On the face of it, that's what's wrong with their recent announcement. Not that there's no pictures of the mysterious new "Nintendo DS." Not that there's only the vaguest notions of what gameplay this device will enjoy. The problem is that Nintendo is throwing resources towards the wrong front.

The Nintendo DS is a Dual Screen portable. Like I said, nobody outside Iwataland knows what it will look like, but I imagine it to be a largish GBA with stacked three inch screens. Each screen gets its own processor, which is intended to provide two ways for the game to display itself. For instance, bottom screen shows inventory while top screen shows action. Or rear view and front view in a driving game. Although it's said to run off a completely different data device - IE, not the familiar GBA cartridges or the GameCube half-size discs - nobody is saying if it will offer simultaneous two player gaming (I bet it won't) or if it will somehow run existing GBA games (I bet it will, but only with some kind of add-on) or if it will connect with the GameCube (I bet it will.)

Despite a kickass holiday 2003 season, the GameCube is still struggling. The PS2 is far and away the best selling video game system on the planet. (And it's a crime that Nintendo should be racing so closely with the Xbox, a system that's made its bones almost exclusively on graphical detail yet can't generate more than one best-selling, must-have game.) The GBA, while still king of the hill, could be in for a rocky road when Sony's own portable comes out this winter. What Nintendo needs to be doing is finding ways to shore up public opinion for the next 'Cube and GBA... not throwing money down the toilet for a third wheel on a bicycle that's barely rolling a straight line.

They would be better served by finding ways to repair their image. Tell us about all the "adult" games currently in development. (I know I don't need that kind of talk, but it's absolutely killing Nintendo's reputation in the 14-24 year old set.) Resident Evil 4 and MGS: Twin Snakes just isn't enough. Come up with new exclusive franchise games that drag back the action-adventure male crowd. More Metroid. A new look for Legend of Zelda. Find a way to push sports games back onto a Nintendo console. I know it's hard to imagine, but Nintendo could (and does) provide a range of games appropriate to varying age groups... they just need to make gamers aware of it. Two years later, I still think almost nobody has bought Eternal Darkness, the game that was supposed to put Nintendo's "new adult reach" on the map.

Their big announcement should not have been "Hey, we're working on this crazy two-headed handheld" and more like "Wait until you guys see the next GameCube. It's going to come with four wireless controller ports, a built-in GBA game player, a removable mini-hard drive, full support for the latest in digital video and audio, and we've figured out how to make online play not totally suck!" That's a hardware press release that the entire gaming universe could have got behind.