The Nintendo DS is to Japan what the PC is to America...

[A Black Falcon]

New Super Mario Bros. is selling better than any other Super Mario Bros. title since Super Mario World. So to answer to answer your question, yes, I think people that buy Brain Training and Cooking Mama are also picking up NSMB and maybe FFIII as well.

But it doesn't seem to be convincing game companies to release games for the hardcore on the DS. The "games to buy" list is dominated by Nintendo's own titles, like all of Nintendo's systems since the N64, despite its success, while more of the third party games aimed at the core gamer market seem to end up on PSP. Selling Mario to someone who doesn't play many games isn't as big of a stretch as selling other games would be... same with FF. Or Dragon Quest. Is the DS's success actually selling it to the hardcore gamer market, beyond longtime Nintendo fans? I'm not so sure... maybe FFIII will help there though. We'll see.

Plus, the cell phone systems in Japan have been getting pretty powerful lately, making the N-Gage an even bigger embarressment.

The lack of standardized cell phones in the US is the main reason our phones are missing out on a lot of unique games being released "over thar". We also missed out on the online mode in Pokemon Crystal due to the lack of standardized link ports in cell phones stateside.

I can appreciate a nice diversity but at this point it isn't so nice. It's just annoying.

Well, that said, I don't even have a cell phone.

I don't have one either, and don't want one. :)

But yes, the lack of standardization in the US definitely is hurting application development, as is the lower level of technology used in US phones compared to Japanese ones (ie: they spend more on cellphones)...