DS Rumble Pack Pictures

The DS rumble pack has been revealed! Head inside for the full story. Update: Mario & Luigi 2 rumble support!

IGN recently got their dirty little hands on the rumble pack and here are their impressions.
"The Rumble Pak, called quite simply the "Rumble Pak", vibrates when the Nintendo DS tells it to. Code within DS software will trigger the innerworkings of the cartridge to spin and vibrate, which, in turn, causes the Nintendo DS system to vibrate as well.

The Nintendo DS system will note that the Rumble Pak is installed on the system menu screen with a special "DS Option Pak inserted" message where "Start GBA game" would show up. Putting the Rumble Pak cartridge in a GBA system will not work -- the system won't boot up beyond the Game Boy screen.

The only game that officially supports it right now is the game that it comes packaged with it. Games will have to be written with the Rumble Pak in mind for the vibration feature to work. Metroid Prime Pinball puts the Rumble Pak to work by offering jolts and shimmies when the Samus ball whacks into obstacles and hazards.

Either our cartridge is broken, or the DS Rumble Pak is one of the noisiest Rumble Paks Nintendo has ever built. When playing Metroid Prime Pinball, we can hear the rumble mechanism more than we can feel the rumble effects in the system. It's so loud, in fact, that it sounds like a metallic "chirp" whenever the rumble is activated. We'd rather just not put it in the system at all. Good thing it's free, because at this point we wouldn't bother buying it as an extra.

This is odd because we've experienced handheld rumble in other Nintendo forms. Wario Ware Twisted GBA and Game Boy Color games like Pokon Pinball used types of rumble that were quiet but effective in their feedback. Our Rumble Pak for the DS doesn't perform nearly as well as Nintendo's previous rumble efforts."

Below you can see a picture of the unit which is basically a standard gba cartridge with a plain white label which says "Rumble Pack".

The rumble pack will come standard with Metroid Prime Pinball which ships in just a week.
Update: It has been confirmed by nintendo that Mario & Luigi: Partners in time will support the Nintendo DS Rumble Pack. In what way is not known but stay tuned for details.
src: IGN.com

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Comments

• 

  that shitss small foo, lol. Its small hope they get the noise softened out, and it could be a good feature. But does not look like a must have just yet. (loos a little to small) I wander what else we will be able to shuv into that slot.

  walaluigi, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  O.o

  Nintendude, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Maybe it's just a prototype.

  Olpus Bonzo, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Maybe it is th ereal thing!!!

  nin10d0fr34k, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  It's the real thing, trust me.

  skarma, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  rumble packs are that small?.. wow a major change from the N64 version ;)

  flipping_heck, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  I'd like a quieter one if it was larger.

  Fish, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Mario + Luigi :/ Hmm...could work...

  skarma, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Sometimes the occasional rumble is nice in a game like M&L. I think it would work.

  Nintendude, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  If you guys ever played Mario & Luigi on the Game Boy Player you will probably have an idea of what the rumble will feel like in the DS version

  Rynan, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  yea,i have that game! but at ign.com, it says that this rumble pack is the noisiest of all!and they also sayd that it was a good thing it was free, becouse its a little anoying.

  fg-54, 30-11--0001 at 00:00