This week noticed the Nintendo DS flip 20. Naturally, such an anniversary has received us serious about the unstoppable passage of time pleasant dual-screen as soon as once more, and quite a lot of of us have dusted off our previous clamshells for a fast blast by a few of our favourites.
However, being the needy avid gamers that we’re, ever determined to pay £50 for a fast hit of nostalgia, the week’s replays have reminded us simply what number of basic titles are nonetheless trapped on the hand-held of days passed by. The unique Professor Layton trilogy, Rhythm Heaven, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, a boatload of Mario & Luigi RPGs, the record of DS-locked titles goes on. Heck, even Nintendogs is caught on the DS, and that was one widespread pet!
In fact, the explanation why so many of those beloved classics have been left on the ol’ Developer System is due to that pesky type issue. Lots of DS video games have been, unsurprisingly, designed for the DS. Meaning two screens, exact contact controls, a microphone, and a handful of different options starting from helpful to downright important for play. And, if you have not observed but, our devoted Switches cannot ship on all of them.
That is to not say builders have not tried. The Swap has hosted a handful of wonderful DS ports to nice success, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a relatively small variety of vital titles in comparison with, say, the Wii U library (which poses a better porting downside due to how occasionally the GamePad was really used, however you get our level).
The DS ports which have made it over have tackled the central dual-screen dilemma in a wide range of methods. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective squeezed the motion onto one panel and substituted the contact controls for extra correct analogue stick inputs. Pokémon Thriller Dungeon: Rescue Group DX relegated the higher display map to an in-game menu and your workforce’s statuses to the highest nook. Castlevania Dominus Assortment got here with a number of various show choices so you might enlarge/shrink screens to your liking. Rune Manufacturing unit 3 Particular did… nothing, actually.
Look, the Swap has made an excellent stab on the DS video games it has managed to draw… however absolutely ‘Swap 2’ can do it higher.
A couple of weeks again, we noticed a YouTube Quick from @BigShirtGames the place he was operating DS video games on a Swap in ‘Tate Mode’ — keep in mind that portrait performance that the Swap has used all of… two occasions [Shmup fans gonna be gunning for you, Jimbo – Ed.] — along with his Pleasure-Con hooked up by way of a Flip Grip.
It, admittedly, required a hacked Swap operating an emulator and an excellent serving to of equipment, however we could not assist however wipe the drool from our chins as we watched the 2 screens reimagined on a single OLED with touchscreen capabilities. Mmmm, pixels.
Since seeing it in motion, it seems like a no brainer function for ‘Swap 2’. Give us the flexibility to whack our magnetic Pleasure-Con on the X-axis, stick a mic on it someplace, stick an excellent handful of DS video games in a console-specific NSO library, and you have the eye of the dual-screen era — and presumably a tasty gross sales inflow — with out even a whiff of a brand new 3D Mario.
Whereas we’re spitballing, what if there was a method to tether your previous Swap display to your swanky new one and completely replicate the basic dual-screen method within the course of? What if that is the true function for the mysterious USB-C port on the highest of these supposed ‘Swap 2’ designs we noticed a number of months again? Nintendo desires to hit a number of Switches in each family, and we battle to think about a extra surefire approach to make sure that a number of screens stick round than the promise of a brand new method to play Child Icarus: Rebellion. Simply us? Probably, however think about it!
Or how about bringing again the previous Wii U method to the DS Digital Console? There is no approach that ‘Swap 2’ is ditching the hybrid mannequin, however some method to play concurrently on the TV and in handheld à la the GamePad would not really feel like an excessive amount of of a stretch. It is maybe not essentially the most elegant workaround — particularly if it restricted DS video games to TV play solely — however hey, it is an alternative choice.
However it is a Speaking Level! We do not wish to simply shout our concepts into the void with out listening to ideas from you, our pretty readers. So, what could be your best method to play DS video games on ‘Swap 2’? Is it one of many approaches we have steered above, or do you might have a special thought altogether?
You may tell us by filling within the following ballot after which taking to the feedback to share your dual-screen goals.
Jim got here to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, regardless of his insistence that The Minish Cap is the very best Zelda recreation and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (sure, actually), he has continued to put in writing information and options on the positioning ever since.
