Did Devs Use Up All Their Creative Dual Screen Ideas On the Nintendo DS?

d21lewis

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d21lewis on 24 January 2014

Acevil said:

d21lewis said:

spemanig said:

ToxicJosh said:
I think the issue is that all the 'imaginative' uses when the DS came out where essentially a collection of cheap gimmicks that you each offered about 5 minutes of gameplay.

If you were to try similar gameplay ideas now it would be written off.

The maps/inventories/menus work with more complex gameplay ideas without needing to find a new gimmick every 30 seconds to keep the player interested.

If you look at Zombi U for instance, (a game I've not played btw), a lot of the reviews disliked the repetitive nature of the gimmicks used on the touchscreen. If you look at NintendoLand you have 12 different games each using the pad in different ways, presumably because no one way was big enough to justify an entire game. Look at Wonderful 101, where although you could draw the shapes to use your abilities, by the end of the game you just used the right stick as it was more convenient.

However, in defence of the gamepad (because I do think it's brilliant), using it for maps, menus etc does free up TV space and decreases HUD clutter. It was brilliant in Pikmin 3 (played with wiimote and nunchuck) to give a real time over view of what was going on, in Windwaker it gave a nice tactile element to your inventory. And off-tv play is superb for those of us who aren't cheeto-stained basement dwellers who have families we share the tv with.

My partner is in love with the gamepad as a 2nd screen for playing Xenoblade on when I want to watch TV for example.

That's not true at all. Kirby: Canvas Curse and Mass Attack weren't gimmicky. Okamiden wasn't gimmicky. Pokemon Ranger wasn't gimmicky. The games I listed above weren't gimmicky. They

The what? What did they do!? Don't you die on my, dammit!!! Don't you die!!

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JazzB1987 on 24 January 2014

devs are just lazy and publishers/shareholders are just greedy.

E.g. so lets say you play an adventure game. And then there is a door you have to lockpick. Instead of programming a special gameplay feature for the lower screen with touch inputs they would just make it a rotate analog stick thing.

Its not that they have no creativity its just that they have no interest in making it happen.

Its sad that today devs and publishers are so money focused/short term profit). Back on NES Konami even made more expensive cartridges with extra sound chips on purpose just for their Castlevania game to have better sound.

WESTERN RELEASE OF CASTLEVANIA 3

JAPANESE VERSION WITH BETTER SOUND

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Anfebious on 24 January 2014

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AstroGamer on 24 January 2014

DS was easier to use the touch screen for interesting gameplay because they didn't have to push for graphics. The DS's main focus was the touchscreen. The 3DS main focus is the 3D screen which takes away focus from the touch screen since you probably aren't going to be looking at it. Instead, they make the touch screen serve as more of a convenience serving as inventory or an easily marked map. Some games use the 3DS's gyroscopic features which inhibit you're drawing ability. As for the Wii U, the focus is on i being a separate screen over a touchscreen .If it functions as a separate screen, you don't want necessary controls on there. It's also a lot of effort so you won't really see 3rd Party devs using the second screen dynamically. I assume Nintendo is fearing that too foreign gameplay would scare off potential consumers so they limited it to mostly minigame collections. it also encourages solo play which isn't to the liking of many of their games