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Nintendo DS - Does Online Work? |
Listed in: News, Wi-Fi Tags: Nintendo
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The Nintendo DS has been out for a while now. After a slow start with pretty mediocre games and very few highlights, it's quickly become my favorite handheld system. Games such as Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows, Feel the Magic: XX/XY, and more recently Mario Kart DS have gone a long way towards making me truly love this little handheld. Things really got interesting when I finally picked up my copy of Animal Crossing on Friday. Since then, I've been on a marathon session of building up my town. Now the question is: What does all this have to do with the DS going online? Well, obviously, Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing both have highly hyped online capabilities. It's been my dream to play Mario Kart and Animal Crossing with friends across the world...so why am I not absolutely thrilled now?
To be perfectly honest, the Nintendo DS WiFi system as it exists now is flawed. Granted, they put out the extremely handy USB WiFi connector that actually works. They also hooked up with an established online presence to help make the transition to online happen. Finally, they focused on their real franchises to push things forward. But it still doesn't totally work. Connecting with friends or connecting with ANYTHING in Animal Crossing are issues that really need to be addressed.
First, let's look at the whole friends thing. In order to get a friend on your friends list, you need to exchange your friend code with them. On the plus side, this means that you'll never have your favorite nickname taken. As someone that always goes by Garp, it's difficult for me to imagine switching that if I can help it. On the negative side, it looks like you're going to be switching friends codes with people...a lot. You can hold up to thirty on your list, but you have to be on their friends list just as they have to be on yours, and an error of inputting one number can be fatal to connecting with them. Having an automated in-game option of adding people would be REALLY nice. Beyond that, once you get the friends codes exchanged, there's still no guarantee that you'll actually hook up with them. With Mario Kart DS, for example, once you go into Friends Search mode, it will randomly set you up with whoever is online with no way to specify anyone you really want to play with. And these numbers change with every game, so get used to setting up some kind of system for exchanging. Community never meant so much work.
So that's the basic of WiFi Connections...but wait! It gets worse! Animal Crossing...the game that EVERYONE wanted to have online. There are a few drawbacks here as well. Just...a few. As always, your friend codes will be completely new numbers so that Nintendo can tie your DS game to your DS which means there will have to be a fresh batch of exchanges. Once you get those people on your Friends List, you can then invite them to visit your town. OR you can go visit theirs. Not both. One or the other. Choose. So you choose to open your gates and let other people in. They then have to choose to leave their town and visit yours. On the plus side, this time you get to choose exactly who you're visiting with and playing with. On the down side, this is a seriously lengthy and annoying process that I wouldn't wish on anyone unless I REALLY didn't like them.
This isn't even talking about compatibility issues with routers and tech stuff like that. Ultimately, I want very much for my beloved DS to be online and I hope these issues are dealt with. As things stand now, I'm going to participate and be a part of it...mainly out of a lack of other options aside from not doing it...but I'm going to also keep my fingers crossed in the hopes that things get better.
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Comments
FYI - I edited this article to repair a couple of factual errors. My apologies to any that read before the edit.
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I agree with everything that you just said, thanks for the great post. Maybe you should add how long it takes to get matched up with someone in MK too.
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I guess you failed to remember that this is a HAND-HELD SYSTEM. Look at how small the game is, remember HOW MUCH is in the game, then remeber online added in. Nintendo is doing their best to make online easy, you people and you TINY little complaints are just ruining the fun. I would rather have all these little problems than not have online at all. And remeber its FREE.
Next time you make another comment like this, remeber that Nintendo is working with something so little and so much stuff in the game.
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Drazzle Dazzle - I beg to differ. They are working with what THEY created and are failing to deliver what they said that they would. I stated in the article that I am extremely fond of the DS and that I hope to see it improve in the future. My entire article is far from being doom and gloom. It's also undeniable that these issues exist and need to be addressed before the "WiFi for all" that Nintendo wants will actually be delivered. I'm not talking websites, downloads, and flash here.
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The current system they have is designed for privacy. If fact, if you look at Nintendo's message board, they don't allow exchanging friend codes there. Keep in mind that Nintendo games are played by people of all ages. You know the dangers of letting children chat with just any random people out on the Internet.
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Friends code? There is no need for such hassle with PSP. LOL
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i personally dont find the friend codes a nightmare... sure it is a little annoying, but Nintendo is and always was for the local gaming community. Its meant to be played with your close friends, i wouldn't like somebody running through my town saying "PENIS PENIS PENIS" whom i didn't even know :P.
The psp on the other hand... well... i havent seen too many really GOOD games that go online. so if it is easy, does anybody care exactly :P. also, the psp is for the mass online community, meaning it tries to support a larger group of people who wouldn't exactly know each other.
im not bringing down on the psp, only noting that the online between psp and ds were supposed to be different.
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Please, bring these problems up if they occur on the Revolution. Do you know how much is in Mario Kart? They can't fit every little detail in that little space, physicly impossible. Also, Nintendo was doing this for saftey, as someone said ealiar, you don't want random people coming into your town and ruining it. Nintendo is doing a great job with onine considering this is the first time they are really puching it.
As for the PSP online, well to me, it barely exists considering that I don't know any of my freinds with a PSP that went online but 5 of my friends with the DS go online often. The PSP has great potential, but its being used for the media and not games.
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Nintendo's WiFi network is still new. The "flaws" within Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing WW is mostly because Nintendo sacraficed a few things just to release the game(s) faster. Lord knows that better online capabilities will be made available in future games.
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Ok hold on Drazzle...are you sure you understand what you're saying?
The Friends system was not implemented due to a physical limitation of the hardware. That was Nintendo's own choice to limit and restrict the online capabilities of the DS Wi-Fi network.
I don't know what you mean by "fit into there." It's not like the physically miniscule size of DS karts has anything to do with the amount of data it can hold. I mean think about it...you're basically talking about N64 size games being put on DS cartridges several times the capacity of N64 carts. There's no space problem there.
My best guess it that Nintendo wants to provide people with a taste of what the Revolution network will be like. The DS online play seems nothing more than a bait.
And as for the PSP being used for just media...what do you say to SOCOM? 16 players *and* voice chat! That's absolutely amazing... and certainly a first for a handheld.
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