| | | Here's the problem with the DS: two screens aren't better than one. Nintendo is making a big fuss about the gameplay possibilities opened up by having two screens on a single handheld system, but you know what? A single screen, as big as the two small DS screens combined, would be a lot more flexible in terms of game design, and couldn't have the big gap between the two when running split-screen.
I don't like how the system is twice as large as their last one, the GBA SP. I don't like how there's a big gap between the two screens: I have problem tracking action between the two, it's just more effort than I feel is justified by any of the DS games. I don't like how only one screen works with the stylus, because once I finally bring myself to look up at the top screen, I want to have stylus input there, darn it!
I don't particularly like the stylus input. Sure, it's different, and somewhat novel in this context, but it just doesn't have the simplicity and thumb-wrenching quality of a d-pad. You have to be kinda dainty with the thing. I kept feeling like my crude stabbings were going to puncture the screen.
The screens are nice and bright, and the speakers pretty darn loud. I wouldn't say that the bright screens alone justify getting a DS just to play GBA games on it though. The GBA SP hit a certain milestone of design and function; the DS seems to have fallen off that peak. It's clunky. Oh and the OS is weird, and you have to watch a seizure warning or whatever every time you boot it up, for goodness sake. |
|
|
| | |