Revealed: Motion Sensing on Nintendo DS

More than likely the 'patent' refers to this official Nintendo add-on, reckons UK games website.

A few months ago, Nintendo filed a patent for a motion sensing handheld console of some sort. The filing read: "The housing console incorporates an XY-axis acceleration sensor... and a Z-axis contact switch to detect an acceleration in a Z-axis direction."

Little more is known about what this means yet - whether it's a new portable spin-off toy or some sort of addition to the Nintendo DS. But one website in the UK reckons that the patent refers to the imminent DS Slide Controller peripheral, which gamers can already take a look at on Nintendo's website in Japan, where the product is shortly to go on sale.

UK site SPOnG put two and two together but said that Nintendo has no plans to release the peripheral - or its 'MagKid' game - outside of Japan yet.

"Slide Controller has three actions, and lots of mini games", the report reads. The three actions allow you to rapidly slide the controller to attack, move it slowly to escape and attack, or move in a circular motion to recharge. Apparently, anyway. Some videos on Nintendo's site (here and here) perhaps gives a better idea of how it all works.

If the patent that caused so much excitement does indeed refer to this peripheral then Nintendo DS fans can stop fretting about some sort of new handheld Nintendo console stealing DS's thunder, which, considering the outrageous success of the dual-screened portable, would simply not happen anytime remotely soon.

Kikizo Staff