"Take off your hat, kick off your shoes �I know you ain't goin' anywhere�"

Ah summer� the perfect time to take off your hat, kick off your shoes and play some DS or GBA. Hot sunny days and long journeys in a travel sickness inducing stuffy cars are two of the best things handheld gaming was made for. Who wants to be inside on a beautiful balmy day like this? Not me, that's for sure, but as it appears that some unknown party taped me to my desk while I was sleeping, I guess I'm rather stuck here. Oh well�

Handheld gaming is all about portability; it's about being able to go far enough away from an electrical socket for long enough to enjoy the outside world. Or, if you're stuck in a car on the way to Skegness for a week, it's a good way of shutting out either (a) the family argument that's been going on for the last four hours or (b) pretending that the imbecile in the Hawaiian shirt in the front singing along to Britney Spears isn't actually your father.

Furthermore, playing a handheld is primarily about quick bursts of play, generally no longer than an hour, because the conditions under which handheld games can be played are often such that they necessitate the ability to switch off at a moments' notice. There are of course games that buck the trend by rewarding players for hours of play, but these tend to be few and far between and some �such as Resident Evil DS, just don't work.

No-one ever said that handhelds had to be played at home in front of the TV.

But in a modern world that demands cross-functionality as standard in its electronic devices, the notion that handheld consoles should be hotwired into their home console counterparts has become the norm. Why? Surely it contravenes good sense to attach a portable device �by its very name a mobile unit designed to allow free roaming, to a static and immobile console. Apparently, this is what is now required, nay, expected of handhelds. Does it make any sense though?

The modern handheld-TV connection owes much to the Super Gameboy, a simple creation that permitted the owner to play his or her low res games through the SNES and on the big screen TV. The fact that the games looked awful and the SNES pad was not ideal for the set-up notwithstanding, it was a fun idea that captured the hearts and minds of many gamers.

Then came Pokémon and the N64 connection-deely that allowed transfer of all your favourite critters onto �yes indeed, the big screen. This was however, a bit of a snag, as it required the gamer to own both an N64, a Gameboy, a copy of the game and the relevant adapter. Great in theory as it means more profits for the company when more items are sold. In practice it creates something of a problem, splitting the user base into the "have" and "have not", meaning that while some can gain full enjoyment of the game, others can only experience a slice of the pleasure that their no doubt richer and assuredly more smug friends. Splitting the user base is an issue that most games companies managed to get their head around after watching Sega completely mess up with the Mega-CD and the 32X.

But back to the matter in hand (arf) �is it really worth connecting a handheld console to a home console, especially as it incurs more expense?

The answer for the moment is: not really. As it stands, connecting the GBA to the Gamecube allows you to either use it as a map or a device to unlock a twinkly-twee minigame that is stored for as long as the handheld is on. As much as I loved Animal Crossing on the Gamecube, if I didn'ty already own a GBA I would have felt cheated buying one just to unlock a fruit-obsessed islander, or to play a decades old game of tennis. As a third party developer with very few titles on the Gamecube to match up with GBA software, the incentive to create cross-over links is minimal.

The future may well be different for the handheld-home console connection question; with the wireless capabilities of the DS and the Wii, the need for expensive additional peripherals is eliminated and seeing as both consoles are seemingly aimed at the same wide-open demographic of anyone who can pick up a control pad, the next few years could indeed see many advances in the thus far unfruitful relationship.

Retailers have also been a little slow to capitalise on the relationship between home and handheld consoles. One might argue that it is their right and remit to promote as they please, but it makes sense to market both together in one big money-spinning drive. Or should it be left to the manufacturer to heavily press upon the shop assistants the importance of cross-console pollination? Given Nintendo's apparently enormous budget of about 50p (and hey! Oi! We expect change out of that, Mr Marketing Manager!) for Europe, it would seem unlikely too that they would outwardly promote the relationship. Instead they focus on getting more developers to take up the tools and work on games with features that few people are able to play and even more are unaware of their existence.

Time is the most important factor in this particular offshoot of console evolution: as more and more people take up the DS and realise that Touching is Good, more and more will be inclined to buy the home console to play alongside the DS and finally come to the realisation that touching each other is even better.

Iun Hockley
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