WiiWare... For The DS?
Yesterday, I was somewhat enamored and angry at Nintendo for the speculations on the next iteration of Animal Crossing for the Wii. While I would love to see a new revision of this title and the game practically owned me for a few months, I barely noticed the news that Nintendo may be releasing a DS Download card.
Of similar import is the imminent arrival of an official DS flash card, which will initially just be available to allow Nintendo to sell the back catalogue of Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games. The uncontrollable homebrew and piracy communities that use the DS rely on similar devices for their more nefarious ends, but this should, in the long term, allow Nintendo to exercise some control over at least the former through the simple step of offering a path to publisher-supported content.
Why does it shock me that this is even a possibility? Nintendo is rethinking all their old designs that were years ahead of their time. The Mii system, writable media for games, and motion controlled devices were all originally conceived back in the NES days. Of course the Famicom disk system, face designer, and power glove were all quickly retired or widely considered impractical.
If Nintendo decides to actually flesh out this idea I'm going to be beside myself. I would love to be able to play all the old gameboy color titles on the go.
Animal Crossing Wii Goes MMO [Next Generation]
[via DS Fanboy]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 25 October 2007
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: downloads, DS, DSware, nintendo, wiiware
What would also be awesome is if the card could be used to import other Virtual Console titles to the DS. I'm not sure what kind of software/hardware challenge that poses though. However, just think of how awesome that would be. Right before a trip, I just go over to my Wii, pick and select any old games I want to bring with me, and zap them over to my DS flash card.
With each passing month, the Wii and DS are becoming the nostalgia wet dream of old-school gamers.
...as if I need an excuse to purchase more stuff via online stores. Sign me up!
It would be great if DS could use wii as wifi access point. And take advantage of Wii's wifi security -- something that DS doesn't have.
This sounds cool, but it also annoys me.
Nintendo used to build complete backwards compatibility into the Gameboy line, like in the SP.
paying to play games from different platforms on the wii is one thing...
but having to repurchase old gameboy games to play them on the DS (in practical terms, it's the latest GB iteration) feels like a ripoff.
and yes - i do remember that Nintendo originally called the DS a "third pillar," but that was just spin in case the DS failed. Proof: the DS was hugely successful, so the GB line is not being continued. some third pillar...
they acknowledged the family tree by including GBA support, but they wanted to lose the GB/GBC chip to eek out a few more pennies from manufacturing. fine... so why not just make the cartridge slot a bit wider and include emulation software in the OS to still support GB/GBC? it would not have increased manufacturing costs at all.
but it WOULD have prevented them from reselling us the exact same games. games that we already own but can no longer play without a legacy console.
Note to self: next-gen.biz considers homebrew developers "nefarious" and in the same class as pirates. Screw them.