Shooters are rare on the DS, but not unheard of, though they often debut to mixed reactions. Metroid Prime Hunters is one of the system's most polarizing titles, and the same seems true of the more recent Touch the Dead. Yesterday's impressions of Dementium: The Ward seemed promising, and of course, IGN's Matt Casamassina continues to insist that someday, we're going to see Halo DS, maybe, kinda, probably -- not really.But do shooters really belong on the system? The touchscreen and other controls manage to do a lot of things really well, including some things that are really off the wall, such as acting as a full-fledged guitar. But is the DS suited to shooters? Considering the smaller screen size, some system limitations, and the unique control system, we can't help but wonder if we really need shooters, or if they're suited to the system.
Don't get us wrong -- we love a good FPS. But that doesn't mean we necessarily have to have one on every available system, so we think it's a fair question. On the other hand, is there any reason not to have any FPS titles on the DS? Where do you stand?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-17-2007 @ 9:17AM
josheat said...
I don't know why we don't have more. I love the Metroid control system.
I just wish we could have an Unreal Tournament game with the same controls. =D
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7-17-2007 @ 9:40AM
JM said...
Touch the Dead is a great game, once you learn how to play it. I was frustrated with it at first, because I didn't realize you could get health bonuses if you met a certain quota in each level. Now that I've finished it, my only regret was that it was too short.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:55AM
pas said...
WTF are you taliking about ?
Call of Duty, The Ward, C.O.R.E will all come to the DS this fall, and the DS already has FPS's like MPH, Goldeneye and the sucky Bionicle Heros.
I'ts clear that a Unreal Tournament and Halo would rock, so let's hope the best.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:39AM
thisguyrighthere said...
FPS's fit so nice on the DS from MPH to Touch the Dead and even 3rd person shooters like BIA. The touch screen screen makes free look great. It feels like this hybrid of dual analog and mouse look. My dream is for the DS to be filled with FPS's and RPG's all with WiFi play co-op or otherwise. So far progress has been pretty slow. It's the eperfect machine for a portable MMORPG and deathmatching on the go.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:47AM
vinh said...
I'm iffy on the FPS controls because I fell prey to the hand cramps brought on by the MPH style of play. Although not FPS, I'm intrigued by Brothers in Arms and if you think about it, it wouldn't be that difficult to get a quasi-sequel or spinoff of RE4 on the DS using the same/similar game engine and control scheme.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:54AM
hvnlysoldr said...
If the iPod can play Doom by God the DS should be able.
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7-17-2007 @ 11:36AM
Al Miller said...
Shooters are fine on the DS, IMO. I'm looking forward to C.O.R.E. A lot of people don't like the control scheme and I must admit I can't play for much longer than 45 minutes at a time without a little discomfort. But that is usually as much time as I can devote at a time anyway.
If people gave MPH a good try and still don't like the control scheme, I can accept that, but the ones who tried for 10 minutes and declared it sucked are the ones that annoy me. And there are a lot of them.
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7-17-2007 @ 11:57AM
ThugATRON said...
Shooters on DS = Good, do we really need them? wtf kind of comment is that, do we really need half the crap thats on DS?
Shooters on GBA = Bad, least the DS can handle them alot better, Metroid is a fine example and an excellent game.
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7-17-2007 @ 12:40PM
Covarr said...
The touch screen allows for quticker, more accurate aiming than a dual analog setup. It works quite well.
Every complaint I've heard about Metroid Prime: Hunters is related to the level design and sloppy exploration features, not the controls or the graphics. The fact that the game wasn't very good was not caused by the fact that it was a DS game, but by poor design.
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7-17-2007 @ 12:53PM
strider_mt2k said...
It probably isn't well suited to them, but I want them nonetheless.
QUAKE
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7-17-2007 @ 1:24PM
JM said...
I was a person who has dismissed MPH because of not liking the control scheme, although not publicly.
You guys have officially inspired me to give it a second chance.
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7-17-2007 @ 3:45PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
I'm not a big fan of MPH myself, but I'm really interested in this new Dementium: The Ward. But I think it's more that it makes me cramp up due to having tiny hands... maybe the slower pace of D:TW will make it easier for me.
I definitely feel warier about the screen size than anything, because a good visual perspective is so important to succeeding in a FPS game. But I'll play anything good on any system, and the DS is definitely leading the pack for me right now. I think the fall will be an interesting time. I just kinda wanted to see how you all felt about the DS + shooters in general. :)
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7-17-2007 @ 4:53PM
C.K said...
The controls for DS shooters just take a while to get use to. I hated the control scheme for MPH at first, but eventually I got the hang of it and loved the game. Once you master the controls in one DS FPS, you've got the controls down for all other DS FPS's.
So far the only DS shooter I've liked has been MPH unfortuantely. Brothers in Arms probably would've been good if the graphics weren't so horrible (Amazing graphics for DS my balls).
All the DS needs is some decent shooters, we've seen from MPH (as well as Doom, Quake, and Hexxen homebrew) that it can handle the genre quite well.
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7-17-2007 @ 11:21PM
shaoron said...
i have mixed feelings with an FPS shooter.
i mean, for a handheld, the controls are somewhat intuitive to someone who's used to a PC shooter. the touchscreen, used similarly as a mouse is great.
but my problem here is that reloading becomes a pain... drag and drop!? why can't we just click a button for it!? i lost many unnecessary lives in both touch the dead and brothers in arms just because of reloading... AND WORST PART IS.. RELOADING IN TOUCH THE DEAD REQUIRES YOU TO DRAG IT ACROSS ALMOST THE FULL LENGTH OF THE SCREEN!!!
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7-18-2007 @ 11:37AM
Jason said...
ehh... I think the DS can do some many other things better. Plus the whole FPS things is getting stale for me. We need more RTS games!! The DS is perfect for them.
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7-20-2007 @ 10:49AM
Brad Mecoli said...
in my honest opinion FPS games should stay on PCs and not go to console/handhelds at all... you NEED that mouse and keyboard control, sorry.
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7-20-2007 @ 2:35PM
Demotruk said...
The weaknesses of MPH are in it's single player game design. It's multiplayer, with or without multiple cards(though multiple cards is definitely preffered) is impecible. The hardware has it's limits, but they've shown it's possible to make a good looking FPS with BiA and MPH, and the control scheme is where the value truly lies.
Hand cramps are only a problem before your body compensates. I no longer get cramps playing Metroid. The same is true for most game controllers in general, you probably got finger cramps when you first played video games, and even when using a mouse for the first time, but you may not remember, and your body got used to it. (though, modern controllers wouldn't give newbies cramps any more)
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7-28-2007 @ 9:17AM
Matthew said...
FPS doesn't belong, but 2D shooters would be great! A vertical sprite-based game like Star Soldier or MUSHA that takes up both screens? Sign me up!
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