Famitsu Reports

15th October 2004

Main News: More Nintendo DS Console & Game Details

"At a conference held by Nintendo on the 7th October for videogame companies and the press, called "Nintendo DS Preview!", details of the launch software line-up were announced. There will be twelve titles in total on sale alongside the DS hardware, with another two titles due for release by the end of the year.

The prices of the games are all more or less 5000 yen (£25/$45), in the same price range as Game Boy Advance games."

Hardware Details

Set containing Nintendo DS console, two touch pens, touch strap, AC Adaptor.

It's nice that they include two pens, as I'm sure many people will be worried about losing them. The touch strap (see picture below) is an interesting accessory: it is attached to the carry-strap hole on the DS, and you loop it over your thumb and use the little nubbin on the strap to touch the screen. This method may be easier for left-handed people to use. Even if it goes unused, it's good that it's included in the box, rather than requiring a separate purchase.

Famitsu also note that the DS AC adaptor can be used with the SP, but it's not clear if the reverse is true. The DS has a separate headphone jack (no adaptor widgets necessary this time), so perhaps its AC adapter has a slightly different shape.

In the above picture, Japanese pop tart Utada enjoys the DS in one of several teaser adverts currently running on Japanese TV. Nintendo claim there were no rehearsals, and that she was put in a room with a Nintendo DS sitting on a table and her reactions were filmed.

Future Games

Nintendogs(working title)

A game where you raise a dog, with potentially infinite petting possibilities provided by the pen. Just don't poke your pen too hard at little Rover's, er, sensitive areas.

Sawaru Made In Wario

Translates as Touch Made In Wario. The fact that the titles of the GBA's Spin variation and this DS game sound similar in Japanese (Mawaru/Sawaru respectively), might be on purpose, although there's not much else they could have called them I suppose. The minigames use both the touch pen and the microphone. I eagerly await the US translation, WarioWare Inc: Mega Tou¢h'n'Feel Xtreme*.

*May be a lie

Trainee Doctor, Tendo Dokuta

This title, however, is quite funny. Tendo Dokuta (in Japanese family/first name order) is the name of the main character. The surname shares the same characters as the Tendo of Nintendo. His first name is made up, but using the character "ta" which is common in boys' names. The joke being, of course, that in Japanese "Dokuta" sounds like... Doctor. Well I laughed.

The game is one of those that will almost certainly never see the light of day outside Japan, being as it is a trainee doctor simulation. In the above picture, on the top screen the nurse asks you "Is there anything unusual in the X-ray?", and the on-screen instructions tell you to circle the appropriate place on the X-ray image, appearing on bottom (touch) screen. Top marks for imaginative use of the hardware, anyway.

I Would Die For You

Another great, great title. In fact, Naka Yuuji, Sega R&D Creative Officer, was interviewed briefly on this matter by Famitsu.

Famitsu
Where did this audacious title come from?
Naka
When making new software for a new hardware platform, we wanted a game name that was different than any that had come before, one that expresses the nature of the story of the game, a dramatic title.

There you have it. The game is as unique as the title. in order to get a lovely girl to notice you, you use the DS's built in microphone along with the touch pen to impress her and protect her from various incidents. The screenshots show you using the touch pen to gently wipe the mud off the girl, blowing into the mike to blow out a candle, and protecting her from a herd of rampaging bulls.

Amusingly, all characters (including the lovely girl) are depicted as black silhouettes with coloured clothes and hair, but no facial features, leaving you, I suppose, to imagine her beauty yourself.

For some reason, Famitsu listed Trainee Doctor's genre as "Hospital", but I Would Die For You is listed as "Other". There must be more hospital games than I thought, for them to warrant their own genre.

posted by CTU Kyoto @ 10/15/2004 05:17:00 am