I picked up a nice non-shiny black DSi yesterday and couldn’t be happier with the purchase. As a fairly avid DS player, the new system offers enough features to justify the cost of admission. If you enjoy the portable too, it’s well worth the upgrade.
The first thing that grabbed my attention after unpacking the DSi is the new matte finish. It feels must sturdier in your hands now, whereas the DS Lite’s gloss finish sometimes made it feel a bit slippery. The buttons all received a similar new finish as well which gives everything a nice texture while playing. The new power button location is nice, as is the volume buttons instead of the slider.
The screens, while larger, are definitely much brighter and more vibrant than the DS Lite. I recently picked up Professor Layton and comparing it between my DS Lite and DSi is a big difference. Games like Rhythm Heaven and GTA: Chinatown Wars also had a similar jump in fidelity. The colors just pop and everything looks a bit more crisp.
What really drew me in, though, were the little features. Pressing the Power button during any game or application brings you back to the home screen. Game carts are now hot swappable, so shutting down your DS to change games is a thing of the past. Also, being able to change the brightness on the fly by holding Select and using the Volume buttons is very helpful if you’re gaming on the go. The camera features are pretty cool, although they appeal to a younger crowd. I did enjoy taking pictures of my cats and distorting them, though.
The biggest part of the system is really the DSiWare downloadable titles. A couple solid games have already launched with the system and many more are on the way (I saw quite a few solid titles at GDC). This will really open up the platform to more indie games and other solid titles not seen before. There are huge possibilities there that will be explored.
If you don’t depend on the GBA slot of your DS (and not too many people do), I’d say it’s well worth your money to pick up a DSi for DSiWare alone. I think a lot of people will be surprised at how well developers take advantage of the hardware.
Just realized I forgot to mention that the DSi now supports WPA and WPA2 for wireless connectivity. Doesn’t work with older DS games for online play, but it will work for future games and the for the DSi Shop.
lol, the one point I notice people never get to with the DSi is downloadable content.
Yes, the original DS had DLC but not as in depth as we’ve seen on the PSP or home consoles, I’d say the DSi will do wonders for that and plus there’s a good chance we may see DLC for existing DS games to allow them to run in DSi mode with new features.
Really I feel the internal memory and addition of an SD card was the biggest update for the DSi (and something I’ve said they should’ve done when the DS first came out).
Downloadable updates will also be huge, at some point we may see a Virtual Console for handheld titles and even a DSi equivalent of the WiiSpeak Channel with the ability to chat and share pictures with Wii owners or even Connect24 support.
DLC doesn’t really serve as an attraction for me. I assume the majority of these upgrades would be doable on the DS Lite, less the larger screen size. Flash the OS and add the SD slot adapter into the GBA slot, allow that to act as extended memory.
Still how long until another version comes out? And what about Guitar Hero on the DS, it has a following, screws that title over.
I want one…contest (hint-hint)
Thanks for the information.
Just about to tweet this story.