DS to enable portable Wii features?

There are rumours that Nintendo will show off a DS accessory that will enable tilt sensitivity via the GBA slot and also turn Wii into a semi-portable system. The Nintendogossip blog has received an email by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. Here´s the details:

One of the first games that will use this gyro-sensor is Tony Hawk Downhill Jam for the DS. You’ll have to tilt your DS from left to right to steer your skater down the hill. This will give us the feeling like we’re playing with our Nintendo Wii on the road. Other developers got great ideas when they heard about this new accessory but I can’t share them with you yet.

Games like Excite Truck and Tony Hawk Downhill Jam for Nintendo Wii will allow you to connect your Nintendo DS (lite) wireless with your Nintendo Wii. The DS will be used as a controller. Don’t expect too much of this feature since the gyro-sensor cartridge for the DS isn’t as accurate as the Wiimote.

The size of this accessory is the same like the rumble packs for the Nintendo DS and the DS lite. Nintendo will show off this new accessory at the Leipzig Games Convention. I don’t know if there will be any games using this sensory playable on the show floor.

Now, let´s briefly discuss how credible this source could be. First off, there is always the question why such an anonymous poster would choose a relatively small blogsite to reveal information to, rather than a professional site like IGN. No disrespect to Nintendogossip, the same argument would apply if I had been sent that mail. Of course, the answer is that blogs are more likely to actually post that mail, since professional sites are more particular about what they post. However, this indicates that the author himself apparently does not believe the content to be good enough to be published on IGN. This hardly speaks in favour of what he has to say.

However, there are also reasons to believe in the authenticity of the claims. For a start, the mail is well-written. This is, unfortunately, something that stands out in this community. It´s no surprise, really, because a large number of people who take an interest in videogames are teenagers (and it seems it´s often those younger ones that are prone to setting up elaborate hoaxes for a laugh).

Secondly, one big factor in favour of the mail is modesty. By writing "Don’t expect too much of this feature since the gyro-sensor cartridge for the DS isn’t as accurate as the Wiimote", the author actually takes his revelation down a peg or two. Most fakers don´t want to exaggerate, but they will not want to sell their made-up story under value. This guy seems to be quite realistic and understates his point, if anything. If a faker, he´s of the clever sort.

---

Turning to the content, the whole thing would make a lot of sense. Connectivity between the consoles is a given. And since the consoles communicate, Wii can display content on the DS when you are on the go, for example.

A tilt-sensitive cartridge for the DS is to be expected (since the technology was already incorporated into WarioWare: Twisted, as the author correctly points out). And given that, the DS could easily function as some kind of mobile screen for Wii games.

Now, the Wii games would obviously have to be presented in a resolution that is fit for the DS. Scaling down Wii graphics to DS standard makes no sense (and is probably even near-impossible, from a technical point of view). It is my guess that the only way this could be done is by writing dedicated DS mini games or extensions into Wii software.

That would make the most sense, since this feature would not work well with a number of Wii games (take Trauma Center, for example). But it would work for Tony Hawk´s Downhill Jam or ExciteTruck. So this feature would be an optional one, like Wi-Fi compatibility for DS titles.

On the whole, I believe this story could well be true. And this would add another bonus to the Wii console, by either adding to the television screen or enabling portability for Wii.

But it´s important to take into account that this bonus would be no huge deal, since the graphics displayed would have to mirror the DS´ graphical capabilities, not the Wii´s. Rather, think of this as the Sega Dreamcast´s Visual Memory Unit (VMU) done right.

Source: Nintendogossip
Thanks to: GoNintendo, Infendo