TOUCH!!!!

I bought a DS. A few days ago already. My original plan, I think, was to take pictures of me opening the box and all that good stuff. Document this momentous occasion. But I didn't, I just kind of tore into the box and started playing. Pictochat alone kept me amused for over an hour. Dear Christ do I love Nintendo. They just put crazy amounts of thought into everything. Like the startup noises. Starting up a GameCube makes me happy. Hearing the distinctive wash of sound and Bing! that accompanies the powering up of a GBA makes me happy. And now, the discordant and echo-y p-ping of starting up a DS brings me joy. And the pictochat sounds. A lot of developers might have just let it be silent, but not Nintendo, they gave almost everything a sound. The perfect sound. There might be people who find the sounds annoying, well they can just turn down the volume can't they.

I didn't pick up the Mario rehash with my DS, nor Feel the Love. Man, them games is old hat. I'm live in the now, baby, not in last fucking month. I live in Japan, not in North fucking America. Why buy games that can be bought in Canada, when I can buy games that are only available over here? So I bought the Wario DS game.

I can say now, without a shadow of a doubt, that this game is the best game on the DS right now. For me, personally, it was worth buying a DS for. But that's me. I'd also say that the N64 was worth it just for Mario 64. I'm going to assume that we've all of us here played Made in Wario. This game is just like that one, but played entirely with a stylus. It is divine. This is a game you could give to just about anyone and they would figure out what to do. It is the most "pick up and play"able game ever. Except maybe for pong. Hell, I couldn't read most of what was going on and I still beat it. Yep. I beat it. I beat it on the second day of ownership. But that's okay. Shit, I beat Mega Man 2 on the second day and it is still my favourite Mega Man game.

Like I say, it's about the little touches. These Wario games are comprised almost entirely of little 5 second chunks of gameplay. 5 seconds ain't all that long, but Nintendo still manages to cram so much personality in there. The way a toupee shifts slightly, the victory poses, "A Chance Encounter", snippets of old Nintendo game music. It surprised me that I still knew the music from Hogan's Alley and that Skeet Shooting game. It may have been called Skeet Shoot. It's like this game rewards me for a lifelong love of videogames.

I also bought Zoo Keeper. It's your basic move around the different blocks to line up three of a kind type of puzzle game. Nothing mind blowing. But it's well done, and the stylus really helps. You can still use the control pad, but all that does is show you how much faster and easier the game plays with a stylus. And the female announcer has , like, the cutest voice I have ever heard.

I haven't seen my credit card statement yet, but I saved a fair bit of money buying the DS here in Japan as well. The only drawback to that is that the Japanese DS doesn't come with the Metroid: Hunters demo. That kind of bummed me out a little. But then I played some Zoo Keeper and that girl's voice cheered me right up.