So, Nintendo Direct announced that at least one game from DS is now available in Wii U's Virtual Console. I was genuinely interested on how Yoshi's Island DS is emulated with the service, so I bought it and messed around with the configurations. I know it's tricky to emulate DS games on a Wii U, but I can't help but feel that the emulation seems to be a bit unpolished.
First off, the screen smoothing feature is basically outputting a 240p display to an HDTV. What it really does is to take the native resolution of both screens and enlarge them up to whatever size the screen will be displayed on TV/GamePad screen. While it does smoothen the rough edges, it also blurs the screens unlike the GBA VC counterparts. I don't think this is a big deal to me, but it's still saddening when you know they could've done better than that.
Second, there is no way to map the buttons however we'd like. Some of you may think this can be remedied by using the other types of controller (e.g. Wii U Pro Controller). However, DS VC games only support Wii U GamePad. Want to remap the ZL and ZR buttons to respond as L and R? Too bad. We're forced to stretch our index fingers a bit more to reach the actual L and R buttons on the GamePad. To some, this might not be too problematic. The second I noticed that I couldn't remap the buttons like I could do for the other platforms, my worries started to settle in quickly and only went worse as I took a look on how the screen configuration operates. I've got quite a bit to say about how poorly the VC service emulates Yoshi's Island DS and perhaps pretty much any title that constantly uses both screens for extended view of an area.
Third, even the most logical screen configurations also have theirs drawback while playing Yoshi's Island DS. The default configuration would let us play exactly how we play from the original DS system (or more precisely DS Lite and DSi models). While it's perfectly playable, the screens are ridiculously small on GamePad and even the TV if it isn't large enough. I wish they actually gave us an option to resize screens.
Then, we have a configuration that display the lower DS screen on the GamePad and the upper screen to the TV, and is a good way to play Yoshi's Island DS. The screens are large enough, but it can be disorienting when you have to switch you head between the two screens. And it got worse with the GamePad and TV. In Yoshi's Island DS, this screen configuration can be awkward when it suddenly switch screens and/or disable the ability to manually switch screens, making Off-TV Play somewhat disadvantageous due of the game's dual-screen estate design and its tendency to place enemies above your "main" screen.
If having to deal with moving your head between two screens is too annoying for you, then there's the option of having two screens in one TV/GamePad while focusing on one or another. And you can make the bottom screen sit right or left depending on which hand is your dominant one. For Yoshi's Island DS, it's a wise choice to focus on the bottom screen. Even with that, you still have to squint on the unfocused screen because it's freaking small again.
Next up, one of the configurations is basically a larger version of the default configuration, except this one expects you to hold your Wii U GamePad sideways. The latter displays both screen stacked up left-to-right and swaps the X and Y axis on both Control Pad and Control Stick, assuming that you're right-handed. Sounds like a no-no for Yoshi's Island DS, but getting hang of it isn't terribly difficult.
There's another screen configuration that does pretty much the same thing like the previous one, except it also mirrors what is actually displayed. Again, far from ideal when it comes to Yoshi's Island DS aside of flipping the TV 90° to left or right for a much larger dual screen display and adapt to the wrong screen configuration controls, but it works very well when a game asked you to hold your DS sideways (as you won't have to hold your GamePad sideways).
To sum up everything about the screen configurations, none of them are perfect for playing any game that uses two screens to extend the view of an area, especially because the DS VC isn't flexible enough for this type of game.
Thanks to the lazy smoothing effect, inability to remap the buttons and the lack of flexibility of screen configurations with games that utilizes two screens for larger view of an area are all indicating to me that the DS VC emulation was not only tricky to pull it off, but also feels like a massive step back from the surprisingly great GBA emulation quality. For those who also played any DS game via Wii U Virtual Console, what do you think on the way they are emulated?
First off, the screen smoothing feature is basically outputting a 240p display to an HDTV. What it really does is to take the native resolution of both screens and enlarge them up to whatever size the screen will be displayed on TV/GamePad screen. While it does smoothen the rough edges, it also blurs the screens unlike the GBA VC counterparts. I don't think this is a big deal to me, but it's still saddening when you know they could've done better than that.
Second, there is no way to map the buttons however we'd like. Some of you may think this can be remedied by using the other types of controller (e.g. Wii U Pro Controller). However, DS VC games only support Wii U GamePad. Want to remap the ZL and ZR buttons to respond as L and R? Too bad. We're forced to stretch our index fingers a bit more to reach the actual L and R buttons on the GamePad. To some, this might not be too problematic. The second I noticed that I couldn't remap the buttons like I could do for the other platforms, my worries started to settle in quickly and only went worse as I took a look on how the screen configuration operates. I've got quite a bit to say about how poorly the VC service emulates Yoshi's Island DS and perhaps pretty much any title that constantly uses both screens for extended view of an area.
Third, even the most logical screen configurations also have theirs drawback while playing Yoshi's Island DS. The default configuration would let us play exactly how we play from the original DS system (or more precisely DS Lite and DSi models). While it's perfectly playable, the screens are ridiculously small on GamePad and even the TV if it isn't large enough. I wish they actually gave us an option to resize screens.
Then, we have a configuration that display the lower DS screen on the GamePad and the upper screen to the TV, and is a good way to play Yoshi's Island DS. The screens are large enough, but it can be disorienting when you have to switch you head between the two screens. And it got worse with the GamePad and TV. In Yoshi's Island DS, this screen configuration can be awkward when it suddenly switch screens and/or disable the ability to manually switch screens, making Off-TV Play somewhat disadvantageous due of the game's dual-screen estate design and its tendency to place enemies above your "main" screen.
If having to deal with moving your head between two screens is too annoying for you, then there's the option of having two screens in one TV/GamePad while focusing on one or another. And you can make the bottom screen sit right or left depending on which hand is your dominant one. For Yoshi's Island DS, it's a wise choice to focus on the bottom screen. Even with that, you still have to squint on the unfocused screen because it's freaking small again.
Next up, one of the configurations is basically a larger version of the default configuration, except this one expects you to hold your Wii U GamePad sideways. The latter displays both screen stacked up left-to-right and swaps the X and Y axis on both Control Pad and Control Stick, assuming that you're right-handed. Sounds like a no-no for Yoshi's Island DS, but getting hang of it isn't terribly difficult.
There's another screen configuration that does pretty much the same thing like the previous one, except it also mirrors what is actually displayed. Again, far from ideal when it comes to Yoshi's Island DS aside of flipping the TV 90° to left or right for a much larger dual screen display and adapt to the wrong screen configuration controls, but it works very well when a game asked you to hold your DS sideways (as you won't have to hold your GamePad sideways).
To sum up everything about the screen configurations, none of them are perfect for playing any game that uses two screens to extend the view of an area, especially because the DS VC isn't flexible enough for this type of game.
Thanks to the lazy smoothing effect, inability to remap the buttons and the lack of flexibility of screen configurations with games that utilizes two screens for larger view of an area are all indicating to me that the DS VC emulation was not only tricky to pull it off, but also feels like a massive step back from the surprisingly great GBA emulation quality. For those who also played any DS game via Wii U Virtual Console, what do you think on the way they are emulated?
