The Nintendo DSi is something I’m very interested in. Not only is it another Nintendo Handheld DS, bringing my total to ridiculous, but it brings an app store to the table, something I think that would work very well on the DS.
It does work very well for the PSP, but there needs to be more on offer.
Like the entire catalog of PSP games, for starters.
But back to the DSi. It’s quite different from the two other iterations of the DS. It’s thinner, for starters. There’s also a new OS. The two screens are larger now by a quarter inch each. Two VGA cameras, one on the hinge and one on the outer face now adorn the case. These have been used for a photo manipulations application on the Japanese model, but if they’ll be utilized for games in the future is anyone’s guess. WiFi capabilities (hello WPA) have been enhanced, or rather brought up to date. An SD card slot has been added, which is how I’m assuming the app store will work. I guess Nintendo learned their lesson from the Wii.
Dear Nintendo:Â Don’t offer an application store if your device does not have sufficient storage to handle more than 35 apps. Â I’m just saying.
Backwards compatibility for GameBoy Advance games, is gone. So those other two models aren’t quite obsolete just yet. It’s not that they took it out per se, but they did remove the GBA slot, so it’s more of a physical limitation than the hardware is incapable of it. I’m not going to miss it.
That’s wha the GBA Micro is for.
The system firmware can finally be upgraded, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Patching is something I really don’t need in my handheld gaming, but seeing as how the previous DS only supports WEP encryption for WiFi, I’ll take the ability to update firmware over none.
The DSi is scheduled to be stateside on April 5th, in black and blue models, for $170. I’ll post something once I get my hands on one.