Finall,the big day is here and as expected, Nintendo has announced a redesigned Nintendo Ds, which is called Nintendo DSi. The meaning of the i still remains to be solved, as they never explained what does it stand for. Maybe it is an abbreviation, or it just doesnt have any special meaning. I am guessing that the i should stand for Interaction.
Let's have a look at changes shall we? The notable changes include:
1. An embedded 0.3 megapixel camera inside of the console and one 3mp camera outside of DSi which could be seen clearly on the pic above. Pictures captured can be edited using touch screen. SD memory card slot is now available so that you can transfer picture taken by DSi to your Wii and upload it into Wii Photo Channel.
2. Size has been reduced by 12% and 2.6mm. Too bad that they decided to omit the Gba slot.
3. DSi will have larger screens now, which are 3.25 inch compared with NDSL 3 inch screens.
4. DSi can adjust pitch and playback, which makes it suitable for learning language and music playing.
5. There will be onboard memory now just like psp which maybe used to shorten the loading time, but it remained to be seen how big the memory will be.
6. With the inclusion of Sd memory card slot, you can finally download DSi wares to your ds with previous Wii point, which has been renamed to Nintendo Point.
Another rumored feature is not included with the DSi, which is double touch screens.
The most shocking truth that I learned from this announcement is Nintendo decided to eschew the GBA slots. Oh come on, Nintendo. Just to make it lighter and smaller(which isn't THAT apparent in DSi), you remove a slot that has supported so many peripherals to date including the popular Guitar Hero grip. Don't forget this game is the most hot selling third party DS game in USA,I bet Activision is not gonna be happy with it because they will be releasing sequel of Guitar Hero On Tour soon. There are some people who think that Nintendo will release a redesigned DS soon again, only this time by including the GBA slot. What do you think?
Nintendo may have positioned its previous portable consoles as a merely gaming machine, it doesn't hurt that DSi has now featured music playing capability. Although I rarely listen to musics, I still welcome this feature as I foresee myself to be using it a lot. The audio quality is still questionable though until it is released. But for a guy who rarely listens to musics like me, I don't think that I will ever complain, haha.
I am really glad that Nintendo doesn't try to implement both touch screens because in my opinions, it could be disastrous. As we know currently NDSl has the notorious cracked hinge epidermic and it seems like Nintendo has done little to the design of DSi, so I expect(touch wood)there maybe some problems regarding the hinge after it is released. By implementing touch screen capability on the upper screen, it will just worsen the whole thing as gamers will clearly poke the upper screen incessantly(and unbeknown to them, some may have actually poke it too hard, which maybe too much for the upper screen), so there is a possibility that it will worsen the hinge. Ok, even if the hinge problem no longer exists, do you really favour wobbly upper screen after some time of using your DSi? This one should happen to every one after of owning a NDSL(not sure of NDS phat though) for some time as I am currently experiencing it as well. The upper screen is wobbly maybe due to the long-used loosen hinge. It is not really a serious flaw because it may happen to electric appliances that have designs like NDSL, but I am sure no one likes it, me included. If upper touch screen does materialize, I guess it will get wobbly very short after as you have been messing around with the hinge by poking at the upper screen almost every time you play some games.
There are still questions regarding the DSi wares. It remained to be seen whether those games are original games like Wiiwares or we will be able to download games from virtual console or the best of all from the catalog of previous portable consoles like Gameboy, Gameboy Color or Gameboy Advance. And they never even mention DLC. With the support of SD memory card, it surely does open up unlimited possibilities for DSi user. This is the only change I applaud them for and certainly most of the gamers have been waiting for.
Oh ya, forgot to mention some important details of NDSi. This baby will see its light out in Japan on 1st November 2008, which is less than 1 month away and it will see its release in other regions 2009. It retail price is 18900yen(about 180usd). It will be released in 2 colors which are white and lack. Corez may want to be an early adopter for this, but this time I am not gonna be like him like I did for DS Lite last time because the alterations just don't warrant a quick purchase for me. I am gonna hold out and see its review before I decide to pay for it. Hopefully I would be able to try it out during the November gathering, haha. For those who are interested, you might head to our friendly neighbourhood, Play Asia to preorder it now so that you won't miss it when it is released. White DSi could be preordered here while black DSi can be obtained here.
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