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MIDNIGHT LAUNCH FOR THE NINTENDO DS
Written by Eduardo Zacarias
November 20, 2004
Universal City, California - Nintendo held a premiere release party on Saturday evening in Universal Studio’s Citywalk in Hollywood to celebrate the midnight release of their new handheld system, the Nintendo DS. The festivities took place right outside Citywalk’s newly opened EB Games store where a little more than two hundred customers (both VIP customers that pre-purchased the system and those waiting to buy it on-site) stood in line in the cold rain for hours.
Scattered throughout the main quad outside the festivities went underway with music by DJ Rap as she spun some tunes for the crowd to dance to while the ladies of the University of Southern California’s Trojan Dance Squad danced along. There were giveaways such as t-shirts and even a few Nintendo DS systems. Not far, the Nintendo Street Team drove SUVs decked out with Nintendo GameCube games for all to play. As the hours passed and the line grew, it began to rain heavily but nobody budged from his or her place.
Brian Burke, 33, was in line for six hours waiting to get his VIP wristband. “The DS looks awesome and many of the games coming out look super sweet,” he said.
“Metroid Prime Hunters is the game that convinced me to buy the Nintendo DS,” Alex Gosslar, 21, said. “I’m also buying it for the Super Mario game.”
The main emphasis was on the system’s dual LCD screens, most particularly the lower screen which uses touch screen technology (the Nintendo DS slogan is “Touching is good.”) that allows gamers to interact with game content. The second feature most notably highlighted was the wireless communication capabilities. The EB Games store prominently featured many of the system’s initial launch titles. While there were twelve visibly displayed, Nintendo assures gamers that anywhere from twenty to twenty-five titles will be available by the end of March. The good news: the games being released also include third-party titles.
TITLES AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH
* Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt (Demo only)
TITLES RELEASING by CHRISTMAS
* Sprung
A LOOK AT THE NINTENDO DS
* Dual screens, one with touch screen technology for a more interactive experience with games such as Spider-Man 2.
* Wireless connectivity that allows you to play real-time multiplayer games with other Nintendo DS users.
* Comes embedded with PictoChat, a communication feature that allows you to write, draw and send wireless messages.
* The system is backwards compatible so you can play your Game Boy Advance SP games (but not Game Boy and Game Boy Color games) in single player mode.
* Built-in voice recognition technology.
* Rechargeable battery allows up to six to ten hours of play on a single charge.
* Nintendo will be individually selling the Nintendo DS Stylus.
* Has an MSRP retail price of $149.99.
* Is bundled with a demo of Metroid Prime Hunters.
At the stroke of midnight, fireworks erupted into the sky and hardcore gamers walked away with their systems. Judging by the turn out, we can come to expect a holiday filled with shoppers just waiting to get their hands on the handheld gaming system and the various Nintendo DS titles already available this Sunday.
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