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Nintendo takes on Sony. Can the DS save Nintendo against the ongoing onslaught of Sony? Can this cheapo-feeling, oversized, lumpy piece of kit that offers a novel form of control really keep the torch burning for the company that has long been synonymous with quality-controlled play, but lately seems to have lost its way? Sadly, I'm not convinced.“With two screens I can make double the money!” yells Wario during the intro to WarioWare Touched! You have to hope this isn't an encapsulation of Nintendo's business policy. On the strength of the games I've been putting my time into recently – Touched! and Project Rub, from Sega's Team Sonic – developers are going to have to work hard to get beyond the Dual-Screen set-up with the touch-sensitive lower screen feeling like a gimmick.  Nintendo DS and WarioWare Touched! Like its GameBoy Advance forebear, Touched! is inventive, quickfire gaming, but it's no killer app. Nor is Project Rub, a game that looks great, has a fun conceit (er, join a performance group who all wear bunny ears, undertake a series of challenges, woo the girl) and earnestly experiments with the capabilities of the DS, but doesn’t really fly. One of the best gaming uses of a touch-screen that the Tapwave Zodiac mustered last year was for bowling. Bowling resurfaces in both Touched! and Rub (with a kind of Frogger twist), alongside the various zany activities that frequently involve your fingertips, clutching the stylus, obscuring the screen… you even find yourself blowing on the screen. But these control methods don’t seem set to replace buttons. And do you really want spittle flying on to the machine you've just spent £100 on as you huff and puff? At least the price is reasonable and excuses the cheapo feel, though it’s something that in no way endears the DS to the “boys’ toys” market of slick, sexy gadgets. The assumption is that the PSP will exploit that consumer trend with aplomb.  Project Rub and Zoo Keeper. Nintendo can't rely on its existing fanbase. Sure, the DS has sold well (87,000 units over the launch weekend in the UK) and Nintendo has the added advantage of the PSP UK release being further delayed, but is it enough? The novelty of the touch-screen and the PictoChat will lure some new punters, but so far the DS strikes me primarily as a toy for dedicated Nintendophiles and younger gamers. And when many gamers are over 20 this seems like yet another foolhardy decision. But then maybe I'm just too far outside the demographic for WarioWare and Rub now. From my experience of Touched!, Rub and the Tetris-mates-with-Solitaire title, Polarium, I'm yet to be convinced that the dual- and touch-screen set-up is actually offering an innovative form of play rather than simply a gimmick. Perhaps if a new title from the sublime Advanced Wars series had been in the launch line-up, I'd feel more effortlessly positive about the DS, but as it is I have strong reservations. I just hope that upcoming titles, released once the hype has died down, will prove me wrong and that this machine can fend off the potentially tiresome hegemony of Sony.
Daniel Etherington
The Nintendo DS is available now. Launch titles included WarioWare Touched!, Project Rub, Polarium, Zoo Keeper, Super Mario 64 DS, Pokémon Dash, The URBZ: Sims In The City, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, Mr Driller: Drill Spirits, Spider-Man 2, Rayman DS, Asphalt Urban GT.
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