At a Nintendo meeting last week, company president Satoru Iwata unveiled a necessary accessory for a game that’s on the wrong platform. What am I talking about? The upcoming Pokémon typing tutor game for the Nintendo DS, called Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS. The game will come with a Bluetooth keyboard. The game’s cartridge will have a built-in Bluetooth communication card, since the DS doesn’t have Bluetooth support. I’m really curious why this is being released on a portable device, since it seems kind of absurd to carry two devices just to play one game.
Looking at the keyboard though, I’m guessing that Nintendo is planning to have more games or apps that will support the keyboard, otherwise why include Control, Alt and Fn keys to a typing game meant for kids? One immediate upside to the default keyboard layout is that it’s compatible with other gadgets as well. Iwata mentioned that some Nintendo employees were able to use the keyboard with their iPhones and Android phones, although he did imply that Nintendo won’t guarantee compatibility to other devices. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS will be released in Japan this April. No word on price and international release date, and why this wasn’t released on the Wii instead.
