A Revolution in Handheld Gaming?

It will come as no surprise to some that I am a bit of a fan of Nintendo. Over the past year I have been enjoying some great games on my Nintendo DS:

DS = Dual Screen if you can't figure it out, and yes, the bottom screen is a touch screen.


The DS is an interesting phenonemon, a portable gaming platform that makes many types of games more accessible to the average gamer - or even non-gamer, while still providing games for the hardcore gamers out there (yes, like me).

Widely appealing games?

Case Example 1: Nintendogs
















Case Example 2: Brain Age - Train your brain - Old people are 'playing' this game

See Story:

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=72593&cat_id=585

The DS has had to compete against this not so little monster:
The Sony PSP (Playstation Portable)

The PSP is a more powerful machine, no doubt about it, but is it as mainstream as the DS? The DS also has powerful graphics for a handheld, but whereas the PSP is essentially a Playstation 2 put into portable form, with virtually the same type of games, - the DS uses the touch screen input to make games more accessible for your average nominal or non-gamer in the public. The touch screen interface also makes for some pretty unique games - games which the PSP (or Nintendo' other portable - the Game Boy) can just not emulate. Desides the games already mentioned, Nintendo is bringing out painting & animation 'games', chat & internet programs, language converters, puzzle games, and music makers, just to name a few.
Potentially more appealing for a mainstream audience...
Well the sales figures seem to be bearing this out, the Nintendo DS has become the quickest selling console ever in Japan, and worldwide sales have hit at least 15 million since it has been released (A year and a bit ago). The PSP is also doing well (probably about 10-11 million sales worldwide), but game sales have been slow, due to generally average games (See: www.gamerankings.com - compare the DS & PSP game ratings).

So now that I have bored at least some of you with all this talk of gaming, what do you guys think? I know some of you would claim to not want to touch a game with a ten-foot pole, but can any of you see the DS as the type of gaming machine that could change your mind?

It can even play or view movies, music and pictures now - Oh Joy!



Stay tuned for my next post, where I talk about Nintendo's next home console...