DS demo downloads and Metroid Chat announced @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 09, 2006

News: The DS keeps on rolling. Roll on Reggie. Roll on.

Nintendo guru extraordinaire Reggie Fils-Aime has dropped some big DS news in his speech at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' DICE conference today.

First, he revealed the DS Download Service. According to Nintendo, next month retailers will start offering downloadable demos and movie clips of DS games for free. They can be beamed directly to your DS from an in-store kiosk just by pressing "DS Download Play" on the loading screen. These demos will stay in your DS' memory for as long as you leave the system powered on and you can go back for as many as you want.

The first wave of demos will launch next month and include Tetris DS, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, Mario Kart DS, Meteos, True Swing Golf and Pokemon Trozei. A video clip of Metroid Prime: Hunters will also be available from the DS Download Service.

Speaking of Hunters, Reggie went on to announce that Metroid Prime: Hunters will include voice chat before and after matches. The chat would be limited to players on your Friend's List and can be used to agree on settings before a match and talk trash after a match is over. A big step for the DS to be sure.

And speaking of big steps, the third item on Reggie's list was the DS' domination against the competition. 850,000 people have logged on to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection a total of 20 million different times. He also reiterated the worldwide sales total of 14.4 million DSes.

Finally, the DS Lite will be announced for other regions "at a later date." Can you say E3? I knew you could.