World's first glimpse of Nintendo's new handheld
Further information about the forthcoming Nintendo DS handheld has emerged just hours ahead of its official unveiling in Los Angeles - including what purports to be the first picture of the hardware, and details of some software demos. The system is officially going to be called Nintendo DS at retail, despite earlier statements from the company which referred to the DS acronym as a codename, and not Nitro as had been speculated following the discovery of that name on a Nintendo developer website.
Like the GBA SP, it is a clamshell design, with one screen in each folding section - but it is significantly wider than the SP, with a D-pad on one side of the lower screen, and four buttons on the other side. The four-button design is a major departure for Nintendo's handheld consoles, which have always used two-button control layouts in the past. Most interestingly, the lower screen is indeed touch sensitive, as was suggested by leaked specification information from Japan earlier this year. The system comes with a stylus for drawing on the lower screen, and one game demonstration apparently involves drawing clouds on the screen in order to slow the descent of baby Mario as he falls from the sky.
Screenshot: Official DS Console Screenshot
News source: gamesindustry.biz
