DS Book Collection on Boxing Day
Dickens, Shakespeare, Austen, Trollope.
Nintendo is finally realising its long-held literary aspirations with the announcement of 100 Classic Book Collection for DS.
The software, released on Boxing Day for GBP 19.99 in collaboration with publisher Harper Collins, features 100 classic (i.e. out of copyright) plays and novels compiled on a single cart.
According to Nintendo Europe's site, you read holding the DS like a book, and flicking through the pages with the stylus. There are search and bookmark functions - and additional works available to download via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
Amazon has the full list of books included. You get 21 Shakespeare plays, 13 Dickens novels, and all the canonical corset-busting classics you'd expect from Jane Austen, Charlott Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Herman Melville and the like.
The collection has a lighter side too, though, with a couple of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, some high adventure from Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, wit from Wilde, Swift and Twain, an Edgar Allen Poe collection, and even a bit of racy old D. H. Lawrence for bored housewives everywhere.
"This product does not require age classification, but some texts include expressions, themes or elements that may be considered inappropriate for young children," says Nintendo. No kidding.