Everyone remembers their first Nintendo DS game. Mine was technically ‘Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt’, the Demo that actually came with the DS, but my first real game, the one I couldn’t put down and played every waking moment, was ‘Super Mario 64 DS’. Mixing up the tried and tested N64 formula by bringing in Wario, Yoshi, & Luigi was definitely risky, but it added something new to the title that was certainly enough to make us want to play it all over again.
I know there were many amazing titles for the DS over the years; Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, Mario Kart DS, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but another title that I still think about fondly on a regular basis is Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training. Can you remember turning that on every day with the hope of keeping your brain young and healthy, only to panic when it told you that you actually had a brain that was way older. That kind of thing hits differently when you’re 15 and told that you have the brain age of a 50-year-old after doing a hard puzzle.
Yes, I was 15 when the DS dropped in Europe. I had to wait just under 4 months for the handheld to reach my hands after it launched in Japan 20 years ago today (that’s November 21st if you’re reading this from the future). It certainly had some big shoes to fill being the successor to the Game Boy family, arguably the most iconic handheld of all time.
I seem to remember that every household I visited back when I was a teenager had at least one DS, usually multiple when brothers and sisters didn’t want to share, and there was always one in a bathroom for long stints of playing Scrabble after a morning cup of coffee. Nintendo sold 154.2 million DS handhelds over the series lifetime (including DS Lite and DSi), making it the second best-selling console of all time underneath the PS2 at 155 million units.
And, while the Game Boy is undoubtedly one of the most important handhelds of all time and the console that has cemented Nintendo’s place in the history books, the handheld world would certainly be different were it not for the DS. It took the horizontal form factor that we loved from the GBA and ran with it, adding another screen and touch capabilities that were unlike anything I had experienced back in 2005. Sure, it looked like a Game & Watch, but it could do a lot more than play Mario’s Cement Factory!
Blowing into the microphone on WarioWare Touched!, searching for clues with Professor Layton, using the touchpad to write messages and make pictures; it was a novelty that every kid and adult wanted in their lives and exuded fun, something that Nintendo has always championed with all of their devices. Holding the DS makes me feel like a kid again; it’s why companies like GoRetroid and AYANEO are still trying to replicate that clamshell design, to evoke nostalgia and remind us what it was like playing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the first time.
I know that some people were worried that the PSP might affect Ninetendo’s chances when Sony announced they were entering the handheld market during E3 2003, but honestly, there was never any doubt that Nintendo wasn’t going to mop up with the DS. Like I said, when you’re the creator of the Game Boy, you can’t afford to create a flop. The fact that it was backward compatible with GBA games, initially at any rate, gave fans a reason to upgrade, the touchscreen providing that exciting new focus and channeling the inventive nature Nintendo has always had since the days of the Power Glove and the NES Laser Scope.
The original version of the DS often gets pushed aside for the sleeker Nintendo DS Lite too, but man do I love that original chunkier handheld. It felt indestructible, I remember dropping it on my foot once and thinking that I was going to have to limp for the rest of my life. The DS Lite definitely pushed the handheld to greater heights with different colour schemes so that we could all have our favourite colours and looked more like a palm pilot when business owners pulled them out of their suit jackets and handbags for a quick gaming session, but that original design still feels iconic. It embodies that futuristic vibe that Nintendo went for with their early peripherals, a bold new future where innovation was their ticket to glory. Satura Iowata said as much before the console launched, referring to the DS as ‘Nintendo’s first hardware launch in support of the basic strategy ‘Gaming Population Expansion'” because the touch-based device “allows users to play intuitively.”‘ So, similar to what I said.
It would often be a case of having to share my DS with my Mum who loved brain training and Professor Layton with a passion, though this is a woman who has been stealing my handhelds to play Tetris on from the very moment I received my first Yellow Game Boy DMG for Christmas back in the 90s. The DS felt like a family console the same way that the Wii embodied that family spirit, and with titles like Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, and Zelda on there, it certainly had that family-friendly spirit that all mothers and fathers look for when buying kids a gaming console – don’t forget that this was still the time when people believed GTA would turn us all crazy, and Brandon and I are both fine… ish.
Another two things that I think we need to consider are that wireless gaming and touchscreen gaming might not have been the same if we didn’t have the DS. 154.02 million people holding a DS and experiencing what it was like to hold a device in their hands and use touchscreen controls. Would we be writing articles with Brandon and I testing out the multiplayer mode on the Delta emulator for iPhone without the DS? I certainly don’t think as many people would be into handheld gaming without the DS (remember 154.2 million sales) or that we would have anywhere near as many horizontal handheld emulators without it.
The same goes for wireless gameplay; it was unheard of for us to play Nintendo games wirelessly before the DS arrived, but when online play arrived for Mario Kart DS in 2005, a year after the console’s launch in Japan, it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities and brought the concept to gamers on a massive scale, setting a standard that has been replicated in every other Nintendo Handheld as well as other handheld gaming devices since.
The DS also saw more female gamers getting into gaming too with the likes of Nintendogs and Animal Crossing. I don’t know a single woman in my friendship group who doesn’t have fond memories of Nintendogs growing up; it was a gaming institution and, as I mentioned earlier, another title that added to that family-friendly spirit, that inclusive feel that Nintendo creates where everyone feels welcome, and that’s the main reason why the Nintendo DS was such a success and why it’s still considered one of the greatest handhelds of all time.
The fact that 20 years have passed since the DS came out is bittersweet; I know we all had some amazing memories with this console, but where have those 20 years gone? I’m older now and still game with my mum on a regular basis, and while I’ve written multiple books and travelled the world since the day I first showed my guitar teacher Metroid Prime Hunters after a lesson in my living room at home, I really can’t believe how fast time has gone. It will probably be a blink of an eye before I’m writing that I bought my Switch and Breath of the Wild 20 years ago too – how scary is that?
With that in mind, I want you all to go back and play your DS games today, to spend some time enjoying yourself like you did on Pokémon SoulSilver and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. Let’s turn back the clock to 2004 tonight and celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Nintendo DS, a console that, for many of us, was a huge part of our childhood and teenage years, and let’s reminisce with friends and family about what gaming has meant to us over the years. I imagine Brandon will be sitting down with his son and showing him Pokémon Black & White, and as for me, I’ll be trying to convince myself my brain is still 15 and not 34 (or 50) by doing some quick math puzzles with Dr. Kawashima – wish me luck!
Thanks to The Ghost Vault for providing us with a modded DS and a stack of games for this article!
