38 stars and now some monkey has mario's hat. damn monkey.

Hey Pixy, looks like your still gonna have to import mr. driller for the DS.

Why would they not include single cart multiplayer?

I hate Namco of America. With great passion.

Interesting zookeeper puzzle game coming out for the DS, kinda like BEjewled.

Play it here.

http://www.vsev12.com/games/zookeeper/zookeeper.htm

Why would they release an inferior build of the game here, at the EXACT SAME TIME they release a superior build in Japan? There isn't a whole lot of localization that goes into this game, and taking out single cart multiplayer is pretty dumb considering that this is probably the way a lot of games will get good word of mouth.

Grr... if I hadn't bought my game on the first day it came out because of the hype from this board and the fear of a shortage, I'd reconsider buying it at all...

I agree

Holy crap the DS is great.

I swung by Target on a whim and they had just received a shipment, so I bought myself a present to celebrate how great I am. The system itself feels good - certainly better than the SP, which I loved - and the touch pad works beautifully. I can't wait to see what happens when the mic and wi-fi are exploited.

The Metroid demo is fun; hopefully, there'll be some people playing on campus next week so I can check out the multiplayer. It looks like Nintendo might have pulled off a Metroid action game, strange as that is.

I still have a huge soft spot for Mario 64 and am thrilled with all of the new content in the DS version. I agree that the control isn't as good as it should be, but that doesn't prevent me from enjoying it. Indeed, the minigames kick ass.

I'm already happy with my purchase and the system hasn't even began to come into its own.

I thought the DS was supposed to work with a wireless router? or I am just imagining this. I just picked up Mr. Driller and I am hooked after one night of playing. My wife had to yell at me to come to bed last night.

Mr. Driller fucking rules. I have every game in the series (6 of them now).

Are you using the touch screen/thumb strap to control?

Pixy, I have the PS1, DC, GBC, and DS version. What am I missing? The japanese advance one?

Mr. Driller: Arcade, Playstation, Dreamcast, Gameboy Color, Wonderswan Color

Mr. Driller 2: Arcade, Gameboy Advance

Mr. Driller G: Arcade, Playstation

Mr. Driller A: Gameboy Advance

Mr. Driller Drill Land: Gamecube

Mr. Driller Drill Spirits: DS

Wow...there are alot. Never knew about the GameCube version.

Yeah, but it did take awhile to feel comfortable. To me, it's the same difference between Nintendo platformers and the rest: it loses the "stop on a dime" precision, but is still very playable.

does this DS work with a wireless router?

That's kind of a loaded question. The short answer: Yes, but not yet.

In the short amount of time the DS has been available to the public some tinkerers have figured out the DS does in fact communicate using the 802.11b wireless standard. Nobody's really figured out how to 'talk' with a DS yet, though.

The good news: just recently a group of programmers calling themselves Team Xlink Kai have successfully 'tunneled' the DS. Tunneling is basically fooling a system into thinking it is connected to another system on a local area network when really it's connected over an internet connection. They've been able to connect two DS's over the internet using both PictoChat and Metroid. They say they'll eventually be able to release a program you can run on your PC (with a 802.11b compatible wireless access point) that will allow you to chat or play multiplayer games on your DS with anyone in the world over the internet.

Needless to say, this is really cool and exciting stuff! Perhaps one day in the near future we could have a DVDTalk PictoChat-room where we could all get together to talk and play multiplayer DS games together...

Link to the Xlink Kai forum thread where they first announced successful DS tunneling...history in the making I suppose.

Just in case anyone was having trouble finding a DS, it looks like Costco got a huge shipment. My local store has a huge endcap put up today. DS + Mario 64 for $174.99. Not a bad deal at Christmas time.

"Thumb strap"??? What is that?

I melted my brain Sunday by playing Mario 64 for 6 hours straight. I've got 50 stars and still no Luigi! I've had a great deal of difficulty controlling with the thumb strap, so I've just been using the D-pad. I think what's getting me is that I keep reaching the top of the touch screen while moving forward.

I used to have that issue too (thumb getting to the top of the touch screen). It took some getting used to, but now I can't imagine controlling it any other way. I find the touch screen control easy and very responsive.

I can't find luigi either, but I only have 33 stars or so. When I got my 30th star it asked me if I had found him yet, which leads me to believe that I am missing something.

I believe that you only need like 15 stars to get Luigi, and 30 Stars to get Wario.


Hint for Luigi Location Key

Son of a bitch. Okay that's a good enough hint I have an idea of where to go once I get to play again.

It's on the wrist strap. Has a place for you thumb with a plastic pad which you can use on the touch screen as a simulated analog stick in games like Mario 64.

Thumb strap. Note: there is a bead on the strap that acts like the point from the stylus.