The brand-new DSi has a sleek interface and a bunch of new features. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=18121 Almost four and a half years ago I bought a Nintendo DS. Since then, the far superior DS Lite has been released, yet IÂ’ve resisted the urge to buy it because I was happy with my fatter, inferior DS. Today, the DSi came out and I could not resist the urge to upgrade to an alluring system with a great interface.
The first thing that stands out about the DSi is its new menu. Reminiscent of the Wii Channel system, the DSi Menu scrolls from left to right with everything from System Settings and a game launch window to the new DSi Shop, Camera, and Sound channels. Everything can be reorganized by using the touch screen to drag and drop the channels. It's all very intuitive and visually pleasing.
The dual-camera system - one facing inward and one facing outward - is one of the new features of the DSi. Players can take pictures using either camera and distort them and mirror them to their heart's content. There are a few playful modes involving the camera (such as putting a mustache on people) that can only be used when the system can detect a face, but I found this to be very fickle. Out of several different pictures I took of my friends and I, the system only recognized a few of the faces.
The sound part of the system is simple but fun, and has two primary uses: recording and playback of voice samples, and playing with songs via the SD card. You can record a voice sample and manipulate it using a few different methods such as altering the pitch and speed, or turning the voice sample into one of four different styles that range from a parakeet to a trumpet. You can also listen to songs off of your SD card and play with them using the fun features of DSi Sound.
The DSi Shop, one of the biggest additions to the system, isn't too populated right now (it currently has six items available for download), but everything is simply sorted into four categories: free, 200 Points, 500 Points, and 800+ Points. I can envision the DSi Shop easily turning into the navigational mess that is the Wii Shop Channel, but itÂ’s fine for the time being. With the 1,000 free points that Nintendo graciously gave me (all you have to do is connect online and you too can get 1,000 free points to spend in the DSi Shop), I bought Art Style Aquia and WarioWare: Snapped. They're both very representative of what I expect DSiWare to be: bite-sized games with a lot of replay value. Aquia appears to be a superb and unique puzzle game, and WarioWare: Snapped is basically a tech demo for the DSi Camera.
One of my favorite additions to the system is its soft reset functionality, and the fact that you don't have to restart the system completely every time you exit a menu. The soft reset, executed by a light tap of the power button (located to the lower left of the touch screen), brings you back out to the sleek menu. Another nice feature is that games are now “hot-swappable”, meaning that you can insert and remove them while the system is on with no ill effects.
The DSi is more than a style change. Almost every aspect of the system, both aesthetically and functionally, has been changed. If you are in the market for a DS, this is the one to buy, and if you've got an original DS it is high time for an upgrade. While the absence of the GameBoy Advance slot is a bummer, all the other features added to the Nintendo DSi more than make up for it.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Nintendo DSi (Read 1139 times)
