Rant: DS first party support
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 3:15am by Jake
The Nintendo DS was release way back the dark reaches of 2004 and since then the duel screened handheld has expanded the Video game industry beyond expectations. Besides the SNES, the DS is thought to be the greatest game platform of all time. Not because of hardware performance, or media, but software.
Almost all of the big N’s major franchises have had their shot on the system which in time have played out beautifully. It couldn’t get any better. An equilibrium consisting of top-notch quality hardware and software that is all too difficult to attain in today’s unbalanced market. Perfect.
Here we are four years after launch and our last piece of 1st party developed software was half a year ago. Yes, Advanced wars, Layton, etc… are all great games, but where are the internally developed games from Nintendo? Though 2nd party titles are of near high quality there’s just something about a game spawned straight from the Kyoto headquarters.
We’ve been spoiled with Mario, Metroid, and Zelda, but going over 6 months without talk of an upcoming hit title is spurring talk. What’s happening? Could we be seeing a DS 2? It’s not difficult to notice the approach of a new platform. Look at the Gamecube. Starting fall 2005 Nintendo practically dropped game development for its purple lunchbox. What happened? Nintendo announces the Wii and all is well. It’s a repeating pattern that this multibillion dollar industry has rooted itself into. Then again you have to factor in the fact that this is Nintendo we’re talking about.
New handheld system or not you can’t help but notice Nintendo’s support for the DS has certainly slacked off when compared to the 2004-2007 development relationship.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 am
well, there might be cause for concern if the quality third-party titles weren’t still being delivered (Super Dodgeball!). My guess is that some resources are being refocused on WiiWare and Balance Board games. Nintendo would hardly throw those two developments into the public without taking their own pass at them, and besides the WiiFit pack-in and Dr Mario, Nintendo hasn’t dabbled in either one too much. Yet, anyway.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 am
Funny, I actually thought about this recently. Either they’re making the next handheld, or working on several things that’ll knock our socks off.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:45 am
I’d say they’re saving things for the DS’s successor.
Also, I think Professor Layton beats the pants off the first party brain training games.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
It is quite likely that they have been leveraging second parties to move resources to the Wii. I don’t find the library lacking to say the least. We might hear more at E3.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:13 am
There’s a Fire Emblem DS on the way. That’s all I can think of. I also hope Metroid Dread isn’t dead.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
I don’t even want to speculate on a new handheld, I just think they’re letting the 3rd parties have plenty of breathing room so they can get some sold sales and quit bitching about their software not seling on nintendo systems.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
metroid dread was never alive last I heard. merely a test type thing combined with rumours.
But yeah, the majority of all games I own on Wii and DS are first party ones and thus I haven’t bought a new DS game in quite some time. I miss playing on new DS games, I’ve yet to find anything on par with phantom hourglass. bring nintendo back to the DS, the wii is selling itself right now. the DS is being left to flounder…
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 am
I thought Crosswords DS was a Nintendo game, but it’s not. It definitely has the polish of a first party game.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
I don’t think they’re lacking, I just don’t see them hogging the DS anymore. We got evolved and online Advance Wars, Zelda, Crosswords DS and a few other games from them. We’re about to get fire emblem from them and we may be getting Rhythm Tengoku DS, F-Zero DS and something else we may have hard nothing about yet.
F-Zero is purely speculation on my part, Europe is getting Tengoku.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
Nintendo’s eye, if I’m going to use LOTR metaphors (and I am), is fixed on the Wii, and getting that console off the ground (it’s already hovering, but it could fly).
Plus, as Soup mentioned above, Super Dodge Ball is a good indicator as to why Nintendo is pretty content letting the third parties take control of the platform. The DS reached critical mass long ago, so I’m going to assume that Nintendo is pretty content to let the system coast on third party support until we get something shiny new to play our portable titles on.
As much as the system’s detractors would love to have you believe, there are actually every type of genre represented on the DS, and they run the gamut of all levels of quality. RPGs, Sports, Puzzles, Training games, more RPGs, retro classics, etc etc. Even a FPS or two that I’d argue are average or above in terms of quality.
The system is fine, and Nintendo’s lack of attention right now is only indicative of what new things are coming soon, I imagine.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 am
It has been a long time since I bought a DS game. This is partially because there aren’t that many new main Nintendo games out, and I’m enjoying my old games so much that I haven’t really wanted to get a new one. Whatever the next Nintendo handheld is, I really hope it will play DS games.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
It has been a long time since I bought a DS game. This is partially because there aren’t that many new main Nintendo games out, and I’m enjoying my old games so much that I haven’t really wanted to get a new one. Whatever the next Nintendo handheld is, I really hope it will play DS games.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
The World Ends With You and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword have kept me content with my DS for some time now. Looking forward I’m content knowing that Elebits 2 and a neat variety of games are on the horizon. Even more then that there are a ton of games on the DS I was interested in but never got around to. Its a good time to catch up on great games from the past then looking to the future. First Party games will come, but right now I dont have the wallet for it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I wouldn’t mind getting a DS (my last handheld was a Gameboy Color), but I’m probably going to hold off until the next handheld that’s released.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:55 am
The DS has such a large library as it is and a ton of great 3rd party titles on it that Nintendo needn’t worry about pushing the platform and showing “how it’s done” because they already have and the others have obviously learned.
It’s the Wii that needs Nintendo’s full muscle if they want to crystalize it’s status as more than a fad. It’s still got a way to go when compared to the DS.