Five Years of the Nintendo DS

7 Comments Posted November 21, 2009 - By Sterling McGarvey

Five Years of the Nintendo DS

November isn’t just a time for big games to launch. It’s traditionally a time when game consoles make their big splash in the States. With the exception of the PlayStation 2 and the PSP, every major game console of this decade has launched in November in the US. Can you believe that Nintendo DS launched a half-decade ago? I sure can’t. Alongside the console big boys, one of this decade’s most important gaming platforms came out in November. Like the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, I’m taking a look at the history of the platform, and the prognosis for the coming year.

Launch Date: November 21, 2004
Launch Price: $149.99

Significant Price Drops and Hardware Iterations

Nintendo DS Lite (released June 11, 2006 for $129.99) revamped several features from the original DS hardware, including:

Weight (21% lighter than launch model)
Size (58% smaller than launch model)
Extended Battery Life lasts up to five hours long than launch model
Four tiers of adjustable brightness

Nintendo DSi (released April 5, 2009 for $169.99) reiterated on the DS Lite hardware innovation, but removed the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot. It also included a matte finish as opposed to the glossy (read: fingerprint-friendly) DS Lite, two cameras, an SD card slot for music, photo, and game storage. With the DSi launch, Nintendo launched DSiWare, a downloadable service similar to WiiWare that allows players to buy downloadable games for use on DSi.

Games of Note

Year One: 2004-2005

Year Two: 2005-2006

Year Three: 2006-2007

Year Four: 2007-2008

Year Five: 2008-2009

Features That Made It Better

Without a doubt, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. After willfully ignoring online during the GameCube era to its own peril, Nintendo wised up and delivered an awesome online experience for handheld games.
DS Lite hardware. The DS Lite exemplified a real upgrade and gave true incentive to upgrade your hardware, even if it was years later. It improved so much on the original model that few gamers batted a lash at updating their hardware.
Software that goes above and beyond gaming. The likes of Brain Age and Personal Trainer: Cooking demonstrate that the platform has a purpose outside of just gaming. Lifestyle software finally broke out of Japan with the DS, and it helped enhance the usefulness of the system.

Brain Age

Things We’ll Try to Forget

The Nintendo Seal of Quality. Wait, we didn’t forget it, but maybe Nintendo did. When a platform hits the half-decade mark, you get a fair amount of crap -- look at the shovelware that pervaded the PlayStation in 2000 or the PS2 in 2005 -- but neither platform had the likes of Homie Rollerz.
The DS hardware’s five year-old Wi-Fi capabilities. There’s nothing I love more than dumbing down my router security to play DS games online at home. And before you object, that Nintendo-sanctioned Wi-Fi dongle was pulled from the market following a lawsuit.
The DSi is starting to symbolize the worst parts of the Nintendo consumer experience instead of the best. Since its April launch, Nintendo has failed to show us anything that would make a DS Lite owner give up that GBA slot. DSiWare seems as bogged down with forgettable pap as WiiWare’s casual cash-ins. Even with more advanced Internet security settings and firmware updates, you can’t connect to Nintendo Wi-Fi with your DS chips if you’re running WPA. Adding insult to injury, Nintendo has already announced the DSi XL, which touts a bigger screen -- no word on whether DSi early adopters can transfer any purchases to the new console, but don’t hold your breath. Nintendo, just stop and fix what you’ve already got, please.

DSi XL

Prognosis for Year Six: 2009-2010

Positive. Whether you agree with Nintendo’s lust for two new hardware iterations in such a short time, there’s no argument that the DS has made its mark. There have been cynics and detractors throughout the years (in 2004, no one expected a two-screened machine to be successful; in 2005, no one expected the lineup to withstand Sony’s sleek PSP; in 2009, no one expected people to keep buying DS systems), but they’ve been silenced by indisputable facts.

Nintendo holds its cards close to its chest regarding new games, but we’re a few weeks off from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and Golden Sun will finally debut in 2010 on DS after a lengthy absence from handheld. It’s hard to gauge whether we’ve seen the best out of the platform already, but I have little doubt that you’ll see the DS rage on for a while longer before Nintendo pulls the plug.

Golden Sun DS

Tags: Nintendo DS, Videogames

Comments

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Joe22

I love all my DSs, and really love Zelda so I'm happy to get another sequel right away, but where are the sequels to Mario Kart and Metroid, or even something on the lines of Super Mario 64 DS. They're all still good, but they're showing their age now a days.

Posted: November 21, 2009 9:34 AM | Reply | Report

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Luna_Saisho

It's really frustrating that even gaming "publications" (since this is more of a TV network..) keep saying that they think Nintendo's Seal of Quality means fun. The Seal of Quality simply means that the product will work correctly with the hardware involved without screwing anything up, not that the game will be good.

Common, guys, I'm terribly disappointed in you for doing this not once, but from what I've seen, twice.

Posted: November 21, 2009 12:11 PM | Reply | Report

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dazuwood

No one here said that the Seal of Quality meant fun. The ocmplaint was that certain games have nothing redeeming, hence a Seal of Quality being a horrific misnomer. The SoQ was also Nintendo's way of trying to control shovelware for a long time - it used to say 'This seal is your assurance that NINTENDO has approved and guaranteed the quality of this product.' they changed the wording on it later, but games like Bratz put a lie to the original text.

Posted: November 21, 2009 2:59 PM | Reply | Report

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jmo_88_2013

im still loving my PSPs, I cant stand the terrible graphics Nintendo seems to be committed to with all there consoles. The PSP is a multimedia beast and a gaming beast that boasts an amazing screen capable of stunning graphics, some that put the PS2 to shame, its just truly a great portable device to have in your pocket or purse.

Posted: November 22, 2009 7:27 PM | Reply | Report

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Splibo

your kidding.... i bought a DSi... now i gotta upgrade. screw that nintendo. find something new.

Posted: November 23, 2009 3:38 AM | Reply | Report

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poker909

I still rock the launch model. I like the bigger size. I'll upgrade with the next gen ones that come out in Japan this month - I thought about importing, but the color choice of wine, brown, or white is lame.

Posted: November 24, 2009 10:17 AM | Reply | Report

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Sireez

I too have the launch model with a few games. While it isn't quite match for the PSP, its still pretty nice system. I'll be sooner to upgrade to the DSi rather than upgrade to the Go. And, hey, the Nintendo is starting to take hints with adding the SD card media importing.

Posted: December 3, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Report

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