And it’s awesome.
I know, I know, I’m like 5 years behind the curve. I’ve been wanting to get one for a while and last weekend I was anticipating a long bus journey, so in order to give myself something to do so I bit the bullet and bought a DS.
And it’s awesome.
I probably wouldn’t have got one if I hadn’t seen “My Japanese Coach” on the store shelves. Which is essentially what you think it is – A Japanese language tutor.
Having a touch screen and memory games and being able to hear the words when you touch them with the stylus makes it much more fun than sitting in a classroom and feeling dumb because the other kids seem to get it much quicker than you do.
It also has a dictionary, phrase book and other more advanced stuff that I’m just not up to yet (I’m only on lesson 5)
Brain Training came free with the DS which is also fun. And although it took a couple of days for the game to recognise my handwriting (or was it me who started to recognise how the game interpreted my handwriting?) It’s really neat to see little graphs about how much quicker you get at being able to do 20 quick fire arithmetic questions.
Also has lots of Sudoku puzzles which entertained me on the bus.
Playing the DS has rekindled a sort of passing interest in games as educational tools. Thinking back at all the parser driven and point and click adventure games as a kid I probably learnt alot simply through osmosis. And educational titles such as Carmen Sandiego where, you know, actually fun. Unfortunately a cursary look at all the educational titles for the DS makes it hard to gauge the titles worth – It’s hard to tell if a product is simply trying to appeal to parents by using familar licenses. (Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob etc..) And thus sell more copies, or whether they are actually worth what they are pedaling.
I think these heldheld devices are more suited to these educational titles than larger PCs as they don’t require alot of space, bulky input devices, keys that do the wrong thing if you hit them (the dreaded windows key for example) and there’s something about the stylus and touch screen that just feels right.
I can see why the DS has sold 75 million units worldwide – It’s more than just a toy, its a useful and entertaining tool.
Notes:
A) I bought a DS lite, I would have liked a DSi but didn’t think that paying twice the price was worth a 0.3 megapixel camera that I would never use.
B) I also bought Sonic Rush which is a decent old school Sonic game.
C) The iPhone is probably another good medium for educational software due to its touch screen but the problem with it is that 1) It’s a phone and 2) No one is going to buy one for their nine year old.
D) The DS is region free, so when I feel my Japanese is good enough, I can play actual Japanese games.