What do Nintendo fans have to look forward to in the near future? There are going to be a whole lot of new games for the Nintendo Dual Screen Miniature Console.

Rumor is rife about what the big video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 are going to be offering but Nintendo is working on what players are looking for – that is, more games for the portable handheld video game system.

Makers are seeking to fulfill the demands of Dual Screen users and Nintendo is leading the pack with a highly attractive all-star lineup for DS console coming up soon. For the DS, Electronic Arts or ERTS will provide its designer-creature game, called Spore, ATVID or Activision Blizzard provides the much enjoyed Guitar Hero in another version, and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) is offering a customized adaptation of Grand Theft Auto. The version of Guitar Hero referred to here was offered on the market in June and sold an amazing 300,000 copies in America in the first seven days alone.

The sales growth and popularity of the DS has been, and is still, quite impressive. Those in the know believe that the Dual Screen console will sell more than the Wii – probably because of the hugely successful games such as the customized Guitar Hero and Pokemon. Nintendo anticipates selling a lot of DS – lifetime sales are projected at over 100 million.

Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime is pleased with this year’s sales as compared to those of last year. “People thought 2007 would be the peak year for the DS,” he said. “We’re running 12% ahead of last year’s record [U.S. sales] of 8.5 million.”
The female section of the population has taken well to the Nintendo DS. 30% of DS owners in 2005 and 50% in 2007 are female. Nintendo’s recent advertising, in the last few months has featured stars including Liz Taylor and Carrie Underwood playing DS games like BrainAge and Nintendogs. Since this TV commercials campaign began to be broadcast in May this year, the sales of BrainAge and Nintendogs, as well as the new Super Mario Bros. game, have increased by 50%.

Representatives of Nintendo are talking about research into more value additions to the Dual Screen, other than video games. Possible options for the future include a DS with wireless ability to provide information of various kinds such as flight or restaurant information.

Nintendo started offering Wii in North America in May and its Wii repertoire will be beefed up this year. Nintendo held a press conference at E3, and it was opened by Shaun White, the Olympic gold medalist. White rode the Wii balance board for the Ubisoft snowboard game named after him, created specially for Wii. “I lean forward to go faster when I ride (in real life),” said Shaun. “You can do the same in the game.”

Wii Music is fun, a musical game that will be offered before the end of 2008. At the 90 minute event at the Kodak Theatre concerning this game, an effect of drama, a smoky atmosphere and flashy lights were created, with interesting visual images ranging from a man with a Mohawk hairstyle drumming with nunchucks to the famous Nintendo designer simulating a saxophone performance.

Another popular thing as far as music-oriented options are concerned is Wii Music. It lacks the functions of performance grading and competitions (which both Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 offer) but it does offer the user the chance to record music and play a wide variety of over 50 instruments. As Shigeru Miyamoto says, “We’ve designed Wii Music to experience the joy of performing music.”

If you aren’t that interested in creating music, the Guitar Hero III is a good option for Wii, and considered to be more popular than Xbox and PlayStation 3.

Popularity: 19%