Important Importables: crazy DS peripherals

Yes, the DS is a unique little handheld system, but it apparently isn’t unusual enough for some Japanese video game developers and publishers. They decide that it isn’t enough for their games to just have touch screen support, they need to branch out into uncharted territories. They need crazy, potentially useless, peripherals.

When compared to other handheld systems across the ages, the DS has acquired a collection of the most outlandish devices ever to be jury-rigged onto a system. So far the only useful additions have been a web browser and TV tuner, and sadly the TV tuner only works with Japanese television stations.

Not all of the peripherals are as insane as the others. It is a gradual slope from a cute gimmick to what-were-they-thinking. The thing is that the success or acceptance of one outlandish peripheral seems to encourage the creation of another.

So let’s look through the DS’s sordid past and discover just what people have been shoving into the GBA slot. Our journey begins with the Oshare Mahou Love and Berry card reader, and will take us through the Otona no DS Kao Training camera, Slide Adventure: Mag Kid slide controller and far too many Arkanoid DS paddle controllers.