I went to a wedding this past week in Portland (then I drove to Seattle, because Seattle is awesome). During the long drive from Montana, I got to spend some quality time (or, at least, all the time that I wasn’t reading Harry Potter) with my Nintendo DS. It was nice to sit down and dig into some of the games I’ve bought but have only played topically thusfar.

The game I found myself playing most during the trip was Super Mario 64 DS. I loved the original game (if you’ve read the blog at all, you’ve probably been able to guess that), and spent way too much time playing it when I bought my Nintendo 64 way back when. Well, all of this talk lately about Super Mario Galaxy has gotten me pretty pumped for Mario games in general, and this one seemed like a good diversion for a long car ride. It definitely is.

The game itself is absolutely great on DS. It has all of the original graphics and levels (including some additional ones), and most of the textures have been updated to make a castle which is absolutely stunning on the small screen of the DS. The major change from the N64 version is that players start the game as Yoshi, and must get 8 stars in the castle in order to unlock Mario (who’s been tricked and kidnapped by Bowser). After unlocking Mario, players can switch between the two characters, and eventually unlock Luigi and Wario as well. Each has their own “specialty” moves, but the entire game could probably be beaten by Mario, as in the original.

The thing that really gets me about this game, though, is the fact that you’re playing a game specifically designed for the Nintendo 64’s 3-D control stick on the DS, which only has a four-directional control pad. Sure, you can whip out your DS wand and wiggle it around on the touch screen for sub-part, completely inaccurate (i’m not bitter) movement, but then you spend most of your time looking at the touchscreen instead of watching the gameplay. Even though the control pad is infuriating, it’s, in my opinion, the best control scheme available.

For the most part, the control pad is accurate, but for those who remember the way the camera works (or doesn’t), you can begin to see why the control scheme is infuriating. The camera will swivel to match the terrain of the level, switching the control subtly as it does, leaving the player a difficult task when negotiating turns with thin landings. Another downfall of this control scheme is that there’s barely any precision-adjustment; you press the up and right keys, and mario won’t nudge one direction, he’ll turn almost 90 degrees.

All in all, Super Mario 64 DS is still a great game, and it’s definitely possible to have fun with on the DS once you become acclimated to the controls. The fun that is taken away by controlling a 3-D entity with 2-D controls is not nearly enough to make this game “bad” by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a constant reminder that just because you can put a great game on a new, smaller console doesn’t mean you should.

According to this article at Bloomberg, Nintendo’s market share rose to 6.57 Trillion Yen today, topping Sony’s struggling , pathetic market value of 6.48 Trillion Yen.

From the article:

Sony, which overtook Nintendo as the world’s biggest console maker after PlayStation 2’s introduction in 2000, suffered production delays and slow sales at its latest player. Wii’s lower price and a wand-like controller that players swing like a sword or tennis racquet helped Nintendo widen its sales lead over the PlayStation 3 in Japan last month.

Reasons cited as the cause of the fluctuation? The increasing popularity domestically (and internationally) of Nintendo’s DS Lite, which is taking PSP by the balls.

Its two-year-old handheld DS player, Nintendo’s best-selling game machine ever, uses a stylus instead of button controls, making it easier for users to play Frisbee with their virtual pets, practice calligraphy and draw pictures. Nintendo is also looking to capture an older audience with a “brain-training” game and tutorials for cooking and languages.

While this doesn’t really actually mean anything, maybe it’s a testament to the fact that sometimes more fun is better than more pixels. Then again, nothing really matters unless it’s in dollars anyway, so we’re right back to square one.

Source

Japan’s premier source for insider gaming information and reviews, Famitsu, has reportedly given the upcoming Zelda game for the Nintendo DS, The Phantom Hourglass, nearly perfect scores. The score is out of 40 points, judged by 4 reviews who each have 10 points to allocate. Three of the judges reportedly gave the game 10/10, while the fourth judge awarded 9/10, resulting in a composite score of 39. According to wikipedia, only 15 other games in the history of the publication have received such a score. More importantly, though, only 7 games have ever gotten 40, and one of them in Ocarina of Time. Everyone knows that Ocarina of Time is the yardstick to which every new Zelda game is measured, but Famitsu’s attempt is still relatively cute.

According to 1up.com:

Famitsu seemed fairly satisfied with the stylus controls. “It is so easy to pick up! There have been many games using the stylus, but this one didn’t feel frustrating for the most part,” said one. However, another was concerned about “parts where you may mistakenly perform a different move.”

The dungeons and puzzles are getting praises, though: “The way it allows players to use the unique features of the DS is quite natural. Particularly puzzles where you draw directly on the map are brilliant. It feels like you really are physically solving the puzzles.”

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass is set to release this weekend in Japan (Saturday, June 23), and is further schedule for a worldwide release during the holiday season 2007 (some sources say mid- to late-november). Personally, I will crushing small children under my bootheel to get this game as soon as it releases, and then playing it continuously until I pass out from sleep deprivation. I fully expect to fail college during the 2007 holday season.

The game is reportedly using near-3D quality graphics, utilizing cel-shading technology, since the DS is capable of supporting it more easily than a true 3D system. It’s also heavily utilizing the DS’s extensive stylus features, making it the first game since the game that came out just before it to do so.