Loose Threads: Does the DS make good enough use of the Wii?

Much as the PSP is the spritely young cousin of the PS3 (despite being a couple of years older), the DS is very clearly a close blood relative of the Wii.

The thing is, while the PS3 and the PSP are out in the garden grilling burgers, throwing water balloons, playing football and generally bonding in every way, the Wii and the DS are awkward relatives. Raised in different cities, the two politely tip-toe around one another, confused by how someone with such a close family resemblance could be so estranged.

It's a shame, as truly the two have much in common and the makings of a beautiful friendship is but a few tentative gestures of endearment away. If only one of them could make the first move.

Tired of this analogy yet? (Yes - ed)

The point is, while the DS does have some contact with the Wii, it seems to us that there is an awful lot of missed potential for connectivity between the two. Last week we put the question to you lot, and this is what you had to say.

First to the table, was hunter_alien:

"the issue is that the DS has no reliable storage device. That's a huge bummer. Virtual Console games could be played on the DS if the hand-held had some built-in memory, or if it had a memory stick reader like the PSP (NES/SNES/Genesis/PC engine etc. games of course, not N64). It could be done in so many ways; the release of official 512MB - 1GB Nintendo cards, a redesign... But at this point I don't think that Nintendo will make any huge changes until the DS 2 arrives."

Well, there is all that rumbling about a redesigned DS going round at the moment, so maybe a DS with some onboard storage is on the way. Next up was danskmacabre:

"Nintendo really seems to have missed the boat with Wii/DS connectivity. They could have had an option to use the DS as a rear view mirror for car racing games such as Mario Kart, or a drawing program from the DS to the screen, all sorts of cool things. "Hell, they could have even had a feature to download demos to your DS from the Wii (Isn't this actually available in Japan?). "Such a shame, it's not TOO late tho, but it should have been done earlier."

Indeed it should, though we should mention that you can already get DS demos from the Wii's Nintendo channel. Actually, we already did:

"I agree with you there dansk, it's not like the Wii or the DS are going anywhere quite yet so the potential is still there, but it is a shame that Nintendo hasn't made more of a move on this yet. "I like the idea of using the DS to draw something I can see on the big screen with the Wii. How about being able to design clothes or objects for your Miis or something. Having said that, that level of customization might invite a few too many sweary T-shirts and crude anatomical pictures (if you catch my drift) for Nintendo's liking. "Just so you know, the DS can download demos from the Wii and the service is available in Europe now too, it's all on the Wii's Nintendo channel. The trouble is, it is updated very infrequently and older stuff is taken down after a short time. "That's where the real missed potential is if you ask me. If Nintendo updated the Nintendo channel with say three demos a week, with games that people actually want to play, it could be a real hit."

We thought you'd all be in agreement about that, but it just goes to show we should never second guess you lot with your endless handheld gaming wisdom. Accelorata Jengold had us rethinking our stance on Nintendo demos almost as soon as we had finished pontificating on the subject:

"Nintendo has never really been a company that does demos. Perhaps it is time Nintendo started to embrace demos and digital delivery in general, but I have always felt that part of the magic of a Nintendo game is that you have never played it before you buy it. "I rarely have the feeling with a Nintendo title that the game has been subject to the design by committee ethos, it always feels like whoever made it had a clear and singular vision for it from the start. I imagine 'Public Beta' is a bit of a dirty word(s) at Nintendo HQ. "It's not like I am against such things but you don't often have an author or an artist handing their book or sculpture over to the public for it to be changed or re-chiseled. I think Nintendo takes a similar attitude, as a company they hold tightly to the notion of craftsmanship, and demos don't really fit in with that. Even so that doesn't explain the absence of third party demos so I suppose my point is sort of moot. "Back on topic, I've said it before and I'll say it again, give me access to the virtual console on the DS, at least for the titles that would make sense on the platform without the need for considerable reworking of the controls."

Interesting stuff and 'hear hear' to the Virtual console making its way to the DS. But is this connectivity malarky all it's cracked up to be? SetsFireToPoshHammer tempered the discussion somewhat by claiming that DS/Wii connectivity is not necessarily all that and a bottle of chips:

"Though I don't deny that some sort of interconnectivity between the two consoles would be pretty cool while playing games, I can't help but feel that few people would ever bother to use it. "I suppose with the lack of wires or extra peripherals needed to make it work, it makes more sense with the Wii and DS than Nintendo's previous attempts at linking its handheld and home consoles, but I just don't know how much it would add to the experience of Wii games. I have got this far without an external rear view mirror in driving games, so I don't think I am in dire need of one all of a sudden. "Content delivered to your DS via the Wii however I am very much behind. It makes so much sense for demos, Virtual Console titles, WiiWare titles etc. to be made available to the DS. It probably won't ever happen the way we all want it to but isn't that almost always the way with Nintendo?"

What a cynic! Even so, perhaps you are all right when you say the Virtual Console won't come to the DS. Storage solution problems notwithstanding, even though there are plenty of avid pocket gamers out there who would use such a function, it might not make enough mass-market sense for Nintendo to go to the effort of making such a bold move quite yet.

So that basically leaves demos. You got that Nintendo? That's what we want, more demos and lots of them. Snap to it, chop chop.

Though we are fast running out of space it is worth mentioning that there has been all sorts of comment activity going on this last week that is well worth your attention.

Our weekly guest article, The Wright Stuff, which this week dealt with the notion of connected mobile games, has been receiving a good chewing over, as has our review for the much hyped Reset Generation for the N-Gage. Also, forum member Leulier reignited the World of Warcraft Mobile debate and oceanbloo2 is in desperate need of some help with Petz on mobile.

And so the end is nigh, but before we leave you to it for another seven days we must first fuel the forum fires with another discussion topic:

Do you buy multi-platform games on handheld?

As ever, the skinny is in the forum so head on over there to make your guru-like insights known. And don't forget to click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss next week's Loose Threads.