So, Nintendo has formally announced the DSi, the upgrade of the insanely successful DS.
I'll admit, freely, that I was wrong to question the necessity of the DS. It has become a solid successor to the GBA that is selling way better than I could've thought. That said, I can't see the point of the DSi.
So, what's different?
Two cameras have been added, and the GBA port has been removed. There's an SD Card Slot. The screens are slightly bigger. There's also an online store. Of all these changes, the only one I don't question is the screen-size.
This might be due to a skew of the people I spend my time around, but almost everyone I know with a DS owns a few GBA games. No one is happy about the absence of the GBA port around here. I'm betting Activision is a little grumpy about it too, what with the Guitar Hero On-Tour games using that port.
Then there's the cameras. They're .3MP. They're not big enough to be actually useful for anything outside of in-game use, so how are they going to integrate them into games without it being chintzy? The microphone use has been weird at best and embarassing at worst. But then it's my own fault for playing WarioWare in public...
The SD Card Slot is there, I presume, to support the online store. Gotta have some place to store all those downloaded games! It's actually not a bad solution, seeing as its not proprietary, so maybe I don't have any complaints there.
What I really, really do not like however, is the online store. From what I understand - and correct me if I'm wrong - is that Wii points and DSi points do not transfer, and neither do the point cards.
What the hell? Really, Nintendo? Do I have to have a different card for each too? And a different "user number?" How does Nintendo even have a website? They're so internet and technoconvergence-phobic that it's almost hard to joke about anymore. Microsoft had no problem integrating the Zune pass and Xbox Live and as a result has gained a faithful Zune user in me.
I personally will NOT be picking up a DSi right away - if ever. Nintendo needs to move forward if they want people to drop another $180 on a relatively unchanged DS.
I'll admit, freely, that I was wrong to question the necessity of the DS. It has become a solid successor to the GBA that is selling way better than I could've thought. That said, I can't see the point of the DSi.
So, what's different?
Two cameras have been added, and the GBA port has been removed. There's an SD Card Slot. The screens are slightly bigger. There's also an online store. Of all these changes, the only one I don't question is the screen-size.
This might be due to a skew of the people I spend my time around, but almost everyone I know with a DS owns a few GBA games. No one is happy about the absence of the GBA port around here. I'm betting Activision is a little grumpy about it too, what with the Guitar Hero On-Tour games using that port.
Then there's the cameras. They're .3MP. They're not big enough to be actually useful for anything outside of in-game use, so how are they going to integrate them into games without it being chintzy? The microphone use has been weird at best and embarassing at worst. But then it's my own fault for playing WarioWare in public...
The SD Card Slot is there, I presume, to support the online store. Gotta have some place to store all those downloaded games! It's actually not a bad solution, seeing as its not proprietary, so maybe I don't have any complaints there.
What I really, really do not like however, is the online store. From what I understand - and correct me if I'm wrong - is that Wii points and DSi points do not transfer, and neither do the point cards.
What the hell? Really, Nintendo? Do I have to have a different card for each too? And a different "user number?" How does Nintendo even have a website? They're so internet and technoconvergence-phobic that it's almost hard to joke about anymore. Microsoft had no problem integrating the Zune pass and Xbox Live and as a result has gained a faithful Zune user in me.
I personally will NOT be picking up a DSi right away - if ever. Nintendo needs to move forward if they want people to drop another $180 on a relatively unchanged DS.
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