Oh Snap! The DS gets a facelift!

[Raziel]

Well, it's official. "Nintendo DS" is the official name for Nintendo's new handheld. On top of that, Nintendo has just released brand new screens of the totally re-designed casing. To anyone who claimed this handheld looked a bit clunky before, openly weep at the sight of these screenshots.

So Sexy! (http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/f49a1422-f6e3-44ba-b146-8ec0b3214dc9.jpg)

Oh Lord! (http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/32c25001-25c6-4332-bdf2-9b8cadac6395.jpg)

This has Greatest Handheld Ever practically stamped onto the casing.

[undeadzombieguy]

Awesome...alot better than before!

[Raziel]

Here's a bit more info from IGN.

The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover. The face buttons and shoulder buttons are larger, and some have been reconfigured for optimum use. The unit includes a new storage slot for the touch screen's stylus, and the speakers now broadcast in stereo sound, with or without headphones.

Software companies worldwide have more than 120 Nintendo DS games in development. Nintendo alone is developing more than 20 titles, and in excess of 100 companies have signed on to create games for the new system. The company is expected to announce the launch date, price, and game line-up in the near future.

"The Nintendo DS will change the future of hand-held gaming," says Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. "Dual screens, chat functions, a touch screen, wireless capabilities, voice recognition - these abilities surpass anything attempted before, and consumers will benefit from the creativity and innovation the new features bring to the world of video games."

[undeadzombieguy]

Here's a bit more info from IGN.
Software companies worldwide have more than 120 Nintendo DS games in development. Nintendo alone is developing more than 20 titles, and in excess of 100 companies have signed on to create games for the new system. The company is expected to announce the launch date, price, and game line-up in the near future.

"The Nintendo DS will change the future of hand-held gaming," says Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. "Dual screens, chat functions, a touch screen, wireless capabilities, voice recognition - these abilities surpass anything attempted before, and consumers will benefit from the creativity and innovation the new features bring to the world of video games."

Thats going to be fucking awesome, so many games... I wonder how you will be able to use chat functions though. Perhaps they make the touch screen a key board where u can type with the stylus? Voice recognition sounds pretty cool too, but it would be a little weird talking to a handheld when your in public ^_^

[Raziel]

I would imagine that the chat functions will be reliant upon the microphone or the stylus. Personally, I'm not terribly excited about those aspects of the machine, but I think it's a good idea that Nintendo included them. It does a lot to show that the big N isn't just some hulking dinosaur that can't adapt with the times.

I'm psyched as hell to see what sort of crazy stuff people come up with for this thing. It's gonna be fucking awesome.

[Sovereign]

MUCH better looking. Perhaps I shall start saving up.

[Hades-Knight]

They wanted toget more mature audience to start liking the DS since the PSP looks 1000x better

[Raziel]

Targeting a "mature" audience with a handheld is a retarded idea. Sony is going to lose sales on the PSP because it's targeted to adults. The majority of people who play handheld games are kids. If Sony wanted the PSP to succeed, they'd target their handheld at kids.

Seriously, am I gonna have to go over this shit every week?

[zeal311]

I believe the PSP may pawn it...we'll see.

[platnum]

Taken these guys long enough, game gear was way before its time.

[Sovereign]

It also weighed as much as a small car, and took 6 batteries which didn't seem to last too long..

[Raziel]

It also weighed as much as a small car, and took 6 batteries which didn't seem to last too long..

Agreed. The GameGear was a hunk of crap. The battery life on the thing was maybe two hours, the screen was backlit, so all of the colors bled together and it was bigger than the original GameBoy by quite a large margin. It was a pain in the ass to carry around, you couldn't actually see what you were playing and you could only play in short bursts unless you carried around an ammo belt full of batteries on you at all times.
On top of that, the games sucked.

And what do you mean "taken long enough"? Nintendo released the Gameboy Advance three years ago, and it's twice as powerful as the GameGear was. Had you said that back in 2001, you might have had a point.

[platnum]

You couldn't play gb adv in the dark. My game gear I got the battery pack thingy that you recharge, 5+ hours of game play. And I also had an addon that magnified teh screen. The games did not suck imo, nba jam and world series baseball are still 2 of my favorite games.

[Raziel]

You couldn't play gb adv in the dark. My game gear I got the battery pack thingy that you recharge, 5+ hours of game play. And I also had an addon that magnified teh screen. The games did not suck imo, nba jam and world series baseball are still 2 of my favorite games.

5 hours is still pretty pathetic, especially since you had to buy a battery pack to get even that much out of it. A GBA gets around 13 or 14 hours on average. It doesn't matter if you could play the GameGear in the dark, the colors still bled together because it was back-lit instead of front-lit. You still couldn't see anything. And a magnifier to make the screen bigger? The thing was massive enough on it's own without having a huge magnifying attachment stuck onto it.

[WetWired]

Wasn't there an attachment to play Genesis games on it?

[Raziel]

Seriously? With that, the battery pack and the magnifying glass you're looking at a piece of machinery roughly the size of a small dog.

[D3V]

Raziel, how old are you? Over 18? = Adult. Obviously the Kid inside of you wants a DS.

The only problem with Sony releasing a handheld is their lack of experience in it, in that they have none. But 'none-the-less' The new pictures of the DS are just drawings. The last I saw were actual pictures of a Rep. of Nintendo holding it. It was Large, Hideous, and Clunky.

The PSP though is Sleek, quite clean and looks magnificent. The game lineup is even greater, the capabilities are much greater than what the DS could ever do.

Thought those 'concepts' do look better than the old.

[Raziel]

"Just drawings?" Wrong, dude. Those are actual photos of the final casing.

And how can you possibly know what the game library for the PSP looks like? It hasn't even been announced!