The Nintendo DS was release way back the dark reaches of 2004 and since then the duel screened handheld has expanded the Video game industry beyond expectations. Besides the SNES, the DS is thought to be the greatest game platform of all time. Not because of hardware performance, or media, but software.
Almost all of the big N’s major franchises have had their shot on the system which in time have played out beautifully. It couldn’t get any better. An equilibrium consisting of top-notch quality hardware and software that is all too difficult to attain in today’s unbalanced market. Perfect.
Here we are four years after launch and our last piece of 1st party developed software was half a year ago. Yes, Advanced wars, Layton, etc”¦ are all great games, but where are the internally developed games from Nintendo? Though 2nd party titles are of near high quality there’s just something about a game spawned straight from the Kyoto headquarters.
We’ve been spoiled with Mario, Metroid, and Zelda, but going over 6 months without talk of an upcoming hit title is spurring talk. What’s happening? Could we be seeing a DS 2? It’s not difficult to notice the approach of a new platform. Look at the Gamecube. Starting fall 2005 Nintendo practically dropped game development for its purple lunchbox. What happened? Nintendo announces the Wii and all is well. It’s a repeating pattern that this multibillion dollar industry has rooted itself into. Then again you have to factor in the fact that this is Nintendo we’re talking about.
New handheld system or not you can’t help but notice Nintendo’s support for the DS has certainly slacked off when compared to the 2004-2007 development relationship.