Nintendo DS: 100 Classic Book Collection
A Review of one of the latest games for Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS has made handheld gaming popular, once again. However, this time it is not just the youngsters that the DS seems to have attracted. Intellectual games, such as Brain Training, Sight Training and Scrabble, have made the DS the "thinking man's" games system.
The latest in a long line of academic game cards, is 100 Classic Book Collection, created by Nintendo and Harper Collins. Which, perhaps unsurprisingly, contains one hundred famous literary works. Novels from authors such as Austen and Wilde, are contained, in their entirety, on a tiny games card. What's more, if you've got a wireless connection you can download even more novels from the internet.
Pros and Cons of the 100 Classic Book Collection
Here is a closer examination of the principle features of the game:
- The price - Nintendo has pitched this in the lower price bracket for games;
- The space - real books take a lot of shelf space;
- The experience - as close as it's possible to get to reading a real book.
The first, and most obvious, advantage of this games card is the price. It comes in at under £20. Now, to buy these books in their original form anyone would be lucky to get two for that price (new). So, to have a whopping one hundred books, for such a small amount of money, is a real bargain.
The second large advantage is space. The space taken up by a small DS games card, is insignificant in comparison to the space taken up by one hundred large novels. Moreover, the experience is not wholly dissimilar to reading a book.
The game supplies three bookmarks for each novel. So, if more than one person is reading that book, keeping track is not a problem. In addition, as well as having a sound effect, which almost passes for the sound of a page turning, the reader can choose background music, or ambience, to read along to.
The Nintendo DS is light and easy to hold, which makes for a comfortable reading experience. The screen, with its back lighting, leads to easy nightime reading, too.
Nintendo's choice of novels and plays could not be better. The card really does contain classic literature, from Wuthering Heights to Great Expectations. The game's library is crammed with literary masterpieces.
For those having trouble choosing from such a large collection of fictional wonderment, then the game also has a book guide to help out. After answering a short series of questions, the game will select books that it believes the reader will enjoy, based on their answers the game will select books.
There are a few drawbacks, but the only real disadvantage to this games card, is that it simply cannot replace the sensation of reading a 'real' book. One particular difficulty is reading footnotes, it is almost impossible to flick to these, and than back to the original place with any ease.
More importantly, the visceral experience of a book simply cannot be created electronically. However, Nintendo has certainly created the next best thing. There is also the strong possibility that this games card could introduce a whole new audience to literature, and that would definitely be no bad thing!
100 Classic Book Collection cover
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