Non-gamers embraced games like Nintendogs and Brain Age, and gamers embraced games like New Super Mario Bros. Besides, die-hard fanboys could take solace in the console's overall layout, which was a Shout-Out to Nintendo's original handheld product, the LCD-based Game & Watch, specifically the Multiscreen series of games.Īnd they did. Nintendo went on to market the Wii this way as well. This fell into a new strategy of Nintendo pursuing so-called "non-gamers": people who would normally not play games and might be intimidated by being confronted with an array of buttons and a d-pad. Rather than pressing buttons that manipulated some object on the screen, the player could simply touch what they wanted to. The PDA-like touchscreen also provided a more "intuitive" interface for game development. Although, at one point, they did plan to call it the City Boy, but they fortunately didn't. Unnecessary in retrospect, and it didn't stop people from calling it the "Game Boy DS" anyway. There is some indication that this was a marketing ploy - Nintendo did not want to potentially tarnish the positive image of the much-beloved Game Boy line if the DS failed to live up to expectations plus since the DS was backwards compatible with GBA games, if it failed, there would still be some value in the device. When it was in development, Nintendo presented the device as a "third pillar" to complement the Nintendo GameCube and the Game Boy Advance, rather than claim that the DS was the latest iteration of the Game Boy hardware line. Recognizing it was giving the system name recognition already, Nintendo made "DS" the official name. However, because of its two screens, the gaming press kept thinking it stood for "Dual Screen". note It was initially developed under the code name "Nitro" in-house DS games still carry the "NTR" indexing code as a result, with the exception of games capable of using the DSi's additional features, which use "TWL" instead. The public prototype was codenamed the "Developer's System", or the "DS" for short. With the DS, the method was to add a touchscreen in between the d-pad and the buttons, while keeping the regular screen above it. Their first step was, instead of simply making "a more powerful Game Boy", trying something new with the system to alter the gameplay and get developers out of a rut. Now how much of that is true is debatable, but it can't be argued that Nintendo's steps to remedy this created an unbeatable counter to the PlayStation Portable. Long story, Nintendo got a little nervous about the rising development costs in games, because other developers were making bigger and better games appealing to a gradually narrowing audience. Short story, the Nintendo DS succeeded in just about every way the Nintendo 64 faltered.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |