11 Things to Expect from the Next Nintendo DS
The rumor mill's barking again that we'll see another Nintendo DS in early 2009 with slightly larger screens and each one touchable, but what do we really want from a new Nintendo handheld? Swappable storage? Custom media playback? A better, sleeker, user-friendlier operating system? High-speed cellular wireless support? iPhone-like capabilities?
Well, what's the competition up to? Sony's PlayStation Portable obviously tops the DS in the "oomph" department, and it's hard to argue with Sony's widescreen 480 x 272 resolution 16.77 million color screen compared to the DS's grainier 256 x 192. It's also rather dramatically more customizable, with its award-winning XrossMediaBar (XMB) allowing you to fiddle everything from photo slideshows and video files to RSS channels, streaming TV, an embedded microbrowser, and a Skype WiFi phone.
The DS, by comparison, only plays games, disregarding a handful of negligible accessories (remember the Rumble Pak?) and oddities I've never personally found a use for like PictoChat. You can add a media-crippled (but otherwise reasonably elegant) browser to the DS courtesy Opera, but it'll set you back thirty bucks (the PSP's browser is inbuilt).
Going off the assumption that mobile users want more from less without that "more" kludging up the interface, size, or overall weight of a totable games console, what should the next Nintendo DS include?
1. Larger, wider, brighter, higher-resolution screens capable of millions of colors are an absolute must. I just spent several dozen hours squinting my way through Final Fantasy IV for the DS after several dozen prior barely crinkling my crow's feet playing Crisis Core on the PSP. I love my DS and the fact that it still plays games going on two decade old, but it's definitely harder on my eyes than the PSP.
2. In support of #1, a more powerful engine under the hood. I don't care how they do it, whether it's dual processor or all-in-one-chip or whether it involves snappier mobile memory. Just make it possible to render Wii-quality 3D to both screens at once without a performance hit and scuttle point texture filtering once and for all to sharpen things up.
3. Slimmer, but not too slim. As noted back in April, game controllers -- and the DS is essentially a game controller that happens to have a couple screens built in -- need to have heft. Render the already wispy DS Lite any less substantial and it'll be like playing games on a paper gamepad. The DS weighs 275 grams and the newer PSP "Slim and Lite" weighs just 189g, and a PS3 Sixaxis wireless controller drops to 138g. I wouldn't want to play on something lighter than a PS3 Sixaxis controller, not to mention the potential safety issues in terms of protecting higher-quality dual-screens surrounded by even less ABS plastic (anyone for a titanium-magnesium composite shell?).
4. Expandable storage in support of full video playback. Actually, I'm just kidding. Really. Have you tried to watch a movie on a PSP? An iPod? A phone? Do you do it often? Really? Your mileage may vary, but I think David Lynch has it exactly right when he says this about people who watch (or think they've watched) movies on mobile devices. Short YouTube style clips? Sure. Maybe even short TV episodes (my brother, who works in Boston, says half the people on his morning train commute watch sitcoms on their iPhones). But feature-length films? No thanks.
5. Improved wireless support. No big deal, just a bump from 802.11b WEP up to 802.11n and WPA2 and of course, better signal range.
6. Some sort of extensible hardware and/or software architecture for upgrades and add-ons that could range from first-party downloadable improvements through firmware updates to third-party plugins like a Skype WiFi phone.
7. From #6, an online library of purchasable and downloadable Game Boy and DS games, mobile applications, etc. And I guess that means I wasn't kidding about at least the "expandable storage" part of point #4.
8. Improved battery life. Why not? I mean, sure, we already get 10 hours out of the old DS, but why not 15 or even 20? (What would be really cool? How about slipping a pair of photo-voltaic solar cells behind the LCD screens to allow the DS to charge by exposing it to sunlight?)
9. Better speakers, better audio. Compressed music can't match true CD-quality tunes, but it can get awfully close. Even the best current-generation DS games sound a little last-century in terms of the musical bloops and bleeps. Give us at least MP3-quality music and stereo speakers that can dynamically keep up.
10. An overhauled operating system plus a few "hard" on-off switches. Make a change in the current DS OS and you get that infuriating "the system will restart now" message. Lose that, make changes hot-applicable, and come up with a navigation system that uses actual words and not just pixellated images. Also: Give us a simple slider to flip the wireless chip on or off (like the PSP) so we can conserve battery life.
11. An analog control nub (or two) in that nice big empty space below the d-pad. I realize this says more about my fondness for more traditional controls, but then you've probably never played Star Fox Command, either. Not a single button more, mind you. Four buttons plus the shoulder bumpers is already tops, thank you very much.
Of course what we want and what we get from a company that's currently breaking every demographic rule and cynical media axiom has as much chance of meshing as John Hodgman and Justin Long. Did I say "expect"? Should have said "really geek-tastically hope for." I'd only expect two or three of the above points to actually materialize (if the rumors of a new DS are even true) early next year.
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All those things feel good 2 me ,even the solar cell which I'm sure could be worked into a game. I'm still looking for the fluke that they allow roms of games we already have to work on the ds (gb color...) we shall see.