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Say hello to my little friend… Nintendo DSi

October 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am · 13 Comments

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This morning in Japan (that’d be the early hours in the UK or still yesterday Stateside, timezone fans) Nintendo held a special, no-Western-journalists allowed press conference to unveil what will now be known as the DSi, a brand new model of the twin-screened handheld with some brand new multimedia capabilities thrown in.

The thing is, I’ve seen these somewhere before…info and pictures await after the jump.

I’ve always been under the impression that some things are meant to be what they are and avoid trying to amount to anything else. The DS was, in my eyes, a champion console that took pride in staying that way – as a console – and never trying to live up to the multimedia capabilities of the PSP. They attracted two different audiences: those seeking more ‘traditional’ games as well as a rather chunky MP3 and video player would seek the PSP, and gamers (and non-gamers alike) who wanted something a little less serious and a little more innovative would seek out a DS.

Maybe I’m just branding groups of gamers here, but this has been my general experience with people I know along with myself. I’ve been known to occasionally indulge in a spot of Brain Training here and there. One thing I’d never expect of a DS, because it’s just not a thing a DS would be expected to do, would be to become a multimedia device. Certainly, the homebrew scene and the R4 cart have played a part in making this a possibility, but as a direction for Nintendo to take it was certainly unlikely.

DSi

The DSi Lite in black. Notice the bigger screens and the two cameras. Sweet?

Not today, though. With the unveiling of the DSi (the ‘i’ to be read into the same way as you read into the ‘i’ in “iPod”; in other words, it doesn’t make any sense at all) Nintendo are aiming for an even wider market than the DS offered before. The DSi is simply a DS Lite with 12% of the girth chopped off, bigger screens, two cameras slapped onto the body and an SD card slot in place of the GBA one. (Size comparison here.)

Of course, this means something’s gotta give. And that something is Guitar Hero. Oh well. Page two’s got more on the new console and what it’s offering.

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Categories: DS · Meta (about SG) · News

  • http://batsrpg.blogspot.com/ lwelyk

    I’m still on the fence on this one. I probably won’t buy it for a while due to it’s similarities with the DS Lite, but it does seem intersting. They’re definitely trying to push the PSP out with this though.

  • Samosael

    NO GBA SLOT = FAIL

    If I can’t play Golden Sun (or the pokemon DS games that make us of the slot) I’m not going to buy.

  • Lord Butters I

    They’ll probably keep the Lite on the market, the having of a GBA slot is a valuable thing, and the DS’s target audience generally doesn’t care about a camera.

  • http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/eoco Eoco

    I’m gonna pick one of them up.

  • http://www.puredigitalthought.com Saccia

    Oh great. Now people can take a picture of their junk and post it up on their Wii photo channel. Totally worth the price of a new DS.

    Yamster, you haven’t lived long enough if you think this is uncharacteristic of Nintendo. Nintendo is the champion of selling bits of useless plastic then revamping it to resell new bits of plastic a few years later. The Wii is a perfect example. Plastic and useless just as the DSi will be. But you can be assured this shit will sell like hotcakes.

  • PyroTails

    I might get it if it’s cheap enough. I still have my original DS Phat, and the bigger screens look nice.

  • Blackswordsman

    Im indifferent as it is not much improvement from the lite, meh.

  • Mike

    Bigger screen is a defo must, my eyesight is OK, but not good, and although i could use the small screens, a slightly bigger screen would make a nice difference.

  • Grantly

    I’ll probably be getting one.

  • Fishbag

    Looks nice, I won’t bother to upgrade, but at least Nintendo are starting to wake up and feed us some more sweet sweet hardcore. (mmm sin n punishment 2)

  • DoomHammer

    might get it eventually but not primarily for gaming if i do. removing the gba slot is not an improvement, its bad enough that they designed the DS lite to make sure GBA games stick out like a sore thumb ot it. the could have used the sacrificed width for a wider screen. and more importantly the gloden sun series must be playable on my nintendo handheld.

    The camera and bigger screens though could be tempting. ill wait for more new before making a descision. the DS lite will do me fine till then.

  • DoomHammer

    just thought id add something to my comment an acceptable altertanative would be to port both golden sun games to a single DS cartridge/ other compatable SD cartridge. Id pay between £15 – £20 for that alone. If they threw in 2 golden themed DS skins one for each game I would pay £30 for that package. I wouldnt care if they fitted the new DS but i would like them for the DS lite. I dpnt know if camelot (i think thats the Golden sun developers) would do that but it would be cool :)

  • DoomHammer

    correction – golden sun themed*