The DS was an experiment – a cautious stab in the dark, introduced almost with an apology in Nintendo's early assurance that it was not replacing the Game Boy. Instead, Nintendo insisted, the DS was meant as a "third rung" in the company's strategy in addition to its traditional handheld and console systems. Judging by how long it took the industry and its followers to "get" the system and its improved follow-up, the Wii, Nintendo's caution was probably well-advised.
To Nintendo's credit, it wasted little time. The moment the system started to prove itself, the company introduced a slicker, more appealing version – outwardly at least, less of a prototype – as it revised and adapted the system's ideas into Nintendo's next home system. The laurels are barely even worn, much less sat-upon, and the Game Boy has been given its long-deserved retirement.
moscallout "If Nintendo makes these adjustments, there will be practically no end to the system's shelf-life."/moscallout
The problem is, as pretty as it now looks, the DS is still a half-measure, incompletely realized and insufficiently explained. The system has two screens because of the touchscreen. Input on the bottom; output on the top. So why does the extra screen seem so extraneous? The hardware was made for wi-fi – so why wasn't the user interface? A portable system is as personal as game consoles get, and the DS is the most interactive ever – so why isn't it more customizable?
The DS could well be the ideal portable platform; it certainly has all the right ideas. Here's what Nintendo can do to push it over the wall, and follow through on all the system's promises.
1) Give the system some internal flash memory. Right now you can store a downloaded demo in RAM until you cut the power. Though nice in its own right, that's not enough. For points I'll address in a moment, this extra storage space is crucial.
2) Improve the system interface. Nobody wants to reboot every time he changes the system clock or exits Pictochat. I don't necessarily even want to shut down the system when I turn off a game. The user should have the option of returning to the home menu at any time – perhaps suspending the game for a moment to fiddle with a system setting, then resuming. The game will react as if the player snapped the lid closed, then open again.
3) Make the system interface expandable, preferably over wi-fi download. Hey, those Wii channels? Good idea. Should have thought of it earlier. I want the option to expand my options – to upgrade features like Pictochat for wi-fi glory. To add new functions, like...
4) A Virtual Console. I keep hearing grunts over the lack of Game Boy games on the Wii Virtual Console. That's a kind of a strange thing to mope about, as the Game Boy is a portable system; the Wii isn't. Portable games and home console games are kind of different. Considering that, like the Wii, the DS is only backward-compatible by one generation (another source of minor annoyance), it makes sense to expand the system's range, transforming it into the handheld of all handhelds. Surely the DS is punchy enough to drive a Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator. Or a Game Gear one. And hey, this would be the perfect place for SNK to wave all of those amazing Neo Geo Pocket games under a new set of eyes. And what about the Atari Lynx! If Nintendo really wanted to be cute, it could offer new adaptations of its old Game & Watch LCD games (including the dual-screen ones everyone joked about when the DS was announced), for cheap.