In dark gaming times, the Nintendo DS shines

Winda Benedetti Citizen Gamer • E-mail

If you’re a fan of video games and enjoy watching the corporate rivalries that go along with them, then get this: Apple execs totally dissed the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP game machines last week.

At a press conference in San Francisco, Apple senior veep Phil Schiller boasted that more than 21,000 games are now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch through the online App Store. And with only some multiple hundreds of games available to play on the DS and PSP, Schiller seems to believe Apple’s devices are now the big dogs of the handheld gaming biz.

“When you think about the companies that came before us ... when you played those other systems, they seemed so cool, but now when you look at them, they don't stack up against the iPod touch,” sniped Schiller.

Corporate smack talking and executive chest thumping aside, I have to admit, there are times when Apple’s increasingly aggressive gaming rhetoric has started to convince me. There are times when my very own iPhone — with its sleek, multi-touch surface and ability to access an App Store filled with thousands of games that cost mere pocket change — has nearly wooed me into thinking it could satisfy all my portable gaming needs.

But just when I start to fall under Apple’s magical marketing spell, there comes a week like this one — a week in which Nintendo grabs me by the lapels, shakes me to my senses and reminds me why the Nintendo DS is the mighty king of the gaming hill.

This has been a week, and really more like an entire month, that has delivered me (and a great many others) unto gaming heaven. That is, this week saw the launch of both “Scribblenauts” and “Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story” — two staggeringly awesome games that have kept me with a DS clutched in my hands for far too many hours.

This follows the launch of “Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box” — a brain-tingling puzzle game of top-notch proportions, as well as “Flipnote Studio,” a free downloadable animation app for the new DSi that has transformed me into a happily doodling kid again.

As I have sat, cooing at the cleverness, ingenuity and spellbinding depth of these games, my iPhone has been left untouched (save for, you know, all those phone calls and text messages that need tending to). Suddenly, the thousands of App Store games — so many of them flimsy, half-baked trifles — shrivel in the DS’s gaming shadow.

Nintendo Totally awesome and totally free(!) DSiWare game "Flipnote Studio" lets you bring your own animations ... complete with sound effects ... to life. Did I mention that it's totally awesome?

Meanwhile, as the video game industry struggles to pull itself out of a severe and ongoing sales slump, the Nintendo DS is sailing off shelves.

In the U.S., sales of video game hardware are down 17 percent so far this year compared to last year, according to market research firm NPD Group. And yet, NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out that sales of the Nintendo DS are up by a whopping 20 percent for 2009 so far — all of this as the DS is about to celebrate its fifth birthday.

“Though it was the first device introduced to market among the current generation of systems (DS, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3), for the last five months it has been the best-selling system, and for most other months it has either been in first place or second to Wii sales,” Frazier says.  “Its continued success this far into the lifecycle is a testament to its staying power in the industry.”

Of course, with Apple huffing and puffing down Nintendo’s neck and Sony’s snappy new PSP Go game machine poised to launch on Oct. 1, the question looms: How long will the aging DS be able to sit comfortably atop the gaming hill?

'They just get it'
Nintendo first launched the DS — with its smart dual-screen design, touch-screen interactivity, a microphone and Wi-Fi — back in November of 2004. It was a bit chunky back then, but in 2006 it was redesigned to become the slimmer, sleeker DS Lite.

This April, Nintendo spiffed up the DS design again, introducing the Nintendo DSi, which adds two tiny cameras to the clamshell and the ability to connect wirelessly to an online store and download games and apps called DSiWare.

Frazier says the DSi’s introduction has certainly helped fuel the DS’s stunning sales this year. In March, Nintendo announced that it had sold a whopping 100 million DS machines worldwide.

“They just get it,” says Jeremiah Slaczka, co-founder of 5TH Cell game development company and the man behind the accolade-swamped game “Scribblenauts.”  “They understand what handhelds are about.”

Slaczka and his cohorts at 5TH Cell have developed three successful and highly original games for the DS — “Drawn to Life” and “Lock’s Quest” in addition to “Scribblenauts,” a game that allows players to summon almost any object into the game to help them solve a vast array of puzzles.

5TH Cell The excellent new "Scribblenauts" game puts players imagination to work in delightful ways. It's the kind of game that is well worth buying a DS for.

Slaczka says they were drawn to developing for the DS rather than the PSP because, “even though the system was weaker, there was more to it.

“We kind of just looked at what the DS had to offer, with the touch screen, the two screens, with the microphone and the Wi-Fi,” he says. “What I like is just the freedom. You can really go crazy with all that stuff. It offers so many different things that a lot of systems don’t.”

It was the DS’ touch screen in particular that inspired them to create their award-winning “Drawn to Life” game — a game that had players use their stylus to draw their own game characters, weapons and other objects right into the game.

Ultimately, it’s original, deep and well-executed games from developers like Slaczka — and, of course, Nintendo itself – that have made the DS such a success. Playing “Bowser’s Inside Story” — an expertly crafted role-playing game starring Nintendo’s famed Italian brothers — is an experience you just can’t get anywhere else.

“Steve Jobs was talking about how they have 21,000 games. Sure, you have 21,000 games but how many of those are quality?” Slaczka points out. “Probably five percent are worth downloading? I don’t see it competing against the DS.”

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