Comments on: DSed for Success? http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/ Random babblings from a few digitally inclined people Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:23:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Thornhillboy http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-951 Fri, 08 Jul 2005 10:39:39 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-951 Here is what I see as why Nintendo are doing so well with their handheld. Recently I went over my friends house. She is someone who has never played a console game in her life, and hates computer games in general. Yet, when I went over her house the one thing she wanted to show me was the DS she had. She was addicted to WarioWare: Touched. Any other game she would have shunned, but with Warioware, and the unique way of playing it, Nintendo have succesfully appealed to the casual gamer. Nintendo have managed to get people who never play games, to buy a DS and become addicted. Would she get a PSP? Not in a million years. The DS is simple and quirky. It is also different. As has been mentiuoned above, the DS interests me far more than the PSP because if I wanted to play PS2 games, ill play them on my PS2, not on my handheld. And im glad Nintendo are winning. I love Sony, and have been a solid Playstation supported long before I liked Nintendo, but I have been finding more and more recently my allegiances falling to Nintendo. From moderating a nintendo forum, to playing my Gamecube a heck of a lot and extholling the virtues of the DS I am finding myself slowly becoming a Nintendophile. Keep it up Ninty. Maybe you will cause a shock with the Revolution too... Here is what I see as why Nintendo are doing so well with their handheld. Recently I went over my friends house. She is someone who has never played a console game in her life, and hates computer games in general. Yet, when I went over her house the one thing she wanted to show me was the DS she had. She was addicted to WarioWare: Touched. Any other game she would have shunned, but with Warioware, and the unique way of playing it, Nintendo have succesfully appealed to the casual gamer.

Nintendo have managed to get people who never play games, to buy a DS and become addicted. Would she get a PSP? Not in a million years. The DS is simple and quirky. It is also different. As has been mentiuoned above, the DS interests me far more than the PSP because if I wanted to play PS2 games, ill play them on my PS2, not on my handheld.

And im glad Nintendo are winning. I love Sony, and have been a solid Playstation supported long before I liked Nintendo, but I have been finding more and more recently my allegiances falling to Nintendo. From moderating a nintendo forum, to playing my Gamecube a heck of a lot and extholling the virtues of the DS I am finding myself slowly becoming a Nintendophile.

Keep it up Ninty. Maybe you will cause a shock with the Revolution too…

]]> by: Holliday http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-948 Thu, 07 Jul 2005 18:03:50 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-948 Being a PSP owner and playing a variety of games on it I honestly think it is not the PSP itself that is preventing it from dominating the DS. It is the price. It is the largest factor for a consumer, esspecially in a time where new consoles have been announced, new video cards are coming out and computers in general are moving to new types of hardware. If you want to stay "hip" on all gaming fronts, you are going to have to foot one massive bill. I've had my PSP for 2-3 months now with 3 games (Lumines, Wipeout Pure and THUG2). Honeslty I haven't had as much fun with a console (except God of War) than I have with the PSP. The "quickness" factor to playing PSP games is eliminated much like the battery life. The only long load times are when you insert a new game, after that you just flick the power switch off. When you turn it back on you are right where you were (usually paused) and can continue without a hitch. This is incredible for THUG2 and Wipeout Pure. Lumines is a very easy pick up and play game that can entrance you for hours, the perfect handheld game. Now I have never been a handheld gamer. I bought the PSP on a bit of a 'test' to see if I had enough time in my life for handheld gaming and such. I didn't really question the system itself but rather if I could use the system for all its worth. $250 (plus almost another $200 in games/accessories and the like) is not cheap. For the first month PSP took over my life and I was playing it or watching movies/TV shows any chance I got. Now I mainly use it at work. I work in a hotel (either bartending or front desk) which provides a good amount of down time (slow nights at the bar, front desk work in general). Everyone I show the thing to immediately starts drooling and asking how to get one. The system can sell itself amazingly well. However, once the price is announced most people look like you killed their puppy. I think most people assume that a handheld should be cheaper than the current consoles (even though the PSP is quite a bit more advanced than the PS2). Perhaps PSP's day will come once consoles cost $3-400. Oh and a minor problem for the PSP is not essentially the games but the titles. THUG2 was the only true port for the PSP. The rest were ports in name only. Wipeout Pure, NFS:UR, Ridge Racer etc. were all brand new games built from the ground up. Most people just don't seem to think that. Wipeout Pure (possibly my favorite game for the system) plays nothing like the last 2 Wipeout games and has entirely original tracks/play system/vehicles. Even THUG2 added 4 new levels. PSP also has a terrible (if any) advertising campaign. Being a PSP owner and playing a variety of games on it I honestly think it is not the PSP itself that is preventing it from dominating the DS. It is the price. It is the largest factor for a consumer, esspecially in a time where new consoles have been announced, new video cards are coming out and computers in general are moving to new types of hardware. If you want to stay “hip” on all gaming fronts, you are going to have to foot one massive bill.

I’ve had my PSP for 2-3 months now with 3 games (Lumines, Wipeout Pure and THUG2). Honeslty I haven’t had as much fun with a console (except God of War) than I have with the PSP. The “quickness” factor to playing PSP games is eliminated much like the battery life. The only long load times are when you insert a new game, after that you just flick the power switch off. When you turn it back on you are right where you were (usually paused) and can continue without a hitch. This is incredible for THUG2 and Wipeout Pure. Lumines is a very easy pick up and play game that can entrance you for hours, the perfect handheld game.

Now I have never been a handheld gamer. I bought the PSP on a bit of a ‘test’ to see if I had enough time in my life for handheld gaming and such. I didn’t really question the system itself but rather if I could use the system for all its worth. $250 (plus almost another $200 in games/accessories and the like) is not cheap. For the first month PSP took over my life and I was playing it or watching movies/TV shows any chance I got. Now I mainly use it at work. I work in a hotel (either bartending or front desk) which provides a good amount of down time (slow nights at the bar, front desk work in general).

Everyone I show the thing to immediately starts drooling and asking how to get one. The system can sell itself amazingly well. However, once the price is announced most people look like you killed their puppy. I think most people assume that a handheld should be cheaper than the current consoles (even though the PSP is quite a bit more advanced than the PS2). Perhaps PSP’s day will come once consoles cost $3-400.

Oh and a minor problem for the PSP is not essentially the games but the titles. THUG2 was the only true port for the PSP. The rest were ports in name only. Wipeout Pure, NFS:UR, Ridge Racer etc. were all brand new games built from the ground up. Most people just don’t seem to think that. Wipeout Pure (possibly my favorite game for the system) plays nothing like the last 2 Wipeout games and has entirely original tracks/play system/vehicles. Even THUG2 added 4 new levels.

PSP also has a terrible (if any) advertising campaign.

]]> by: Vermouth http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-944 Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:29:39 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-944 It's strange because in Japan the stuff that really expands the market of who buys games is pretty much the opposite of the games that expand the market in America. Since the playstation era the games that have expanded the market for video games, at least on consoles & PCs, the most are Madden, Tony Hawk, GTA, Halo, and The Sims. Those 5 games have gone well outside the traditional Gamer block and done a whole lot of bussiness by doing so. The stuff that expands the market in Japan tends to be just too weird for mainstream USA. I'm interested in Nintendogs, not so much to play it, but just to see what kind of bussiness it does. I think it'll be a good trial run for how Nintendo's think different stratgegy works in the West. I hate dogs myself so it's not likely to be for me; but if it's a sensation here then it'll be a good omen for the Big N. I don't know why it's taking them so long to come out with a great game. Traditionally Nintendo has been the company that launched with a great title but their last two product launches have gone without that something spectacular like the traditional Mario Magic. It’s strange because in Japan the stuff that really expands the market of who buys games is pretty much the opposite of the games that expand the market in America. Since the playstation era the games that have expanded the market for video games, at least on consoles & PCs, the most are Madden, Tony Hawk, GTA, Halo, and The Sims. Those 5 games have gone well outside the traditional Gamer block and done a whole lot of bussiness by doing so. The stuff that expands the market in Japan tends to be just too weird for mainstream USA. I’m interested in Nintendogs, not so much to play it, but just to see what kind of bussiness it does. I think it’ll be a good trial run for how Nintendo’s think different stratgegy works in the West. I hate dogs myself so it’s not likely to be for me; but if it’s a sensation here then it’ll be a good omen for the Big N. I don’t know why it’s taking them so long to come out with a great game. Traditionally Nintendo has been the company that launched with a great title but their last two product launches have gone without that something spectacular like the traditional Mario Magic.

]]> by: plagiarise http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-943 Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:13:36 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-943 obviously everyone is different. Skateboarding games with their two minute runs are well suited to the handheld, but again, it's the choice of buying the better version for the homesystem or buying the portable version, or buying the same game twice. the DS in Japan is literally expanding the market beyond what we've been thinking of as gamers. it could be an explanation as to why the PSP is doing so much better here in the states than it's doing in Japan (not terribly, but unquestionably worse than the DS). europe always seemed a little friendlier to the quirky game. of course, nintendogs is a complete wild card that as far as i'm concerned could flop or be as big as pokemon. we'll find out in a few weeks. obviously everyone is different. Skateboarding games with their two minute runs are well suited to the handheld, but again, it’s the choice of buying the better version for the homesystem or buying the portable version, or buying the same game twice. the DS in Japan is literally expanding the market beyond what we’ve been thinking of as gamers.

it could be an explanation as to why the PSP is doing so much better here in the states than it’s doing in Japan (not terribly, but unquestionably worse than the DS). europe always seemed a little friendlier to the quirky game. of course, nintendogs is a complete wild card that as far as i’m concerned could flop or be as big as pokemon. we’ll find out in a few weeks.

]]> by: Vermouth http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-942 Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:01:46 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/dsed-for-success/#comment-942 THUG 2 on the PSP is actually a pretty damned good game, i mean yeah it's just like the console version but it's a skateboarding game, and pretty well suited to play on the road. And this for me is the crux of the issue, is Nintendo seems to hate people who like sports games. I mean going back some time they've provided one system that's poorly designed for the sports gamer after another despite the fact that its a HUGE market. And the thing of that is, at least here in the States sports games are the ultimate populist video game and are perfect for portable gaming as they can provide a quick jolt of entertainment. Madden is a blast with 2 minute quarters, it's fast paced you gotta score every time you get the ball, Virtua Tennis, Tony Hawk, and then the racers all these are great handheld experiences. If i wasn't stuck in the middle of no where i'd be a lot happier with my PSP. I'd never really be excited about something like the DS as it just doesn't fit my tastes; right now I just play Baldur's Gate 2 all day. THUG 2 on the PSP is actually a pretty damned good game, i mean yeah it’s just like the console version but it’s a skateboarding game, and pretty well suited to play on the road. And this for me is the crux of the issue, is Nintendo seems to hate people who like sports games. I mean going back some time they’ve provided one system that’s poorly designed for the sports gamer after another despite the fact that its a HUGE market. And the thing of that is, at least here in the States sports games are the ultimate populist video game and are perfect for portable gaming as they can provide a quick jolt of entertainment. Madden is a blast with 2 minute quarters, it’s fast paced you gotta score every time you get the ball, Virtua Tennis, Tony Hawk, and then the racers all these are great handheld experiences. If i wasn’t stuck in the middle of no where i’d be a lot happier with my PSP. I’d never really be excited about something like the DS as it just doesn’t fit my tastes; right now I just play Baldur’s Gate 2 all day.

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