Nintendo DS: US vs. Japan
You know, it's funny - being over here, going to game stores, you never get the feeling that the DS is lacking for titles, like you do when you go to a store back in the States. The DS shelf still is smaller than the PSP shelf, but part of that is due to the large amount of non-game PSP material already out over here - and I don't just mean movies, but also "music" UMDs, anime, porn, stuff like that. But compared to the sad state of America's DS library, the DS over here certainly seems worth owning.
One of the best parts - and one of the biggest weaknesses of the US library - is how many unique titles there are over here that make use of the DS's touch screen. A lot of what we have in the US at this point is "could be done on the GBA, but we tossed in a second screen with your score or whatever," but there are enough games out over here that make the DS feel different and interesting. There's also a number of games aimed at the non-gamer - Nintendogs, the brain game, the other brain game, the dictionary, Ounin!, etc. NOA really should put more effort into bringing some of these over here. The one brain game... er, Yawarata atama... is pretty cool, and wouldn't be a huge effort to translate from what I've seen. With the casual gamer crowd growing in the US, and with the popularity of the GameBoy among non-gamers, stuff like that could help sell more units.
It's a bit disappointing to see such a decent library for the DS over here, and to see ads for new games coming soon that look great, and know that I'll be returning to the US where the DS is still in a somewhat pathetic situation.
