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Joystiq presents

DS Daily: Did you ever doubt the DS?



When Nintendo first unveiled our portable friend back in the uncertain days of January 2004, the internet reaction bordered on hysterical -- flabbers everywhere were well and truly gasted. Two screens, one a touchscreen? On a handheld? Had Nintendo finally gone ever so slightly mad?

Well, no, they hadn't. Turns out, we needn't have worried. Yesterday, we learned that the twenty millionth DS had just sold in Japan, while it continues to mercilessly stomp all over the competition everywhere else. But that happy news got us thinking, back to that first announcement. We'll I'll be honest (it wouldn't be fair to suggest the entire team feels the same way) -- I had my doubts. I thought Nintendo had gambled a little too much. I was proven delightfully wrong.

But what about you? Honestly now: did you ever think Nintendo had dreamt up a great big, steaming pile of fail when it unveiled the DS? You can tell us. We're all friends here.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

elsng1

11-18-2007 @ 10:40AM

elsng said...

Nope. Never doubted it. Which is why I'm still a Phat user. :)

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raindog2

11-18-2007 @ 10:51AM

raindog said...

Now, understand that I say these things not as a longtime fan of Nintendo, but as someone who still loves the Game Gear and didn't buy a Game Boy product until this century (when I finally caved because of its homebrew scene and retro releases.)

I was one of the few people who actually expected the touch screen (see http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99371&cid=8480052 ) and I thought it was a brilliant idea. I thought the hardware itself was ugly and shortly after buying it and completing Mario 64 DS, I really wondered if Nintendo had misstepped. The other games available at the time were mostly shallow, awkward experiences like Yoshi's Touch'n'Go and Pac-Pix (but Warioware was brilliant.) It made me wonder if the PSP would succeed where the Game Gear had failed at beating Nintendo on pure specs.

Then Nintendogs came out, and I knew they really had something special. Then Animal Crossing came out and I decided the PSP was toast. The DS Lite was really what did it, but to me it was like a formality.

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MrTyzik3

11-18-2007 @ 10:51AM

MrTyzik said...

I confess that I had little moments of doubt late at night while the game library was taking its sweet time to build. However, that is not what I told anyone else. I was a Phat owner and evangelist from the start.

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Apollo4

11-18-2007 @ 10:51AM

Apollo said...

I doubted it. I thought the thing was ugly as hell, when wasn't sure when quality games would ever come out for it. I remember the first game I bought for the system was Star Wars Episode III and I was very disappointed with that.

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Trogdor5

11-18-2007 @ 10:55AM

Trogdor said...

*Sigh* Well, truth be told, when it came out I was going "WTF?" I had been dissapointed by the Gamecube, (still am, btw)so I wasn't trusting Nintendo back then. But, I decided to buy it, and yeah, I was delightfully proven wrong! Sure, the Wii's got more games coming out right now, but I'm still looking forwards to Contra 4 and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin right now. All I can say is that it's good to be a Nintendo Fan!

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Tyler6

11-18-2007 @ 10:55AM

Tyler said...

I admit, it seemed to be a big project to start. I mean, having two screens would mean more money to spend, therefore Sony wins?(I was a Sony loyalist at the time.) However, now that I've seen the incredible capabilities of both the Wii and DS, I know that going back to anything else would make me ill. I'd never been able to get a GBA because of said Sony fanboyism, so now that I can finally play GBA AND DS games, I'm a happier person overall.

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nintendolover7

11-18-2007 @ 11:14AM

nintendolover said...

First, my sister got a phat DS. I thought it was too confusing, so I declared that I would never buy a DS. Later, in 2006, something struck me about the beautiful, white DS Lite, so I bought it in August '06. It stood up pretty well, but then I saw the Crimson Red and Onyx Black DS Lite a year later. I traded in my white DS Lite for the Black and Red one. I went from a DS opposer to a DS lover!

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ethan424048

11-18-2007 @ 11:16AM

ethan42404 said...

I have no problem admitting that I thought having a touch screen on a handheld device was a gimick, and that Nintendo was slowing losing it's mind (after the fiascos of the N64 and Gamecube - which may have had stellar 1st party games, but never made much of a dent with 3rd party games). The two screens didn't phase me though - I had seen that on Game and Watch years before.

And this from someone who has owned an original Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance. The PSP looked like the killer handheld, while the DS seemed like Nintendo's last grasp...

Boy was I wrong. The PSP was overpriced (still is) and loaded with ports of PS2 games. The DS on the other hand is loaded with original games, games that aren't afraid to take chances and go in new directions. From someone who has owned a host of handhelds (including Game Gear) the DS is my favorite hands down.

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ELIJAH the ChaosDragon9

11-18-2007 @ 11:54AM

ELIJAH the ChaosDragon said...

I never doubted the ds, but was dissappointed when they changed the design from the prototype which was more like the lite. I am pretty sure its not nintendo's fault if there are weak 3rd parties.If they are afraid that their games are going to be neglected for good games, book around good games. Why does my L button always break and I never use it?

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sockatume10

11-18-2007 @ 12:16PM

sockatume said...

After the complete flop of GBA-to-GameCube link-up (even Nintendo hardly supported it) I figured that designing a console around an extra screen was insane. I brightened up a bit when word of the touch-screen and mic got out, but I still figured that a console based around novelty input devices was going to be a complete disaster - developers just wouldn't know what to do with it, as with the GBA-GC cable.

Well, they certainly showed me, and it made me far more positive about the Wii when it was finally revealed.

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JB11

11-18-2007 @ 12:27PM

JB said...

I got the sucker the week it came out. With that hardware combination the possibilities seemed very new ad very exciting. However, I quickly became frustrated; it seemed like it took 10 years for any games that interested me to finally get a release date. Consequently the DS saw the shelf for a year or two, and my GBA saw a lot of action with Advance Wars 1&2 among others. But now their are plenty of games I am back to the point from which I started. I am a 100% DS Fan boy.

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ehaleen12

11-18-2007 @ 12:28PM

ehaleen said...

back in the days of the genesis/SNES wars i was a strict nintendo fan boy. i had the NES. i loved my game boy with the black and green screen even though game gear had full color, and it was only SNES for me. i think i was in 6th grade. i got a genesis for christmas that year and i promptly returned it to the store the next day and got a bunch of SNES games instead.

to put it litely, i was a nintendo manic.

then things started to change, MK1 was released and was a AWSOME port (well not arcade good but better than genesis) but it had no blood. this is where nintendo started going down hill. Strike 1

next came virtual boy, yes i bought one. saved my money for the entire summer. Strike 2

after that came the nintendo ultra 64 which was delayed over a year and renamed simply nintendo 64. by this time the one game that hyped the n64, killer instinct had already been ported to SNES even though nintendo said like 10000000 times that doing so was impossible. "the SNES is not powerful enough they said" all the waiting for the n64 only to find out the system had terrible graphics and the games were still carts led me to say screw nintendo. this was strike 3.

i never bought a game boy color, GBA, or gamecube

instead i bought ps1 and ps2 and dreamcast. yes, sega the company i was so against convinced me to spend my money on a dreamcast (they only died due to pirates, folks)

when the DS phat came out, i laughed. the thing was ulgy. i hated it because it was too heavy, was a brick and the buttons were arranged strange. oh yeah the games stunk. the only "good" things was like nintendogs. wft would i want that for?

then randomly my friend lets me play his DS lite. i was inlove. nintendo had redeemed them selfs.
the lite wins everywhere the phat looses and now there is an awesome game library .

so yeah i did doubt the ds but only cuz nintendo had rubed me the wrong way for years. i mean i paid money for a virtual boy. i think thats understandable.

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Daniel Mehrkar13

11-18-2007 @ 12:53PM

Daniel Mehrkar said...

i didnt have doubts at all. i preordered it and picked it up the day it came out. i had my phat right up until the lite came out. such a great system with alot of really great titles still coming out

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ssuk14

11-18-2007 @ 12:57PM

ssuk said...

Doubt the DS? Never, never-ever-ever-ever. I am a Britfag who imported a Version 1 Japanese Nintendo DS fat and Super Mario 64 DS (J). May sound a bit better if I didn't know Japanese, but hey. I'm a hardcore DS fan. =P

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Zis15

11-18-2007 @ 1:03PM

Zis said...

I never doubted it.

My first Gameboy was the original version, and although the Game Gear was way cooler and the Gameboy craze was already over I really loved it because of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land 1-3, King of Fighters and the Wario Land games. Those were so great.

Then the Gameboy Pocket came out, which I couldn't afford, but I didn't mind, because I still could play the newest games.
When the Gameboy Color came out I really needed to have it. We never had much money, so the Gameboy was my only chance to play video games at all. So I told my mum about the Color months before it arrived on the German market (i said, "but mum, it's smaller, the display is way better than my old one and it's in COLOR!!!") and then I got it for X-Mas. I was the happiest child ever. :-D

When the Gameboy Advance arrived in our stores I couldn't afford that, neither, and I was a little too old to run to my Mom and ask her to get it for me, so I waited for the next one.
I was very tempted when Nintendo came up with the SP, but I still was waiting for something I really, really, really had to buy.

Then I heard about the DS and I was absolutely convinced. I started to run around like a little child an told everyone about it. "Omg, it's so cool, it has two screens, and one of them is a touch screen, isn't that just great, imagine what you can do with it!!" My boyfriend and my friend got one for my birthday, and yes, most of the games weren't too cool, but we imported Electroplancton from Japan (I still love that game) and bought Wario Ware Touched, and then I bought all the old Advance games I was craving for and played those until all the good DS games came out.
I was telling everyone about the DS and I still do whenever I meet someone who doesn't know about it. Five people bought one, too, after I had shown them this beautiful little thingy we all love.

I loved it from the start and I still do. :-)

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Blue_Falcon16

11-18-2007 @ 1:08PM

Blue_Falcon said...

My only real times of doubt were during the pre-Kirby/Meteos drought of '05.

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Fullmetal Salchemist17

11-18-2007 @ 1:23PM

Fullmetal Salchemist said...

My doubts lasted until Mario Kart came out. Then I read how great the game was, and had some extra cash, so I bought a DS and Mario Kart. Then I went back and picked up a few more games (Phoenix Wright, Kirby, and Meteos) and then was hooked.

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Damian G.18

11-18-2007 @ 1:30PM

Damian G. said...

Mega dittos, Blue Falcon. By Christmas 2005, my fears were assuaged.

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Garst19

11-18-2007 @ 1:35PM

Garst said...

I didn't have any doubt; that's why I had mine on pre-order. I was ready for a new why of playing games.

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Joshua20

11-18-2007 @ 1:46PM

Joshua said...

Never doubted it, nor did I ever know there was any doubt until after it was released. Why doubt it? It's a Nintendo system.

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