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Rumour: DS2 to be more powerful than the Zune HD?

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
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Firstly, it goes without saying that this is a rumour - as interesting as it is, do not take this as fact:

Following on from the recent rumour that a new DS is in the works from Nintendo and nVidia, a rumour has surfaced that the new handheld will contain the Tegra 2 video chipset - in layman's terms, this means that it would be able to produce graphics better than this. Very few other details relating to this particular rumour have surfaced other than that, though - but speculation will probably continue, as it did with the Wii HD (which was shot down before), until someone from Nintendo confirms or denies it.

However, if the rumours are anywhere near true, it would be very interesting to see what Nintendo did with it. After all, they have come out and stated before that graphics are by no means their priority; they've spent a lot of time pointing out that the likes of Wii Sports or Wii Fit - and as an extension, the Brain Training series on DS - don't need fantastic graphics to sell well, they just need the appealing features. This obviously gives some weight against the rumour - but Tegra could, rather than be used for raw graphics power, also be harnessed to crunch numbers better... so that all games, whether they be 2D or 3D, graphics intensive or not, would run as fast as possible, and at high a resolution as possible. Think of screen resolutions and detail levels higher than even the iPhone, and so the DS could have really detailed sprites, incredibly clear text... in other words, all the things Nintendo pride themselves in. Some games would go straight for the power - the core serieses like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etcetera - and some, like Pokémon, could benefit from crystal-clear text and well-done sprites. In a lot of ways, it makes sense.

It has to be said, though: at this rate, it wouldn't be too long until the graphics on the successor to the DS are better than those on the Wii. :p
 
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Wow, this is great.
What would be great now would be if Nintendo developed this idea well, but concentrated on other things. Because I've gotta say, if there is a Nintendo handheld where incredible, possibly-better-than-Wii graphics are just part of the upgrade to Generation 8 gaming software, and many other things are happening that are new and exciting as well as that, then it will be the console to get, home or portable.

Pokemon Spriting may be about to get a LOT harder...
 
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