Nintendo DS Gage

So apparently my only problem with getting a Mario Kart DS NiWiFi game going was timing and patience. I got into several matches yesterday and it's really a complete blast. Mario Kart has always been such fun multiplayer title and the ability to simply turn something on and have human players at your fingertips is quite something.

This is where Nintendo is going to be cleaning up over the next year. This is precisely why all the people who are carving their tombstones should put down their knives. Or hammers. Or chisel. Whatever they're making the tombstone out of ... they should stop. Casual games that people can quickly connect with and play uncomplicated games that don't require hours and hours of practice to have fun with.

It's also where the N-Gage had it's most promise. Simple, multiplayer games that you could bounce into from anywhere. It's a shame that the first model took many design cues from a taco.

I think I ran into most of the problems others have had with NiWiFi. Slow lobby time to get into a game. People dropping out of races. No simple method to remember players. They're all real issues with the service, but none of it is too catastrophic. None of it gives me much worry. Since future games can have their own NiWiFi implementation, it could be easily remedied.

My worry is that there will be only a slow trickle of games to take serious advantage of it. The DS needs Metroid. It could really use a Phantasy Star Online or Diablo style game. A DS NiWiFi Mario Party or Smash Brothers could be spot on.

Mario Kart is great ... but it's real achievement will be showing other developers what can be done with the DS.




tagged: game, gaming, nintendo