The First Annual "Nintendo DS" Awards

Didja miss me?

Sorry for the longish lack of updates, but starting classes and a new job and a snowstorm meant I didn't have much time to write about video game journalism last week. I'm back now, and hoping to work my way through some of those story ideas on a semi-regular basis.

First up, as promised, is more coverage of the Nintendo DS coverage. I feel like I've read every article about Nintendo's surprise announcement at least twice (and believe me, there are a lot of them). Instead of trying to discuss them all as a group, or discuss each one specifically, I've decided to showcase some of the best and worst in a feature I'm calling The First Annual "Nintendo DS" Awards (which probably won't become an annual event, but you never know).

To be clear, these awards focus on the initial coverage of the announcement (the first 72 hours) and not any follow-up pieces that have come in the past week or so. Feel free to post your own nominees and/or question my choices in the comments link at the bottom of the article. So without further ado:

Best Analysis

This award is actually going to be split into into two awards. For best business analysis, the award goes to The Motley Fool for Nintendo's Road Less Traveled. The article uses the anouncement to point out Nintendo's risk-taking nature to investors, then uses it as a jumping off point to talk about the confusing handheld market in general. Not too interesting to most gamers, but well suited for the Fool's audience.

For game-centered analysis, though, the award goes to GameSpot for Spot On: The Nintendo DS. The article takes us through the rumored history of the device, the announcement itself, and speculation on its future from industry analysts. What more could you ask for?

Worst Analysis

There's no need to split this one. TotalVideoGames takes it easily with their article: Nintendo DS Round-Up. After guessing wrong about the "1 GB semiconductor memory" (which they say is RAM and not software capacity), TVG makes some lazy and obvious comparisons to the Virtual Boy, cooks up some groundless concerns about battery life, and calls it a day. It's pretty obvious that this article is the product of a few minutes light thinking on the subject with no real effort at research of any kind.

Most Biased

This one was a tight race. MobileMag almost took it by inserting two paragraphs of opinion into the beginning of an otherwise fine news story. The Californian almost took it with their fairly headlined article, Nintendo DS won't match Sony's PSP, but they get off on a technicality (in that the article is technically a column and not straight news).

Sorry, but it seems like the winner here is Andrew Burnes for his mention of the DS In Other News. With no actual reporting (or even repetition of other reporting), this barely even qualifies as news. Tell ya what Andrew, call the section "My opinions on other news," then we can all be happy.

Oddest Headline

Some strong contenders here. Cubed3 gets second runner-up prize for Nintendo's New System... The Connectevision Becomes Reality! (Connectevision?). Gamespot gets first runner up for an excellent article inexplicably placed in the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! section.

But the clear winner here is Ferrago with the crytptically titled Remember the two screen Game&Watch? It's almost like they want me to go in knowing nothing about the article! Bravo Ferrago. Post-modern headlining at its best.

Oddest "What is it going to be?" Prediction

Before Nintendo's big announcement, the press had a field day speculating about what Nintendo's new system might be. A lot of the announcement stories quoted some of these old assumptions in passing. This race was really neck and neck, and GameSpot's mention of the GameBoy Enhanced, ("a portable game deck that could play both GameCube and Game Boy Advance titles") very nearly took it. Then I found this GamePro article that mentions the announcement is not "a domestic version of the iQue as previously speculated by some." I follow the news pretty closely, and I don't remember anyone speculating on a domestic version of the iQue (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Worst Speculation

When so little actual information is announced, you can expect a whole lot of rampant speculation masquerading as news. This story was no exception. The leaps of faith included IT Vibe's gigabyte of RAM (from many other sources as well), Cubed3's lack of backward compatibility (which is widely speculated but still has yet to be confirmed, to my knowledge), and MobileMag's passing assertion that the system will be "for single players only (odd, considering every other Game Boy has had the option to link to another system for multiplayer gaming)

But hands down, the speculation award goes to Gaming Horizon for pricing the system at $187 with no source. Not even a link to a disreputable web site to confirm this allegation. Are you guys just making stuff up over there? You've got to give me some sort of source on something like this! Oh, and Silent Hill 4 won't be on th GameCube. Uh, OK then.

Most Egregious Quoting from the Press Release

I think the first three paragraphs of this Globe and Mail article speak for themselves. Or, more accurately, they speak for Nintendo.

By the way: If I read one more article that says the Nintendo DS will be enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge," I will puke.

Best Overall Article

Count on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to perform well on its home turf. Their story, Nintendo working on dual-screen portable, gives the available information without going overboard with speculation, and puts the announcement in the context of the PSP and the rest of Nintendo's line-up without droning on. A nice, succinct article.

Worst Overall Article

This one wasn't that tough. Gaming Horizon's coverage is just a mess, both grammatically and factually. Besides providing no important information outside of the system specs and no analysis of related news, the article includes seemingly baseless assumptions such as "[the system is] aiming for older gamers" and "the company already has a few un-named titles in development." I actually feel less informed now that I've read this article.

Most Surprisingly Good Coverage

What's this? The New York Post actually has something worth reading? They actually talk to analysts and Nintendo representative to get the whole story? Color me amazed.

Most Unnecessary Joke Image

I'm sure this MS Paint mockup of a two-screen system (linked from this article) seems hillarious to the guys at IGN, but it's really not that funny. Nintendo hasn't released a picture yet. Get over it.

IGN also gets runner up for the image at the upper-right of this intro page, tastefully captioned "The Nintendo WTF..." Smooth guys. Real smooth.

All right, that's it. Time to put this whole mess behind us and prepare for the next big announcement. Feel free to leave your comments below, I'd love to hear what you guys thought of the coverage.