The DS "gap" effect

[icycalm]

So the question is: which full-screen DS games use the gap between the screens as in-game playing area, and which simply pretend that it does not exist. The latter approach is of course the most sensible no matter how you look at the issue. For one thing, in the latter approach enemies can't hide there. For another, you can use emulation to play those games using a single screen, overcoming the hardware's limitations.

So this is a list thread, but be sure to also provide one screenshot that proves the point.

NO GAP (good games)
Windy x Windam

GAP (bad games)
Catch! Touch! Yoshi! / Yoshi Touch & Go
Contra 4 / Contra: Dual Spirits
Kage no Densetsu -The Legend of Kage 2- / The Legend of Kage 2



Windy x Windam


Contra 4 / Contra: Dual Spirits


Kage no Densetsu -The Legend of Kage 2- / The Legend of Kage 2


P.S. Note that most games do not use both screens as a continuous playing area, so they do not have this problem...

[Banjooie]

I agree with the part about enemies being unable to hide there, but why would game developers design DS games with people emulating it on a computer in mind?

[icycalm]

From the above post, and also your comments in the TF2 thread, I can now say with some certainty that you have some serious reading comprehension issues.

Where did you see me say that game developers should or would "design DS games with people emulating it on a computer in mind"? Did I even mention game developers at all? Haven't I made the purpose of this thread clear enough? And who the fuck gives a shit what game designers would or would not do anyway? And finally, if you really want an answer to that question, and are not smart enough to come up with it yourself, you can simply send an email to Ninja Studio (the developers of Windy x Windam) and ask them yourself.

[Banjooie]

The latter approach is of course the most sensible no matter how you look at the issue. For one thing, in the latter approach enemies can't hide there. For another, you can use emulation to play those games using a single screen, overcoming the hardware's limitations.

Seems to me you're saying that the latter approach is more sensible due to singlescreen emulation.

I'm not sure who you're expecting to take this approach if not game developers.

[icycalm]

Yes, but I did not specifically mention developers, nor did I allude to them. I am discussing the theory of game design, the philosophy of game design -- and you are butting in with some irrelevant remark about the BUSINESS of selling games. Do you get it now? I am not interested in the business side of things -- I am not interested in bean counting. Ignoring the gap between the screens is a matter of good game design -- a matter of common sense, in fact. That's the end of the matter -- anything else you might have to say on the subject does not interest me, so take it to the casual forum.

And on that note, I would just like to add how hilarious it would be if Nintendo released a DS model with a smaller or larger gap. All the games that factor in the gap would be totally fucked up, lol.

[BlackerOmegalon]

Yoshi Touch & Go / Catch! Touch! Yoshi! is the only game I know that has the gap and isn't hindered by it, or at least doesn't feel like it wasn't considered when designing the game.

You can see how it works in the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLFOSisnl-A

In the initial part, where the screen scolls vertically, the focus is on the bottom screen and it's up to the player to handle everything in the there before it scrolls past it. In the following parts of the game, nothing "hides" in the gap, although at certain times enemies will drop things from the top screen. The gap is important in that it's used to get the trajectory right when shooting at things in the top screen.

What's funny is that this game was released in 2005, yet the way the gap is handled in DS games since has only gotten worse. It seems like DS games have gotten worse as time went by, and fewer are being designed that take the features of the system seriously.

[icycalm]

Yoshi Touch & Go / Catch! Touch! Yoshi! is the only game I know that has the gap and isn't hindered by it, or at least doesn't feel like it wasn't considered when designing the game.

This is beside the point. The gap has a negative effect on ALL games in which it exists -- whether or not the developers made efforts to ensure that it did not detract too much from the experience is irrelevant for the purposes of this thread. The point is that it always detracts and therefore shouldn't exist.

Hmmm... I don't think that I have made my meaning perfectly clear here. So I'll try another approach.

Do you know those video walls they have sometimes at concerts and the like? Where a number of screens are set up next to each other, and used to project a single image? Between these screens there is always a gap -- sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, depending on the make and model of the screens -- but the point is that NO PART OF THE IMAGE IS HIDDEN IN THE GAP.

That is what is happening in Windy x Windam. That is how all games that use both screens as a continuous playing area should be designed. Anything else is retarded, and whoever designs games that way should go in the Guinness Book of Records for the extreme retardation prize.

P.S. Added Catch! Touch! Yoshi! to the list.