MY RETRO LIFE
DOUBLE THE FUN
Darran champions Nintendo’s best-selling handheld
PERSONAL STORIES ABOUT OUR SHARED PASSION
I’ve always enjoyed handheld systems and after reading about Nick’s love for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in last month’s issue, I thought I would talk about my own personal favourite – Nintendo’s DS. I can still remember the buzz around Nintendo’s console when it was first announced back in January 2004. I was working on games TM at the time and I was intrigued by the promise of the console’s dual screens and what that meant in terms of game mechanics.
As the year progressed and more and more information about the DS was revealed, I knew it was something I had to own, and not just because I could play my Game Boy Advance games on it. Many of my friends were far more interested in the incoming PSP (I bought a Japanese one myself), but there was something whimsical about the DS, something about it that even then, suggested it would be a little different to the norm. While other team members delayed their preorders in the hope that they would get a system directly from Nintendo, I emptied my wallet and ordered a US system and copies of Spider-Man 2, Super Mario 64 DS and Feel The Magic: XY/XX.