I've played it. Oh my lord, I've played it. From speculation to fruitation is less than a year � and I've had my filthy hands all over the beast.

Yesterday, at approximately 8 p.m., a small package entered my household. Initially delivered to the wrong house, it was my goal, my objective to seek it out, receive this brown mystery and bring it back to base. 20 minutes later I was telling the new console my nickname. 'mattributé' it read back to me, it's touch screen glowing in the poor lighting of my living room.

The package came alone, leaving me with nothing but a demo of this strange machines advantages. I clicked in the cart and started my first hunt. The Nintendo DS had well and truly arrived

And so, I'd had my first taste of gaming, touch screen style. I'd love to tell you it was sweet. I'd love to confess to you that my heart skipped a beat the first time I took down a metroid on a double screen. It'd be heaven to admit that that was the defining moment of my gaming life. But it wasn't. My first taste of Nintendo Dual Screen gaming was something that I'd quite like to forget.

Don't get me wrong. The console itself is perfectly made. The dual screens don't feel out of place. The touch screen is responsive (provided you use the thumb nubbin or stylus), it's not uncomfortable to hold in any manner and it looks as sleek as almost anything out there. The only problem I had with the console was the demo. For a system shifter you want something accessible, addictive and compelling. Metroid Prime: First Hunt, for me, fills none of those categories.

Bearing in mind that I've only spent 45 minutes with the thing, First Hunt is definitely not the kind of game an average gamer would want to receive with their DS on Christmas morning. It's inaccessible, remote and feels extremely alien for anyone new to the system, especially those un-used to PC gaming. For those of us ready and willing to adapt to its 'different' control system, there's bound to be gold beneath this pretty rainbow that has been made for us, but for the rest of the gaming community it will probably be worth no more than to be thrown on the heap.

It's not as if First Hunt helps itself out a lot, either. The training is more like 3 different taster missions to get you excited about the full game rather than the explanations about different methods and the intricacies of the game a new player needs. For a demo, it's pretty damn harsh.

For me, if you're giving something away with a system, it should be something which fully exploits the system and leaves the user in no doubt over the purchase they've just made. Mario Kart: Double Dash being packaged with the Gamecube, for example, is a bundle which would leave no gamer in their right mind reaching for the receipt. Tetris almost single handedly made the Game boy what it is today when it was packaged with each and every machine. Even the SNES, with it's Super Mario All-stars bundle made waves. A little taster of Wario Ware: Touch to whet our appetite would've been perfect. A mixture of a couple of 3rd party launch titles and a few mini games from Mario 64 DS would've definitely done no harm. But Metroid? A huge mistake.

When I picked up my DS I wanted to slice things, write my name all over different things and tap away at different menus in an ultra-cool manner. What did Nintendo give me? The chance to look around and hold the shoulder button in the hope of killing a metroid. Thanks.

When I first heard about the DS, I began to imagine about all the new games and genres this little pocket-revolution would create. It was like a new, ultimate playground which'd been made just for me to have fun in. And now, what do I find? A system with a killer app that simply isn't suited for the system whatsoever.

This is all based off a couple of single player games of a demo based for multiplayer, you must understand, but all that First Hunt has managed to do is put more weight behind my fears that developers are going to be unable and unwilling to fully exploit this genius that Nintendo have brought to the table. Look at the main games, people. Mario 64, Ridge Racer, Mr. Driller, Spider Man 2 and all those EA games. Some of the ports, a lot of the licenses, none of them designed specifically with the touch screen in mind.

I have no problem with ports, I must say. I'm one of those people who went out and bought Mario Advance 1 with their Gameboy Advance a few months after release. A nice little port every now and then is good for nostalgia � to keep reminding you of your roots without having to venture into the loft for that SNES. It's just that with Mario 64 as the key title on launch date � much like Mario Advance was for the GBA, in fact � it sets a very bad standard for the rest of the consoles life. They've brought out the most innovative console to ever hit the gaming industry and what along side it? A bloody 10-year-old port. Even if it is a good port of an amazing game, it's still not the way which I want another handheld taken.

Nintendo have always been the company for me that have been willing to make the difference, to go that extra mile for their customers � to make amazing games against all odds. Now, with the most innovative console ever crafted by man available on the streets, will Nintendo be able to live up to the potential its set up for itself? We can only hope so. For the minute, it looks like we'll be scratching and slicing away at Feel the magic XX/XY for all our original needs.

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