Thoughts on the DSi

Posted by Blackett on Apr 3, 2009 in Features, Games, Music, Nintendo | View Comments

It took alot to convinve me to actually get the DSi, I thought meh a camera is not going to change my life and making me pay £150 to upgrade feels like a foolish endevour. However after getting to play with one a week ago and with Game practically making it free for me I thought I would be a fool to miss out on the opportunity.

So let us begin, I will try and cover all the functions anything you feel I have missed add below. Please feel free to argue.

The camera is the best place to start and I was surprised how niffty it is. Its not going to compete with your camera phone in megapixels but nor does it want to, this is all about school yard fun, there is enough impressive software in this bad boy to change the colour of objects, bend and stretch and the visual recognition is rather impressive even if its only used to stick a Mario moustache onto the unsuspecting public. The free software is very much a novelty but I imagine it will keep younger folk entertained for hours, I know the Gameboy camera did back in the day and this is far better.

The console itself looks beautiful, whoever works on the design and form factor of Nintendo products is some kind of genius and they should be looked at as the same level as folk at Apple. Switching from shiny surface to a matte finish gives the console an expensive feel as though this is no longer a child’s toy but something for adults to enjoy too. The feel of the console was one of the deciding factors in me actually purchasing the machine.

I think the most exciting change is the SD memory card slot and direct access to the Internet from any wi-fi hot spot. From here you can surf the net with the same Opera browser as the Wii, this isnt the greatest but does in a pinch if you really need a good blog dose whilst on the move. The DSi store is going to be the biggest selling point when Nintendo starts releasing funky games for it, this is identical to the Wiiware store and that has given us such treats as ‘World of Goo’ and one of my favourite games ‘Lost Winds.’ The titles on their aren’t the strongest at the moment with a new Warioware game being the only title taking full use of the cameras but with the likes of Katamari coming on the horizon and strong hints of Game boy, Game Gear and Lynx titles whisking their way towards the DSi I think this could be a really strong draw for people.

So in conclusion, camera good but not amazing, beautiful design, loving the bigger screens, need to fiddle with the music editor more, excellent download service and huge potential.

What do you think?