Nintendo DS - finally revealed!

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

I just want to know what OMGF stands for.

[DonMarco]

I just want to know what OMGF stands for.

Ah. "OMGF" is "OMFG" spelled in my patented way of not-spelling-words-correcktly. I should make an "OMG" version to avoid future mishaps. Thanx.

[Caustic Saint]

2 Million pre-orders?!?

Damn....

I've seen stores setting up displays pushing the DS, but can't figure out how to place any kind of pre-order on one. Anybody know how/where to do it?

[Goldman]

I just did it recently at my local WonderGoo. You should be able to do it most anywhere, especially the big-name chains. I know Toys 'R' Us' here are doing some sort of "campaign" now, but, then again TIJ.

[Caustic Saint]

I just did it recently at my local WonderGoo. You should be able to do it most anywhere, especially the big-name chains. I know Toys 'R' Us' here are doing some sort of "campaign" now, but, then again TIJ.

Thanks for the tip. I'm heading to Ikebukuro this Saturday, so I'll check out Bic and TRU and see which works out better - Bic's points or TRU's markdown off MSRP.

[kotatsuneko]

ds,,,,,,,,,, in pieces!

http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3530

[Caustic Saint]

The day has finallly arrived - the DS launches in Japan today!

I was worried about being able to get one, what with not having a pre-order and the news articles about the number of pre-orders doubling the amount of units available at launch. I'd almost pre-ordered one at the Toys 'R' Us in Ikebukuro, but they only guaranteed you'd get one within a month of launch. I passed, figuring I'd just take my chances.

My original plan was to head to Ikebukuro after work tonight, to hit up a couple Bic Camera locations, and maybe TRU - hoping I'd get lucky. On the way back from the once-a-week class I teach at another school, I noticed a store with a lot of airsoft guns on display outside. I asked the Japanese teacher who was driving if that way a toy store. She wasn't sure, but said it probably was. Once we got back to my school and I was on break, I grabbed my bike and headed up there. Yup, it was indeed a toy store.

And they had about 15 DS units just waiting to be bought.

Sure, it's only a local shop, so I paid full retail and didn't get any points on my Bic or Sofmap cards, but I did save over an hour's travelling and shopping time. Well worth the 1,000 or so yen I would've saved by going to Ikebukruo - if I'd even been able to find a system there.

I got a DS (obviously), along with Made in Wario DS and Super Mario 64 DS. Wario is pretty cool. There's some sort of story that links the minigames together, but I don't quite get it as it's all in Japanese. SM64 controls quite well using the thumbstrap on the touch screen.

The screens are gorgeous, even moreso than the GBA SP. The backlighting is very nice, and provides more even illumination than the sidelighting on the SP did. Clearly, they spent some time on this one and learned from the mistakes they made with the original GBA. GBA games look good on the DS, but I'd suggest playing them on the top screen, since it's clearer (no touch screen to get in the way of the image). The speakers sound great too - much better than I'd expected, in fact. SM64 starts off with a spinning star that rises from the bottom screen to the top. As it moves and spins, the sound effect pans back and forth from left to right. There is very distince stereo separation, even without headphones.

The only bummer is that Japan misses out on the Metroid Prime Hunters demo. Oh well. I got mine and I'm very happy with it.

(Time to go save the princess! )

[Caustic Saint]

The day has finallly arrived - the DS launches in Japan today!

Congrats. I didn't realize the Japanese release date was later than the US release (two weeks ago). I think the US PSP release is supposed to be in March, more than 3 months behind the J-launch.

Yeah, they wanted to hit Black Friday in the US, so North America got the first launch this time.

I'm definitely going to remember the store I got my DS at. Nice, small, local toy and game shop. No discount card, but it was much easier than going in to Ikebukuro and trying to luck out at Bic. I will be checking Bic this weekend, though. Might want to score a couple more games, and I want to get some sort of a case so it doesn't get all scarred up in my pack.

[Kuang_Grade]

[Caustic Saint]

[kotatsuneko]

i wonder if the japanese production run will suffer the same problems as the US one, with plenty of units with dead pixels and ghosted gridlines on the second screen?