July 9, 2004 - It's still a little early in the game to launch a dedicated DS channel, but since E3 this May, we've had DS still on the brain here at IGN. Its unique functions offer developers a wide range of possibilities for creating games -- from the dual-screen layout to the touchpad input to the microphone and wi-fi features, the Nintendo DS is the system that offers the most vast number of opportunities for unique game design types than any handheld or console in quite some time.
We've brainstormed a tempest of ideas for the new system, and have compiled a list of DS concepts and theories that might be used in designing new games. Will these concepts actually show up in future DS games? Some, perhaps; some, perhaps not; and others, we hope not (hey, we didn't say they're all 'good' ideas, just ideas.) Browse the list below and check out some of the possibilities.
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User-Submitted Nintendo iDeaS |
The Nintendo iDeaS feature is an on-going one, and one that welcomes user input. Have you got any iDeaS of your own for the new system? If you have a creative new concept to add to the list, send it in to IGN's DS Mailbox or post it up on the Nintendo DS Board.
EA brutalized all comers in the sport of pugilism with Fight Night. The Total Punch Control gave you instant access to your repertoire of moves in a way that most multi-button boxer games get lost in, and better still, it made you feel more like you're actually tossing the punches and shifting your blocks than anything before it.
Is there room for improvement? We're not sure yet as far as consoles go, but with the innovative touchpad of the Nintendo DS, there is the promise of more control than ever.
EA's control system relied on the use of an analog stick, and was based mostly on motion and trajectory rather than exact accuracy of its analog controller (let's face it, even the best analog stick couldn't hit a bull's-eye if it came to it.) The touchpad of the Nintendo DS gives developers a lot more room to explore and move the controller in an analog space -- punches could be ascribed to a much more open space, where general moves like hooks, curves and quick zips would still register the type of punch, but the final landing spot and the speed at which a punch lands at that spot could be a lot more tight with the DS. Boxers could open up a fountain by targeting his opponent's eye, or could pepper their challenge with all-over shots ... and when you miss a punch or throw big air that takes you off guard because you committed too much to a blow your opponent dodged, it's your funeral.
Earlier this year, a small contingent of Lionhead Studios released video of its latest things-to-do-when-we're-bored project. The game was called Rag Doll Kung Fu, and if you haven't seen this game, or project or goof or whatever it is until Lionhead gets a publisher and puts it into full production, in action by way of a video of the game, GET. Now. Even if this game never ships, just watching the video is a hoot-and-a-half.
It's the perfect kind of game for the Nintendo DS...
Complex physics systems like the Havok engine get deep into the nitty-gritties (knowing the developer's history, we're guessing Rag Doll Kung Fu is using the MathEngine Karma system -- aka Renderware Physics), but it's still plenty possible to do a good approximation of the physics needed for a good number of games with the moderate specs of the Nintendo DS -- especially since, now that the technology has been broken, it's possible to now take understanding of those systems and carefully scale back to best fit the system's strengths. The simplest uses of physics systems have already blessed us with great new gameplay experiences -- Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the N64 used real-world algorithms to create a brilliant platformer, and the recent Midway game Psi-Ops allows players to use physics to create as much mayhem as they can imagine. Like shiny shirts are the new black, physics is the new jumping -- if a game's physics system is fun to simply play with, you've got instant joy on your hands before you explore your first level. An analog, physics-based platformer -- where players move their character like a puppet on a touchpad screen -- or a telekinetically-enhanced action game like Psi-Ops would make every stroke of the DS stylus a blast. The new Super Mario game for the DS didn't look to be using the touch screen for anything important in the E3 video, but we could think of a few things that touch-control could do for Nintendo's plumber hero...
Real-Time Strategy games outside of the PC realm are about as common as flying pigs (and about as welcome ... those creatures make quite a mess when they take flight.) The problem has always been the input device -- clicking about with a mouse isn't just more intuitive and faster than padding around with a joypad or analog stick, it's so much more exact that it's almost not even worth bothering in the console realm. When crisis time comes in the heat of battle, the fuddling controls will never be quick or precise enough for you to get your reinforcements where they need to be on time. No wonder that most of the big console strategy games -- Advance Wars and Front Mission -- take the RT out of RTS to fall back on traditional turnbased/board game design techniques. Full Spectrum Warrior is about as good as we're going to do in the console realm anytime soon, and that game succeeded for console players by putting you in command of a small squad instead of a full army.
DS brings a new ray of hope to console gamers who pine for a Real-Time Strategy game. The exact motions of a PC mouse are now at your fingertips on a handheld console, and techniques for overriding pathfinding or perhaps bringing action into single battles (imagine jumping down to the unit level to engage in Worms / Artillery-style minigame encounters) are finally possible away from a PC. Of course, those with a Tapwave known this well from the RTS Warfare Incorporated, but with the full field of the double-screen DS, you have a lot more screen real estate to work with. The grand battles managed in great PC RTS running on a 25", 1600x1200 monitor can still be played out on the handheld -- with a twitch of a button or a touchpad stroke, you could leap around or zoom out to micromanage individual battles or coordinate an overwhelming onslaught.
One of the more unique games of this console generation was one most never gave a try -- FromSoft's The Adventures of Cookie and Cream was an action-puzzler that took a simple system -- level-based platforming -- and made it maddeningly complicated by requiring you to play the same game twice ... at the same time. Cookie was on one side of the screen, Cream the other. In the single-player mode, using the DualShock sticks and multiple buttons for character actions, you had control of both -- it was only by dexterous maneuvering of both characters at the same time that players were able to cooperatively navigate the game's twisted puzzles.
Things might get even trickier with the DS...
The large touchpad and double-screen system means that doubled playing fields could easily be the norm rather than an abnormality. What likely won't be the norm is simultaneous, user-controlled action on both screens ... but if the game calls for it, the system could dial it up. In Cookie & Cream, for instance, Cookie could be controlled on the bottom screen with the stylus, while Cream could be roaming on the top screen by the control of the D-Pad. That's the game system at probably its most complicated, but even with less active syncopation -- perhaps a game that had the AI control the other character and required you to only jump in when you want specific actions taken -- would also make sense. The Tingle Tuner function of the GBA-Cube link in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, for instance, could be used with a little bit freely, allowing Tingle to float around and find secrets or pick up items to bring back while you are locked up in the middle of heavy combat. Of course, we kind of prefer the more chaotic system that we started with
This one's for the old-school gamers in the house...
If you can remember the days when the answer to, "Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" was always "It's a roll of quarters," then you may be the type of gamer for this style of control. Arcade cabinets in the '80s sometimes came in sit-down systems with the monitor turned face-up and with joysticks placed at either end -- two-player, head-to-head gaming was now a sit-down affair, with no elbow bumping and plenty of room to set your drink.
Since then, there have been a couple tries at shared-system multiplayer on a handheld (and once or twice on a console), but the DS seems the most apt for it. Back in the old arcade days, the TV had to mirror the score and other details so that both users could know what's going on at the same time, but with the DS's two screens, each player could get his own entire playing field -- one that they could explore without having to worry about screening out the other player. Player 2 could either use the touchpad (while Player 1 has command over the joypad), or, with the symmetrical four-button layout of the DS, the game buttons could be used as a makeshift second joypad (each player would even get a shoulder button with this tilted way of holding the system.) Single-system multiplayer has worked to great effect in games like Micro Machines, and the DS seems uniquely apt for cocktail-mode gaming. Sure, it'd be awkward ... but that's half the fun of it all!
Yep. Cooking games. If you've ever played the PlayStation cooking game Ore no Ryouri (also known as My Cooking, and available for the treasure-seekers as a US-playable demo on one of the PlayStation Underground demo discs), you'll understand instantly the kind of fun that can be when you mix playing and filleting.
Sony cooked up My Cooking as one of the first demonstrations of the unique gaming possible with the then-new DualShock analog controller, and with the touchpad of the DS, a cooking game could easily boil over with all of the innovative concepts. Translated from the DualShock to the DS touch screen, the analog controls of My Cooking (which, believe it or not, is just one of many cooking games out on the Japanese market) could be used to chop the veggies, tenderize the meat, stir up the sauces, turn the sizzling food over the coals, and serve up the dishes. Nintendo has even shown a "peeling" engine already with its Carving DS demo. And, if a publisher were to be so bold as to release a dual-stylus controller, we could even eat the virtual food using our own touchpad-controlled chopsticks.
Yes, cooking games. The first of many new mouthwatering gaming genres ready to be tossed onto the DS grill.
Trivia time: what is the only gaming system that went out of its way to meet the needs of left-handed gamers? Answer: a portable system, the Atari Lynx. It could be flipped (completed with extra buttons on both sides of the system and a screen flip option for viewing the portable games upside-down) so that gamers could use either side of the system for controlling games.
Unfortunately, it's looking to be that, at least for certain detail work that requires certain ways of holding the system, the DS may be the least lefty-friendly gaming system...
When you're used to writing with your left hand, you're just bound to lose when you have a gaming system built specifically for players using the stylus with their right hand. That's a problem for lefties, and it just doesn't seem fair for them to miss out on whatever Nintendo has to offer with this system. We'd like to recommend developers finally give our own resident leftie, IGN Xbox's Hillary Goldstein, a game (and perhaps a game system) to call his own.
Lefties make up about 13 percent of the gaming population -- that's a big enough crowd for Nintendo and its Third Parties to take special notice of when it comes to the DS. These right-brained gamers have been able to train themselves to use their hands backwards in order to control games, but for many, it's been a tricky obstacle to overcome. And since the DS is built on a control system that basically relies on the skills of writing/drawing, this new system is even more prohibitive.
Luckily, the DS's symmetrical design can be used to smooth out some of the challenges of the system -- the opposite side of the system, while not perfectly set-up for such a control method in the early production model, could be used as an alternate joypad. It'll only be the really touch-sensitive games that will need the control scheme -- lefties should be fine going righty for games that use the touchscreen as a trackpad or a menu, and it'll hopefully only be tricky drawing modes played in tandem with the joypad that lefties will be left out of. Some have also suggested adding a 'Virtual Controller' on the screen, where players would use the touchscreen to control directional buttons on the game screen (this would have to be worked out with more ingenuity than it seems, since everywhere you would touch with your greasy fingers would be a touchpoint that'd confuse the screen's input system -- it would probably take something of a special finger glove, if it even can work at all.) And, if worst comes to worst, Nintendo could be the hero and release a special 'Leftie Edition' Nintendo DS with the buttons and joypad swapped.
OK, it's a Sony game -- chances of seeing Ape Escape on the DS seem pretty slim. But the ideas behind Ape Escape -- the analog control systems and the unique systems for controlling each of the game's many tools -- could do wonders on the DS.
The idea would be to put all of the character control on one screen, while the other screen displays the action (actually, it could work with gameplay action on both screens, but let's start simple here.) Namco's Pac 'n Roll is already doing something to the effect, putting Pac-Man on the bottom screen as a trackball that coordinates to the maze exploration on the top screen. We're seeing even more potential in the system beyond the effective rudiments shown here -- imagine every action of a character controlled with the DS touchpad, while motion is simply handled with the D-Pad.
In Ape Escape, for example, the character would be shown all by himself on the bottom screen, and his weapons and tools would be controlled from that same screen. Above, action would play out in a 3D game world. Players would choose a weapon or tool from the touchpad menu, then control the item -- for example, a club or a monkey net -- using analog motions across the touchpad. Make a motion on the bottom screen, and the character will make the move on both the bottom input screen as well as the top action screen. Make a slicing motion on the left side of the screen to swing your club and knock a monkey silly, then quickly make a circle motion on the right side to reach out and net the monkey with your other hand. Then switch to your helicopter blade, draw spinning motions all around your character to make him twirl fast enough to take flight, and fly your captured critter out back to its cage.
The simpler needs of just one character on a relatively simple screen would mean that developers would have plenty of power to detail the top screen and still do something cool with the bottom screen (it would even be possible for the bottom screen to feature a 3D representation of the character while still running the top character at peak conditions.) And the depth of control with this method could be endless.
So far, we've mostly been on and on about the touchscreen and the double-screen layout of the Nintendo DS. But, if that was all we had to say about this bad boy, we'd only be telling half of the story...
One of the coolest features of both new handheld platforms is the ability to play wirelessly with either nearby gamers or, at a WiFi Hotspot, against gamers from anywhere on the internet. Nokia explored wireless play with its N-Gage system, and Nintendo is getting deeper into it with its own GBA wireless adapter, but the PSP and DS will break down all the barriers for multiplayer handheld gaming.
Our competitive sister site, IGN PSP, got into some of the possibilities of wireless gaming on a handheld in the first edition of its PSP 'I Wonder Ifs... feature, and the ideas in that column are even more apt to the DS since Nintendo has announced some of the specifics regarding wireless play that we can only guess are going through heads at Sony. Specifically, multiboot gaming -- where one system is used to share a copy of a game with multiple systems so that each gamer can engage in multiplayer play without owning a copy of the game -- has already been confirmed with Nintendo representatives.
The expectation is that players would be able to link up with their friends and play multiplayer games after a quick download, just like with the GBA ... but we've got even bolder ideas. What if, instead of downloading a multiplayer level from just your local friends, you could hook into a WiFi network browser and go multiplayer with any gamer on the planet, in any game that supports the function -- even the ones you don't own? The connection would just require a lobby for finding gamers and the games they have loaded up on their system -- gamers would browse the titles or run through their buddy lists to find what they want to play, download a single multiplayer stage over the WiFi network, and it's game time! Publishers wouldn't even have to foot the bill on bandwidth fees -- these sections of games would be distributed peer-to-peer, so it'd pretty much be a system of free demos for any multiboot-capable multiplayer game. There would have to be limits -- both in stage design (since only so much can be downloaded into the RAM) and in available stages (since no developer would want to give so much away for free that gamers wouldn't feel the need to buy the game anymore) -- but even within those limits, there's so much potential in this kind of system that we're staggered by the possibilities.
Nintendo, don't let us down ... make an about-face with your stance on internet play and PLEASE make this happen!
Readers have been pouring in ideas for gameplay concepts that make use of the Nintendo DS's innovative control systems. Below are a sampling of the submissions sent to IGN or posted on the IGN boards. If you would like to submit one of your own iDeaS, send it in to IGN's DS Mailbox or post it up on the Nintendo DS Board.
- Swordplay -- nate38
I believe it would be a game that could extensively use the Stylus as a primary control. The main idea of the game: You are a swordsman, fighting another swordsman. I haven't come up with anything but this small idea. You are in a small room, and can only face one way, the same goes for your opponent, but you may move in any direction. On the top screen, is a top-down view of your positions, with simple animations. The bottom screen displays more of a first-person view, where you use the stylus to "draw" your sword's movments. - Lightgun Gaming -- watto11107 and MrGlubGlub
Well NGAGE is getting Virtua Cop. But for the DS it could be done and it would be awesome. The bottom screen would be your playing screen and you use the stylus to shoot of course. The top screen would show your accuracy or like a map that has a heat senor to show you were guys are hiding. Man a Virtua Cop would be awesome. - First-Person Boxing --AlexanderZegreat
How about a first-person boxing game. The top screen reveals the score, time, etc. In the bottom, you see your opponent boxer. And you control with the stylus. Tap the screen any where on the opponent to hit or jab where ever. Sweep the stylus down, left, or right to dodge any up comming hits. Rub the stylus all over the screen to get up. And hold the stylus on the screen to block. - Stylus Fighter -- hippopotamania
When the game first switches on, you design your fighter. The main body and head are a basic shape, but details can be added, i'll get on to that later. You draw in the arms and legs using different colours of inks to distinguish between them and confined drawing spaces to keep it in check. The more ink used for an appendage, the more damage it will do, but the slower it will be to use and vice versa. There is a limited supply of ink, so the player must be careful as to how they distribute it, fighters need all of their limbs to fight. Once the drawing is finished, you can go into battle with your character, having been fully animated by the game. The controls could be of standard standard beat 'em up configuration, with special moves based upon the 'ink' idea. As the game progresses, you can unlock new types of ink with increased power, speed, specials etc and a larger supply of ink. You could also get a 'superficial ink' level, to add your own design and colour to your character. The characters can be constantly ammended, allowing you to tailor them to your playing style and fight them against your friends designs. - Wario Ware: Tong Twisters -- Ecotic
The built-in microphone on the DS is just begging for a Tongue Twister game. Add in the frantic pace of Wario Ware and some on-screen visualizations and you have a timeless classic. This should be a pack-in game with the DS, it could be as big as Tetris was! Think about it, this could be the ultimate pick-up and play game. - First-Person Football -- Banana03
ESPN Football. One screen you have the normal camera angle, on the other you have the first person mode. - Light/Dark World Zelda -- Chefgon
With two screens, I think it would be damn cool if Link could exist in both the light world and the dark world at the same time ... it would be a lot like Link to the Past. 2D Zelda. You'd see the light world on the top screen, and the dark world on the bottom screen. When you moved the d-pad around and hit the sword swing button, link would react on both screens identically. He's always in identical positions in both worlds at all times. Now to make the game really interesting, Link would have different abilities in both worlds ... On the bottom screen (dark world), Link will have the ability to cast evil spells on enemies and objects using the touch screen. Circle an enemy to stun him, and then slash at him with the stylus to kill him. In the light world, Link would have all the traditional Zelda items like the bow and the boomerang. Only light world link would have access to those. That would open up a lot of puzzle solving abilities that werent really possible before... Finally, it would make multitasking combat very interesting. - Virtual Analog Stick -- imthesoldier
The Stylus or your Finger IS the Analog Stick! Think about it. When we saw MPH playing on the DS, what did you use to look around? The Stylus. In MP you use the Analog Stick to look around and Move. The DS uses the D-Pad to move. The rest of the controls are controled by the Stylus. - Star Fox Squadron Commander -- kevincow251
...the main action would take place on the bottom screen. To fly, you use the stylus on the screen to drag the aiming circle thingie around. The ship will aim at it at all times. However, if you just drag it really fast from one side of the screen to the other, the ship won't turn instantly. It will have a maximum speed it can turn, and if you drag the thingie faster than that, it'll turn at its max turn speed until it's in the right position. And to shoot, you'll just tap the aiming reticule, similar to MP:H. To shoot bombs, there would be a thing to tap on the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, you'll have your other hand covering either the D-pad or buttons, depending on if you're right or left-handed. Up is boost, down is brake, and left and right lean, or double tapping it rolls your ship. To do barrel rolls, you hold L and press down. Or to turn around in open areas, like some of the ones in SF64, you hold L and press up. So that's the basics. But also on the touch screen could be more advanced controls. You could command your team on it. Like, you could get them to fly in different formations with you or something. - RPG Summons -- theunknown128
I hope that some RPG's you can create your own attack. Prolly some you can draw and then make it have some cool effects. Like a asteroid attack, create a asteroid that is burning and some cool explosion when it hit's the enemies. Or with the DS you can use you finger to summon some very cool attacks? - RPG Notepad / Map Stickies -- bleutuna
How many times have you been in a big ass RPG game and wish you could leave yourself notes on the the map. That way, when you're looking around, you can see what you thought and when, what's left to be done, etc. WindWaker particularly was this way for me. I often wanted the chance to leave myself a reminder or similar as to what was going on at this place. A touchscreen lets us do that. Click a place on the map, click "Note" and just start writing. There isn't any need for character recognition software, because these are notes in your handwriting. So it's not a problem as far as processing power goes when you're jotting.