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    Foxstar loves BashcraftEthan Gach
    1/01/17 4:33pm

    I still remember when most of the gaming media thought Nintendo had lost it’s mind with the annoucement of the DS and declared that the PSP, which was coming from Sony would quickly overcome the ‘quirky’ DS and not only outsell it, but end Nintendo’s iron grip on the handheld market. Yes, so many gaming outlets, even Kotaku itself.

    A few media places were saying with the failure of the DS, that Nintendo with no place to turn would exit the console market and go third party within a year. So many have forgotten these articles and hit-pieces, but I have not. Thanks to Kinja, however, there is no way to go back in time and see those articles, much less the comment fields, as only the most passionate of commenters were around back then, if they made it though the staff interviews which could take weeks before being approved, which allowed the public to see what other folks thought. Yes, the greys were around back then, but even more extreme for only staff could see comments from folks who had to prove on the merit of their posts that they would be allowed public commenting rights.

    Only a small number of those folks remain.

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      KIREEKFoxstar loves Bashcraft
      1/01/17 5:03pm

      KIREEK remembers.

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      ShagittariusFoxstar loves Bashcraft
      1/01/17 5:11pm

      I remember when Nintendo itself seeing the poor performance of the DS made an announcement that the DS was NOT a gaming handheld and that they were working on the successor to the Gameboy Advance. Then due to software pushing hardware the DS started to sell and Nintendo abandoned plans for a successor to the Gameboy. I still consider this unfortunate as I dislike the dual screen/ touch screen hardware and wish it would have just crashed and burned so we could have gotten a better device.

      As I see it the DS is responsible for Nintendo replacing device capability with gimmicks for the following decade and for me, not producing a device worth owning.

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    alexstanfeldEthan Gach
    1/01/17 5:02pm

    i was never crazy about the 2 screen thing, it seems superfluous the majority of the time. i don’t have any super memorable moments of 2 screen action, maybe one of the castlevania games used it in a cool way? i am having trouble remembering. but it was usually just shorthand for a menu screen. i guess i never hated it either, but the touch screen is lacking in the latest pokemon it’s especially annoying me. i guess my fingers are too fat (or not fat enough?) when i care for my pokemon after a battle i always have to pull out the stylus. it feels pointless, actually a lot of the new mechanics just seem to pad out the game in ways i don’t care for, but it’s still a great pokemon game.

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      Cordinglyalexstanfeld
      1/01/17 5:21pm

      The Zelda games had some amazing dual screen boss fights, and I appreciated its function in GTA. For the most part, it was superfluous.

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      Lt-Cmdr-Sporkalexstanfeld
      1/01/17 5:54pm

      The dual screen was a boon for RPGs and a number of other games. It was quirky with ports and straight up sidescrollers, but games that purposely decided to take advantage of it ended up being excellent.

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    ambEthan Gach
    1/01/17 4:40pm

    It’s amazing to think that before the iPhone was even a thing (or at least very early in Iphones life), Nintendo had already tapped into the idea of smartphones and apps by providing the Nintendo Fan Network software to anyone who went to the Mariner’s ballpark with a DS.

    The DS/3DS line may be technically inferior to PSP & Vita (Although I’ve had all four devices myself, and enjoyed using all of them), but damnit if there isn’t something just truly special and unique and the DS line. And it’s amazing to think about how far it’s come, especially as so many continually predicted it’s downfall, whether to Sony’s mobile line or smartphones.
    Nitendo may make some boneheaded choices, but there have definitely been some good calls among them. I can’t wait to see what happens with the Switch.

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      DeadInBowlingGreenamb
      1/01/17 5:00pm

      The DS/3DS prove the trend that great hardware means nothing without great software. The Vita crushed the DS in terms of performance but the feature set was ... Weird (email on my handheld console? In the era of smartphones and tablets??) and the budgets needed to fully leverage the hardware made games prohibitively costly to make. A 3DS title would be 2/3rds the cost by comparison as the company would need less technical expertise to develop. That also allowed for far more engaging gameplay concepts coupled with continued support from Nintendo directly.

      In short.. the games sold the 3DS, while the Vita sold... A small slew of JRPGs

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      zerocommazeroDeadInBowlingGreen
      1/01/17 7:01pm

      great games and low cost were definitely in its corner.

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    KayceeEthan Gach
    1/01/17 5:20pm

    I definitely remember when the DS was announced. I thought the dual screen thing was a gimmick. I quickly got over that when Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright came out. Those two games are what convinced me to buy a DS (still in the Fat DS days!).

    I have never regretted purchasing either the DS or 3DS. Sure, some of the things they do with the games are gimmicky. Many developers seemed to feel the need to put touch screen functionality into every game even if it didn’t need it or, in some cases, even made it worse. Luckily, by the time 3DS came out, touch screen functionality wasn’t shoehorned in as much. But there ARE some really good exclusive games for both.

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      TemporaryLifeKaycee
      1/01/17 8:30pm

      It’s funny that you mention Trauma Center, that was the same game that convinced me of how great the idea is.

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      moonbunnychanTemporaryLife
      1/03/17 12:48am

      I only wish trauma center had stuck more in the realm of reality though, and not your special time stopping power and the stuff with the GUILT disease. I lost interest pretty quickly when GUILT became the main focus.

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    IsaacEthan Gach
    1/01/17 6:35pm

    I don’t understand why, when anyone brings up the original DS model (aka the DS Phat), people always say how outdated the design was.

    I love the design of the DS Phat. Yeah, it’s weird and asymmetrical for seemingly no reason. But it also actually looks like a game system; It has that angular kind of style that everyone shared before Apple showed up and everyone decided things needed to be smooth and round and sleek.

    It is the same reason Ilove the original 3DS design, and have yet to upgrade to an XL or a New 3DS

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      AluNoirIsaac
      1/02/17 12:23am

      it’s weird and asymmetrical for seemingly no reason.

      If you know the reason then you really don’t need to ask the question, now do you?(see what I did there?) As for the angular asymmetrical design, it’s crap, it’s always been crap it’s a small part of what makes gaming peripherals niche despite some having functionality in other fields. Take for example gaming mice with programmable buttons, the number of office functions that you can map to even a 5 button mouse would make it great for office work, yet the sheer looks of most gaming mice puts people off. If something looks like an industrial piece of garbage people are less likely to consider it a valid option, let alone buy it. I really don’t understand gamers sometimes, how the hell can anyone buy into the fugly angular and asymmetrical design so many game related systems and periodicals come with.

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    Indifferent Snowman.Ethan Gach
    1/01/17 5:10pm

    I have to agree with the original teams thoughts, I do not see the advantage of a second screen. I had the DS and games either didn’t make good use of it or just used the screen when the character appeared on it like Sonic Rush. Other games forced the touch screen like Castlevania to quickly draw a symbol to seal a boss, yeah that was .....not annoying.

    Now it’s just a screen for menus or a map half the time which is a function you could cover with a pause or minimap. I think a larger screen would have served them better, especially if it was higher res as some games are hard to read on the 3DSXL screen.

    Successful as it is I just don’t really see the use. A large touch screen, even one that required a stylus would have worked better in my head.

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      MarcoXDIndifferent Snowman.
      1/01/17 6:16pm

      You can’t fold a big screen, and the two screens gave birth to Henry Hatsworth, which was super cool. I agree for the most part though ;)

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      Indifferent Snowman.MarcoXD
      1/01/17 6:38pm

      Well you can still have a form of clam shell design like the GBA SP. I think there was also some folding add on shell options for the GBA.

      I mean that said, the glass they use in tablets/phones is so damn good you can pretty much get away without doing that these days.

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    FresnokilaEthan Gach
    1/01/17 6:28pm

    First game I bought with my DS was Feel the Magic XY/XX by Sega and was immediately sold on the concept.

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      moonbunnychanFresnokila
      1/03/17 12:52am

      It’s easy to forget how novel and unique a game like that was at the time. This was before we all had phones with touch screens. I first played it and thought it was AWESOME.

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    ImmaLionEthan Gach
    1/01/17 7:30pm

    Honestly? I wouldn’t be too sure if Iwata and developers were wrong on this one. Sure the DS was the most successful portable up to date, but since we can’t predict what if scenarios, we can’t really tell if the portable couldn’t have been even more successful if it didn’t get a second screen at all.

    Most of the DS games I liked didn’t need a touchscreen in any way, I got it mostly for all the great games, and to this day I still think the touchscreen is mostly unnecessary - personal gaming experience of course.

    I dunno if the idea sold the portable but to me it kinda looks like the functionality had a limited role particularly in games like Brain Age and some rhythm games, most of which I used buttons instead when the option was given.

    Other than those few titles, that stylus just stayed in place most of the time.

    Much like the 3DS 3D function, this exclusive function sounded like a gimmick to me... what made these portables great was the huge selection of games.

    Which is why I’m fine with Nintendo ditching things like that for a single panel hybrid with an easy to use docking station. As long aa great games come to it, it’ll be just fine.

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      Johnny5101ImmaLion
      1/01/17 7:44pm

      Hybrid and mobile is a perfect situation. The 3DS game ports show that people play handheld devices for full length games, and for short/quick games, there’s mobile. Why in the world people think the 3DS will retain its market after Switch comes out and brings yet another competitor to the table is beyond me. Nintendo merged their divisions, clearly they’re looking at the big picture of having one device function as both. The Wii U is dead, the 3DS is dying a natural death (6 this year, and compared to what games will look like on Switch vs 3DS which version do you think hardcores will opt to get if the same game is on both?).

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      noirson-of-wellsImmaLion
      1/01/17 9:06pm

      I have to disagree, two of the biggest games on the DS and what helped push it to the forefront were Nintendogs and Brain Training. While one can argue they might have been able to do those games with one screen, I think those games worked because of the touch screen. And the touch screen being the secondary screen with the clam shell kept it from being scratched to kingdom come for most casual owners. As well as made sure that it was much more distinctive when compared to its more powerful rival in the PSP so that there was no confusion as to what system did what.

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    OtimusWEthan Gach
    1/01/17 7:25pm

    To be entirely honest, I still think the dual screen thing is stupid. I never liked it, and I felt what little it added wasn’t worth the “hassle”, but the DS was still awesome despite this, not because of it, because of really great software. That probably started the trend of Nintendo thinking that their stuff is great because of hardware quirks rather than purely good software, though, and that’s a real shame.

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    wahyudilEthan Gach
    1/01/17 7:15pm

    and now I can not be satisfied by playing games in single screen. even I prefer Wii U than Switch. Even my PC use 2 monitors. This is all Nintendo’s fault. I always hopes that Nintendo next handled will give us 3 screens.

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