Lots of good things are surfacing for the Nintendo DS, with downloadable content from Professor Layton and the Curious Village being the most recent. There's another one in the form of DGamer, an instant messaging service for Disney's Nintendo DS games. It's jampacked with features, some mimicking the Wii's Mii system as well as Xbox 360's Achievements. More details and screenshots in the full article!

If you have a DS, you're probably familiar with the Pictochat application that lets you chat with other DS users using the built-in Wi-Fi connection. With the Pictochat, you can also draw images and send it to your friends and fool around with the drawings. However, the main drawback is that you are limited to only black and white scribblings.

If you ever found yourself wishing that you can draw colored pictures while using Pictochat, then don't fret any longer: Now comes Pict Image DS, which at first glance looks like an improved version of Pictochat. Developed by Sega, Pict Image DS is basically Pictionary for the DS, where the basic rule is that one person draws a picture, and another will try to guess what the drawing is about. Judging by the Famitsu website, there are also other gaming modes available such as "message games" and marathon modes.

From how the screenshots look like right now, this may very well be the drawing application DS owners have long been waiting for. Stay tuned for more details, folks!

When the Nintendo DS was first introduced in Japan back in 2004 (2005 in the US), it raised a lot of eyebrows because of the new elements that it was trying to introduce. It proved to be fairly popular, though, and after about a year, Nintendo released a refined version of their creation, the DS Lite. This had all the features that made the DS a success, along with a better screen, a sleeker look, and other nifty additions.

The question that is being posed now is, where to go after this? After its sterling performance, what do you add to a DS Lite to make it the ultimate gaming platform? Next-Generation.biz has quite a few suggestions on how to make the DS an "ideal portable platform"

A recurring theme in their article covered interface improvements. What happens whenever you change the system clock or exit Pictochat? You have to reboot. There has to be a less obtrusive way to do tasks such as that. In addition, the ability to return to the home menu while in midgame was also mentioned. The game would be running in the background, suspended, so you could go back to it. Then, while we're improving the interface, why not add an option to actually expand it via wi-fi download?

They even played around with the possibility of including a customizable system interface. Imagine being able to draw your own avatar or even custom borders. Nifty huh?

As good as the DS lite is, there's room for improvement (isn't there always?), so we're hoping that some of these changes would make it to the next build of the DS. If you would care to see more of Next-Generation.biz's suggestions about how to build a better DS, you can check the read link.

Nintendo has released five new screens from the game collection 42 All-Time Classics, to go with our previous post that detailed the game's contents. As a new title in the Touch! Generations franchise, 42 All-Time Classics will give you hours and hours of entertainment.

The game features 42 of the most popular games ever invented ranging from card classics like Poker and Texas Hold ‘Em, board games such as Chess and Backgammon to bar games like Darts and Snooker. And should you ever run out of games to play in Single-Player modes (pretty unlikely by itself), you can try out the multi-player mode with up to seven friends, not only enabling you to play all the games in the collection together, but also offering a Pictochat-like communications feature that lets you bluff about your Poker hand just like in real life!

42 All-Time Classics hits European store shelves on September 29.

   

 

The PSP and Nintendo DS war is far from over. Just a week ago, Alaric S. blogged about the current status of PSP and DS in terms of units sold in Japan and in the US. There was no clear winner in that category and has obviously gotten all of you heated up. GameDaily.com has an interesting article that pits PSP against the Nintendo yet again, but this time looking into one of the most revered features of the handheld consoles, online capabilities.

The Nintendo DS seems to be doing something right with its free Wi-Fi Service that keeps gamers connected, making things more interactive. And with the release of Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS, the online link up has just gotten a big boost. Although the DS is on the right track, a few more features  won't hurt. GameDaily suggested expanding the PictoChat to include features that work more on clans or a few customizations. It's just a small add-on that targets gamers who really like to hook up with other gamers, but in general  it may not be all that neccesary. Another idea is to expand the game support setup by offering some kind of online download service, which will resurrect classic Nintendo games we love. This may actually see the light of day with its possible tie-in with the Revolution's Virtual Console service. If Nintendo wants to get a lot of online participation, it should offer tournaments and celebrity plays, and while they're at it, add more hot spots too.

Over at Sony, the PSP seems to have gotten the edge in gaming quality. Sony is also doing the right thing with the availability of PS One games for download on the PSP (later this year).  This move just might pave the way for a full-on gaming network that will push for greater online play. GameDaily says: Sony's easily got the resources and finances to set themselves up a service along the likes of Xbox Live and Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection. Maybe the PlayStation Network is the answer, but so far, it seems to heavily support the PS3. What Sony should do here is provide some kind of push that allows for greater connection of online play across the board, without having to really deal with set-up issues or worrying about trying to find a buddy. Ease of service would really make this a smooth running machine, and a dedicated network would be the answer.

With both PSP and DS doing the right thing with what they currently have, it's what they need to improve on that will make this war even more interesting. The handheld that will bring online gaming to the next level will surely emerge as the winner.