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What was the reaction to the Nintendo DS on Neogaf?

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Livingskeletons

Livingskeletons

If I pulled that off, would you die?
I wasn't on Neogaf at the time so what was the general consensus on the Nintendo DS announcement.

The leap from Gameboy, two screens, touch screen.

Seems like a big departure so I am curious how GAF reacted.
 
"lol this is gonna be the next virtual boy" with a pic of the Virtual Boy, left eye with Super Mario Bros. and another with the Nintendo sales flopping.

(that pic was real, but i can't find it now)
 
I wasn't on gaf either, but I remember reactions elsewhere on the internet that it looked really dumb and would be unwieldy and hard to pay attention to both screens.

Jokes like this cropped up
nintendo-ds-mockup-490w.jpg


Rich! said:
iirc, the consensus was that the PSP would kick its ass.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, that too. PSP was going to finally topple nintendo the same way that the Playstation did.
 
I also remember that people was pretty much hyped with Reggie than the DS itself, with his classic "My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games" introduction.
 
CalamityPixel said:
Hah, I remember lurking back then.

You all thought that the PSP was the saving grace of handhelds and that it would destroy Nintendo.
Click to expand...

Many felt the same about Vita as well when the price was announced. Well, at least until we found out about the outrageously priced proprietary memory card.
 
Village said:
Oh dear
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Well, to be fair, the PSP was doing very well at first. I think there was a point, if memory serves me, where the PSP had an advantage. So, it's not like that is totally off the wall. But once the DS got going, of course, there was nothing for PSP to see but ass and grass
 
Rich! said:
iirc, the consensus was that the PSP would kick its ass.
Click to expand...

Anyone still have that old image with the DS asking if anyone wants to Pictochat surrounded by a bunch of PSPs?

And there are plenty of old threads covering the PSP vs DS debate from over 10 years ago.
 
georly said:
I wasn't on gaf either, but I remember reactions elsewhere on the internet that it looked really dumb and would be unwieldy and hard to pay attention to both screens.

Jokes like this cropped up
nintendo-ds-mockup-490w.jpg




Oh yeah, that too. PSP was going to finally topple nintendo the same way that the Playstation did.
Click to expand...

Dude... I'd play the SHIT out of that. That looks cool as fuck.

I know it's supposed to be ridiculous... but I want that.
 
Rich! said:
iirc, the consensus was that the PSP would kick its ass.
Click to expand...

This was prevalent thought not just on GAF.
The PS2 was soaring at this time. Nintendo was doomed. On one hand you had the PSP, on the other hand, Game Boy Advance on 2 screens.

Games won out because early PSP games were rough, expensive, took forever to load, and were arguably less fun than DS games.

It was an amazing time for portable gaming.
Game Boy Micro died too soon in my mind though.

I remember lurking GAF then but I don't remember GAF response specifically.
 
Raxus said:
It is hilarious going back with hindsight and reading old posts about the PSP crushing the DS.
Click to expand...

the funny thing is seeing how the same was said about the 3DS-Vita.. I still think that jumping to conclusions early is extremely wrong...
 
The first reaction was "huh?" since it was announced out of the blue early in the year.

Then the third pillar jokes, the endless Virtual Boy jokes and the awesome mockups as people speculated what it was. The only thing we knew about were the two screens.

Then the PSP was shown and everyone was "holy snap this is going to kill the GBA / DS!".

Then came the Nintendo presentation and people were all OH SHIT TOUCH SCREEN AND MICROPHONE HNNGG GBA SUPPORT!!! OH MY GOD MARIO 64 HOLYGEOJWREJGWRG METROID PRIIIIME FEJWRIGPJFW WIFI!!! OUT THIS YEAR WTFWTF!

People still had a bit of a thing for the PSP, though the DS looked mighy fine after the E3 showing. It had a somewhat slow launch though, which amused the PSP following to no end, but exploded shortly after.
 
Well NeoGAF isn't a single entity and technically I wasn't a member back then. There were people laughing saying it didn't stand a chance against the PSP, there were people cautiously optimistic over this 'third pillar'. There were those that hated it. And there were those, including myself, that felt like children again all excited over playing Mario64 on a handheld, or the new Metroid Prime. It looked like a huge leap over GBA.
Just look at any console announcement thread; there are people analysing specs comparing it with rivals, bickering over games, you know, usual gamer behaviour...
 
It was destined to get rekt by the PSP, much as the 3DS was destined to get rekt by Vita
 
I can see how some would think the PSP would kill the DS, but I can't believe anyone thought the Vita was going to kill the 3DS once Nintendo announced the price cut. I think anyone with any sense knew that was the end of that.
 
I admit I was one of those who thought the PSP was gonna obliterate the competition. Gamespot boards were a battleground back then, I had no idea what GAF was at the time. Till this day I have never owned or even played a DS. Skipped Wii as well.

I didn't make the same mistake when vita launched and bought both handhelds. MH jumping ship guaranteed that. Owner of 2 vitas and 2 3DS now.
 
73V3N said:
and then the same people thought the vita would kick 3ds ass
Click to expand...

PSP at least made sense. Sony was dominating with the PS2 and was prepared to release a system that was two generations ahead of the GBA. It was the first portable device with decent media playing options and people were flabbergasted when it came out at a reasonable price instead of 500 bucks or so. It did very well during the launch period too while the DS took its time getting off the ground. The infamous 3 PSP 1 DS player in pictochat picture is a good example of the sentiment at the time...Then Nintendogs and Advance Wars Happened. Then the DS Lite and NSMB Happened.

Vita though, the writing was on the wall from moment one.
 
Man God said:
The infamous 3 PSP 1 DS player in pictochat picture is a good example of the sentiment at the time...Then Nintendogs and Advance Wars Happened. Then the DS Lite and NSMB Happened.
Click to expand...

It was The Easter That Never Ended­™...
 
Man God said:
Then Nintendogs and Advance Wars Happened. Then the DS Lite and NSMB Happened.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the sudden and unforseen rush towards Brain Training/Brain Age, and the one-two-three knockdown of Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Brain Age 2 half a year before NSMB.

I remember being super stoked for the DS after the initial redesign. The DS Lite was just impossible to comprehend.
 
DownGrader said:
The last entry though...

Sorry, GAF circa 2004, but proper N64 and PS2 remakes came only on the next generation.
Click to expand...

PSP got a lot of PS2 ports. Most are pretty good but with slight flaws like horrendous load times/poor music/slightly messed up visuals.
 
Man God said:
PSP got a lot of PS2 ports. Most are pretty good but with slight flaws like horrendous load times/poor music/slightly messed up visuals.
Click to expand...

That's why (although because of Diddy Kong Racing DS) I added "proper". But, well, some of PS2 remakes on Vita are not better...
 
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