by Vinson Chen

Created on: August 22, 2009

Nintendo has always been about originality and uniqueness when it came to creating new gaming consoles. From the Game Boy to the Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo 64 and now to the Nintendo DS, the company, Nintendo, tried to make their consoles different yet better than the competition. The Nintendo DS was a great success in the video game business because of its new innovations and possibilities that other company's consoles simply lacked.

First, the most noticeable feature of the Nintendo DS is its dual-screens. One is the standard main screen found on all portable consoles, but the second screen located beneath the first is a touch screen. With a handy stylus, players are able to play games by tapping, sliding, or even rubbing on this touch screen. It was such a huge jump for game consoles to simply use buttons and D-pads for gameplay.

This new touch screen allowed for new games to be made that didn't simply use the same buttons for gameplay. Games such as Metroid Prime could now use the touch screen for weaponry aiming, Age of Empires allowed players to control armies with the stylus, and Cooking Mama let gamers use motion to cook and play.

But what was even better was that this didn't stop old games that had no use for a touch screen from being made for the DS. Castlevani, Mario Kart, and New Super Mario Bros. just let the bottom screen remain a convenient place for a map to be placed. It was this combination of old gaming style games and new touch screen based that couldn't disappoint gamers. There was always that perfect game for any gamer let it be that old classic button mashing game or that unique touch screen using game.

Now that the touch screen is done with, the standard button controls can be reviewed. These buttons were the exact same as the the original SNES. A standard D-Pad, the four face buttons A, B, X, and Y with the shoulder buttons R and L, the Nintendo DS resonated a modern yet classic portable gaming console that no other console could do.

Rather than focusing on fancy looking buttons, the DS kept them simple like they used to look back n the old days. Yet at the same time, the touch screen in between all of the buttons completely modernized the DS and gave it a unique look that couldn't be copied. All in all, the control features of the game were great as they were simple yet complex all at the same time. It was a perfect mix.

Next another innovation only found on the DS is its microphone. It's just a small little

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