Civilizations for Nintendo DS?

[Aneurism]

A 'Civilizations' game for the 'Nintendo DS' would be a great idea. With a stylus and touch screen, this system is ideal for turn based strategy games like Civ. The stylus would be great for adjusting setting in cities, scroll through build queue, adjust workers, rename city, scrap stuff. The stylus would be very useful for moving units about on the world map, choosing a worker function, adjusting your tax/luxury/science, choosing a tech tree, chat in a multiplayer game etc... basically the stylus touchpad combo would overcome the challenges of porting civ to traditional console systems using only a cumbersome D-Pad & buttons combo... I believe the Nintendo DS has enough processing power to handle all of the AI calculations, and keeping track of the game... at the very least they could easily make a Civ1/Civnet type game, with improved graphics similar to Civ2 or Civ3.

 

[Aramazd]

That's a great idea, but I doubt it will happen

 

[Aneurism]

The only reason I don't think it would happen, is that the developer wouldn't think of it. I sent an email to Firaxis with this idea, I hope they notice it

 

[Babbler]

I read that civ would go on the Nokia N-Gage, but that was before the Atari sale. But a DS verison, would be pirrty great, and would be happy with a PSP civ too.

 

[Jon Shafer]

Doubt it would happen. DS is aimed at a young audience, certainly not a Civ-playing audience. If anyone were to do it, it wouldn't be Firaxis (they have their hands full), and it would likely be shopped off to another company, like what happened with the Mobile version of Civ.

 

[warpstorm]

I don't know, Trip. I bought a few DSs already (you need at least 4 to appreciate them). They are great toys. While I doubt that Firaxis would do a port, I have no doubts that it could handle a scaled back version of Civ and that it'd sell.

 

[Jon Shafer]

Look at the DS games list.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/index.html?tag=gs_lnav_ds

I'm not saying stuff that's in there wouldn't be enjoyable for adults as well as children, but that is definitely not stuff of the turn-based strategy game audience...

 

[Teabeard]

Yeah, it would be nice to have on DS. I imagine the stylus would make the micromanaging nightmare a little easier.

As for DS being for kids, I respectfully disagree.

 

[warpstorm]

Look at the DS games list.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/index.html?tag=gs_lnav_ds

I'm not saying stuff that's in there wouldn't be enjoyable for adults as well as children, but that is definitely not stuff of the turn-based strategy game audience...

Let's see, 2 dating games, two racing games, hmmm, the release title's aren't all children's fare. Coming soon a few FPS games, and, oh, what's this? Advance Wars DS, a TBS game.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/strategy/advancewarsds/screens.html?page=4

 

[Jon Shafer]

Let's see, 2 dating games, two racing games, hmmm, the release title's aren't all children's fare. Coming soon a few FPS games, and, oh, what's this? Advance Wars DS, a TBS game.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/strategy/advancewarsds/screens.html?page=4

Yes, out of 61 titles. My point is not that the DS is for kids as Teabeard seems to be suggesting, only that it's aimed towards them...

Or if you still don't get my point: if no kids used the DS then it wouldn't exist.

 

[rbis4rbb]

Warp you got 4 DSe's? All for your self?

 

[warpstorm]

rbis4rbb, it's a lot more fun when you can do the MP thing. They are for the family.

Yes, Trip, the emphasis is for kids, but there is a market for non-kids games that could be (and most-likely will be) tapped. The PSP is geared more for adults, but it's hardware doesn't seem as well suited for a strategy game than the Dss.

 

[Jon Shafer]

They could pull it off with a strong enough marketing campaign, but I don't know if they'd try that.

I still think the lack of "adult" DS' would be a limiting factor in such a move.

Besides, I wouldn't trust a Civ product that wasn't being developed by Firaxis.

 

[Teabeard]

The DS has a stylus. How kid-like is that?

 

[Aneurism]

Why woudn't kids like to play Civilizations? Civ might not be for 5 year olds, but most 10-13 year olds could handle it.

 

[Jon Shafer]

The DS has a stylus. How kid-like is that?

Just because it's a stylus doesn't make it the equivalent of a PDA. Since there's a touch screen it's basically necessary.

 

[Beamup]

Why woudn't kids like to play Civilizations? Civ might not be for 5 year olds, but most 10-13 year olds could handle it.

I think you're GREATLY overestimating the abilities of 10-year-olds. Civ3 is too complicated for the great majority of 20 year olds to appreciate - it'll be a VERY rare preteen who can handle it.

Some certainly could, I don't deny that. But "most" is overstating it by multiple orders of magnitude.

 

[Teabeard]

The target audience for the DS is anyone, but I think most people who get it would be adolescent males and probably adults too. Certainly not 10 year olds... is this audience really that different than Civ? Alot of people are prejudiced against Nintendo and will say anything they make is for kids only, and it's not true.

 

[Jon Shafer]

If the target is adolescent male, then why are there so many games aimed at kids?

Read through the games list. Without the 18 and under demographic the DS wouldn't have been released. The Sony PSP is aimed at the older guys, despite Nintendo's pleas that the DS is also. It certainly has potential, but right now it's very much built around the kids.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/518/518873p1.html

 

[Illusion13]

I assume 50+ hours of straight gameplay isnt very healthy for your DSes... Besides, the time consumption that Civ takes isnt something that you just port to a handheld...