Nintendo Announces 5th DS Handheld. Two more to go before it matches the Gameboy.

First it was the DS, then the DS Lite, then the DSi took the stage, and finally the DSi XL. With seemingly every new addition adding something small to the console where does the company go from there? They go where everyone has been going, into the Third Dimension.

Nintendo recently, but not formally, announced it's new 3DS Handheld; A full 3D handheld with no need for obnoxious glasses. How it's going to do this is unknown right now, but two possibilities exist. One would be motion tracking using the camera or accelerometers. The 3DS could display an image based on where the player is looking and the tilt of the console itself. The second way that has been speculated by reviewers is something called a paralax barrier LCD screen, the kind Sharp uses in it's 3D displays.

Until the next E3, it's all speculation. And while we're speculating why don't we consider what could be next for Nintendo's hottest handheld?

Let's first look at the clues. Back in the days of the NES Nintendo launched the Power Glove, and it's Bad. No really, it was pretty bad. I was along the same line as Nintendo's R.O.B. Robot and it's failed experiment, the Virtual Boy. So, now it's the 2005 and the Wii is released. Using motion tracking it allowed you to control the action by waving, pointing, and manipulating a remote instead of pushing buttons. This is exactly what they were trying to accomplish with the Power Glove all those years ago, 5 years later it's still the highest selling console. Success! So what's next? A 3D Console? Boy, that sounds just like their Virtual Boy (you know, except less Red). And if the 3DS is as successful as it's predecessor (the other DSs not the Virtual Boy) then it's only safe to assume Nintendo's next big console will be...

... A Fully Interactive Robot!

Multiplayer games will take on whole new meanings when the computer player can physically beat the tar out of you when you decide to use them as a springboard to cross a gap or take both Mushrooms when all you really needed was one.

The 3DS is also the 5th handheld in the DS line. So far there has been the DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, and now the 3DS. In Nintendo's lineup of Gameboy handhelds there were 7: The Gameboy (including it's "Play it Loud" campaign), Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light (Only released in Japan, it was a backlit GBP), Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP (including it's Mark II edition), and finally ending with the Gameboy Micro. The only difference in the consoles is the 3 variations of cartridges, so far we've had only one type of cartridge for the DS (2 if you count ones with DSi support). If so, then we'll be getting the third kind when the 3DS is launched, being coined as a new console with backwards compatibility (hopefully that also means older GBA and GB games, which would automatically make give it the largest library of any console).

As I recall, the DS was announced and launched before the Gameboy Micro. Wether or not we can then assume Nintendo will wow us with an all new Handheld Console in the next couple of years is anyone's guess. Also, the 3DS is mearly a temporary name, as it stands it may in fact be the next new handheld completely different then the DS. We can only wait and see.

You better be working on that Robot though, Nintendo.

Nintendo Announces New Hardware, The Nintendo 3DS [Kotaku]

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