Nintendo DS headset

We've known that touching is good for more than two years, but it's been a long wait for the chance to stick official Nintendo merchandise in your ear and shout at someone an online connection away.

But after having left the market to thirdparty peripherals, Nintendo has finally arrived, fashionably late, to the handheld headset party with this DS offering.

The headset consists of three connected parts: an adjustable microphone, an earphone, and moveable earpiece. Equipping the headset is done by slipping the earpiece over one of your ears. You can bend the earpiece in and out for fitting. Once it's wrapped around your ear, you can then adjust the microphone to rest at an appropriate angle towards your mouth.

Wearing the headset isn't entirely comfortable. It has a tendency to hang off your ear in a way that makes it feels like it's about to fall off. It won't, unless you decide to start violently shaking your head about (maybe after a devastating Poké-loss) but it's awfully annoying to deal with the constant sensation that it might.

Marketed specifically for use in voice chat over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the Nintendo DS headset can, of course, be used with any game. Plugging it into the bottom of your DS simply diverts audio from the stereo speakers into the earphone; additionally, the microphone on the handheld is shut off in lieu of the one on the headset.

We put took the headset through its paces on both an original Nintendo DS and a DS Lite. Four games were used to test the headset on the two DS models: Pokémon Diamond, Metroid Prime Hunters, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, and Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.

We found the headset to function in exactly the same manner on both DS systems, with no appreciable differences in performance. We did note, however, a common issue regarding volume levels when using the headset. The volume is controlled on the DS, with no option to adjust it on the actual headset. Hence when changing the volume, you end up with the two options you typically get on the DS – muted or far too loud – with the latter obviously being a little uncomfortable if you weren't expecting that level of noise directly in your ear.

Voice chat in Pokémon Diamond and Metroid Prime Hunters works well with the headset. It's much better than pulling the DS up to your face to try to talk into the embedded microphone. Why look like you're in desperate need of glasses with your DS two inches from your face when you can yell into the headset and just sound crazy instead?

For voice-controlled games like Brain Training, the headset isn't the preferred option, however. The microphone had difficulty picking up a few words, so you're probably better off using the embedded microphone since it's more efficient at catching certain sounds. Additionally, some games require tapping the microphone, which is difficult to do on the headset.

As for our test of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords – and by extension other Nintendo DS titles that don't use the microphone – there's no reason to use the headset. Going from stereo to mono just degrades the audio experience. If you need to use a headset for whatever reason, a pair of traditional headphones is best.

Ultimately, the Nintendo DS headset is a reasonably designed piece of official hardware that's fine if you do a lot of chatting via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Maybe that's why it's been released with the new Pokemon games? Don't bother using the headset with other games though, since its mono output worsens the audio experience.

The Nintendo DS headset is currently available in the US for around $15. A UK release date hasn't yet been announced, although we expect it to be released in conjunction with Pokemons Diamond and Pearl, whenever that may be (we're still awaiting official word).