Nintendo Launches iQue DS In China

Nintendo has announced the Nintendo DS for the Chinese market, under its Chinese trade name of the iQue DS. The system will launch along with Chinese-language versions of Polarium and Wario Ware: Touched!, for an unknown price point. Several Nintendo systems have been released under the iQue name thus far: the separate company is necessary to operate under Chinese law, but Nintendo remains the owner and operator of the subsidiary branch. The iQue line began with the iQue Player, a standalone version of the Nintendo 64 housed entirely within a bulkier version of the N64 controller, which was particularly interesting for having N64 games downloadable onto flash memory in Chinese stores, as a digital distribution alternative to selling separate cartridges. Other more recent releases have included the iQue Game Boy Advance and now the iQue DS, the Chinese versions of Nintendo's reigning handheld system - however, the iQue DS is believed to simply be a re-branded version of the DS with translated Chinese-language text, rather than using any of the flash-based digital download capabilities of the original iQue Player. The iQue website lists a number of other titles as possible iQue DS releases; though the box art displayed in the "Advance looks" section still has the Nintendo DS logo, it seems likely that Super Mario 64 DS, Band Brothers (not currently available outside Japan), Yoshi Touch & Go, and Nintendogs are all likely candidates for future iQue DS titles.