The Next Nintendo Handheld

[phantomdiorama]

Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5442081/what-we-want-from-the-next-nintendo-handheld) have posted their ideas for the new DS.



- GameCube-quality graphics
- Dual thumbsticks
- Improved Dual display (bonus: dual touch-screen)
- 1GB onboard storage space
- SD card compatibility
- Music & movie playback
- Advanced motion-sensing, equivalent to Wii MotionPlus
- Backwards compatible with the DS

And a few more things to finish off with:

- A free, integrated web browser
- NO MORE FRIEND CODES; a single user ID, like every other company uses, should suffice
- A telescopic stylus; the DS ones are too short for prolonged play
- Keep the microphone; some games use it well, while applications like Skype would find it just as useful
- A Mini-USB charger; when everything else you own is charged from mini-USB, using proprietary Nintendo chargers is stupid
- The camera on the DSi seems to be going down OK; if it's cheap, may as well stick it on the new handheld, let developers plan to actually release games that support it
- The systems and games must be region-free
- All that for $199 at launch would be just fine

The only other thing i can think of is WPA.



What do you think?

[AranchineD]

Motion sensing - no. Just no. Please, for the love of god, no. Also dual-touch screen would be kinda pointless, since you could only touch one at a time, anyway.

Everything else seems nice, but it'll be a cold day in hell before Nintendo would give it SD card support.

[phantomdiorama]

motion controls like they have on the iphone would be okay. they just have to be done extremely well.

[tau]

Everything else seems nice, but it'll be a cold day in hell before Nintendo would give it SD card support.

It must be getting pretty chilly in hell lately, the Wii and DSi both have SD card support. Brr!

[BB2K]

Haha, Kotaku. Apparently advanced motion controls have been confirmed by Nintendo though, that's a pretty shit move.

[AranchineD]

It must be getting pretty chilly in hell lately, the Wii and DSi both have SD card support. Brr!

Well here you go.

No wonder the DSi was so easy to crack.

[tau]

Not really. It's more the fact that it's still just a DS, and needed minor adjustments to old DS cracks, which were developed over a while.

[Lex]

Haha, Kotaku. Apparently advanced motion controls have been confirmed by Nintendo though, that's a pretty shit move.

No, learn from the iPhone, motion controls don't work on handhelds. It just sucks.

[phantomdiorama]

Real Racing on the iPhone had great motion control

EDIT: but yeah, there a lot of sucky motion games on the iPhone.

[Vindik8or]

Nintendo have a lot of work to do, I think. It should focus on the iPhone as its major competition/inspiration. I'm not suggesting that they should copy the form factor and controls of the iPhone, but they need to set it up as platform that favours online delivery like Apple's app store and has cheap, simple 3rd party developer support. I think Nintendo should do away with as much gimmicky control methods as possible, and also make a handheld that can actually fit comfortably in a regular pocket.

[Blue]

I would rather one touch screen, along the lines of a PSP Go form factor. Otherwise, it isn't portable enough.

[pauljdavidson]

It needs a dedicated D pad thats for sure, iphone games with onscreen D pads suck.

[WhyMe]

I pretty much love the DS, and I consider the DSi the greatest handheld game machine ever created, and I own basically everything noteworthy that has been released.

I'm not too keen for thumbsticks on it, how could it close? Oh, it has to close. I love how that protects it. And it better keep the two screens. I just want better graphics, really, and more advanced online support - online pictochat and more content for the DSiWare store, amongst other I can't think of. Though I love how Nintendo are handling online through Flipnote Studio and the upcoming Warioware DIY!

Motion sensing capabilities wouldn't be too bad, as long as it isn't shoehorned into everything - WarioWare Twisted used it to fantastic effect!

[Fenrir]

Nintendo have a lot of work to do, I think. It should focus on the iPhone as its major competition/inspiration. I'm not suggesting that they should copy the form factor and controls of the iPhone, but they need to set it up as platform that favours online delivery like Apple's app store and has cheap, simple 3rd party developer support. I think Nintendo should do away with as much gimmicky control methods as possible, and also make a handheld that can actually fit comfortably in a regular pocket.
Isn't the DSi an indication that Nintendo are moving towards online delivery, generally?

Hmm, on this note, I've been saying that Nintendo are really fighting the mobile phone for pocket real estate (at least with me), to the extent where it's either one or the other.
I'm teetering on suggesting that Nintendo should acknowledge that convergence is the future and make a smartphone, but I don't think they have what it takes to pull that off - or at least, they've left it too late. The phone, digital audio player and PDA are converging into the pocket PC/smartphone profile quite comfortably, and I don't really think a portable gaming system with phone shoehorned in from Nintendo is going to compete very well with that. I don't think they have it in them to cook up a multi-purpose operating system with even a quarter of the momentum of even a smaller player like Maemo, let alone iPhone OS, WinMo, Android et al, either.

I'm tempted to suggest that Nintendo should release some sort of Android spin-off - the hardware could essentially be a next-gen DS adjusted to accomodate the Android OS, with significant extension to the OS to accomodate a gaming platform - but this is the sort of shit that dreams-that-don't-happen are made of. Makes me no better than Kotaku, really. >_>

[LordMursarus]

please nintendo gods grant me this small wish of the dsi LL

[Vindik8or]

Nintendo should not go for the phone thing, that's ridiculous it would be lunacy to try and compete with the iPhone. They should push the gaming part, ie. be the best platform for handheld gaming, but that would actually require them to be the best platform, and have that developer support.

[FX-GTZ]

They forgot the important next gen feature: 3D lcd screens. It would be like a Sega CDI, but done properly.

Nintendo does what Segafailedat.

[BB2K]

Judging by your join date, you're at least 3 years old. How have you survived this long?

[Fenrir]

Nintendo should not go for the phone thing, that's ridiculous it would be lunacy to try and compete with the iPhone. They should push the gaming part, ie. be the best platform for handheld gaming, but that would actually require them to be the best platform, and have that developer support.
Psh, stop stomping on my dreams.

I'm not sure whether the premise here - I gather, that Nintendo offering phone functionality would suddenly legitimise the iPhone's gaming capacity - is at all valid, really. The sectors are only starting to seriously converge now, so there's no real precedent to go by, and I'm just as inclined to believe that the iPhone could steal the market with its brand appeal and a competitive gaming offering, as I am to buy the idea that Nintendo can hold their significant market share with some sort of "specialist" illusion.

What's clearer is that other portable device sectors have favoured the convergent device - the PDA was rarely seen in the wild before it integrated with the phone, and people have taken strongly to phone DAP functionality.


Anyway, based on your impression of the iPhone's penetration, I gather you don't favour Google's chances in general?

[TAT]

Anyway, based on your impression of the iPhone's penetration, I gather you don't favour Google's chances in general?
To interject


Not based on the showing of their OS

[Fenrir]

We're still talking about Android, right?

[Blake]

- GameCube-quality graphics

Might as well be Wii-quality graphics.

[Stevorooni]

Might as well be Wii-quality graphics.

I was gonna say "Better than Wii" quality graphics

[StorminNorman]

Hi-resolution widescreen top screen.

Bottom screen can stay as-is, but that top screen has to go wide.

[SOX]

GBA SP with GCN graphics would be the perfect handheld with no touch screen. Obviously that would never happen.