Cubed3 Special | Looking Back at the Nintendo DS

Jorge Ba-oh, Founder

My first real encounter with Nintendo's now most successful gaming machine was when rumblings of a "new Game Boy" came from deep within Nintendo's heavily guarded tower in late 2003. I've always been a Game Boy fan at heart, despite not paying much attention to the NES or SNES when I was younger. It was the portable games console of choice for many children and I found myself investing (read as 'begging my parents') for each incarnation, from the original to the rather adorable Game Boy Advance. With that in mind, the idea of an even more powerful machine made me very excited indeed.

During E3 2004 Nintendo president Satoru Iwata whipped out his new beast and I was somewhere in between devastated and downright impressed. The original DS wasn't the most elegant looking machine, but it did boast an array of fantastic features. With a revised design come launch, I still wasn't terribly interested in shelling out for a new console. Months later out came Mario Kart DS and I was in love. I tried ever-so-hard to resist, but after parting with a handful of bills my DS affair had begun. Going online and racing complete strangers for the first time was a surreal experience, but still easily one of my best memories of the DS.

There have been so many brilliant titles, and still many more to come, for the Nintendo DS - too many to mention - but my personal standouts are eating away student life with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, reading one of the best adventure novels Hotel Dusk, petting in nintendogs for the first time and storming Peach's castle in Super Mario 64 DS.

The DS was also the first mainstream consoles to really dabble in educuational titles, with Brain Training dominating my playtime and really making mental exercises fun and accessible for all. A true feat of Nintendo genius!

The DS has gone from strength to strength in its six years on the shelves, with each generation of games being technically and visually more impressive as time goes by. There's still a lot of life left with the DS, and with a strong selection out this year and the next, here's many more years of dual-screen love!

Adam Riley, Senior Editor

Whilst I had had my first sampling of the clunky first edition Nintendo DS at the tail end of 2004 in some dark, underground location in London following the Japanese launch, the real joy was heading across the English Channel, through the Channel Tunnel on EuroStar courtesy of Nintendo’s PR agency at the time, Cake, sitting next to the then humble PR Manager Robert Saunders (now Senior PR Manager and untouchable legend in the eyes of many gaming journalists in the UK), heading over to the capital of France, and then jumping on a coach from the airport to stay in a swanky hotel where all the launch details were to be unveiled, chatting away with Chandra Nair, who was just on the cusp of being announced as joining the team at Future Publishing to become Editor at Nintendo Official Magazine.

The Nintendo DS has turned me into a dedicated portable gaming fan, and whilst the original DS model sits in a draw, I still make use of the DS Lite from time-to-time, flicking to the DSi for downloaded games stored on there, and using my lovely wine red DSi XL for the latest releases. I often wonder if Nintendo had not taken me on that all-expenses-paid trip, though, whether or not I would have fallen for the DS so much. After all, there is a lot to be said for the power of persuasion, and as a young, impressionable 23-year-old at the time whom had never been so well treated by a company before, the lasting impact was not just positive, but clearly one that has not left my mind six years down the line.

Mike Mason, Reviews Editor

The first game that I truly loved on DS was Kirby Canvas Curse - the title that I will forever know it by, having imported it from America due to the hideous delay gifted upon its European release, though many of you will know it as Kirby: Power Paintbrush. It was my first major review for Cubed3, and so holds a place in my heart in that respect, but the main reason that I want to play it every time I think about it is that, to me, it combined some of the best elements of a Kirby game with an exciting new touch control scheme - it’s pure fun, and doesn’t attempt to be anything but.

Then Nintendo tore open the market in a way that very few expected. Education and virtual pets made up one of the most unusual approaches ever taken by a console manufacturer, but nintendogs and Brain Training combined with devastating effect for the competition, and one suspects that even Nintendo themselves were not expecting such a huge interest in their new approach given how long the shortages continued. It was a curious time to be a gamer, watching the upheavals that were going on, and that first year of DS probably remains the most special to me, despite all the great titles that have been released since. Other significant imports from year one included Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - those games, and their sequels, remain firm favourites that I will doubtless return to time and time again for as long as I game.

The best time to be a DS owner, though? Now. Yes, 3DS has now technically succeeded the system, but it is only now that we can look back and see how far it has come and what an incredible back catalogue it has amassed. What started as a chunky handheld with early days filled with fun, but limited, technology demos has evolved over the years into a slick machine with enough software to keep you busy for the next few years of your life - and that's just when you take the RPGs into account. Regrettably, I probably don't even own an eighth of the system's great games despite a groaning book shelf full of the things, but the system’s final months as Nintendo’s main handheld have been almost as special to me as its first, with a stunning combination of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Pokémon Black / White and Okamiden seeing off the console in the only fashion that it ever deserved.

Ross Marrs, General Writer

Mario Kart DS would later be followed by other fantastic games, some of my favourites including Animal Crossing: Wild World, Metroid Prime Hunters, Diddy Kong Racing DS, all of which featured online multiplayer modes. In fact, the online aspect provided me with many heart-warming memories I had with the system and ones that I’ll never forget. I would find myself staying up until late to play with some friends online. Diddy Kong Racing DS was especially fun for that and, due to its six player limit, I always found it more fun than Mario Kart DS.

I also spent a lot of money on the systems, probably the most I’ve ever done so on a single gaming platform. I bought an original DS, then upgraded to a DS Lite, which eventually resulted in a dodgy touch-screen, and then I bought a red DS Lite. Just like always though, Nintendo went and announced the next model straight after I got mine. I wasn’t too disappointed though, and I’m happy with my current red model.

On the whole, I think Nintendo did a grand job with the Nintendo DS. The console provided new and fun experiences through its touch-based controls. Its library of software has grown hugely and has a game for just about anyone. I can only hope the 3DS will provide as many good memories for me as the DS has.

Rudy Lavaux, General Writer

Now six years have passed, and how wrong I was about that system. I got mine a couple of months after launch, on Saturday 20th of August 2005 according to my warranty receipt. I experienced a good part of the now famous first year of its life, where few interesting titles were coming. There were still a few games worth getting coming out though. Another Code was my first game, and still one of my favourites, and Wario Ware: Touched!, my only bite at the series, was brilliant. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released about six months after the console launch in Europe, was the first DS game which I considered to be a true masterpiece, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time was my first RPG for the system. Mario Kart DS became my favourite in the series, and I still prefer it to the Wii outing, despite the online being much better on the home console.

At the beginning, it didn't seem like the games were a huge step forward in terms of graphics, when compared to the Game Boy Advance. Personally, as I recall it, that period of DS games that looked like GBA games truly came to an end with the release of the Final Fantasy III remake. From there on, hits were released one after the other, and this trend went on until now. It became host to a huge amount of RPGs, though it's a shame that a lot have not been released in Europe despite being localised for the US, or were simply not translated. Shame on you Namco Bandai for not giving us the Tales of... games!

It's ageing remarkably well, except maybe on the graphical side of things, though some recent releases still seem to push the limits even further, such as Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded. My old Electric Blue DS Phat is still with me today. I never was fond of the other models though. The Lite didn't make that much of a difference and was more fragile, and I hoped that the DSi would bring back a D-pad larger than the tiny one on the DS Lite, but it didn't. My old system is still alive and kicking, ready to taste some of the best games for it which have yet to be released in Europe. Solatorobo, Ninokuni, and possibly Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem... I've got my sights on you! I also still have some catching up to do with some of the older titles. This might not be the case for everyone, but my DS is definitely not dying. It's only getting better with age, like good wine, with a library of masterpieces still expanding.

Shane Jury, General Writer

It wasn't really until the triple-whammy of Brain Training, nintendogs, and the new sleek form factor of the DS Lite that I could really see where the platform was going, despite loving the heck out of Sonic Rush and Mario Kart DS beforehand. In fact, Mario Kart DS was my introduction to online gaming, and actually online in general, since I had hardly touched a computer before that point. Despite the snakers and cheaters, it was immense fun.
After being captivated by Brain Training, the juggernaut didn't stop, and wave after wave of unique and enticing games appeared. Being an RPG nut, the DS was pure gaming nirvana for me, and the machine introduced me to my favourite handheld game ever, The World Ends With You. Other titles like the two Final Fantasy remakes, Kingdom Hearts, Tetris DS, Bangai-O, Bleach: Dark Souls, and Pokemon Heart Gold, helped elevate the system to become one of my favourite gaming machines ever.

If anything, it's the region-free capabilities of the DS that I've appreciated most, for the chance to get games that are sadly not released here, and it will certainly be one of the most missed aspects with 3DS. With so many games untranslated and not given an EU release, too many gamers have been denied the opportunity to try out the Tales of series, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (even though Elite Beat Agents is a worthy substitute), the Jump ____stars games, Soma Bringer, Destiny Links...there's an almost endless list.

With support for the machine dwindling, the DS is certainly in its twilight hours, but with software like Pokemon Black / White, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded and Okamiden, the dual-screened wonder is getting quite the send off, and will live on through its 3D successor.

What are your favourite moments regarding the Nintendo DS, and what were your first thoughts when it originally launched?