Got my DS

Rew

steviec wrote:

I've got a dead pixel tho, just staring at me in the middle of the screen all bright and blue
Anyone know what the procedure is with this, I know nintendo are happy to replace them, but I dunno how that covers importers and tbh I'd rather keep it at the moment than spend ages posting it to japan and back.

Did you get it off Lik-Sang? Ask them what the story is? The year warrenty will cover you though. Also you could mail Nintendo and ask them if they will do anything...

Mario rocks alright.

mp3guy

i got 2 off liksang (one is my friends) and neither had dead pixels.

steviec

Well I mailed them, see how they reply.

To be honest it's not that noticeable except when the screen goes black, just disappointing when my brand new toy isn't perfect!

Its a cool machine though, looks a lot nicer than in pictures, I didn't realize it was metallic silver I thought it was manky grey. Mario 64's class too, slowly getting the hang of the thumb strap..

Rew

I had a good go at Ridge Racer last night. It s a decent enough raceing game. There are 3 control modes easy (d-pad), hard (stylus) and expert (thum nub). To progress through the levels you have to come first in each race and there are 3 races before you move up. After you beat a race you can race it again to get a new car. Multiplayer supports up to 6 players using on card or 6 with their own cards. Visually it looks good with a few things thrown in like motion blur and reflections on the cars.

Played some more Spiderman as well. It looks great but what lets it down is the complex level design that can be tricky to find your way around. In saying that I still want to play more of it and get on to later levels to see how they expand the game.

My girlfriend has nearly compleated XY/XX and enjoyed all the various games. Its off the wall but not as off the wall as Wario Ware, so ther eis a kind of a story you can follow.

Havn't gotten too far in mario about 7 or 8 stars but I haven't unlocked any of the others yet.

Mr E

I'm stuck on the vine boss in Feel The Magic, and haven't gone back to it for a while. I have about 40 stars in Mario. The minigames from catching rabbits are nearly more fun than the main game

Next game I get will probably be Wario in Feb or March when the US version comes out.

Rew

Vine boss caused alot of swearing and touch screen bashing.

Im going to go out on a limb and preorder Goldeneye from Lik-Sang in the hopes its good...

Games I want:

Metroid Hunters
Advanced Wars
Goldeneye
Mario Kart
Bomberman
Wario Ware
Maybe Pac and Roll

This is a bit of an evloving list as im sure titles I really want will appear over time.

Placebo

sis rang today, its sold out all over sacremento.

balls./

Rew

Lik-Sang have the Jap version in stock...

Smellyirishman

Ye or play-asia.com

Placebo

if i was to order of lik-sang now, when would it arrive and how much do you end up paying by the end, DS is 170 or so on it, delivery,custom tax ?

steviec

That 170 is only about 120-130 in euros... Delivery is about 30 euro aswell. Customs is a bit hit and miss, I didn't have to pay any but I've heard of people that did.

Smellyirishman

and depending on what delivery you choose , it could arrive in 1week-2weeks or 2-4days, also depending on how much you spend

steviec

Must say I'm impressed with Lik-Sang's tech support, they seem to actually care about their customers. Guess I'm too used to Irish tech support. I got a very apologetic reply to my e-mail within hours saying they're doing everything they can and are still waiting for a reply from Nintendo.
Eventually today I got this reply:

Thank you for your patience with the NDS “dead pixel problem”.
This email contains somewhat bad news, but please don’t shoot
us, we are only the messenger

After contacting Nintendo of Japan, their policy towards dead
pixel problem is not good news after all, they will not cover
dead pixel problems under warranty. This is different than what
Nintendo of USA does, but it’s the official reply from Nintendo.

Unfortunately, they have shown us the cold shoulder and they
pointed at the user guide, where it’s already written that dead
pixels are not a defect. We have not given up after the initial
reply and still asked them via repeated phone calls and emails
if there is still a way to get the systems replaced, unfortunately
without any luck.

Please understand that under the given circumstances we cannot
give you the answer you are looking for, we cannot get the systems
replaced from Nintendo. Attached are the relevant pages in the
user guide and their translations, as well as the emails received
after inquiring directly in Japan.

We have also done some more research on the Internet, and found
that this seems to be with all LCD manufacturers, not only with
Sony or Nintendo. For example it appears that Nokia is only
replacing their 6600 phone when there are more than 3 dead pixels
on the screen, and about PC monitors we even found more info:

HP will only replace a monitor with there are 4 scattered faulty
pixels or 3 clustered.
LG will replace a monitor if there are 2 within a 10cm circle.
NEX-NEC will replace 3 lit, 3 unlit or 6 color.
With Samsung six dead pixels are allowed, or nine, depending on size.
Sony will replace if there is 2 lit, 2 unlit or 4 dead.
Viewsonic will replace if there is 2 lit, 2 unlit or 4 dead.

Having said this, if you believe that your problem will be
considered as ‘fatal’ by Nintendo, and that they will replace
your unit after inspecting it, please let us know and we will
still issue an RMA number to return your unit to us in Hong Kong.
After we have received your NDS, we will send it to Nintendo of
Japan for repair on a monthly basis, which means that it can
unfortunately take a while. But please understand that if Nintendo
of Japan returns your unit with a note that it will not be replaced,
we are as helpless as you are. Please do not include any extra
items, just the base system itself. They won’t return any extra
items that we forward to them.

Once again we are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused.

With best regards /

Your Lik-Sang Customer Support team.

I can live with the dead pixel but it's a little annoying to see Nintendo got themselves lots of good publicity for 'doing the right thing' when it comes to dead pixels, and in fact they've left me stuck with one. Considering how they've always neglected Europe I doubt they'll be very helpful when it's released over here either.

For anyone still planning to import, looks like the American one is the best course of action, if they're in supply yet.

monkeyfudge

I have a dead pixel on mine too. But mine's an american unit.

But I still don't think it's worth the bother of trying to get fixed as it's right up the top of the top screen. I only actually noticed it when I tried out a GBA game in it, the dead pixel stands out as a black point, it's green if a DS game is being displayed.

I've switched the GBA to display on to the bottom screen, so it's really no big problem.

Oh, and I finally got a game for my DS this week. I went with the Feel The Magic game. It's good fun, but fairly limited, you can complete it very quickly. But I do love the level were you have to perform CPR... great stuff.

I was looking forward to getting Mario Kart in the new year, but it looks like Nintendo has jigged around with it's release schedule. They are holding Mario Kart back until March when the PSP is realeased in the US. I'd prefer to get and English version of Mario Kart, my Mario Kart on the GBA was japanese one... so I'd like to get an English one this time around...

steviec

Mine's near the middle, but it's on the touch screen so it's not that bad. The main screen is perfect.

Would anyone like to recommend some GBA games? I never had a GBA which is my main reason for adopting the DS so early(I planned to get a GBA then saw if I waited I could import the DS for roughly same price..)

monkeyfudge

Well I'd say Wario Ware is the best must have title on the GBA. But you're probably better off waiting for the DS version when it comes out in the US.

The Golden Sun games are excellent RPGs and will last you a long time. Final Fantasy Tatics is another good game with a long life span. And Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga is a great mario RPG which is very funny.

There is a Warioland game as well which is alot of fun, as it's an original game and not just a remake/update like all the mario games on GBA.

And although I don't have them, the Metroid games are supposed to be good too.

steviec

Thanks for the info, I already got warioware thats my first GBA game, I couldn't not get it after getting the Gamecube version a while back.

When looking around shops yesterday I couldnt help noticing that gamestop have a pretty tiny collection of GBA games on sale, Game are a little better but there seem to be very very few second hand games around. Didn't have time to try Smyths, or the big Games on the southside. Hopefully they'll have a better selection.

monkeyfudge

You should try play.com as well. New release GBA games are usually £24.99 which is still a long way off the €44.99 they charge you here. They have a sale on now and you can pick up titles like Prince of Persia : Sands of Time for £9.99

I forgot to mention the Pokémon games. Pokémon is great fun.

And there is the Advance Wars games that are really good strategy games.

Oh and of course Legend of Zelda : The Minish Cap looks great... a Zelda game made by Capcom... That's definitely going on my list.

evad_lhorg

just to let anyone know who got the new wario ware ds game from japan.... thre is a fault in it


http://ds.ign.com/articles/575/575035p1.html

Hugh Hefner

I haven't encountered any of those faults.

My friend has The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap and says it's top notch (my phrase, not his).

Rew

Zelda Minish cap is great. A little short if your a Zelda vet but still highly enjoyable.

Smellyirishman

Hurray, I now have my DS..... all wrapped up and ready for X-mas

Brock

mine was too until i unwrapped it tonight i cant wait its great i felt gulity i rewrapped it but its calling me from downstairs
Brock

Smellyirishman

I took it out, opened it up (not powered it on) and charged it, so its in prime condition for tomory!!! I left for a LAN right after putting it on charge tho so its been taken away , wrapper, and hidden by now

Brock

it comes pre charged or so i hear i also got a good few hrs out of mine

DiscoStu

i got mine yesterday. ups delivered the cutomary assrapage along with the machine but it was worth it for hitofude alone.

rainbow kirby

Is Chokkan Hitofude any good, because it looks like fun in the way that deceptively simple puzzlers on handhelds always do?

mp3guy

Brock wrote:

it comes pre charged or so i hear i also got a good few hrs out of mine

it does, but over time that charge runs out, so by the time you get it thers not much left, and the fact you're NOT supposed to run it down out of the box, you're supposed to charge it fully (only about 2hours) then run it down fully.

qz

mp3guy wrote:

you're supposed to charge it fully (only about 2hours) then run it down fully.

I know that I definatley wouldn't have the patience!

Smellyirishman

rainbow kirby wrote:

Is Chokkan Hitofude any good, because it looks like fun in the way that deceptively simple puzzlers on handhelds always do?

Check the DS games thread