Finally, at long last, we’ve come to the end for the good ole DS. It’s had an exceptional run. It’s been active for more than eight years. But we are gathered here today to finally say our goodbyes, paying our last respects to Nintendo’s original, groundbreaking, not-a-gimmick-after-all, two-screened handheld.
You’re probably familiar with the story of its origins, but it still merits mention – especially since it’s now been more than nine years since Nintendo first announced this “third pillar.” The GameCube console and Game Boy Advance handheld were right in the middle of their relevance, neither one ready to be replaced, when the company decided to introduce a third piece of hardware into the marketplace alongside both of those established systems.
The new portable they presented – with two screens that operated simultaneously, one of them capable of touch control – had all the earmarks of an experimental design. It was dismissed as a gimmick by many, and its early months after launch seemed to reinforce that reaction – software support was thin through its first half-year.
And yet, somehow, the DS thrived. It began to gain momentum. It began to push the Game Boy Advance aside, toppling the GBA’s “pillar” and replacing it as Nintendo’s portable of focus. Years of growth, great games and several hardware redesigns kept the system active and relevant, and ultimately the little double-windowed “gimmick” proved all the doubters wrong by not only becoming a success, but actually the most popular handheld system ever released.
It's been more than eight years since the DS hardware first debuted.
And that’s the end of the DS story. Or it was, somewhere around two years ago. Because around this time, at the end of 2010, I for one was already prepared to bid a fond farewell to the then-six-year-old system. I recognized that the DS wasn’t dead yet, and still had several promising games ahead – but at the same time, I was fairly certain that the new Nintendo 3DS, set to launch in March 2011, would quickly succeed its predecessor and the hardware cycle would begin anew.
And then something interesting happened. The 3DS launch bombed.
Plenty has been written already on that topic, as it was a huge focus of discussion all throughout last year. Would it recover? Would it fail? The drastic price cut for the 3DS in August 2011 showed us a side of Nintendo we’d never seen before, and all Nintendo fans were swept up into the drama of the Ambassador Program, then the Circle Pad Pro, then the 3DS XL announcement.
All the while, the original DS just kept rolling, quietly and confidently. It continued to see strong system sales and great game releases – from Pokemon Black and White, which launched just ahead of the 3DS, to Nintendo’s holiday 2011 titles like Kirby Mass Attack and Professor Layton and the Last Specter. Sustained support was even stronger outside the States, as Nintendo directly published Solatorobo and Inazuma Eleven in Europe. Even in Japan, the “normal” DS systems just kept going strong – there were still new exclusives to be had there, too, like the quirky Pokemon Typing Adventure.
It wasn’t just good software keeping the DS alive either. Nintendo kept pushing the hardware too – even rolling out a new color of DSi XL in September 2011, which was several months after the 3DS debuted and even a month beyond when the 3DS had its huge price cut. That was part of the 3DS problem, for sure – the waters were muddy for consumers, many of whom must have been confused about just which Nintendo handheld to buy.
And the result was a system that was entirely ready to ride off into the sunset after six years instead stretching its relevance to seven.
The Metallic Rose DSi XL, announced several months after the 3DS launch.
That brought us to the beginning of this year, 2012. Surely, certainly, the portable transition would finally take place and the DS would totally step aside, right? Well, no. Not at all. Because even after the 3DS celebrated its first birthday, old-school DS kept getting more first-party support, at least from one franchise – Pokemon.
Just this past summer we were treated to the launch of Pokemon Conquest, a brilliant strategy-genre crossover with the niche Nobunaga’s Ambition brand that many doubted would be localized for America at all. But it was, and we’re lucky it was – because Conquest may very well be the finest spin-off release the Pokemon series has ever had.
But there was still more to come. Pokemon kept its momentum moving with the release of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, still supporting the normal DS all the way up to the edge of its eighth anniversary in America. And they were superb, as well – the definitive, most featured-packed RPGs in a long line of incredible portable adventures starring Pikachu and his pals.
Combine that with the fact that Nintendo pushed a fresh price cut for DSi and DSi XL models earlier this year – and the fact that, on Black Friday last month, DS units still outsell 3DS systems – and you’ve got to admit that DS has stayed active, alive and relevant all the way through its eighth year on the market.
This year's terrific Pokemon trio, all for the original DS hardware.
2012, though, is finally the end of the road for the original DS. It’s hard to ever really mark a defined end point for a system’s life cycle, but the best milestone to look to is first-party development. Is Nintendo working on or planning to publish any more titles for the standard DS? Just a few months ago, the answer was still yes – but after the swansong of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, there’s been nothing more announced from the Big N for the little DS.
It will keep selling. There’s plenty of stock left in stores, and prices are so low for DS systems and DS software that families looking to put Christmas presents under the tree will surely give the handheld one last, solid holiday season. Games will surely keep coming too, but only a handful, and probably only the cartoon- and movie-licensed projects that won’t make much impact. The phase-out is finally happening.
And it’s something that needs to happen. After almost two years of both portables co-existing and muddying each other’s images with the public, Nintendo has recognized at long last that consumers are confused about the difference between DS and 3DS. They even put out a video to try to explain things and sort out the “family” of systems:
So now, with confidence, we're prepared to say our final farewell to the original DS brand. It was incredible that its overcame its negative initial reactions as a gimmick device and thrived. It was shocking that its success soared to make it the most popular handheld ever, even beating out all the old Game Boy models. And it’s been insane that, through these past two years, it’s continued to maintain momentum even as its successor has tried to shove it out of the spotlight.
But we’ve got to call time of death sometime, and with no more first-party projects in development and a new year dawning near, now’s as good a time as any. Thanks for the all the years of fun, DS, and for going above and beyond the call of duty. You will not be forgotten.
Lucas M. Thomas will be back in December 2014 with his next installment in this series, “The Miraculous Tale of How the DS Survived an Entire Decade.” Look forward to it! And you can follow Lucas on Twitter, @lucasmthomas.
Source : ign[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment