Wow. Well, surely anyone but the most rabidly optimistic Nintendo fanboy would have been at least slightly surprised by Nintendo’s Japanese conference earlier today - though, as I revealed yesterday, the launch of a new DS wasn’t such a big shock.

The design’s getting a bit of a battering elsewhere online, but I can’t see how Nintendo could really have improved things. For one, it’s matt as opposed to glossy, so fingerprints shouldn’t be so much of an issue. Secondly, the dual-screen motif on the lid has been replaced with the built-in camera (which means it’s no longer quite so gloriously symmetrical, but hey, isn’t that the case with most modern mobile phones?). Thirdly, the power button’s positioning is perfectly fine, and I’m totally hot for the multicoloured lights on the left hinge, as it happens. Perhaps it’s just me, but I like the cut of its jib. More info and pics after the jump. Click this way…

As far as improvements over the original go, it’s apparently both lighter and thinner, with marginally larger screens (which makes for an ever-so-slightly wider and longer - by millimeters - unit). Indeed, if you’re a percentage whore,you’ll be thrilled to learn that the new screens - of which, contrary to some internet rumours, only one remains touch-sensitive - will be a whopping 17% larger than the DS Lite. It sounds better, too - you can tweak the sound in more ways than just sliding the volume switch to the right, and the speakers are said to be improved. There’s no news of the rumoured MP3 playback feature, but given that the console now supports SD cards, surely that’s a no-brainer?

There’s been some confusion about the camera - it seems that it can take photos at a VGA resolution of 640×480 pixels - or 0.3 megapixels - which isn’t massive, but given that the DSi isn’t going to be more expensive than the DSLite, it’s not bad for a freebie. As mentioned above, the console now supports SD cards, so you can take a snap, whack it onto the card, then whip it out of the slot and play jigsaw puzzles with it on your Wii. Or daub rude drawings over pics of gurning friends, as I tend to do. Because I’m that mature.

The DSi also comes with a browser built into the hardware - which will offer a WiiWare style download service called DSiWare, featuring games which can be downloaded direct to the SD card. Apparently, some of the downloadable content will be available completely gratis, while other titles will cost between 200 and 800 Wii points. In Japan, as a way of encouraging more people to take their consoles online (which some eastern gamers still seem curiously reluctant to do) Nintendo will be giving away 1000 points with every purchase. No word yet on whether this will be region-locked. (Please let it not be region-locked. I can’t afford three new consoles.)

It’s out in Japan this year, and Spring in Europe and the US. So: hit or miss? Comment below, and let me know exactly what you think.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm by Chris Schilling
DS, Hardware.