Nintendo DS

Mario Kart DS ready for Japanese launch, follows in US on Jan. 10th...

Mario Kart DS has been given a firm launch date, with Nintendo today announcing that the title will debut in Japan on December 2nd, with its US release following on January 10th.

The announcement means that Japanese gamers can expect five first party titles to debut alongside the machine on December 2nd, with the remaining comprised of Made In Wario, Super Mario 64, Pokemon Dash, Intuitive Stroke and Band Brothers. As previously revealed, Pictochat and a demo of Metroid Prime: Hunters will be included with the console. A further seven third party titles are promised, including Sega\'s Feel The Magic.

Ten days earlier, the US launch on November 22nd will also launch with around a dozen titles, including Ridge Racer, Rayman, The Urbz, and some less well known titles such as Ping Pals, Sprung, and Asphalt Urban GT.

Europe, as ever, trails way behind the rest in Nintendo\'s thinking, and currently a mid March release is looking likely, albeit with what is almost certain to be a cracking line-up, with the likes of Advance Wars, Tiger Woods and Viewtiful Joe joining the other big hitters.

With the US launch less than three weeks away, we look forward to ploughing through the launch line-up in the run up to Christmas.

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Gamestop stops taking DS preorders

Gamers looking to pick up a Nintendo DS later this month might be in for a shock if they saunter into their local GameStop. The specialty retailer has stopped taking preorders for the handheld system, which effectively means that the company has already sold out of its launch-day allotment. The Nintendo DS launches on November 21.


GameStop\'s main competitor EB Games, meanwhile, continues to take preorders for the DS, but cautions that they will follow suit as soon as they reach their launch-day limit. After the preorder campaign is closed, all further system sales will be first-come-first-serve.

As the Nintendo DS launch day draws closer, the picture of what that day will bring comes into clearer focus. Unsurprisingly, many titles that were scheduled for "launch" will hit store shelves in December. But interestingly enough, a few DS titles may hit stores in advance of the hardware itself. Currently slated to ship the week prior to the hardware are Asphalt Urban GT (Ubisoft), Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts), Urbz: Sims in the City (EA), Feel the Magic XY/XX (Sega), and Spider-Man 2 (Activision). Only Nintendo\'s Super Mario 64 DS is scheduled to go out on launch day.

It seems now that the preceding six titles will be the final DS launch day lineup, with six additional titles slated to hit stores in December. In any case, the DS could very well be the focal point of a frantic holiday shopping season, much like the Nintendo 64 in 1996.

By Chris Kohler -- GameSpot
POSTED: 11/03/04 11:13 AM PST

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Looks like the DS is going to be popular this holiday season.  

First impressions with the retail DS, lots of pics!

http://ds.ign.com/articles/564/564540p1.html

Who here is picking up a DS on launch?

Originally posted by Eiksirf
It still stands for Dual Screen...

-Dan

No your all WRONG !.... its Developers System....

Now was I the only one that was paying attention during Nintendos Pre E3 Show ?

Originally posted by Ginko
First impressions with the retail DS, lots of pics!

http://ds.ign.com/articles/564/564540p1.html

Who here is picking up a DS on launch?

Me.... in fact is it possible to import a US DS ?

are they compatable with European DS\'s (for wireless link-ups and games)?

Got it. Like it. Wish it had analog controls in addition to the touch-pad.

Yea I picked it up today on a whim. EB was sold out of preorders so I got mine in GameStop. Sears had some, too. I heard people asking for "the new Game Boy."

I\'ve played Feel the Magic so far. It\'s pretty neat. The coolest was blowing into the system to move a sailboat.

One minigame required me to talk louder and louder... That was obnoxious. It made me yell "I love you" to the chick in the game, haha.

That was pretty embarassing. ;]

Haven\'t tried Mario or the Metroid demo yet. May never use PictoChat.

Wanted to grab Spiderman, but decided that was too much. That game is supposed to be good, but it\'s $10 more than the others and I already spent enough.

-Dan

[Living-In-Clip]

What are the launch games>?
Didnt even know it was out.

SM64DS, Feel the Magic, Urbz:Sims in the City, Asphalt GT, Madden 2005, Spider Man 2, etc, and it comes with the Metroid Prime:Hunters demo.

I just got mine with SM64DS and IMO it\'s probably.. easily.. the best launch game. You get SM64 with 150 stars instead of 120, a mess of new areas (some completely new and some old areas modified) ... new bosses, new characters/abilities and I didn\'t even get to my favorite part yet.

Well over a dozen different touch-screen mini-games!

They\'re all simplistic games, some arcadey. The best of them will keep you entertained for a while though. I love Wanted.

Also, they revamped the "Mario face" tech demo at the title screen and made it into a much cooler simplistic painting program where you can draw stuff and mess around with it.

I was initially put off by the controls for the actual game, but today I felt a lot more comfortable moving Yoshi/Mario around. It\'s no analog stick, but the D-Pad works.

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
What are the launch games>?
Didnt even know it was out.

Ditto

The upcoming software line-up for the Nintendo DS has been bolstered today by the addition of two key titles from Namco\'s Monolith studio, promising two major RPGs for the platform in the future.

The two confirmed games are Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos - which currently exist as PS2 and GameCube RPGs respectively, with a second chapter in the Xenosaga, er, saga, due out in the USA in early 2005.

No details of what form the games may take on the DS have been announced, but the fact that they\'re bound for the platform is good news for Nintendo, which has been increasingly successful in attracting Japanese RPGs to its platforms in recent years.

Monolith - not to be confused with the US studio currently finishing work on The Matrix Online - was founded by a number of former Squaresoft staff, and boasts team members from acclaimed Square titles including Chrono Trigger and Xenogears.

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Excellent RPGs...I\'m definitely going to pick up a DS to play these.

I couldn\'t get into the d-pad for Mario at all. I use the touch screen option.

The system has a strap hanging off it that has a little plastic thing that you actually attach to your thumb so you can slide all over the touch screen like a joystick without leaving crazy finger smudges.

It\'s not as good as the N64 and the one thing that bothers me in this game is the controls. It\'s a shame considering how tight they used to be.

I\'m playing pretty far through it, though. It\'s decent, but a step down from its initial greatness on the N64.

I liked Feel the Magic, but it didn\'t have the same longevity for me.

Haven\'t tried the Metroid demo yet.

-Dan