The Nintendo DS brought touchscreen technology to a whole generation of gamers.
A fun way to familiarize people with a technology that has already become common.
Decades before starting a family with my partner, we established a bond through a little Boxer named Charlie. We spent time playing with a ball, bathing him when he got dirty, and going on daily walks. This connection was facilitated by the use of the touch screen on the Nintendo DS, which transformed a simple game like Nintendogs—where the goal is to take care of virtual pets—into a deep emotional experience.
Before the launch of the first DS in 2004, the concept of a touch screen was seen as something futuristic. The conventional screens I knew, such as televisions and computer monitors, were not designed to be touched. Commercial devices like Apple's Newton, which included handwriting recognition technology, were inaccessible to many. However, the DS represented a shift by being more of a toy than an advanced technological device. Its design, featuring two stacked screens and a hinge that allowed it to close like a book, made it accessible.
The standout component was the lower touch screen, which enabled players to interact in a novel way. The quirky design of the DS, combined with traditional physical controls and the ability to use Game Boy Advance cartridges, made it easily recognizable as a gaming console.
Nintendo, true to its style, not only implemented a new control method but also showcased its possibilities. Some of the DS's most successful titles would not have been viable without its touch screen. For instance, Nintendogs proved captivating because of the naturalness of petting a virtual pet, while Brain Age illustrated how handwriting recognition could be intuitive in games like Sudoku. Additionally, touch elements were incorporated into popular franchises, revolutionizing the way to play in titles like The Legend of Zelda and WarioWare.
The success of the DS encouraged other developers to experiment. Some of the innovative titles of the time included Trauma Center, where you performed surgeries using the touch screen; Professor Layton, which combined logic and puzzle-solving; and Electroplankton, an interactive musical toy. Other examples included Etrian Odyssey, which allowed players to draw maps, and Cooking Mama, where cooking was entirely done through touches on the screen.
The Nintendo DS gradually introduced touch interaction to millions of players, combining these games with titles that did not use this technology, allowing for a familiarization before the concept became an integral part of modern life. This laid the groundwork for successes in mobile gaming, creating a direct connection between the DS era and the flourishing of titles on iPhone like Rolando and Tiny Wings.
Today, touch screens are a standard feature in almost any gaming device, both in consoles and handhelds. This innovation that once seemed astonishing to me has become normalized; when I passed my old DS down to my eldest daughter, she was not surprised by the idea of petting a virtual pet. For her, it was already a commonplace experience, making her the ideal person to adopt Charlie, who had been waiting in that cartridge for the past 20 years.
