It’s a great day to be a geek in Japan!
The day has finallly arrived – the Nintendo DS launches in Japan today!
The US launch was two weeks ago, and I’ve been stuck reading about the system and games and all the related coolness online, unable to get one of my own.
Until today!
I was actually worried about being able to get one. I hadn’t figured out how or where to place a reservation and I’d read news articles stating that the number of pre-orders (2 million) was double the amount of units that were going to be available at launch. I did almost pre-order one at the Toys ‘R’ Us in Ikebukuro, but they only guaranteed you’d get one within a month of launch. I passed, figuring I’d just take my chances. My original plan was to head to Ikebukuro after work tonight, hit up a couple Bic Camera locations, and maybe TRU – hoping I’d get lucky. Thankfully, I didn’t even have to do that much. On the way back from the once-a-week class I teach at another school, I noticed a store with a lot of airsoft guns on display outside. I asked the Japanese teacher who was driving if that way a toy store. She wasn’t sure, but said it probably was. Once we got back to my school (and I was on break), I grabbed my bike and headed up there. Yup, it was indeed a toy store.
And they had about 15 DS units just waiting to be bought.
It’s only a local shop, so I paid full retail and didn’t get any points on my Bic or Sofmap cards, but I did save at least 90 minutes’ travelling and shopping time. Well worth the 1,000 or so yen I would’ve saved by going to Ikebukruo – if I’d even been able to find a system there.
So what did I buy?
I got a DS (obviously), along with Made in Wario DS and Super Mario 64 DS. Wario is pretty cool. There’s some sort of story that links the minigames together, but I don’t quite get it as it’s all in Japanese. SM64 is a port/remake of the Nintendo 64 version, with a few little twists and a boatload of minigames.
Here’s the unit itself:
The screens are gorgeous, even moreso than the GBA SP. The backlighting is very nice, and provides more even illumination than the sidelighting on the SP did. Clearly, they spent some time on this one and learned from the mistakes they made with the original GBA. GBA games look good on the DS, but I’d suggest playing them on the top screen, since it’s clearer (no touch screen to get in the way of the image). The speakers sound great too – much better than I’d expected, in fact. SM64 starts off with a spinning star that rises from the bottom screen to the top. As it moves and spins, the sound effect pans back and forth from left to right. There is very distince stereo separation, even without headphones. The only bummer is that Japan misses out on the Metroid Prime Hunters demo. Oh well. I’ve got my system and I’m very happy with it. Now if you’ll excuse me…
Time to go save the princess! ^.^
(And she’d better not be “in another castle.”)