DS Soars Online But Games Aren't Coming

Mario Kart DS helps the twin-screen portable reach its next milestone, but where are the games that will take it further?

Have you taken your DS online yet? If so, you're one of the 200,000 people that have given Nintendo's popular new service a go. And more than that, there have already been more than 3 million connections from around the world, as gamers take to the Net with Nintendo's online-enabled games.

Nintendo spoke openly this year about its plans to get around 90 per cent of all DS gamers to try the service at least once. To make it easier for people, Nintendo has signed deals with wireless Internet providers around the world, letting DS owners go online without having to pay any extra money.

There's still a lot to do though. The figure of 200,000 is just a sliver of the 6-million installed base of the DS.

And behind the happy adoption numbers is the stern realisation that third party support is not coming as fast as Nintendo would like.

The first game to go online was Nintendo's own Mario Kart DS. The company also recently released Animal Crossing: Wild World, a follow-up to the million-selling GameCube original, and Metroid Prime: Hunters will be out at the end of the winter.

Outside of Nintendo's in-house games, though, there's little to keep DS owners online. Activision has scored a hit with Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, but apart from that there are no confirmed third-party games from that let DS owners go online.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games