DS Daily: Have you demoed?

by Candace Savino { May 10th 2008 at 10:30AM }

Nintendo has an interesting philosophy when it comes to demos -- the company denounces them on the Wii (even though we all know the reason for that is the lack of storage space), but yet offers them for DS games. With the recent launch of the Wii's Nintendo Channel in the United States, many of us have finally gotten a taste of these DS demos, and we have to say -- we quite enjoy the feature.

How many of you DS owners have Wiis, too? Does your Wii have the Nintendo Channel yet, and if so, have you tried any DS demos? Which ones have convinced you to buy (or not buy) a game?

For everyone: what DS game demos would you like to see offered on the Wii? Perhaps you might even want to try the games developed by Japanese seminar students? We certainly do. Of course those aren't technically demos, but we digress.

So, go ahead and share all your demo thoughts here.

Tags: demo, demos, download, nintendo-channel

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

angelk @ May 10th 2008 10:36AM

thats pretty cool, its a nice way to test out some games. :) I'm glad that I have a nintendo wii, just need to update it to get this channel.

Walruslord @ May 10th 2008 10:43AM

This channel is great! I just hope they continusly update it with more demos! My favorite demo so far is Jam Sessions.

Roto13 @ May 10th 2008 10:46AM

I've tried them all. :P OPINION TIME

Brain Age 2: I already had this game, actually. Thumbs up from me.

Flash Focus: I think gamers are just naturally better at the kinds of things they want you to do in this game so we don't really have anything to gain from it. :P It seems kind of stupid from my point of view, but who knows? Maybe someone with crappier hand-eye coordination can benefit from it.

Crossword DS: I might actually pick this game up after trying the demo. I wasn't interested in it before I played it, but I really enjoyed it.

Jam Sessions: I think it might be better than the demo lets on. The features are way too limited to really be that interesting. I don't know what's in the full version, though.

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: Are the rest of the mini games as bad as the demo one? Because it's pretty bad.

Cooking Mama 2: This is fun. And cute. :P Not something I'd buy, but still good.

Disney Friends: Nintendogs with a Disney skin. Ho hum.

Ninja Gaiden: I was actually really skeptical when this game was announced, but it seems to be pretty solid. Still not buying it. :P

I HAVE TOO MUCH FREE TIME

elsng @ May 10th 2008 11:35AM

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 is pretty bad.

Snick422 @ May 10th 2008 10:57AM

I have a DS and a Wii. I've tried all of the available demos. Brain Age 2 has convinced me not to spend a whole $20 sicne I have the first one. Flash Focus looks like it'd be worth less than $5. Crosswords DS I might pick up, but the puzzles are too simple, it's actually a better advertisement for the other crossword game. Jam Sessions was better than I expected, but not worth the money they want. Rayman 2 sucked. Ninja Gaiden was pretty cool. Disney Friends - awful. Cooking Mama 2 was pretty good.

velocitystrike @ May 10th 2008 11:23AM

Still waiting for the channel here in the UK. The demos we get are likely to be the same, hmm?

Swampgirl Inez @ May 10th 2008 11:27AM

I found out I suck at Cooking Mama. :(

CrossworDS was kinda fun though. I'm not sure yet if I'd buy it, but I like the opportunity to try something new.

Yan @ May 10th 2008 11:29AM

i have demoed the disney game. it was weird. i was doing stuff to the alien from toy story lol

Waffala @ May 10th 2008 11:38AM

Checked out Cooking Mama, and while the game is beautiful, mini-tasks aren't really my thing, it felt like a more relaxed trauma center, cutting and rubbing different things without a bratty little nurse yelling at you... and of course the feeling that lives aren't at stake.

I also tried CrossworDS and realized my vocabulary is pretty stunted, so I'm split between picking this up to help me learn, or passing it up because I won't be able to play it.

triften @ May 10th 2008 11:40AM

It is a nice feature. I downloaded the demo for CrossworDS, and my girlfriend and I really enjoyed it. At $20, I might buy the full game as a result.

However, I wasn't pleased to find that you must share information (however "non-personal") with Nintendo to access these downloads.

Joshua @ May 10th 2008 11:46AM

The demo of Ninja Gaiden DS has convinced me that I really do like the series as a whole, and I'll be buying that game when it's convenient for me.

Jam Sessions was really cool at first, since I had my DS's audio played through external speakers and it sounded really nice, but I soon found out that I really had no idea what I was doing (I know hardly anything about playing music), so it's just not my kind of game, unfortunately...

Brain Age 2 was decent, but I can't see spending $20 on a brain-training game.

And none of the other demos really interested me.

jsutcliffe @ May 10th 2008 11:49AM

I don't understand why, if I can use my PC's wireless for DS gaming, they don't offer some kind of demo download from the Internet.

iofthestorm @ May 10th 2008 12:29PM

It's not your PC's wireless exactly, the DS actually uses a different protocol than standard Wi-Fi for DS-to-DS and presumably DS-to-download station communications. In the homebrew realm they call it Ni-Fi, and I'm not entirely sure how it differs in a technical manner.

Eleniel @ May 10th 2008 11:53AM

Oh it's out in NA? I need to go download that!!

Student-developed games would rock.

PyrosNine @ May 10th 2008 1:28PM

The NInja Gaiden demo was the best, because it had both core satisfying gameplay, a boss battle, and content than the other demos, and was full of replayability and challenge. Hopefully, it won't vanish when the new demos come.

Cooking Mama follows it, then Jam Sessions on the ones I actually liked.

MarkShark @ May 10th 2008 2:06PM

I remembered I needed to grab Nintendo Channel from this article.
I tested it out with Ninja Gaiden, completely on a whim. I have to say, I had no real interest in getting the game beforehand, but now I need it.

Frank @ May 10th 2008 2:07PM

The space is not the issue why there are no Wii demos.

hello, the DS has way less starage memory than the Wii!!! also the DS memory is temporary it will hold just one demo until it is turned off.

matsam @ May 10th 2008 3:24PM

I tried the Ninja Gaiden (awesome!) and the Jam Sessions (disapointment) demo, the downloading is a lot faster than the in-store Download Station at EBgames.

I'd like to be able to play some japanese demos, although that's very unlikely.

JKAntwon @ May 10th 2008 4:20PM

I love the download system! My Whole family gets into the demos! Its great!

danielle @ May 10th 2008 5:37PM

the jam sessions demo would have been much better if you could have played an actual song, although what little was there makes me almost want to buy it. it's also old - i played this demo at a gamestop over christmas.

the crosswords ds demo made me glad that i decided to go for the nyt crosswords ds game - even the "hard" setting was simple.

all in all, i hope they add more new demos instead of just reusing old download station ones.

Sleepykidd @ May 10th 2008 6:37PM

I love this channel, but I hope it updates often. They could at least backlog all the old Download Station demos. The Ninja Gaiden Demo was my favorite.

raptorspike @ May 10th 2008 7:15PM

alas, I don't have the Nintendo Channel yet. For some reason, my school blocked the ports needed to access the internet via Wii. So I have to wait until I go home in a week to download the new channel.

Quiggy @ May 10th 2008 9:19PM

CrossworDS was surprisingly entertaining for me, especially given that I'm awful at crosswords. If I ever find myself with a spare $30 and in need of a DS game, I might pick it up.

Deozaan @ May 10th 2008 10:09PM

I've never been able to find a local download station that worked, so it was cool to get this on my Wii.

I only tried Raving Rabbids 2 and Jam Sessions.

Raving Rabbids was utterly horrible.

I'd heard of Jam Sessions before but had no idea what it was about. The demo interested me enough to pick up the full version. It's pretty interesting but it only has one song I know (Yellow by Coldplay). Which is more than I expected. I didn't even know it had songs to play. I thought it was just about tinkering around with chords. Like a Guitar version of Electroplankton.

It's neat, but your mileage may vary.

Aluvendale @ May 10th 2008 11:02PM

I downloaded Ninja Gaiden, played through the demo, and then went out and bought the game. Thanks (and You're Welcome) Nintendo!

Dred242+forums @ May 10th 2008 11:27PM

Ok, so I just finished updating my Wii and "Wow" the Nintendo Channel on the Wii with it's DS demo downloads totally ROCKS! Not too many titles listed as demos, but the future is bright...my kids are gonna love this! My kids and I tried to download demos for the DS at are local GameStop, but the experience was janky at best. Most of the time the system at GameStop was down with no word on when it would be back up and running. Or sometimes we just failed to maintain a good connection even when standing inside the store....but no more eh?

I downloaded Ninja Gaiden and it seems like a fun game...I might buy it (did you hear that Nintendo?). My wife wants the Wii Fit for her birthday in June. Now she can watch the how-to video and learn more about the Wii Fit system. And get this, the woman in the video is named Terri, same as my wife...go figure!

So far I'm thinking the Nintendo Ch. is great. I just hope the keep the content fresh and up-to-date.

Aparoid @ May 10th 2008 11:45PM

I only tried Cooking Mama, Ninja Gaiden and Raving Rabbids.

Cooking Mama is a snap since I completely beat the first one, Ninja Gaiden was gorgeous (but a little... I dunno, easy) and Raving Rabbids was awful. This really is a nice channel to have.

Well, back to Mario Kart...

Ganthor @ May 11th 2008 3:24PM

I too grabbed the channel and my ds and had some fun downloading demos. I checked out ninja gaiden and found it to be quite sweet. Jam sessions was ok too, but I think I'll stick with my guitar and wait for korg ds-10.

As far as other game demos, I'd like to see just about everything!

Kevin Adder Snake @ May 11th 2008 9:28PM

Jam Sessions is pretty interesting, will keep my eye on that. Rayman was pretty bad and very shallow. Cooking Mama 2, I will get that when it price drops. I could understand why the first one was 20 but not paying 30 for a sequel that was cheaper. I did that with Katamari, not doing it again with this.