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Ever
since the NintendoDS and SONY PSP hit the Japanese market back in
late 2004, not even the best efforts of their parent companies have
been able to stop the ongoing  debate over which is the better
handheld console. Both SONY and Nintendo insist that their
respective consoles do not target the same market but, as usual, Joe
Public has other ideas. The Nintendo’s faithful praise the
innovative gameplay, robust game console nature and extensive great
game library of the NintendoDS, whereas fans of their rival favour
the PSP’s multimedia capabilities, better graphics and sleek
design. As has been proved time and time again, the success of a
console is defined by its games and as it stands, the NintendoDS is
beating the PSP in sales in almost every region, especially so in
Japan where the NintendoDS outsells the SONY PSP by a ratio of
almost 3.5:1. Despite its success in Japan, European and American
territories have been slower to become part of the Touch!
Generations wave, a factor that is likely due to the
NintendoDS’ appeal to the key 16 - 24 year old demographic, or
rather, the lack of it. In this image conscious world, aesthetics
are everything and let’s face it, the NintendoDS it isn’t much
of a looker, is it?
Sure,
the PSP may be lacking in decent original titles and Loads games
slower than a ZX Spectrum, but damn it looks good! If its’ variety
of games is NintendoDS’ biggest strength, the bulky, undesirable
nature of Nintendo’s ugly duckling has become its greatest
weakness. There are plenty of NintendoDS owners that probably never
exercise its ‘portable’ nature due to fear of being publicly
mocked by their SONY peers. Late teens and twenty-somethings buy
games, so why do they have to play them on a kid’s toy?
Fortunately it seems Mr. Iwata and friends have a plan to scupper
the PSP’s arguably strongest feature, its style, by releasing a
new version of their acclaimed handheld in the form of the
NintendoDS Lite.
The
NintendoDS Lite is 42% smaller in volume and 21% lighter than the
original NintendoDS and features an adjustable Brightness Setting.
The Stylus has also been remodelled and is now significantly larger,
making it easier to hold and use. The unit is now far more ergonomic
than before; the Face Buttons and D-Pad have been moved upward to
allow a more comfortable playing experience for traditional style
games, an appreciated improvement over the arthritis inducing setup
of the current model. Start, Select and Power have also been moved,
possibly due to the fact that in a heated moment,  they were far too
easy to accidentally hit. Game Boy Advance compatibility is still
present-and-correct, albeit with a few differences. In order to
reduce the size of the console, Game Boy Advance cartridges now
unfortunately protrude from the console by around 1cm and to prevent
any unsightly holes in the unit, the Game Boy Advance slot has a
protective cover. The unit is, at the moment, available in two
colours, Black and Crystal White.
The
unit also has a similar styling to Nintendo’s upcoming home
console, Wii. Both the NintendoDS Lite and Wii are primarily
displayed in white, the now seemingly mandatory colour for consumer
electronics. The NintendoDS Lite and Wii controller also share
another similarity, an almost identical D-Pad, which can only help
to cement the predictable rumours of NintendoDS compatibility with
Wii. It is fairly obvious now that Nintendo realise that their
“kiddie” image is doing them no favours in the ongoing battle
against SONY and Microsoft and, as such, have taken to styling their
products toward the image conscious mass public and the, dare we say
it, iPod-esque stylishness of the new NintendoDS Lite is bound to
attract the attention of those who want to know what all the fuss is
about, but wouldn’t be caught dead playing TetrisDS on a
silver brick.
In
an interesting and ironic twist, it seems Nintendo are actually
using some of SONYs’ ideas. The recent announcement of a
NintendoDS Opera-based Web Browser means that Nintendo intend
the NintendoDS to function as more than just a game console. Support
for the Play-Yan movie and music player seems to be dwindling in the
western territories and the NintendoDS Terrestrial Digital Broadcast
Receiver Card will likely only ever be released in Japan, but it seems Nintendo are now actively competing with SONY, at
least on their home turf.
So
when can you get one? Well actually, right now, although a strong
grasp of Japanese and friends at HM Customs & Excise will help,
since Japan is the only region in which the NintendoDS Lite has been launched.
And what a launch it was; with most stores having sold out on Launch
Day and many units going for unbelievably inflated prices on
auction-based websites. Since its release on March 2nd 2006, the NintendoDS Lite has sold nearly one million units; a figure
that is rumoured to be limited only by Nintendo’s manufacturing
capabilities. This, coupled with the runaway Japanese success of the
Nintendogs series, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Dr.
Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? mean
that, right now, Nintendo is in one of its strongest positions
it’s had in years with the Japanese charts dominated by  NintendoDS
releases. Not as fluent in Japanese as you’d like? Fortunately the
NintendoDS Lite is now scheduled to arrive on these shores in a
matter of two short weeks; 23rd June, 2006. It seems unlikely that Nintendo will want to dull the launch of
Wii, which is currently rumoured to be launched worldwide at the end
of the year, and the UK releases of big titles such as NEW Super Mario Bros., Nintendogs:
Dalmatian & Friends and Dr. Kawashima’s Brain
Training: How Old Is Your Brain? coming in June: there may never be a better time.
The
current NintendoDS model continues to sell like hotcakes in all
regions with numbers sold in the last seventeen months being around
two thirds of the total number of Xbox’s sold in its entire
lifetime. Despite SONY’s best efforts, it is now clear that
Nintendo will continue their dominance of the handheld market for
the foreseeable future, mainly due to the wealth of excellent titles
currently available for their system and the promising future
line-up including The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, StarFoxDS,
Diddy Kong Racing and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
This coupled with the NintendoDS Lite’s far superior aesthetic
qualities and extra features mean that Nintendo’s Third-Pillar
strategy should be standing tall for many years to come.
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