Hardware Misc What is the coolest original DS feature?

[Ryab]

Mine is the wii to ds connection (animal crossing and mii channel)

Download Play. It was such a cool thing that we will never see again.

 

[The Catboy]

Region-free and no updates

 

[Ryab]

Region-free and no updates

Yeah game updates have really been both good and bad for the industry. Though Region free was a thing on every Nintendo handheld except the 3DS.

 

[The Catboy]

Yeah game updates have really been both good and bad for the industry. Though Region free was a thing on every Nintendo handheld except the 3DS.

The DSi was also not region-free.

 

[Ryab]

The DSi was also not region-free.

I don't really count that one much since all but like 5 physical games worked on the DS.

 

[Lostbhoy]

It changed the chime on your birthday.


At least it remembered....

 

[Ryab]

It changed the chime on your birthday.


At least it remembered....

Gamecube had similar when holding Z on boot. Played different sounds dependent on if it was 1 or 4 controllers too!

 

[signer-ink-beast]

Commenting on Download Play: Not only was it great for local multiplayer, but even for playing demos of games other people were playing, and vice versa. A lot of games included a demo you could send to another console via Download Play.

In the days before Internet became ubiquitous, that was awesome. No need to pay to rent a game, and the owner didn't need to part with their full copy of the game. Even better when crossing paths with strangers. I later bought quite a few games I enjoyed the demo of, and ignored the ones I didn't.

Plus I know of at least one Wii game, Geometry Wars Galaxies, that can send a demo of the DS version of the game to DS consoles. I played the Wii game first, then tried out the demo on my DS to see if I could actually play it and enjoy it. The controls made me skeptical at first, but they were easy to pick up, and the game was equally a blast.

 

[lincruste]

Dual Screen, obviously.

 

[Jayro]

It's the first Nintendo handheld with stereo speakers (Not discounting or discrediting the Game and Watch games, if they had it), and they're fairly loud compared to any stock Gameboy model!

 

[Tarmfot]

Commenting on Download Play: Not only was it great for local multiplayer, but even for playing demos of games other people were playing, and vice versa. A lot of games included a demo you could send to another console via Download Play.

In the days before Internet became ubiquitous, that was awesome. No need to pay to rent a game, and the owner didn't need to part with their full copy of the game. Even better when crossing paths with strangers. I later bought quite a few games I enjoyed the demo of, and ignored the ones I didn't.

Plus I know of at least one Wii game, Geometry Wars Galaxies, that can send a demo of the DS version of the game to DS consoles. I played the Wii game first, then tried out the demo on my DS to see if I could actually play it and enjoy it. The controls made me skeptical at first, but they were easy to pick up, and the game was equally a blast.

The interaction between the ds and the wii was not sufficiently exploited.

Ds could be used as a controller for games using wifi.
No need classic controller for VC games.

And its touchscreen and microphone for wii...

 

[Maeson]

The use of dual screens as a "book".
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

And Hotel dusk and the like. Dragon Sword was quite interesting, but even more challenging in typical Ninja Gaiden fashion.

Not "unique" or "original", but having at long last X and Y added to a Nintendo Handheld was rather nice, it certainly helped to expand on the types of games you could design.

Another function that seems to not be mentioned here even if it's one of the simplest and most used ones is being able to pause at any moment by simply closing the system. Being able to just stop playing at any moment, and continue later on exactly at that same spot without turning on the console AND wasting far less battery during that period of time compared to just have the system running while turned on was pretty great, no longer needing to either rush to a save point which might not be near or maybe it wasn't possible to save at that moment at all, write down passwords (which a significant number of GB and several GBA games still had), or just accept it and lose your progress.

And the demos you could download from Wii on your NDS was pretty fun too.

 

[4d1xlaan]

Dual Screens While the resolution is smaller of the GBA, this alone is gimmicky and revolutionary.

ds is higher resolution screens than the gba