Delightfully Strange

By John Walker Published 29 August, 2006

A Love Letter to the DS.

The conversation went like this:

  • John: You know how we're always going on about how extremely lovely the DS is? How it does weird and wonderful better than anything else?
  • Tom: Yeah, we should probably stop repeating that.
  • John: Ah. Oh. [Quickly changes his pitch] Well I was thinking we should have a feature on EG to sort of, er, put an end to it - a definitive guide to what makes the statement so true.
  • Tom: Oh, go on then.

So here it is. This is the article intended to stop us banging on about how much we love the DS itself, rather than the game we're supposed to be reviewing. It's the piece to celebrate one of the best things to happen to obscure videogaming in years. It's not Nintendo-sponsored puff. It might sound sycophantic, but that's the cynical earwax that prevents your hearing happiness. It's a guide to the little handheld that could, defying the naysayers' predictions of defeat at the hands of the PSP, standing up to the bullying cries of, "Hey, specky two-screens!" We're getting touchy-feely about the touchy-feely. This is a love letter to the peculiar.

A date with DS-tiny

The DS wasted no time in being odd. In amongst the launch releases were Ping Pals, Feel The Magic XX/XY (Project Rub), Wario Ware: Touched!, Sprung: The Dating Game, and of course, Zoo Keeper. Sure, it had Asphalt Urban GT, Spider-Man 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour to feed those looking for the generic, but astonishingly, the oddities outnumbered the mainstream. For goodness sakes, two of them are loosely based around dating.

'Delightfully Strange' Screenshot sprung

He's not entirely wrong.

Sprung is a fairly terrible game. But examine what kind of terrible game. It's a conversation-based dating sim, designed to teach you how to pull members of the opposite sex. Well of course! A relatively popular genre in Japan (let's be honest, there's a fair chance you can interchange the term "weird" for "popular in Japan" for a good portion of this piece), Sprung is a Western attempt at the idea.

Clearly intended to be for boys, the writers' hopeless attempts at creating a female player character are immediately farcical. In the opening conversation, Becky is immediately asking Brett if she can punch him in the face. Punch him in the face. Huh? The confused sexism works in all directions, with Brett assumed to be hopeless, desperately needing Becky's sympathetic guidance, while when playing as Becky she's self-assured and more prone to mock or abuse Brett.

On the other end of the dating game quality spectrum was Feel The Magic XX/XY. Renamed Project Rub in the UK, but originally - and most wonderfully - called I Would Die For You in its native Japan, however you might know it, it was evident of Sega's contraction of the fever spread by DS development. Presenting itself as a game about winning a girl's heart, Rub is purest madness, boiled in a conical flask, then distilled and titrated into silhouette-based cartoon minigames.

Along with its sequel, The Rub Rabbits! (or the infinitely superior Japanese name, Where Do Babies Come From?), it carries the warning, "Do not attempt to recreate any of the scenes in this game". (Something that should more properly have accompanied Sprung). So any who play them, and it should be everyone, will be we advised not to attempt to help a man vomit accidentally swallowed goldfish, enter the correct numbered sequence into a calculator in order to open a parachute, or breathe fire at oncoming robots. Which brings us to another important part of the DS. Breathing.

A breath of fresh air

When Nintendo added a microphone to the machine, it surely can't have intended everyone to use it for blowing on. But aside from booming "HOLD IT!" at Phoenix Wright's bumbling judge (don't worry, we're getting to him), it's rarely used for anything else. From Wario Ware: Touched!'s lunatic minigames to Lost In Blue's fire-starting, the microphone has become little more than an anemometer. And this is testimony to the subject at hand: everything about the DS' design encourages the unusual.

'Delightfully Strange' Screenshot code

Another Code looks gorgeous, but beyond its Brechtian estrangement does somewhat lack depth.

Another Code (or Trace Memory abroad) makes for an interesting example. Essentially a point and click adventure, it was the first suggestion that the DS might provide a home for a genre in exodus. The stylus, should a designer wish, can be a substitute for a mouse, but in a refreshing manner. A mouse and its cursor are a three foot wire apart, but the stylus and its mark are touching. It creates intimacy. It creates a connection between the player and the device, and nothing understands that better than Another Code. Despite being a really very average adventure game, developers CING demonstrated an early depth of the peculiar potential.

Your DS exists within the game, and as something distinct from it. It creates a midpoint between novelty and Verfremdungseffekt. While there are only two good puzzles, they're two really good puzzles, asking you to recognise the DS as a distinct object, separate from the game it's displaying, as well as a tool within the game it's displaying. One requires that you reflect the top screen onto the bottom, emulating a folding glass picture frame found in the game, to reveal a completed image. The other puts an inked woodprint on the top screen, and a piece of paper on the bottom. You have to get the print onto the paper, and no amount of tapping will achieve it. And then, looking around you to make sure no one is watching, and expecting humiliation, you close the DS shut. Opening it reveals the piece of paper decorated with the picture. And breathe out in relief. You were right - the solution is that strange. Nevermind huffing and puffing onto the mic to clear a mirror of dust.

A good point

Beyond having two screens, the next most distinguishing feature of the DS is obviously its stylus. While there's little more irritating than the person who spends their life on trains tapping away on the touch screen of their mobile phone-cum-sat-nav Raspberry, bellowing at some poor unseen secretary that they'll have to make the 5 a 6 because of squash with Martin, seeing someone use it to play a game changes everything. Nintendo's belief that this manner of input might be the primary control mechanism for a gaming device was... Brave? Insane? Probably both. But impossibly right. It just flipping works.

Whether its making an FPS viable on a handheld with the wonderful Metroid Prime: Hunters, or tapping at targets in the decidedly mediocre Point Blank, the stylus has proven itself. But of course it's also bred its own brood of lunacy. A set of buttons can be assigned to pre-ordained commands, but a pen in your hand inspires creativity. Add in a screen receptive to your imagination, and there's suddenly room for something new.

While the disgustingly perfunctory Yoshi's: Touch & Go did it first, two games stand out as embracing the pen-like qualities of the stylus. Yoshi can sod off for being two levels long. First is the much underrated Pac-Pix. Definitely too short (but still infinitely longer than that bastard turtle's premature offering), Pac-Pix offers something that no other game has ever come close to, and no other medium could allow. You draw the Pac-Man, and he comes to life. Engaging with the magical nature, the game's loose story is about an invasion of children's books by evil ghosts, who must be removed by adding Pac-Man to the page. An outline of Pac-Man is drawn, and no matter how poorly you scrawl him, that exact wiggly monstrosity springs into animated action, chomping ghosts in his path. The sight of some abortive Pac-Man mutant, inexorably dragging his Elephant-Man-alike design across the page, is bizarrely disturbing. But he's your abortive mutant Elephant Pac-Man.

'Delightfully Strange' Screenshot pacpix

Poor mutant Pac-Man. Merciful obliteration awaits him at the side of the screen.

The other is of course Kirby: Canvas Curse. We say "of course", because we've played it. But who could have expected boring old Kirby to come good. Kirby, like Pac-Pix, doesn't cast you as the character, but as the person sat in front of the character holding a stylus. He's little more than a helpless pink ball, and you are his protector. The stylus once more draws ink on the screen, this time from a limited, but replenishing reserve. Kirby rolls along them in the direction you draw, and is further propelled by giving him a prod. Draw a ramp and then poke his tummy and he'll go flying off the end. Draw a vertical line and he'll bounce to a stop. And it's beautiful. It's like nothing else. Certainly a PC's mouse has been used in somewhat similar ways, but it creates nothing of the immediacy and intimacy of just drawing the line right there on the screen, and having the game respond perfectly.

A deliberate subterfuge

The infectious nature of the DS' oddness isn't exclusive to the more esoteric games. While some make less inspired use of the stylus, or have throwaway attitudes to the second screen, there's still a drive to be in on the joke, in with the gang. Have a look at this list of DS games:

  • Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers
  • Tao's Adventure: Curse Of The Demon Seal
  • Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow
  • Advance Wars: Dual Strike
  • Dig Dug: Digging Strike
  • Mr Driller: Drill Spirits
  • World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series
  • Lunar: Dragon Song
  • Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

The subtitles. See?

And then there's the even more subtle recurring appearance of characters' hands reaching toward you on the box covers.

While these two are the most distinct, check out Luigi's left hand on the front of Super Mario DS (or Mario 65 as I prefer to call it) and Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (a game deserving of a weird games feature of its own, despite almost ignoring every aspect of the DS). And then there's the covers for Rayman DS and Another Code.

A touch of madness

As we finish this celebration of why we're so ludicrously in love with our flip-top flipped-out handheld, there are still so many games we should rant on about.

What about Trauma Center: Under The Knife? You're a trainee doctor, except you've seemingly received no training at all. It's in at the deep end in DS Land! Wield a scalpel, slice open your patients, and begin the frantic business of injecting, lancing, extracting, cauterising, and sewing away at their vital bits with your stylus. Get yelled at by nurses and read through pages of superb hyperbole/story, and then find the whole business far too hard and stressful, and decide to become a lawyer.

'Delightfully Strange' Screenshot wright

An actual photograph from a real court, yesterday.

And is there a game more full of joy than Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney? As everyone knows it's really an uber-port of the GBA's Gyakuten Saiban, but this time in English. But this is no GBA game stuck on the DS. This is everything that makes the DS so wondrous. Embracing the point and click adventure abilities, and combining them with a how a legal system would work if Daffy Duck wrote it, it's one of the funniest and most endearing games to appear on any system. And you can yell "OBJECTION!" right into the mic. Sure, it's ridiculously linear - objectionably ("OBJECTION!") so at times - and yes, little is more frustrating than the game's not having thought of the incredibly obvious connection between the witness statement and contradictory evidence you present, but the happiness transcends it all. With its beat-em-up sound effects insanely transposed onto courtroom antics, and the bouncy-cheeriness of sidekick Maya (oh, and of course her ability to channel the spirit of her dead sister Mia), it offers no sense of reality, and yet an internal illogic that fits perfectly. And play through to the end and you'll reveal a fifth, brand new, super-long chapter that embraces the rest of the DS, from the mic to using the stylus to rotate objects in a 3D inventory.

We've failed to mention the brilliantly silly and delightful Nintendogs, or the realisation that Advance Wars was always meant to be on a DS with touch-screen control but we just didn't know it, or how Animal Crossing is made so much more lovely, or pushing Pac-Man around in Pac'n'Roll. And this is to entirely ignore the current epidemic of brain training games. The DS, in its infinite weirdness, seems intent on making you more clever - in interesting, involving and most of all, unique ways.

A stylish ending

Will this be enough? Will we get over our infatuation with the DS's abnormal nature, or even grow used to them? Will we be in control of our hyperbole as we crack computers in Project: Hacker, or cook up a storm in Cooking Mama? What about when Contact arrives later this year, and we help an alien professor retrieve his spaceship while playing as a young man unaware that the professor is aware of our playing...? No, no it won't. Obviously not. But that's ok. Because this is why we care: the DS is invigorating games development. It's shaking things up, throwing in a twist of lemon, and then pouring it on the carpet. It's the antithesis of the stagnation found in so many other areas of gaming. It's about tactile intimacy. It's about imaginative innovation. We are gamers, and we really love games. It's clear the DS inspires others of the same mind, and for that we're madly grateful. Thanks, little guy.

Picture of John.

About John Walker

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Walker archive page.

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Comments (87) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Jesus: Action Figure #1 6 years ago

    Bless its ickle cotton socks.

  • mattigan #2 6 years ago

    I love the DS too!! \0/

  • jewpetto #3 6 years ago

    Yeah. But the PSP's better.

  • octo #4 6 years ago

    I bought a DS lite on saturday and a copy of new Super Mario Bros. It's the best thing I've done in ages. Great little machine, sexy as hell and I will be the king of the Mario trampoline game!

  • toy_brain #5 6 years ago

    Aannnddd 300-post flame war......
    GO!

  • Talha #6 6 years ago

    It is refreshing to see EG for once declaring their true love so openly. Hey guys, it is OK to praise something if you like it!

    The worst part is that this is just another in a long line of articles/reviews nudging me towards buying the DS. Damn you all to hell!

  • speedjack #7 6 years ago

    My Plan...

    Trade in Ridge Racer, Mercury, SSX on Tour, and GRAW.

    Buy DS Lite, New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart and Zoo Keeper.

    Realise I'm broke but happy.



  • Fairlane #8 6 years ago

    Why this love for a hand-held ? I just don't get it (but that happens to me a lot....)

  • Fido128 #9 6 years ago

    As much as I adore my ickle DS chaps, there's no denying it - its best games could all have been executed on a 'normal' handheld with no stylus and just one screen.

  • AdamWest #10 6 years ago

    Metroid Fusion..

    huahua

  • RE*AC*TOR #11 6 years ago

    No mention of the system's best game - Osu Tatakae Ouendan - or its upcoming sequel/translation/spin-off Elite Beat Agents.

    Typical.

  • BravoGolf #12 6 years ago

    Good article :)

  • Dr.Mott #13 6 years ago

    Seriously... have any of you guys ever had a girlfriend? Or even talked to a girl? And your mum doesn't count.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 13:12

  • w00t #14 6 years ago

    Yay DS!

    Nothing like multiplayer Mario mini-games to make a 6 hour drive to Cornwall go remarkably faster.

  • botherer #15 6 years ago

    Sorry REACTOR. I was sticking to English language games, or there'd have been all manner of other madnesses to celebrate, especially Ouendan.

    But celebrate it for yourself. Post a comment about why it's so wonderful. This piece cheers for a few of many, so there's no reason the happiness shouldn't spread into the comments.

    AdamWest - good spot! I'm such an idiot. I'll get it fixed as soon as.

  • Shanucore #16 6 years ago

    *coffcoff*: "The site of some abortive Pac-Man mutant, inexorably dragging his Elephant-Man-alike design across the page, is bizarrely disturbing."

    Lovely article for a lovely console.

  • snick #17 6 years ago

    Right that does it, I'm fed up with my PSP, I'm still afraid to touch it incase it gets scratched, annoyed that it takes so long to load anything, disgusted by the lack of good handheld games and generally feeling stupid for being a graphics whore.

    Its time to sell and get a DS Lite, any idea how much would I get for my PSP with 1gb chip, 8 games (Wipeout, GTA, Lumines, Pro Evo, Exit, Everybody's Golf, Riiiiidge Racer, Virtua Tennis)

  • UncleLou #18 6 years ago

    /not into handheld gaming, although if i was, the PSP would be the weapon of choice.

    Neither was I, until I got a DS. Never had a GB or GBA, never missed one. Never even had any Nintendo console before.

    And the DS Lite is sexy as hell. Just a joy to hold it. Well, so is the PSP, but at least the DS caught up in that area. :)

  • mazzl #19 6 years ago

    so .... on you're day off, the day you could spend with you're loved ones.. you go off all moeshie and soft and write a love letter to a handheld device ...
    you are INSANE!

  • Bennicus #20 6 years ago

    OOOUUUUUUUEENNNDDAAAAAAAAN!!!!

  • Kazzahdrane #21 6 years ago

    Fido128: Trauma Center would not have worked on a GBA or PSP. I consider one of the system's best games.

    snick: At the moment I believe Gamestation give £90 trade on a PSP value pack. If your PSP is actually the Gig Pack then you'll get more, probably £100 or so. With those games as well I'd estimate around £130/140 for the lot - enough for the DS Lite and a couple of games. (I consider this a good deal, as lovely as Lumines is).

  • CordableTuna #22 6 years ago

    Snick, play Loco Roco first. After that it's safe to ditch the PSP.

  • lambtron #23 6 years ago

    Have to admit my PSP is most regretted purchase I have ever made :(

  • chupachups #24 6 years ago

    "Why this love for a hand-held ?"

    What's wrong with handhelds? I think a lot of people find them more approachable than a huge video recorder sized object that has to be hooked up to a TV.


    "Yeah. But the PSP's better."

    Gizmondo pwns everything.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 13:39

  • snick #25 6 years ago

    I did, my company did an advert for it so I had an advance copy. It was good, but I've just gotta have mario kart, and diddy kong racing, and brain training and advance wars and i think i'll stop now.

  • CitizenGeek #26 6 years ago

    Well done Eurogamer. Everyone loves the DS and rightly so.

  • Moonprince #27 6 years ago

    Love my DS too. Not a clue what to do with my untouched PSP though... Any ideas?

  • Fido128 #28 6 years ago

    Kazzahdrane: Trauma Center would not have worked on a GBA or PSP. I consider one of the system's best games.

    Ah, I haven't played that to tell the truth, but fair enough. But Mario Kart, NSMB, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Phoenix, Tetris, M & L: Partners in Time, Ouendan - I dunno, seems all of those could be done on a normal handheld and still be immensely enjoyable.

    Must pick up Trauma Center, though.

  • Doobie #29 6 years ago

    Great article!

    I must admit, other than Tetris I've never been one for handhelds and was very wary of buying a DS when they first came out. But I did get one and I've never looked back.

    I've "upgraded" to a Lite now and absolutely love it. Some of the best games I've ever played have been on the DS. Advance Wars DS, M&L: Partners in Time, Phoenix Wright, NSMB, Metroid Prime Hunters, Lost in Blue - all fantastic games and top quality entertainment.

    I play my DS Lite even more than I play my 360 and PS2 these days! 18 months or so ago I would never have guessed a handheld would be the best thing in gaming.............until the Wii comes along.

  • Carrybagma #30 6 years ago

    OH Nintendo DS: Me wub u long time. [kissy-kissy]

    @Snick: Get this before you ditch your PSP. There's nothing like it on the DS.

  • jellyhead #31 6 years ago

    I have room in my heart for both the DS and the PSP yet it's my DS that i spend most time with. The PSP just seems to require more effort.
    / hugs DS

  • krudster #32 6 years ago

    I hate lazy comments, personally ;)

  • tapper #33 6 years ago

    Fido128, how would you do Ouendan on a normal handheld? It seems like a weird game to choose when listing games that would work just as good on a normal handhelds since it uses the stylus as the only input method.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 14:29

  • Tonka #34 6 years ago

    its best games could all have been executed on a 'normal' handheld with no stylus and just one screen.

    Slams head against keyboard repeatedly

    tyc gyudkehy7ufd asfdu kfd bg5ty6y vbty6 r54e 76 767 cfttdmksxds nmjhus nmjhs nmjhs nmjh nmjh bnjh


    Hehehe look at that. A far better post than yours.

  • DaveTheHutt #35 6 years ago

    "Lazy journalism" - what, filling what would otherwise be empty space by writing a nice little feature?

    What'd you prefer - made-up rumours or some dull 'preview' re-using pics from E3?

  • rudedudejude #36 6 years ago

    Try out homebrew before you sell your PSP.

  • joey #37 6 years ago

    PSP's great for not hogging the TV, DS is great for actually taking out, have much love for them both.

    It's a great situation, Sony gave Nintendo a much needed boot up the A, and we also have some 'big' games in your pocket. The DS now in Lite form is just great, and has many wonderful/interesting and bonkers titles. Nintendo need to keep up the supply of great games and Sony just needs to cut the movie crap and focus on the games.

  • Carlo #38 6 years ago

    "It creates a midpoint between novelty and Verfremdungseffekt"

    Verfrewhatthefuckdidyousay? Is that a real word?

    (Great article BTW! Only a journalist would know this kind of word)
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 14:50

  • botherer #39 6 years ago

    Thanks supermonkey!

    I've wanted to write a piece like this for ages, and I approached Kristan with the idea, and he gave me the go-ahead to write it. Your imagined version of its genesis is quite wrong.

    I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. I'm really pleased to see that other people have - the positive comments above have made me super-happy.

    @Carlos - Wiki it. It's excellent.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 15:05

  • pinhead #40 6 years ago

    Just bought one to aid my airport waiting for the upcoming holiday. After slotting in the new mario game I am just taken aback by it. Far superior to what was the Advance with it's shite screen issues.

    Mariokart next & tetris and it would have paid back the investment in full while I await emergence day on the 360.

  • toy_brain #41 6 years ago

    I love the DS to bits an' all, but it seems to be in a but of a 'lull' lately.
    New Super Mario just didnt do anything for me, and because I work odd hours and shifts, games like Animal crossing are total non-startes (I seriously cannot be arsed to fiddle with the system clock every time I play a game).

    So I've mostly been playing Loco Roco, Tekken:DR and Valkyrie Profile:Lenneth on my PSP.
    Once the next Pheonix Wright, Castlevania and Contact get released, I'll go back to my DS, untill then, I'm glad I chose not to sell either.

  • nickthegun #42 6 years ago

    Lets not start sucking each others dicks *just* yet........

    For all the people bleating on about the PSP being their most regretted purchase, have you actually played any of the following

    Tekken: DR
    GTA: LCS
    Exit
    Loco Roco
    Katamari
    Ultimate G+G
    MGA 1+2 (admittedly not to everyones taste, but they are excellent, honestly)
    Tales of Eternia
    Mega Man Powered Up

    I know the PSP isnt exactly groaning under the weight of AAA titles, but the top 10 PSP games could easily take the Pepsi Challenge with the top 10 DS games and even of those that arent top tier, there are still loads of fairly cheap games kicking around which are still pretty good. To be honest, if you arent getting a lot of use out of your PSP, you really only have yourself to blame and, in a lot of cases, if you dont find yourself playing with your PSP, you probably wont have much time for a DS either.

    And no....im not a Sony 'Fanboy' (I must be the only person on these forums who has never owned a PS2...). I bought the PSP because I travel a lot and its multimedia capabilities eliminated the need to take a laptop with me (the PSP is just MADE for watching anime series and stuff like family guy) and personally, I havent really felt starved of games as there has always been at least one game that has kept me occupied at a time.

    So, yeah, im not disparaging the DS. Its a great little machine, but anyone who dismisses the PSP out of hand is, quite frankly, an idiot and anyone who hasnt used it in months just isnt trying hard enough. I mean, before you do the trade in, play Exit and something like TokoBot. Great little games..........honestly.

  • captainrentboy #43 6 years ago

    Have you noticed that with the little Wi-fi sign in the corner of each of DS case if you remove the F it's the name of their new console,not just that it's even in the same font style.It's like it was there all along right in our faces and we didn't even see it....I brought this up in work a few weeks back and everyone looked at me like I was insane :(
    Ohh and nice article,really surprised there hasn't been more outcry from the PSP lovers out there.Which in my opinion,at this moment in time is only good for one thing,emulation.Well that and supposedly the new Tekken.
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 15:23

  • SomaticSense #44 6 years ago

    "The site of some abortive Pac-Man mutant"

    I'm sorry, but I can cope with appalling spelling on forums and such like. But isn't some kind of English degree compulsory in order to get into any kind of journalism? Even if it is only games journalism, we should expect some basic grasp of how to spell 'sight' correctly. What is the world coming to when even journalists can't even spell properly.....

    Anyway, great article. May even persuade me to buy a DS now.

  • gingerlink #45 6 years ago

    I don;t have a ps2, but if id known waht would've happened to the support for the gamecube, i would've gladly got one instead...having said that i don;t think i could've gone without melee either...

    Kirby Power paintbrush IS an awesome game by the way, so along with trauma cetnre another brilliant game that's impossible on any other system..

  • SomaticSense #46 6 years ago

    Supermonkey - "I love DS.

    I hate lazy journalism. "

    But surely lazy journalism would've been "There's no games to review, lets do sod all for the time being". At least it is an attempt to give us something to read, and shows that they are not just sitting on their arses waiting for something to come out. Writing an article for something to do does not under my estimation qualify as 'lazy'.

  • smelly #47 6 years ago

    BLOODY NINTENDO FANBOYS!!!

  • BremXJones #48 6 years ago

    "Verfremdungseffekt"

    Don't worry: It's John Sneezing.

    I'm off to buy a DS Lite, methinks.

    KG

  • dudefella #49 6 years ago

    Yeah this did it for me. Went on the interweb and magically ordered a White DS Lite, New Super Mario Bros, Phoenix Wright and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Thanks EG!

  • AcidSnake #50 6 years ago

    "Verfremdungseffekt"

    Alienation effect...bluntly translated...

  • Wobble #51 6 years ago

    steals from wiki: The term of Verfremdungseffekt is rooted in the Russian Formalist notion of defamiliarization or ostranenie, which literary critic Viktor Shklovsky claims is the essence of all art. Not long after visiting Russia, Brecht coined the German term to label an approach to theater that discouraged involving the audience in an illusory narrative world and in the emotions of the characters. Brecht thought the audience required an emotional distance to reflect on what is being presented in critical and objective ways, rather than being taken out of themselves as conventional entertainment attempts to do.

    The best English translation of Verfremdungseffekt is a matter of controversy. The word is sometimes rendered as "defamiliarization effect", "estrangement effect", "distancing effect" or "alienation effect" (probably the most common translation). Fredric Jameson, in his book Brecht and Method, translates it as "the V-effect," and many scholars simply leave the word untranslated.

    The alienation effect aims to make the familiar seem strange, to show everything in a fresh and unfamiliar light. This enables the spectator to be brought to look critically at everything even if they have already taken something for granted.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #52 6 years ago

    Also, Robocod is fantastic! I completely agree with John!

  • Tiger_Walts #53 6 years ago

    KG wrote "I'm off to buy a DS Lite, methinks."

    /awaits a DS/PC game innovation analog article in PCG

  • lefizz #54 6 years ago

    The amazing thing about the DS is how many old and at 33 myself i mean really old people use the DS. On my daily commute on the DLR to central london i have never seen anyone apart from a 15-33 yearmale carrying a PSP. However and this is where to me it gets really odd i see maybe 1 or 2 50+ years old a week carrying a DS, and most of those are women. You have to put this in the context of the fact i may only see or maybe notice 10 DS user a week anyway.

    This really shows how Nintendo are widening the reach of games in a way no other company is. I havent been a huge fan of nintendo in recent year but the whoel nature of the DS and sort of unmacho design and games seems to appeal to a huge sway of the popuslous. And also if you want to broaden a consoles appeal titles sch as nintendogs, animal crossing and brain traing reall do work.

    Even weirder was monday when my Missus who never has any interest in games asked if she could take my Ds on a bussiness trip to Barcelona. She watched me play Animal crossing for about 5 minutes and i couldnt get the bloody thing off her.

  • BremXJones #55 6 years ago

    Tiger_Walts: I already had a DS, but I lost it on my last trip to the US.

    KG

  • chupachups #56 6 years ago

    "Sony gave Nintendo a much needed boot up the A"

    That's true actually, with a few exceptions like Warioware and Golden Sun the GBA was mostly receiving lazy ports of SNES games. It was only when Sony announced the PSP that Nintendo started doing highly original exclusive handheld games.

  • oerhoert #57 6 years ago

    <em>It's a great situation, Sony gave Nintendo a much needed boot up the A, and we also have some 'big' games in your pocket.</em>

    So very true. The DS seems partly like a quick response to Sony going through with their plans to cannibalize GBA sales – nintendo needed a new machine, and for some reason (probably cost) didn't want to compete with sony technologically. I imagine they got a good deal on ~GBA size~ screen production somewhere, and just thought that "hey, two small screens is as good as one large one", also recognizing the Game & Watch retro value of the thing. And, most importantly, they got it out the door in time to compete with the PSP, with obvious added value through touch interface and microphone.

    The most pleasurable side to this is that Nintendo is taking software seriously this time around, maybe because production is faster and cheaper on the DS, and this has assured that most prime franchises - Metroid, Mario, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing - already are available, a mere 1.5 years after launch (in europe).

    The PSP on the other hand had a fantastic launch (especially in europe) and a lull afterwards, but it too seems to become more and more of the product we hoped it would be, a true PlayStation Portable, with more and more of the important franchises ported to it.

    As the quote said, it's a fantastic situation for consumers. Two competitors, delivering mostly wildly different products and games, yet still in constant quality competition. Love it.

    Never forget, the two machines are actually <em>both</em> wildly successful. I think the PSP has sold quite a bit better than the PS2 did over the same period, for instance.

    --

    Tony Hawk and Meteos deserved to be mentioned btw. (I'm sorry if I overlooked them.)
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 17:21

  • some1 #58 6 years ago

    To take the writers advice and mention Ouendan properly; Oudendan aren't in Japan anymore, my girlfriend said way back when she was in school (80s) her school had Ouendan. they'd go off to a place people dont go and train for hours at shouting their chants. Theyre man cheerleaders. The way they get introduced to the game Osu! Tatake! Ouendan! seems to show this too. I bet it was a delight for Japanese too, who first play the game to see the first level with a kid completely unable to study, and at the end of his teather exlaim out of 'OUENDAN!' for the music to start and they appear out of his wardrobe. In fact each time its a joy to see, someone in some situation feeling desperate and Ouendan come to help them. Not having mentioned the gameplay itself yet might be strange but I found the energising feeling the game gave watching each person keep trying despite having felt like giving up, to the equally energising soundtrack put a smile on my face. The music as mentioned is great, its actually an old and new hits soundtrack of Japan music, like try singing 'Linda! Linda!' to any Japanese over 25 and theyll know it. Then 'Koi no Dance Site' to any Japanese girl (and fat fanboy) under 25 and theyll know it. Though all the songs have enough energy and feeling that not knowing the words is okay. Finally to point out the gameplay, you just tap the screen to the numbers dots in the beat of the music (a enclosing ring lets you know when you need to hit it). It really is as basic as that, but of course on harder difficulty levels youll be replaying the lovely songs alot to finish them. Like most music games, it feels good to play with music. The menus are no problem, theyre all in Japanese but there is a single/multi player screen, difficult level screen and the game map, thats it. Its also easy to understand the stories without Japanese. The game gives you the feeling the ouendan have been cheering for you, and their persevering 'keep on trying, you can do it!' uncompromising attitude keeps egging you on as much as the characters in the game. Ace stuff! 9/10! Could do with an extra, extra hard difficulty though, Im almost finished but i dont want it to end!

  • chupachups #59 6 years ago

    "nintendo needed a new machine, and for some reason (probably cost) didn't want to compete with sony technologically."

    Nintendo hasn't EVER tried to compete with rival handhelds technologically, the rivals have always been technically much better but sold much worse: the Atari Lynx, the Sega Game Gear, the TurboXpress etc.

    It seems that when it comes down to it, consumers prefer long battery lives and cheap consoles that they're not afraid of breaking.


    "Never forget, the two machines are actually both wildly successful."

    Not in Japan, the DS outsells the PSP many times over. It seems that the West has saved the PSP's bacon.
    Edited by 2 at 29/08/06 @ 17:39

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #60 6 years ago

    "It seems that when it comes down to it, consumers prefer long battery lives and cheap consoles that they're not afraid of breaking. "

    Don't forget 'portables that you can actually take from place to place without a fucking suitcase'.

  • YourMessageHere #61 6 years ago

    Clearly you really, truly do have a lot of affection for the DS, and I respect that, but this article just confuses me even more. Absolutely nothing I've seen, read or (admittedly briefly) played of the DS does anything to convince me that it's anything other than a giant gimmick. Innovation is all very well but this seems like innovation for its own sake and not for the sake of an engrossing gaming experience. Perhaps I'm just boring but I don't see shouting at my console or drawing as things that belong in gaming. I'd rather have an animated conversation or draw a picture. God forbid I ever meet anyone playing Phoenix Wright on a bus; they'll be out of the window the second time they shout "objection".

    Plus, it's so unremittingly cute. Cuteness has its place, but as a basis for an entire gaming platform I just don't see how people don't get heartily sick of it. And am I the only one here who wants to punch Mario and all associated characters into a bloody pulp?

    I have a PSP and while I use it very rarely, I'm still happy to have it; but if some beneficent stranger gave me a DS out of the blue, I can't think of any game that would inspire me to keep it.

    Oh, and please, for the sake of the English language, stop referring to electronics as "sexy". There is no shortage of words approximating to "nice to look at". A hinged plastic brick, or come to that a notched lozenge, does not inspire arousal. Admirably well designed, yes. Libidinously loin-twitching, no. Unless, of course, all these websites I took to be about gaming are in fact covert console fetish sites (which at least finally explains why everyone's so upset about the lack of PS3 rumble).

  • UncleLou #62 6 years ago

    The games library of the DS already is incredibly varied, if you seriously can't find any games you'd like to play, I find that enormously baffling. I am not even a console gamer, let alone a Nintendo fan. Phoenix Wright might be filed under "cute", but it's also the best point and click adventure in years. Advance Wars is a brilliant turn-based game, just as Age of Kings. And glancing at my shelf, I can see enough games which aren't cute at all. Age of Kings, Polarium, Brain Training, Meteos, Metroid.

    And am I the only one here who wants to punch Mario and all associated characters into a bloody pulp?

    No, me too. And yet I love the DS, inlcuding the Mario games, just to confuse you even more. And I'll make sure to shout Objection extra loud if you're ever anywhere near me. ;p

  • earl_roberts #63 6 years ago

    can't quote so i'll just paste:

    "Unless, of course, all these websites I took to be about gaming are in fact covert console fetish sites (which at least finally explains why everyone's so upset about the lack of PS3 rumble)."

    that was DAMN funny!

  • Hughes. #64 6 years ago

    Nice to see a spread of mature appreciation for a market with two different kinds of handhelds in the comments. For me Phoenix Wright is the only title that really interests me on the DS, but when I eventually crack open my piggy bank and get one I'm sure I'll find plenty more to love. In the meantime, I have a large stack of PSP games I wouldn't swap for anything, and plenty more on order awaiting their release day.

  • yagisencho #65 6 years ago

    I've got a dozen game consoles and hundreds of games. Which console do I play each and every day? The DS. It's no wonder that half the Penny Arcade Expo attendees this past weekend could be seen sporting a DS. (To be fair, I did see one or two PSPs as well.)

  • el_pollo_diablo #66 6 years ago

    "It's not Nintendo-sponsored puff."

    Before your review of Sensible Soccer 2006, I'd have believed that you don't do advertorials, but now I'm not quite so sure.

    Still, at least the DS deserves it.

  • scorp #67 6 years ago

    <3
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/06 @ 20:26

  • Dexter #68 6 years ago

    @nekotcha: Hear hear!

    Good article :)

  • botherer #69 6 years ago

    Thanks for calling me a liar, el_pollo_diablo!

    And a slightly more sincere thank you to everyone else for their kind comments.

    Spread the love.

  • yiannis #70 6 years ago

    EG guys that was a great love letter. Very nice to feel free to talk about something you really love. I agree that this kind of passion is really missing from game sites around the web. What some people have forgotten is that we're talking about games, and not the next report of UN about peacekeeping. This should be passionate and fun.

    alas...

    The article passes Trauma Center Under the Knife (chachiiiiing!!! blades crossing ninja style) as a medical sim thingie.

    What you failed to mention about this is the part where you have to uncover and destroy with laser some shark-looking alien things swimming around in your patient's body. :)

    the game feels indeed very ninja style at some points since you have to break in be quick and do the right moves, and jump out before your patient draws his last breath. (leave without being caught) that's how the game works. Well it is very challenging and that's what is great about it. Else it would be another borring medical Sim.

    I don't like to hear that many games would play the same on other consoles.. but you see even that's ok because there are many mainstream games for DS as well as the innovative ones.

    As someone said earlier there's no way a game like Trauma Center would feel the same on any other console. Neither Another Code and Kirby's Canvas Curse and there are many more in this list.

    Because that is all about DS, a feeling of immediacy which invokes a very interesting and fun new experience.

  • Rambaldi #71 6 years ago

    ...

    Now I bought a DS Lite in a completely un-planned manner (went to ToysRUS to buy my son some toys - how ironic;). I've been playing games (fanaticaly) for 20 years and unlike many things it sparked my soul from the word go....and then...

    I got on with life: worked, changed nappies, played guitar (not in that order) and picked up my DS again...and couldn't be arsed.

    The wonder had gone.

    My mind wanted accepted interfaces done in interesting ways. What it got was an interesting interface done in a backward way that hurt my hands after 20 minutes
    :(

    Through part shame and part realism my DS was duly traded in for some 'next-gen' games. I was back on the bandwagon. I was home again. I was playing FPS without cramp. I was driving with decent graphics. I was utilising my HDTV. I felt justified.

    Maybe I'm a sucker. Maybe I'm not interested in re-inventing a wheel that get's me from A to B with my heart in my mouth.

    Maybe I'm just not Japanese.

    MaybWii.......

    ?

  • botherer #72 6 years ago

    yiannis - let me confess something. Don't tell anyone. I didn't get that far in Trauma Center yet! I started it, and I got stuck on a level that seemed impossible, and I got cross. And I've yet to go back to it.

    However, it was unforgiveble of me to not mention that you DRAW PENTANGLES ON THE SCREEN TO SLOW DOWN TIME. I can't believe that's not in there.

    But you've fixed it with your comment, so it's ok again.

    disc - read page 1-50 of the comments, ctrl-F Ouendan, you lazybones.

  • botherer #73 6 years ago

    Oh, and another thing. In case you were wondering what the bit about hands was on about, somehow this got missed out from the article:

    [link url=http://p ool.cream.org/eurogamer/eg_hands.jpg
    ]http://po ol.cream.org/eurogamer/eg_hands...[/link]

    Should clear it up somewhat.

  • toy_brain #74 6 years ago

    "It's a great situation, Sony gave Nintendo a much needed boot up the A, and we also have some 'big' games in your pocket. "

    I'll 3rd that statement.
    The portable market has been a one-horse-race for far too long (well, no-one could really take the NGPC, Gizmondo, Wonderswan or GP32 seriously) and was stagnateing and getting ignored because of it.
    Now that Sony have entered the fray and given Nintendo some opposition it actually has to worry about, suddenly handhealds have become a major talking point again- and there are actualy some 'big' games on them - instead of SNES ports and crappy kids-TV-tie-in platformers that are only ever good by accident.

    On a similar note, its worth pointing out that the DS' unique and quirky charms haven't saved it from the same deluge of crap that the GBA had to put up with. Take a wander into GAME and you'll see offerings such as Stormbreaker, Monster House, Garfield and Dragon Booster, proving that no machine is safe from licensed crap and that once again, the Nintendo console is asociated with kids by the marketing men. *sigh*
    So, much like the GBA before it, you'll have to sort through a lot of rough to get to the diamonds.

    Well I suppose its the same with any console, and I'm not saying this to try and hate on the DS, just suggesting that perhaps its 'honeymoon' period is over and now its time for business as usual.......

  • doomsday #75 6 years ago

    Ouendan really is fantastic, if you like quirky games and/or rythm-action, this is the game for you.

    Trauma Centre is missing. And Electroplankton!

  • UncleLou #76 6 years ago

    yiannis - let me confess something. Don't tell anyone. I didn't get that far in Trauma Center yet! I started it, and I got stuck on a level that seemed impossible, and I got cross. And I've yet to go back to it.

    I've yet to talk to someone who ISN'T stuck in Traume Center. There are two levels people seem to get stuck on - I took the first hurdle after a while, but just can't manage the second one. It's the one where you have to suck up these colorful evil thingies as soon as two of them fuse for a moment, if that makes any sense. I even checked gamefaqs, and it wasn't any help. To add inuslt to injury, the next level is described as the best thing ever on there.

  • UncleLou #77 6 years ago

    Way to go in creating difficulty spikes and then no way to continue in the game without finishing those operations.

    Seriously flawed design, change the structure of the game. Let the doctor be able to 'roam' in the hospital and take care of anything he wants, taking on the difficult cases when he wants to try and progress in the story. Anything is better than such a setup they implemented.


    Agreed. Also, less fantasy operations that destroy the illusion that you are a doctor and only reveal all the more the simple gameplay mechanics, and more real stuff. Removing glass shards > lasering fantasy parasites.

  • MDL199 #78 6 years ago

    YourMessageHere
    29-Aug-06 17:55:57 Clearly you really, truly do have a lot of affection for the DS, and I respect that, but this article just confuses me even more. Absolutely nothing I've seen, read or (admittedly briefly) played of the DS does anything to convince me that it's anything other than a giant gimmick. Innovation is all very well but this seems like innovation for its own sake and not for the sake of an engrossing gaming experience. Perhaps I'm just boring but I don't see shouting at my console or drawing as things that belong in gaming. I'd rather have an animated conversation or draw a picture. God forbid I ever meet anyone playing Phoenix Wright on a bus; they'll be out of the window the second time they shout "objection".

    Plus, it's so unremittingly cute. Cuteness has its place, but as a basis for an entire gaming platform I just don't see how people don't get heartily sick of it. And am I the only one here who wants to punch Mario and all associated characters into a bloody pulp?

    I have a PSP and while I use it very rarely, I'm still happy to have it; but if some beneficent stranger gave me a DS out of the blue, I can't think of any game that would inspire me to keep it.

    Oh, and please, for the sake of the English language, stop referring to electronics as "sexy". There is no shortage of words approximating to "nice to look at". A hinged plastic brick, or come to that a notched lozenge, does not inspire arousal. Admirably well designed, yes. Libidinously loin-twitching, no. Unless, of course, all these websites I took to be about gaming are in fact covert console fetish sites (which at least finally explains why everyone's so upset about the lack of PS3 rumble).

    ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------

    Fantastic post mate and I agree with every word.

    I too find Nintendo games sickeningly sweet and a complete turn off and I absolutely despise bloody Mario.

    Nintendo are the Emperor's new clothes of gaming!

  • CitizenGeek #79 6 years ago

    @ Supermonkey - So you would like nothing to read? There are no games to review so rather than taking the "lazy" option and just doing news updates, Eurogamer writes a feature. This was a very article!

  • yiannis #80 6 years ago

    after a certain point all levels seem impossible in Trauma Center and that is where practicing previous stages comes in handy.Improving your grade there and later retrying the "impossible" one. That is when the ninja doctor comes in.

    Uncle Lou
    In order to pass the A-B type enzymes with suction you have to use the healing touch at the right time. Keep in mind that you don't have to cut it and remove.(lose time) cutting it and going for the next does the job, then remove them all together.

  • jonsaan #81 6 years ago

    "As much as I adore my ickle DS chaps, there's no denying it - its best games could all have been executed on a 'normal' handheld with no stylus and just one screen. "

    WHAAAAAT? Are you high. No they couldn't. Well, they could, but they would be complete arse.

    Depends on what you class as the best games of course?

  • Hackenbush #82 6 years ago

    The "those games could have been done on platform XYZ" comment crops up a lot in DS discussions.
    Yes, many of them could.
    But they weren't - and that is the crucial difference between the DS and platform XYZ.

  • Hughes. #83 6 years ago

    Platform XYZ is the best! Better than all those chav games on PissPee, or the kiddy games on the DullScreen!

    XYZ isn't for casual lamers with their shit "nubbin", it's for the hardcore! And you homos and your "Touchy feely" games played with your teeny-little prod couldn't handle its greatness! It has a punch sensor and a shout mic, the harder you hit and scream at it the better score you get.

    Upcoming games:-

    Wife Beater Deluxe
    Happy Slapping '07
    Blazing Row: Anniversary Edition
    Punch Your Neighbour
    Scream At Your Neighour
    Punch Your Screaming Neighbour
    Flying Knuckles, Raw Tonsils!
    Flower Arranger Seeks Gentle Love of Tokyo Girl Expeditions in the Heart: Chupo Han Buko Buko Train Station Encounter (import only)

    HARDCORE!

    And these games are Platform XYZ exclusives for 173 days and 12 minutes(except on some other slightly older handhelds that aren't that important), so, IN YOUR FACE LOSERS!!

  • chavatar #84 6 years ago

    Darkly Surreal or Deadly Serious?

  • el_pollo_diablo #85 6 years ago

    Sorry botherer, I wasn't having a go at you personally (and I mean that quite genuinely). On reflection I think your piece is well written.

    I think I was (still) a little upset that I spent money on SS2006 - but sorry to take it out on you.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 18:24

  • botherer #86 6 years ago

    No worries. Thanks for saying.

  • floppylobster #87 6 years ago

    The DS will be as fondly remembered in the future as the original Game & Watches are now. They are introducing a new generation to gaming as is should be.

    The very sight of one will bring back waves of nostaglia in ten years time. Every holiday I've taken in the last two years I remember the places I went, the people I met and the DS game I was playing inbetween. Ah....Natsukashi....

  • CitizenGeek #88 6 years ago

    DS haters, I'm not surprised none of you actually own a DS.......