By Hang Lauv

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, revealed several interesting features for the new Nintendo DS handheld at a press conference in Tokyo. Apparently, the company has big plans for how they will use the DS’s wireless capabilities.

“The Nintendo DS’ greatest features are its revolutionary control schemes, such as the touch-sensitive screen and the microphone input,” Iwata said. “And its other major feature is the wireless connection. With it, we’re going to revolutionize the way that games are played.”

Iwata went on describing examples of how wireless will be different from what we know of now. For example, the DS will be able to download a game from another DS and play the game off of that DS’s game cartridge; effectively having multiple players play off of a single cartridge. Iwata also mentioned the possibility of having the DS download demos of games for a limited time or usage from specific areas to help promote new games.

Another unique possibility has the DS integrate with movie theaters. “By using the system’s wireless functionality, users that bring their DS and GBA Pokemon cartridge to designated theaters will be able to download game data that will be distributed during certain scenes of the next Pokemon movie. In one scene where the main characters meet a new Pokemon, that character’s data will be sent to their cartridges. This will be the first time such a distribution scheme has been used anywhere in the world.”

While most of these features won’t be available with the launch of the DS, it will be interesting if Nintendo will follow through with these ideas.