Nintendo DS Score: 92% Developer: Nintendo Device Type: Miscellaneous

Function: Nintendo DS is the newest Nintendo portable system. Though it doesn?t carry the Game Boy brand name, it still feels like a part of the line, and expands on a lot of its previous incarnations? abilities. But this system is a lot more than just the next Game Boy. At the risk of sounding hokey and like something out of a press release, the Game Boy has finally grown up. This system is no longer just a way to play games. With it?s built-in wireless abilities and PictoChat, the Nintendo DS is also a communication device. It isn?t hard to see some developer writing an application for the DS that isn?t a game, but more of a simplistic browser to get news, sports scores, check email, or other Internet options in formats similar to MSN Direct. The PictoChat system built into the OS is easy to use and lets you communicate with any other DS in a 65-foot radius. You can either type what you want to say by tapping the keys with the stylus, or you can draw on the screen and send your message. There are four chat rooms that can each hold 16 chatters at a time. The keyboard is more than your standard QWERTY input device. With a tap of the stylus, you can use accented-letters (the extended ASCII letters), Japaneses characters, or emoticons and symbols (including icons for each of the DS? buttons). The other function of the Nintendo DS? wireless systems is the multiplayer abilities. Multiplayer DS games come in two flavors: Single-Card Download Play and Multi-Card Download Play. In Single-Card Play, all you need is one copy of the game. The DS that has the game becomes the host, and the other systems get the game data from there. The Multi-Card Play requires that every participating gamer have a copy. The DS also sports stereo speakers, a built-in mic, and a headphone jack (guess they learned from the GBA SP).

Performance: Nintendo DS is still an early product, and will only truly show its performance over the next few years. But so far, it is pretty much everything Nintendo claimed it would be. The sound coming from the speakers and/or the headphones comes off clear and crisp, making the gaming experience (whether it is GBA or DS games) that much better. The battery life seems to last a really long time. It seems to be considerably longer than my SP, which is surprising considering that this system is powering not one, but two back-lit screens. When I got home with my DS, I stuck it on the charger. Since then, I have been playing it every chance I get in order to accurately test the DS? performance. And in that time, I have only had to recharge it once. If I had put my SP through the same performance testing, it would to have been plugged in three or even four times in the past two weeks. I don?t know if this peak battery life is there only because the battery itself is new, or if the lifetime will drain and become like the GBA. But if these first couple of weeks is any indication, Nintendo is doing something right in the power management system. The touch-screen gives tight and precise control. This feature helps to give the DS a more adult character, because with a stylus in your hand, the system feels more like a Palm Pilot than a gaming device. The touch-screen system can provide the developers with a unique, almost completely analog control that should prove to yield some rather interesting games (if you don?t believe me, just look at Feel the Magic: XY/XX).

Features: Two-Screen designed for fast, dial processing power allows you to play impressive new 3D rendered Nintendo DS games. Play all your favorite Game Boy Advance games in single player mode. Draw, sketch, write and send wireless messages with up to 16 other users with the built-in communication tool, PictoChat. Includes rechargeable battery pack, AC adapter, wrist strap, and extra stylus. Two-screen design for multiple view gaming. Color LCD screens are wide format and back lit. Lower screen provides a revolutionary new way of playing and controlling games. Use the stylus to type, navigate menus, and get instant game control.

Drawbacks & Problems:: At this point in the Nintendo DS? life cycle, it is hard to see a lot of drawbacks. There are only two problems that I have with this system. The first issue is its size. It is as wide as the original Game Boy Advance, but twice as thick. As it was, the GBA was less portable than its GB Pocket or GB Color predecessors. When the SP came out, it made things slightly easier. It was half the width of the GBA, but alas, twice as thick. There were trade offs, but all of those systems were very easy to just slip in your pocket and carry around. Though the DS isn?t anywhere as clunky as the original Game Boy, it is still larger than any Nintendo portable that has come out since then. At least with this system, the power button is protected under the flap, and that greatly reduces the chance of accidentally turning it on while slipping it in and out of your pants or backpack pocket. The other issue is the DS? inability to play non-Advance, Game Boy games. If Nintendo could build a system like the Game Boy Advance SP (a narrower handheld with the same flip-top design) with the backward compatibility to go all the way to the beginning of the GB line, then why can?t they incorporate that into this system? The only explanation I can see to this is that in order to make the hardware flexible enough to allow for the older games, Nintendo would have had to sacrifice speed or graphical capabilities. Unfortunately, I could find no reference (in press releases or otherwise) to their need to not keep the system completely backward compatible. In fact, until I got the DS, I had no idea one way or the other if it could play my classic Game Boy games. I would have felt a lot less disgruntled about this situation had Nintendo said earlier that it didn?t support the older cartridges and cited some explanation for this need. The DS is a good system that is bound to bring portable gaming (if not gaming as a whole) in a new direction. Though it seems like the DS was rushed to the streets in order to beat the PlayStation Portable, it still comes off as a complete and polished handheld console. But will it be enough to keep the PSP from controlling the market-share? Only time will tell.

-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer