Major Nintendo DS HCI issue.
[ Posted by Dan on May 13, 2004 | 0 Comments ]

IGN got a chance to play with the new Nintendo DS, and had this to say...

Movement is done by the D-pad: side-step left and right, run forward and backward. To lock onto a target, players hit the L trigger. Aiming, rotation and shooting is pulled off with the stylus; dragging the stylus around will have Samus turn and look up and down, offering a sort-of "mouselook" FPS control to this shooter on the DS. Shooting is performed by repeatedly tapping the screen…obviously the faster players can tap, the more shots they can get off.

Using that picture of the orange theme DS as a guide, imagine this...

The D-pad, which is on the left side of the unit, is used "side-step left and right, run forward and backward" and locking on to enemies requires the left trigger (right next to the left index finger of the person in the picture). So, my left hand is holding the left trigger down, and my left thumb is moving the D-pad. And now I'm supposed to use a stylus in my right hand to fire...

I'm left handed. And the fulcrum provided my left hand means the unit is going to get torqued down as I pound it with the stylus in my right hand while trying to kill the enemy. This sounds beyond awkward, and I hope this is one of those tech demo things where they are showing something working as opposed to showing how it should actually work/be-fun.

 

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).