The Nintendo DSi: The Response to the Turf War Apple Started with the IPod Touch?
The question I’ve been asking myself for the last few months has been “does the world need another incarnation of the Nintendo DS?” Don’t get me wrong, I love the DS, it was a revolutionary little handheld when it was released and the second gen Nintendo DS Lite was a vast design improvement, but was it really a smart move for Nintendo to continue to push out “last gen” gaming technology to the market just for the sake of a few more bells and whistles? It seems like Nintendo has been itching to blast back at Apple for trying to muscle into the handheld gaming market. Here’s a brief set of first impressions on this new $170.00 monstrosity.
The purpose of the DSi is for Nintendo to push out wireless communication, an MP3 player and a camera into its handheld lineup. This is Nintendo’s answer to the IPod Touch. Oddly enough, this little handheld unit actually has a higher capacity for content than the Wii Console with onboard flash memory in addition to a slot that accomodates any size SD card you can currently purchase (leaving the Wii in the dust still limited to 2 Gig SD cards).
Like the Wii Console, the DSi has a functional Opera Web Browser for pretty smart browsing and allows users to connect to the Nintendo shop and download demos and purchase games directly into the unit from anywhere you can connect to a wireless network. The browsing is quite tasty and very intuitive using the DS stylus with the upper screen displaying a semi-full version of the page with an outline indicating where the bottom screen “magnification” is placed on the page. The surfing speed is tolerable, in a handful of tests I found it comparable to the IPhone when connected to a wireless network. Overall, it’s much easier to browse and surf than the Wii version of the browser, light years ahead of the Blackberry Opera Browser, but still not in the class with IPhone/IPod touch surf capabilities. Unfortunately, it’s still a tad behind the curve with no advanced java support for embedded video, so no YouTubing on this machine yet.
The second big feature of the DSi is the built in Camera, with a dynamic and easy to use image editing app that’s geared more toward a casual user for “fun” application image editing rather than heavy duty work, but it’s still quite impressive for a little game machine. The camera itself actually has two built in lenses, one on the outer shell to use the DSi like a standard digital camera and inner lens that points at the user for the purpose of taking self snapshots as well as integrating your image and movements into games.
Does integrating yourself into games sound “icky?” Well, so far it’s hard to tell how image sense gaming is going to work, but the first game available to incorporate this feature is the downloadable WarioWare Snapped that is a compact “snack-sized” entry into the popular (and damned fun) WariWare game series. The image integration for this game is based completely on shapes and contrast. You start the game by centering your face and hands on an outline on the screen and the handheld differentiates your skin tones from the color of the background behind you. Our first try at this was nightmarish as we tried to find a proper sitting and lighting angle to get effective results. My son seemed to have much better luck the next day in lower light conditions.
The game’s concept is clever when it works. The minigames give you poses with your head and hands to mimic to complete the each task. Sometimes it’s a simple pose, other times it’s more complex task like taking your hand and slipping it into a “ring” or living the ever popular Wario “nose-picking” games by literally mimicking the actions. One cute addition to the game itself though is that the camera also captures full motion video, so after your WarioWare game is complete it will play back the video it took of you making a complete ass of yourself while playing. Admittedly, thisis a cute feature but will lose it’s novelty quickly. Overall WariWare Snapped is a nice game that still seems like a primitive application of the technology, but I’m willing to continue to give the game further test drives. Oddly enough, because of the “contrast detection” that the WarioWare game uses, I don’t believe it would ever work in the environment that the unit is being demonstrated in the promo vid at the end of this article.
In addition to the wireless networking and camera features, the expandable memory makes the DS into a fully functional MP3 player that integrates iconic Nintendo Imagery like Mario characters into the equalizer graphics. Again, Nintendo is obviously taking Apple’s attempts to lay claim to the handheld gaming market personally and biting back at the MP3 market.
I have to admit, the DSi is a great little package and no doubt a direct response to Apple’s IPod Touch campaign strategy. From a gaming perspective however, it’s still just a plain old Nintendo DS with a hint of promise using the camera integration. Apart from a slightly larger and crisper screen than the DS Lite there’s not much more to offer if you have no intention of taking advantage of the camera or wireless networking unless we see better image integration in future titles. It should be noted that you lose Gameboy Advance support if you move up to the DSi. From my perspective this is a bit of a blow considering we still had a handful of Advance games that got play in my house.
One small annoyance we noticed is that the screen on my DSi has a bit of a problem staying put in certain positions. I’m not sure if it’s just my unit or if it’s a problem with the design, but considering the game unit bases some of its features around setting the unit down and using it hands free this is a concern. I’ll probably be taking it in this weekend, but I’m not sure it will do me much good since I don’t expect to be able to simply exchange a “hot demand” item for a while.
It’s difficult to either recommend or “not” recommend this item at this point. It’s certainly a nice device. If you’re not a handheld game user and are looking for the latest and greatest to get started I would probably be a bit wary of picking up a unit that is still based on handheld technology (game/GFX-wise) this old. However, if you’re in the market for a price conscious alternative to the IPod Touch this certainly should spark your interest since there’s already a rich library of game titles available. It’s everything the standard DS is minus the Advance support. I think if you are current DS owner weigh your decision on this with how badly you want or need the additional features. If you just need the unit to play your current DS collection I would certainly hesitate before dropping the cash. It’s a solid unit, but like the Wii console, it adds a lot of bells and whistles on to “last gen” gaming technology.
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One Response to “The Nintendo DSi: The Response to the Turf War Apple Started with the IPod Touch?”
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April 11th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
It’s a simple equation for me: DS - GBA slot = no thanks. Sorry, but putting in a crappy little camera (why does every handheld device have to take a picture these days?) doesn’t forgive that sin. If you’ve never had a DS and don’t mind missing out on the back catalog of GBA games, then I suppose it’s a fine system. Me? I might go buy a spare DS for the inevitable day when my current unit finally dies.