The rise and rise of the Nintendo DS
When Nintendo unleashed the DS on the world several years back, it was met with alot of indifference and some initial scepticism. Comments like ‘it’s gimmicky’, ‘why lose the Gameboy brand?’ and ‘the stylus thing’ll never catch on’ were common……..maybe Nintendo had lost the plot? How wrong people were. As with the wii, Nintendo has got its target market spot on….with a loyal fanbase (engaging a new generation to video games, including girls), topselling games (like Mario Kart & Nintendogs) and the imminent launch of the funky new Ninendo DSi taking the handheld into new wifi territory.
Once again, the Japanese firm’s dedication to pure gaming, originality and risk-taking has paid off in a money-spinning way.
A large part of the success of the DS has been originality – the use of the dual screens and stylus in gaming, the development of differing genres of games to cater for an expanding audience (even the TV ads show the whole family playing) and including updates like wifi, voice chat, cameras and backlit screens to keep it fresh.
Any console lives and dies by its games, and titles like Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, Professor Layton, Nintendogs; franchise faves like Lego Batman, FIFA and all the Disney stuff; as well as refreshes of old school classics like Sonic, Tetris and Zelda have also ensured that whatever your interest in gaming, this is the handheld that you need.
Indeed, Sony’s much-lauded PSP has taken a distant 2nd place in this race, despite being a bit cheaper and with better tech specs….as it just doesn’t have the software or the fun-factor of the DS.
Remember when you first got into gaming? It was fun, exciting and an escape right? The big ‘N’ has got it bang-on: the DS continues to excel cos it continues to do just that for a whole new market.
And of course, if a Nintendo DS Lite is good enough for Cheryl Cole to play around with….who’s to argue, right?!
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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 at 9:45 am and is filed under General Gaming, Nintendo DS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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