Akom of Cazic Thule
06-15-2006, 12:42 PM
When the next gen handhelds were coming out, I was a complete PSP fanboi... its just so damn sexy. The DS was neat, but it was a massive clunky device that was about as sexy as a brick.
Though the PSP was an awesome looking device, I couldn't bring myself to pay the money to get one. Also, I read reviews talking about the various issues the device had.
Well, when the news came about the DS Lite coming out, I thought "Oh, thats neat...", but I was still stuck on the un-sexy brick look. I saw the comparison photos, and could see that it was smaller and brighter, but it just didn't stand out. Also, I got a GBA (original, not SP) shortly after release and was never really happy with it. I think the lack of a backlight killed it for me. I played it on trips and such, but eh. I spent a good amount of money on games for it and never played it. Same for my GameCube. Spent a good amount, never play it. Thus I decided, while the device looks nicer now, I couldn't justify spending the money on it.
Well, as the release date closed in, my roomate decided that he was going to get one. He started researching the games and the system and would talk about it constantly. "You know, if you get one we'll be able to play a lot of the games multiplayer, even with a single cartridge." I love multiplayer games. The WI-FI online gaming sounded awesome, even if it was only for a limited number of titles. I started to become interested, but still... the monetary issue was a problem. I have things I need to be saving for...
Well, as the release time approached, I became a victim of hype and started actually looking into the device and games. I found out a lot of things that I liked about the system, but one of the big ones that I never knew (although, probably should have) is that its reverse compatible with GBA games. That would mean I'd still be able to make my investment in GBA games at least somewhat worthwhile...
After the release date, I started shopping around for deals on the DS. I found some on Ebay for $115 shipped and couldn't resist. I ordered one. The guy was actually about an hour north of where I live, so I knew shipping would be fast. I got it yesterday.
I have to say, you can see the video's and pictures of the device, but until you see it in person, you don't appreciate what they've done to it. They actually made it an appealing device. While I still think the design of the PSP is sexier, the DS has taken huge steps in the right direction. Its no longer this bulky, awkward looking device. Now, looking at it, it seems to use only as much space as it has to to include everything.
The design and functionality is amazing. The functionality of the touch-screen is flawless in my experience so far.
My room-mate got home way before me and had kindly plugged it in to charge. When I got home it was charged, but I didn't have any DS games to play on it, as he wasn't home and had his (which arrived at the same time as mine) with him and he was the only one with any games (I ordered some online, and will get one or two at Costco). I have to say, though... even going through the setup feels so elegant. You feel like you're holding a much more expensive, elaborate device.
After setting everything up and playing with options, I dug my GBA games out of storage. (Oh... nifty little setup option... you can decide what screen GBA games will appear on, the top LCD or the touch-screen) The GBA games go into a slot on the bottom of the device, which normally has a matching cover so you wouldn't really know it was there. GBA games do stick out a couple centimeters, but its not bothersome for game-play and it doesn't even really look that bad.
The games themselves look better on the DS than the GBA (original) due to a better screen and, of course, the backlight.
When my roomate got home he turned on MarioKart. Now, the GBA games look good, but MarioKart DS looked awesome. We tried out the download-play option, where I wirelessly download the multiplayer version from his DS. This was a simple operation and worked flawlessly. The download-play versions of the games have limited functionality, but still... it looked great and played beautifully. We also played the multi-player game on the New Mario Brothers game. That was fun, but I could see it getting old kinda quick.
After having some fun with multiplayer, I took his device and got the MAC address and put it into the allowed list on our router. After that, he was able to set up his network settings in MarioKart and play online via WiFi, which seemed very cool as well.
Ok, I do have a few complaints about the system so far.
The first is that there aren't more WiFi games. Right now the list is pretty short, and several of them are games I don't see myself wanting to shell out money for.
The second is that you do all WiFi setup through the game you're going to be playing. For instance, to get my MAC address on my device, I had to put in my room-mate's MarioKart and go into the WiFi options. Not a horribly difficult thing, and I suppose its not a major issue since you don't need a WiFi connection unless you're going to play online, but still... I would like to be able to set those options up in the system setup. And... does that also mean that if I get another WiFi game I'll have to set up the network connections again? I don't know yet.
The third is that there isn't more WiFi/Online functionality. I mean, its got a wireless card... it should have a built in browser to go online and download game demos or upload / download game stats, or something...
The fourth has to do with the multiplayer functionality. Most of the games out for it support some kind of multiplayer, which is cool. A lot of them support single-pack multiplayer with up to 8 people connecting. But with those games, functionality is extremely limited. I suppose thats for a few reasons. One, to cut down system-to-system download times, and two, to make the other persons want to buy a copy of the game for the full functionality in multiplayer. I guess I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth here, seeing as how they didn't have to put ANY single-pack multiplayer functionality, but its still a little annoying. But thats a minor issue.
The bigger issue is that, from what I've been reading anyway, is that the multiplayer on a lot of the games I was excited about initially has come up a little lacking.
Mario-Kart WiFi, for instance, doesn't have an online battle mode and only supports 4 players per race (this is from what I read on a review which was written shortly after the release of the game... if this has changed let me know).
Age of Empires doesn't support simultaneous turns, so the other player(s) have to wait for you to finish your moves and management before they can do anything. Could make you lose interest and could take forever. Also, only has Multi-Pack multiplayer (too much to download for single-pack). Might as well pass and play.
There were others too, but this is already getting excessively long. In reading reviews, though, it seems like 80% of the games had some area of multiplayer that left something to be desired. As I said before, I love multi-player gaming, so a hit there might be a bigger deal to me than others.
Supposedly the Metroid Online multiplayer is awesome, though. I'll have to try it out when my room-mate gets his copy.
So... anyone else get the DS Lite? Anyone have a DS / DS Lite that can make some recommendations as to games, especially good multiplayer games?
Though the PSP was an awesome looking device, I couldn't bring myself to pay the money to get one. Also, I read reviews talking about the various issues the device had.
Well, when the news came about the DS Lite coming out, I thought "Oh, thats neat...", but I was still stuck on the un-sexy brick look. I saw the comparison photos, and could see that it was smaller and brighter, but it just didn't stand out. Also, I got a GBA (original, not SP) shortly after release and was never really happy with it. I think the lack of a backlight killed it for me. I played it on trips and such, but eh. I spent a good amount of money on games for it and never played it. Same for my GameCube. Spent a good amount, never play it. Thus I decided, while the device looks nicer now, I couldn't justify spending the money on it.
Well, as the release date closed in, my roomate decided that he was going to get one. He started researching the games and the system and would talk about it constantly. "You know, if you get one we'll be able to play a lot of the games multiplayer, even with a single cartridge." I love multiplayer games. The WI-FI online gaming sounded awesome, even if it was only for a limited number of titles. I started to become interested, but still... the monetary issue was a problem. I have things I need to be saving for...
Well, as the release time approached, I became a victim of hype and started actually looking into the device and games. I found out a lot of things that I liked about the system, but one of the big ones that I never knew (although, probably should have) is that its reverse compatible with GBA games. That would mean I'd still be able to make my investment in GBA games at least somewhat worthwhile...
After the release date, I started shopping around for deals on the DS. I found some on Ebay for $115 shipped and couldn't resist. I ordered one. The guy was actually about an hour north of where I live, so I knew shipping would be fast. I got it yesterday.
I have to say, you can see the video's and pictures of the device, but until you see it in person, you don't appreciate what they've done to it. They actually made it an appealing device. While I still think the design of the PSP is sexier, the DS has taken huge steps in the right direction. Its no longer this bulky, awkward looking device. Now, looking at it, it seems to use only as much space as it has to to include everything.
The design and functionality is amazing. The functionality of the touch-screen is flawless in my experience so far.
My room-mate got home way before me and had kindly plugged it in to charge. When I got home it was charged, but I didn't have any DS games to play on it, as he wasn't home and had his (which arrived at the same time as mine) with him and he was the only one with any games (I ordered some online, and will get one or two at Costco). I have to say, though... even going through the setup feels so elegant. You feel like you're holding a much more expensive, elaborate device.
After setting everything up and playing with options, I dug my GBA games out of storage. (Oh... nifty little setup option... you can decide what screen GBA games will appear on, the top LCD or the touch-screen) The GBA games go into a slot on the bottom of the device, which normally has a matching cover so you wouldn't really know it was there. GBA games do stick out a couple centimeters, but its not bothersome for game-play and it doesn't even really look that bad.
The games themselves look better on the DS than the GBA (original) due to a better screen and, of course, the backlight.
When my roomate got home he turned on MarioKart. Now, the GBA games look good, but MarioKart DS looked awesome. We tried out the download-play option, where I wirelessly download the multiplayer version from his DS. This was a simple operation and worked flawlessly. The download-play versions of the games have limited functionality, but still... it looked great and played beautifully. We also played the multi-player game on the New Mario Brothers game. That was fun, but I could see it getting old kinda quick.
After having some fun with multiplayer, I took his device and got the MAC address and put it into the allowed list on our router. After that, he was able to set up his network settings in MarioKart and play online via WiFi, which seemed very cool as well.
Ok, I do have a few complaints about the system so far.
The first is that there aren't more WiFi games. Right now the list is pretty short, and several of them are games I don't see myself wanting to shell out money for.
The second is that you do all WiFi setup through the game you're going to be playing. For instance, to get my MAC address on my device, I had to put in my room-mate's MarioKart and go into the WiFi options. Not a horribly difficult thing, and I suppose its not a major issue since you don't need a WiFi connection unless you're going to play online, but still... I would like to be able to set those options up in the system setup. And... does that also mean that if I get another WiFi game I'll have to set up the network connections again? I don't know yet.
The third is that there isn't more WiFi/Online functionality. I mean, its got a wireless card... it should have a built in browser to go online and download game demos or upload / download game stats, or something...
The fourth has to do with the multiplayer functionality. Most of the games out for it support some kind of multiplayer, which is cool. A lot of them support single-pack multiplayer with up to 8 people connecting. But with those games, functionality is extremely limited. I suppose thats for a few reasons. One, to cut down system-to-system download times, and two, to make the other persons want to buy a copy of the game for the full functionality in multiplayer. I guess I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth here, seeing as how they didn't have to put ANY single-pack multiplayer functionality, but its still a little annoying. But thats a minor issue.
The bigger issue is that, from what I've been reading anyway, is that the multiplayer on a lot of the games I was excited about initially has come up a little lacking.
Mario-Kart WiFi, for instance, doesn't have an online battle mode and only supports 4 players per race (this is from what I read on a review which was written shortly after the release of the game... if this has changed let me know).
Age of Empires doesn't support simultaneous turns, so the other player(s) have to wait for you to finish your moves and management before they can do anything. Could make you lose interest and could take forever. Also, only has Multi-Pack multiplayer (too much to download for single-pack). Might as well pass and play.
There were others too, but this is already getting excessively long. In reading reviews, though, it seems like 80% of the games had some area of multiplayer that left something to be desired. As I said before, I love multi-player gaming, so a hit there might be a bigger deal to me than others.
Supposedly the Metroid Online multiplayer is awesome, though. I'll have to try it out when my room-mate gets his copy.
So... anyone else get the DS Lite? Anyone have a DS / DS Lite that can make some recommendations as to games, especially good multiplayer games?