The Nintendo DSi has finally got it release date and price. The thing is that the DS has been out for years and has sold tens of millions of units. So Never Unplaying has decided to outweigh the pros and cons, to outweigh if the $169.99 machine is worth your hard earned money when it releases the fifth of April. Let’s not beat around the bush, and get straight into the facts:
DSi Pros:
Bigger screens- The screens get a smidge upgrade in size so that words are read easier and visuals can be seen a bit better. The Lite did it too, so naturally the DSi should have an upgrade. It’s now 3.25 inches compared to the Lite’s 3 inches.
Cameras- The Nintendo DSi can take pictures through the two VGA cameras. They can be saved and used through a SD memory card. What’s neat about the pictures is that you can play with them. You can change the color, distort them or add things to the pics. There’s a LED light on the outer clam shell for people to know that you’re upskirting them. The camera has face tracker too, something I was shocked to see in a VGA camera for a gaming device.
Plays Music- In addition to pictures, the DSi can play music (AAC format) that are on the SD card. You can also play with the music by messing with the pitch and speed.
Audio Recorder- The things you can do with the music, you can do with anything you record in the DSi’s microphone too.
DSiWare- Exclusive to the DSi is the option to download games to the system like how the Wii uses WiiWare. This way you can carry many games on the hardware itself as well as get nice unique indie games that couldn’t get the cash for retail and marketing. World of Goo is known to be one of the Wii’s top games and it’s not even on a disk. Let’s hope we see killer software for DSiWare too. Good titles can warrant a purchase of this machine alone. Another point is that DSiWare does not limit to games. Tools can also be downloaded to it like a calculator, memo pad, or things like Personal Trailer Cooking: A cookbook. A (free) web browser will be one of the first DSiWare tools.
Don’t have to restart the system to do something else- This is awesome and one of the coolest features of the device. Every time you want to change the settings or quit the game, you always had to shut down the system and manually restart. Now you can soft reset into the main menu if you want to quit something. Same thing applies for the settings menu and DSiWare games.
Change the brightness anytime- Another fantastic feature that only a few will probably know about. Hold the Select Button and press Up and Down Volume buttons (Volume is not a slider anymore) and you can instantly adjust the screen brightness. So if you battery’s low you can instantly conserve it by changing. There are now five brightness settings on the system.
Better speakers- The DS Lite speakers are a bit weak because of the thinness of the upper shell. However with better technology, the DSi speakers have better quality in addition to output louder sound.
Possibility of the “Virtual Handheld”- If this picks up, we might be treated to Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, and more games on DSiWare.
Firmware upgrades- Like every other current system, the DSi is upgradeable. So if any issues or if Nintendo wants to add stuff, a simple firmware upgrade can happen. This was something the DS needed from the beginning.
DSi Cons:
More expensive- The $169.99 price gave me sticker shock. Even with all these new features, in the end it means more money. In harder times, the last thing we expect is a drastic increase in price. The DS Lite is a nice sleek system with a great library of DS and GBA games to play on for $129.99. When the Lite replaced the old DS, it was at the same price with a cooler system. It was really a good value. Finally, for the $169.99 you can get a PSP.
Weaker battery life- It’s not by much, but the system’s battery life is a little bit weaker. It’ll also die faster with the new louder speakers, bigger screens, music player and camera. Better screen brightness management however can save time while in a critical moment.
Onboard memory is only 256MB- That is the size of one DS cartridge. If DSiWare games and tools are pretty big in size, this machine will fill up fast. Even IF you can use the SD card, it’s dumb that Nintendo still hasn’t learned their lesson about the small onboard memory issue that the Wii is struggling with.
Doesn’t seem to cater to the mass market like the Lite- My mom loves the DS Lite. She would hate it if the system was like the DSi though. She’s tech-illiterate, but it doesn’t take much to know how to use a DS Lite. Older or tech illiterate customers would feel ripped off over the music player, the camera and the idea of DSiWare. It’s intimidating to those people.
No plans of DSi exclusive games in retail- Yep, only the downloadable DSiWare games are exclusive to the platform (At this given time). Why buy a system where only the niche downloadable games are exclusive? It’s not that digital downloads itself are niche, but DSiWare games are. These are really only for the hardcore gamers in America. Those same hardcore gamers who already have DS Lites won’t feel like upgrading just for a few perks.
No MP3 support for the music player- The DSi plays music, but not in the most used format. It uses the AAC format. The format has a bit better quality, but not that popular outside certain players. Funny enough, the idea was probably based on the fact that iTunes and the iPod use that format. Ask yourself though: If I was using those things, why use the DSi?!
The cameras are only VGA’s (0.3 megapixels)- That means the pictures are 640 x 480. That can’t even be a good wallpaper image for you PC. When you import the pics to the Wii Photo Channel or the PC via the SD card, you’ll see some small pictures. It is more than fine for the DS screen though.
Power button placement- It’s on the left side next to the touch screen. It’s where a thumb could be. It feels like they’ll be a lot of accidental turnoffs or accidental resets to the menu.
The material used for the handheld- The DS Lite is glossy looking but the DSi is a matte black or blue. It looks a bit dull, but the worst thing is that every little scuff shows on the thing so if you use it often, it will look beat up real quick. People with the Crimson or Cobalt DS Lite know that the bottom half is matte black like the DSi will be. It feels like we’ll see some pretty banged up DSi’s. Won’t have to deal with fingerprints though.
No Game Boy Advance slot- Cut the current library by a half because the DSi will not be backwards compatible with the hundreds of Game Boy Advance games. Truthfully, I can understand that, but the GBA slot was not just for the GBA games. Now some DS games are incompatible with DSi, like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk’s Motion. Plus, some games are also cut on their features, like the Pokemon Diamond/Pearl import feature or Mega Man Zero/ZX special bosses. Rumble Pak’s worthless too. Future games could have used the GBA slot in other unique ways also, but those concepts are now scrapped.
Pictochat is not enhanced with video or online- You’d think this would be obvious, but video chatting on Pictochat through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection would be great. Hopefully, this could be a DSiWare application though.
No accelerometer- After the iPhone success and that little thing called the Wii that made Nintendo a few bucks, an accelerometer should have been a easy choice for gameplay enhancement.
DSiWare is exclusive to DSi- Face it, we might not buy this because we already own Nintendo DS Lites along with over 75 million people. Most of that 75 million won’t upgrade because of the digital download service, camera and music player. It’s not reasonable. So already, 75 million people won’t have access to DSiWare. That worries me about the success of the service, which is exclusive to the DSi. Every Wii owner has access to WiiWare if they want to, so should DS owners. I’d like to see something for DS Lite owners to gain access to DSiWare, but it seems unlikely.
System reeks of piracy possibilities- I hate homebrewing myself. I think it’s dumb to jailbreak an iPhone or hack a Wii, so seeing the SD card slot and the onboard memory makes me upset about the ideas of the DSi homebrew community. Though I do think Nintendo put that there so ROM cart developers and cheat device makers go out of business. I doubt the firmware updates would do anything too.
Nintendo scrapped an idea of dual DS slots- Recently, Nintendo made a segment called “Iwata Asks.” Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, interviews the masterminds of a latest piece of hardware or software and the latest one was about the DSi development. A funny part they actually said was that the original design had two slots for DS games. So that you can quit one game and start another without switching out games. I thought that would be a great concept if people can take two games within the handheld itself and with the option of booting back to the main menu, it’d be neat to switch to a new game without turning the system off.
As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of the DSi. It’s too pricy to upgrade and for what? Possibilities for good DSiWare games really. Sure the screens, sound and features are a nice touch, but with every enhancement comes an issue about it. The music player and the camera are cute, but outdated gimmicks and are not necessary. Maybe if this thing was a phone then yea, it’d be really cool to only carry this. The thing is if you own a phone, you have a better camera and a better MP3 player. So at the price of $169.99, I cannot suggest owning one unless you:
1) Don’t own a DS and want to pony up another 40 bucks,
2) Want to upgrade from the old fat DS and want to pony the extra 40 bucks or
3) Feel strongly with the option for DSiWare.
There is hope, if we complain enough and don’t support the platform; Nintendo would have no choice but to drop the price eventually. It’s Nintendo, so we know they’re making money with every DSi sold so there is room for a price drop. If that does happen, DSiWare wouldn’t get off the ground.
The thing is that a game system should not be bought unless adequate software warrants a purchase. Also for the DSi’s case to Lite owners, a game system shouldn’t be needlessly upgraded unless the system totally improves as a gaming machine over its predecessors. Take the Game Boy Advance SP with its backlit screen and rechargeable battery or the PSP 2000’s video output function. The DSi reminds me of the Xbox 360 Elite; only those who know they want it should get it. Those who don’t are only throwing money out the window with useless options.
Will I own one? Yes, because I have every Nintendo system, but like the Game Boy Micro, I probably won’t get it until I can get it cheap used long after its discontinuation. Of course that may not be true and I could get one soon if DSiWare becomes a force to be reckoned with. As an iPhone user myself, the DSi’s camera, music capabilities and web browser are a joke to me as well as a waste of my money. There might be a few who want this, but I’m not one of them.
