Secret DS conference, Online, FF3, and whole bunch of shit...

[Kinopio]

Very impressive. I haven't been excited about a square game in awhile, but FF3 and Mario Basketball look great. Mario Kart and Animal Crossing will make me forget Nintendo's pitiful holiday lineup on the gamecube.

[SpoDaddy]

Advice for those of you planning on picking up a DS: Walmart still has the Mario 64 bundle, you can't beat a new DS + Super Mario 64 DS for $129.99 (and I hate Walmart).

And I hope we get that cover art for Mario Kart DS. That's as slick as ice.

Truth


From what I read, Mario Basketball was actually Square's idea. They were inspired to make a basketball game using the stylus for ball handling/passing/shooting and went to Nintendo with the idea to do it with Mario. Nintendo said yes, but only if they were publishing it, and so it is done.

I think a lot of people really underestimate the DS hardware, it's a LOT more powerful than an N64 (which it's usually compared to). It can handle slightly fewer polygons, but it's CPU(s) is much faster, it can handle far more colors simultaneously, it's got far more texture memory (the achilles heel of the N64), it's got much better sound hardware than the N64 (or the PSP, shockingly enough), and it does a metric asston of stuff in-hardware (like cel shading, various lighting and scaling/rotation, compression, etc). It's obviously not as powerful as the PSP, but it's a lot closer than most people think.

[avatar]

Advice for those of you planning on picking up a DS: Walmart still has the Mario 64 bundle, you can't beat a new DS + Super Mario 64 DS for $129.99 (and I hate Walmart).



Truth


From what I read, Mario Basketball was actually Square's idea. They were inspired to make a basketball game using the stylus for ball handling/passing/shooting and went to Nintendo with the idea to do it with Mario. Nintendo said yes, but only if they were publishing it, and so it is done.

I think a lot of people really underestimate the DS hardware, it's a LOT more powerful than an N64 (which it's usually compared to). It can handle slightly fewer polygons, but it's CPU(s) is much faster, it can handle far more colors simultaneously, it's got far more texture memory (the achilles heel of the N64), it's got much better sound hardware than the N64 (or the PSP, shockingly enough), and it does a metric asston of stuff in-hardware (like cel shading, various lighting and scaling/rotation, compression, etc). It's obviously not as powerful as the PSP, but it's a lot closer than most people think.

Is that true?

[kedawa]

Is that true?

I remember reading somewhere that it's basically PSX quality, but I don't think it's a big deal since the audio chipset isn't generally used for music.
Most PSP games use some form of streaming audio from the UMD, from what I understand, which frees up the entire audio chip for sound effects.
The DS has to it all on the chip.

[mollipen]

I think the problem with the DS, if the sound really is that good, is that the presentation of the sound is pretty crap. The speakers just aren't that good, and even when using headphones, there is a nasty hiss when the sound level is low.

[kedawa]

GBA had some weird hissing and stuff too.
It's probably interference from within the system itself.
It's hard to avoid when designing something that compact.
Badly layed-out PC motherboards have the same issue with their onboard audio.

[SpoDaddy]

I think the problem with the DS, if the sound really is that good, is that the presentation of the sound is pretty crap. The speakers just aren't that good, and even when using headphones, there is a nasty hiss when the sound level is low.

I was actually pretty suprised by the DS speakers, considering it's a handheld I think they're great. I'm looking up the tech specs on the sound chip right now.

[kedawa]

The DS is a powerhouse compared to the GBA.
It's the first handheld I've owned in a long time that I don't need to have at maximum volume at all times.

[1CCOSA]

Whatever the case, I am wowed every time I hear Mario 64's waterfall in surround sound via headphones.

[blueskied]

FFIII, Magical Vacation 2, and that Tales game look great. And in fact many of these games look good. But I'm most excited about Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana. If I don't have a DS by the time that is released in Japan, I will buy one then (+a copy of the Japanese release).