime, check out these charming videos of the game.

The chance to play multiplayer Mario Kart was enough to make us run over to the eight-player wireless LAN. We found the DS version very similar in gameplay to the original SNES Mario Kart, while offering the wide and twisting courses of the N64 game. Mario Kart is one of the titles that really takes advantage of the dual screens by showing a map on the top, so you can see if a weapon is heading your way. It ran seamlessly over the wireless LAN, and hopefully it will redeem the distinctly average GameCube version.

Hopefully everyone reading this will own either Advance Wars or its sequel on the GBA, two of the best strategy games since chess. The DS update is a lot smoother thanks to touch-screen interaction, so no more scrolling across the entire map with the joypad. However, it looked very similar to Advance Wars 2, apart from offering two simultaneous maps (land and air, for example). Hopefully this won't complicate the beautiful simplicity of the gameplay, but Crave can't wait to get some wireless multiplayer warfare going in the office.

The most immediately striking game that Crave got to fondle was Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, which was surprisingly similar to the home console version. It wasn't particularly smooth, but all of the sneaking, gunplay and neck-breaking remained intact. Viewtiful Joe seemed like an ideal title to port to the DS, but at this early stage it wasn't particularly smooth. Joe's athletic punches and kicks didn't feel as satisfying to land, but there were some new touch-screen VFX controls. The demo offered us the ability to 'cut' the screen in half, moving a water fountain to put out a fire, but we'll have to see if the gameplay can be polished before its release later in the year.

Away from the new Nintendo games, anyone who's sick of that Crazy Frog should try this excellent game on the Net. There have been murmurings that the Crazy Frog could be set for a videogame of his own -- let's all pray that it isn't the start of annual Crazy Frog-licensed sports simulations. -GC