The "Retro Game Reviews" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I wasn’t going to get the DSi at first. It didn’t exactly seem like that much of an upgrade from the DS Lite. In some respects it could be seen as a downgrade with reduced battery life (due to the brighter screens), though this can be changed.
But then I started to get that Nintendo tingling. I started hearing about the DSiware coming out (Nintendo’s answer to the ipod Apps store) and support from third parties like Gameloft. It didn’t take much longer than grabbing a bunch of games under my arms and heading off to the game store to trade them in before I owned one.
You got the Look
The first thing you notice about the DSi is that it’s rough. Not rough like an an Essex girl after too many Lambrinis, but rough as in the finish on the case being a weird Matt texture rather than the DS Lite’s lovely smooth shiny look. Ok, if aesthetics aren’t your thing then you probably won’t even notice, but I was quite surprised in this ipod crazy generation of shiny things.
Inside there’s a few changes too. The volume slider is now 2 buttons, up and down, which also covers for a contrast up and down button allowing you to change the brightness of the screen and thus save precious battery time. The power is now a button on the face of the console instead of a slider at the right hand side and there is a camera both on the inside and out. Finally, there’s an SD Card slot so you can store MP3s and save photos and apps from your DS (in addition to the 256MB onboard).
New Feature Presentation
After registering the console you’ll immediately notice the new menu system. It’s more like the Wii but with a sliding bar instead of a bunch of squares. It’s quite neat and easy to get to grips with.
A couple of new applications are already installed. The parrot icon takes you to a fun little app to record your voice and play about with it, making it higher, lower, faster and slower. It can also do this for any MP3s on an SD card. While it’s fun I can see the novelty wearing off after about..ooh…5 minutes or so.
Then there’s the biggest new feature, the cameras. One 3 megapixel camera inside and a 0.3 megapixel camera outside. They’re not really for taking professional photos, but for using in apps, with Nintendo enticing developers to make use of them in games or apps from the store. The photo editor on the DSi is quite fun and packed with features like different lenses and distortion tools, it’s worth playing around with and you’ll find yourself coming back to it for a quick laugh.
What’s In (The) Store
Aside from the pre-loaded software, the DSi has a link to the DS Shop Channel and DSiWare store, very similar to the Wii Shop Channel, even down to the music playing in the background and the funny loading screen when you download software (this time it’s Mario and friends putting balls into a box, I kid you not!).
The stuff on the store is still getting going but there are already some quality items to download. Wario Ware Snapped is typical Wario madness but using the camera (review coming soon), Dr Mario is a cut down Wii version of the classic game, still highly addictive after all this time and Real Soccer 2009, which is an interesting version of a cartridge game that now has better graphics and camera support. Gameloft’s other big game on the store is Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, the latest in the Asphalt series of arcade style racing games and currently the best.
The games and apps range from Free (such as the browser) to 800 points for the top of the range games. Many more are promised, including versions of old Nintendo Game and Watch games.
i See
So my experience with the DSi is a good one, I’m glad I upgraded from the DS Lite and while there isn’t too much that many people will want if they own a DS Lite, the camera, Wii integration and the promise of some great DSiWare to come should be enough to persuade others.
If you don’t own a DS already though, the DSi is a must.
10/10
But then I started to get that Nintendo tingling. I started hearing about the DSiware coming out (Nintendo’s answer to the ipod Apps store) and support from third parties like Gameloft. It didn’t take much longer than grabbing a bunch of games under my arms and heading off to the game store to trade them in before I owned one.
You got the Look
The first thing you notice about the DSi is that it’s rough. Not rough like an an Essex girl after too many Lambrinis, but rough as in the finish on the case being a weird Matt texture rather than the DS Lite’s lovely smooth shiny look. Ok, if aesthetics aren’t your thing then you probably won’t even notice, but I was quite surprised in this ipod crazy generation of shiny things.
Inside there’s a few changes too. The volume slider is now 2 buttons, up and down, which also covers for a contrast up and down button allowing you to change the brightness of the screen and thus save precious battery time. The power is now a button on the face of the console instead of a slider at the right hand side and there is a camera both on the inside and out. Finally, there’s an SD Card slot so you can store MP3s and save photos and apps from your DS (in addition to the 256MB onboard).
New Feature Presentation
After registering the console you’ll immediately notice the new menu system. It’s more like the Wii but with a sliding bar instead of a bunch of squares. It’s quite neat and easy to get to grips with.
A couple of new applications are already installed. The parrot icon takes you to a fun little app to record your voice and play about with it, making it higher, lower, faster and slower. It can also do this for any MP3s on an SD card. While it’s fun I can see the novelty wearing off after about..ooh…5 minutes or so.
Then there’s the biggest new feature, the cameras. One 3 megapixel camera inside and a 0.3 megapixel camera outside. They’re not really for taking professional photos, but for using in apps, with Nintendo enticing developers to make use of them in games or apps from the store. The photo editor on the DSi is quite fun and packed with features like different lenses and distortion tools, it’s worth playing around with and you’ll find yourself coming back to it for a quick laugh.
What’s In (The) Store
Aside from the pre-loaded software, the DSi has a link to the DS Shop Channel and DSiWare store, very similar to the Wii Shop Channel, even down to the music playing in the background and the funny loading screen when you download software (this time it’s Mario and friends putting balls into a box, I kid you not!).
The stuff on the store is still getting going but there are already some quality items to download. Wario Ware Snapped is typical Wario madness but using the camera (review coming soon), Dr Mario is a cut down Wii version of the classic game, still highly addictive after all this time and Real Soccer 2009, which is an interesting version of a cartridge game that now has better graphics and camera support. Gameloft’s other big game on the store is Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, the latest in the Asphalt series of arcade style racing games and currently the best.
The games and apps range from Free (such as the browser) to 800 points for the top of the range games. Many more are promised, including versions of old Nintendo Game and Watch games.
i See
So my experience with the DSi is a good one, I’m glad I upgraded from the DS Lite and while there isn’t too much that many people will want if they own a DS Lite, the camera, Wii integration and the promise of some great DSiWare to come should be enough to persuade others.
If you don’t own a DS already though, the DSi is a must.
10/10
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
I wasn’t going to get the DSi at first. It didn’t exactly seem like that much of an upgrade from the DS Lite. In some respects it could be seen as a downgrade with reduced battery life (due to the brighter screens), though this can be changed.
But then I started to get that Nintendo tingling. I started hearing about the DSiware coming out (Nintendo’s answer to the ipod Apps store) and support from third parties like Gameloft. It didn’t take much longer than grabbing a bunch of games under my arms and heading off to the game store to trade them in before I owned one.
You got the Look
The first thing you notice about the DSi is that it’s rough. Not rough like an an Essex girl after too many Lambrinis, but rough as in the finish on the case being a weird Matt texture rather than the DS Lite’s lovely smooth shiny look. Ok, if aesthetics aren’t your thing then you probably won’t even notice, but I was quite surprised in this ipod crazy generation of shiny things.
Inside there’s a few changes too. The volume slider is now 2 buttons, up and down, which also covers for a contrast up and down button allowing you to change the brightness of the screen and thus save precious battery time. The power is now a button on the face of the console instead of a slider at the right hand side and there is a camera both on the inside and out. Finally, there’s an SD Card slot so you can store MP3s and save photos and apps from your DS (in addition to the 256MB onboard).
New Feature Presentation
After registering the console you’ll immediately notice the new menu system. It’s more like the Wii but with a sliding bar instead of a bunch of squares. It’s quite neat and easy to get to grips with.
A couple of new applications are already installed. The parrot icon takes you to a fun little app to record your voice and play about with it, making it higher, lower, faster and slower. It can also do this for any MP3s on an SD card. While it’s fun I can see the novelty wearing off after about..ooh…5 minutes or so.
Then there’s the biggest new feature, the cameras. One 3 megapixel camera inside and a 0.3 megapixel camera outside. They’re not really for taking professional photos, but for using in apps, with Nintendo enticing developers to make use of them in games or apps from the store. The photo editor on the DSi is quite fun and packed with features like different lenses and distortion tools, it’s worth playing around with and you’ll find yourself coming back to it for a quick laugh.
What’s In (The) Store
Aside from the pre-loaded software, the DSi has a link to the DS Shop Channel and DSiWare store, very similar to the Wii Shop Channel, even down to the music playing in the background and the funny loading screen when you download software (this time it’s Mario and friends putting balls into a box, I kid you not!).
The stuff on the store is still getting going but there are already some quality items to download. Wario Ware Snapped is typical Wario madness but using the camera (review coming soon), Dr Mario is a cut down Wii version of the classic game, still highly addictive after all this time and Real Soccer 2009, which is an interesting version of a cartridge game that now has better graphics and camera support. Gameloft’s other big game on the store is Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, the latest in the Asphalt series of arcade style racing games and currently the best.
The games and apps range from Free (such as the browser) to 800 points for the top of the range games. Many more are promised, including versions of old Nintendo Game and Watch games.
i See
So my experience with the DSi is a good one, I’m glad I upgraded from the DS Lite and while there isn’t too much that many people will want if they own a DS Lite, the camera, Wii integration and the promise of some great DSiWare to come should be enough to persuade others.
If you don’t own a DS already though, the DSi is a must.
10/10
But then I started to get that Nintendo tingling. I started hearing about the DSiware coming out (Nintendo’s answer to the ipod Apps store) and support from third parties like Gameloft. It didn’t take much longer than grabbing a bunch of games under my arms and heading off to the game store to trade them in before I owned one.
You got the Look
The first thing you notice about the DSi is that it’s rough. Not rough like an an Essex girl after too many Lambrinis, but rough as in the finish on the case being a weird Matt texture rather than the DS Lite’s lovely smooth shiny look. Ok, if aesthetics aren’t your thing then you probably won’t even notice, but I was quite surprised in this ipod crazy generation of shiny things.
Inside there’s a few changes too. The volume slider is now 2 buttons, up and down, which also covers for a contrast up and down button allowing you to change the brightness of the screen and thus save precious battery time. The power is now a button on the face of the console instead of a slider at the right hand side and there is a camera both on the inside and out. Finally, there’s an SD Card slot so you can store MP3s and save photos and apps from your DS (in addition to the 256MB onboard).
New Feature Presentation
After registering the console you’ll immediately notice the new menu system. It’s more like the Wii but with a sliding bar instead of a bunch of squares. It’s quite neat and easy to get to grips with.
A couple of new applications are already installed. The parrot icon takes you to a fun little app to record your voice and play about with it, making it higher, lower, faster and slower. It can also do this for any MP3s on an SD card. While it’s fun I can see the novelty wearing off after about..ooh…5 minutes or so.
Then there’s the biggest new feature, the cameras. One 3 megapixel camera inside and a 0.3 megapixel camera outside. They’re not really for taking professional photos, but for using in apps, with Nintendo enticing developers to make use of them in games or apps from the store. The photo editor on the DSi is quite fun and packed with features like different lenses and distortion tools, it’s worth playing around with and you’ll find yourself coming back to it for a quick laugh.
What’s In (The) Store
Aside from the pre-loaded software, the DSi has a link to the DS Shop Channel and DSiWare store, very similar to the Wii Shop Channel, even down to the music playing in the background and the funny loading screen when you download software (this time it’s Mario and friends putting balls into a box, I kid you not!).
The stuff on the store is still getting going but there are already some quality items to download. Wario Ware Snapped is typical Wario madness but using the camera (review coming soon), Dr Mario is a cut down Wii version of the classic game, still highly addictive after all this time and Real Soccer 2009, which is an interesting version of a cartridge game that now has better graphics and camera support. Gameloft’s other big game on the store is Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, the latest in the Asphalt series of arcade style racing games and currently the best.
The games and apps range from Free (such as the browser) to 800 points for the top of the range games. Many more are promised, including versions of old Nintendo Game and Watch games.
i See
So my experience with the DSi is a good one, I’m glad I upgraded from the DS Lite and while there isn’t too much that many people will want if they own a DS Lite, the camera, Wii integration and the promise of some great DSiWare to come should be enough to persuade others.
If you don’t own a DS already though, the DSi is a must.
10/10