NGC voices its opinion on Nintendo"s new handheld bombshell. Are two screens really better than one?
Nintendo are masters of the unexpected, which makes our DS mock-up and childish attempts to think up dual-screened games a somewhat futile exercise. Trying to second guess the kind of software we"ll be playing on DS is very difficult. Still, with a potentially radical piece of hardware like DS, you have to believe that Nintendo have something clever and innovative up their sleeves. Past experiences don"t bode too well, though. If you take the Gamecube-GBA link as a single piece of hardware, Nintendo already have dual-screen system available and, with the exception of a few titles, it"s produced nothing more than curiosities - non-essential map-screens and gameplay elements that do nowhere near as much to "enhance gameplay" as Nintendo would have us believe. And of course there"s the little matter of the Virtual Boy - a dual-screened "new experience" that burnt Nintendo"s fingers (not to mention our eye-sockets) ten years back.
But of course, DS will be completely different from anything out there right now. This isn"t GBA2. It not even PSP"s nemesis (although we"ll readily admit we"re a little suspicious of this). It"s supposed to be a completely unique product - but that"s not to say it won"t have challengers.