Nintendo has been selling the DS lit as though it were a drug to millions of hard core and soft core gamers. The Playstation portable has been a rudderless ship plagued with low quality ports of hit Playstation one and two titles with lackluster original IPs. Killzone liberation anyone ?
Nintendo rather then wait for its rivals at Sony or Apple (yes some consider apple's touch screens to be handheld gameing systems), to come out with the next generation of handhelds, Nintendo has instead chosen to release its new handheld (DSi), this Christmas in Japan.
We in the States and across the pond in Europe will likely see the new device hitting store shelves in early 2009.
The Nintendo DSi is an upgrade and not an outright revolution. It will play your favorite Nintendo DS lit titles (last gen compatible), but sadly shows no love for the Game Boy advanced generation of games which will not work as there is no port for said games.
The DSi will snap pictures with two different camera's, one facing outward (shown below), resembles the camera's found on apple's macbooks and is capable of take photo's 300,000 pixels large, which in lam ens terms equals out to 640X480 resolution.
The DSi will be able to store and playback music from an SD card which an be inserted into the right side of the DSi. In addition to matching the PSP in terms of audio capabilities, the DSi will also be able to download entire games for ($2-10), via a wi-fi connection from a virtual store. This is clearly a nod to the successful strategy Nintendo and to a lesser extent Microsoft have been employing with their Wii and 360 consoles, both of which have online stores chalk full of AAA, retro and indie titles.
The DSi is retailing for 18,900 yen, or about $185. Its more expensive then the DS lit and its really just an upgrade at the end of the day. If you really need the camera and audio capabilities then go for it, but if your existence will be rendered less fulfilling if deprived of your old GBA titles then feel free to sit this one out.
As for myself, I'll be giving my DS lit to a friend or relative the minute the DSi hits store shelves here in the US. The prospect of sticking it to gamestop by purchasing retro games online is just too tantalizing to ignore.
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Sources: BBC / Wired
