Weird World of Game Hardware – The Nintendo DS

Remember the term “third pillar”? That term meant that at one time even Nintendo wasn’t certain that their bold deviation from the Gameboy line of handhelds would be a success. When the device was first being hinted at way back in 2003 this was Nintendo’s pitch:

“[It] will enable fun and movement not seen before… I expect it to become the third pillar, next to GameCube and Game Boy.” (Source)

What I think is most memorable about this statement is that the third pillar was exactly what the DS did not become. In fact, the idea of “fun and movement not seen before” was so unbelievably successful that Nintendo carried it over to the also-ridiculously-successful Wii. And so, looking back at this turning point I have to wonder what it was in the case of the DS that made it the device which would blow the gaming market wide open.

Nintendo’s previous third pillar, the much maligned Virtual Boy, is the perfect example of what could’ve happened if the DS didn’t catch. It was an exotic piece of hardware that did not find a home even among the hardcore gamer and it was ultimately discontinued within a year. Yet, in those few short months the Virtual Boy at least had a small library of solid, vivid red releases (Nester’s Funky Bowling FTW!). In the first year of the DS there were a few good games like the Mario 64 re-release, Yoshi Touch & Go, and then a few dozen titles like Ping Pals and Sprung. It seems that Nintendo must have had the foresight to predict the onslaught of shovelware because many early adopters like myself were spending more time using the Gameboy Advance back-compatibility feature than actually playing new games on the DS.

So, then, if it was not the software that was responsible for the success, or at least, sustainability of DS sales in those early years, what other factors could possibly be held responsible? Well certainly there’s the aforementioned back-compatibility, but with the popularity of the GBA SP it’s doubtful that too many people would’ve been swayed to buy a heavier, uglier, more expensive GBA player for that feature alone. The biggest draw of the DS during its early years may have been the two fold combination of novelty and the lack of an alternative device for new Nintendo games. The DS was Nintendo’s first competent implementation of an alternative input method since the Zapper and Super Scope. Having a device capable of providing the same novel enjoyment that those peripherals offered and at the same time displaying greater variety of functions while being built directly into the system made the touch and dual screen features of the DS seem pretty savory. Also, while there was some competition for Nintendo in the handheld market with the newly released PSP, the $100 price difference in the devices plus slightly more expensive games served to separate the audience they were going after. Furthermore, it became quite clear early on that all the “third pillar” jive was not at all Nintendo’s long term plan for the DS. Seemingly, the post-DS release of the Game Boy Micro was the last Game Boy product we’d ever see.

The novelty in the features of the new device and the fact that it was indeed the successor system to the GBA and not an alternative may explain its popularity among gamers, but the DS is known for being one of the first pieces of game hardware that had appeal beyond the typical gaming market. This is a device that, as our televisions constantly remind us, Beyoncé plays with. In which case, maybe the other aspect contributing to the unbridled success of the DS system is the chic factor. Something happened to Nintendo’s hardware design mantra between the release of the original DS and the DS Lite. Sturdy bulk and silver bevels were suddenly exchanged for a slightly less durable and lighter device with white, rounded edges. Someone very high up at Nintendo must have taken a look at Apple’s hardware one day and said “yeah, we’re gonna do that now.” The emulation became more evident with the subsequent releases of the Wii and DSi. On the software side, the uprise of casual titles like Brain Training made the DS look more and more appealing to the new market of gamers. Perhaps for the first time ever, a gaming device was considered to be the cool new thing to have, not just among nerds, but among people in general.

Images in this article were pulled from the 4cr Flickr Pool.

So, there’s this idea of consonance in Nintendo’s cycle of innovation. The Virtual Boy was a failed experiment in presentation, but then Nintendo hit the bulls-eye by trying to innovate our interaction with games instead. This success was repeated with their subsequent home console and now, fifteen years after the Virtual Boy, they’re taking another stab at advancing the means by which games are presented to us with the impending reveal of the 3DS. Will better technology make all the difference this time around? Maybe Nintendo has more surprises yet to reveal about the system. We’ll all just have to wait and see what comes to pass after these few short weeks until E3.