Toronto Thumbs

Seven Reasons You’ll Love the DSi
(And Three You Won’t)

Nintendo recently sent us a DSi to check out. We all clamoured over it for some time before things got ugly quickly – who’d get it? Jorge threatened that he had the hardest punches, I claimed my wiriness, and Jamie playfully flicked his Zippo open and closed, copping his devil-may-care attitude.

Ultimately and eventually we realized no one was getting this particular DSi. It was going to have to go back to Nintendo, so we may as well get along while it was with us. After all, we’d have to work with each other after it left the office. Empowered by this knowledge, we carefully and thoughtfully deconstructed the pros and cons of the device and came to the decision that overall the system is pretty damn cool. Read on for the details.

Seven Reasons You’ll Love the DSi

1. Slightly larger, making it more comfy to hold

Let’s face it, though we’d like to believe otherwise (what with all the poop jokes we tend to make), we’re actually grown men. Grown men with larger hands than most children, that is. The DSi is only slightly larger than the DS Lite, but the increase in size is particularly noticeable when holding the system and playing a game. The new size is much friendlier to larger hands, which ultimately can correlate to an increase in play time.

2. D-pad feels better

When the DS went through its first cosmetic change (IE from the DS to the DS Lite), the system’s D-pad also received a makeover, going from clicky to squishy in its feel. The D-pad also received a visual makeover to go from the Game Boy Advance SP-styled look to one that very closely resembles the D-pad of the Wii Remote. The DSi’s D-pad retains the look of the DS Lite’s, but now clicks slightly when pressed in its four directions. It’s also not as raised as the one on the DS Lite (same can be said for the face buttons) and it feels slightly more concave.

3. Neat menu interface

“But how much time will you actually spend on the menu screen?” you might ask. Well, if the menu interface is enjoyable to use, you’ll find yourself spending more time with it! The DSi has loads of new features never before present on a Nintendo handheld. Users can access games on the system’s memory (DSiWare), applications, and system settings. The interface is a scrollable horizontal row and, using the stylus, one can easily navigate to and launch any of these things. A nice bonus touch is that you can always return to the menu without powering down the system.

4. DSiWare

If you’re reading this, we’re going to go ahead and make certain assumptions about you, and one of those is that we assume you know what the Wii is and what WiiWare is. That said, DSiWare is simply like WiiWare, but for the DSi. There’s a shop channel on the DSi menu interface and you navigate through it similarly as you would the Wii one (though the pickin’s somewhat slim at this time). DSi titles seem to range from 200 – 800 points (that’s $2 - $8 in real monies). So far, we’ve downloaded Dr. Mario Express, AQUIA, and the Nintendo DSi web browser. The browser is better than the one that was available for the DS at retail, and it’s free. Still no flash support, but it gets the job done nicely. We’re only a few weeks into the life of the DSi, so the more awesome DSiWare titles are definitely yet to come.

5. Camera

Technically, the DSi has two cameras. Two tiny cameras! The one placed smack in the middle of the system’s hinge is pretty neat, if only for the fact that it’s angled perfectly for the most vain of gamers to photograph themselves repeatedly. If anything, the digital photography revolution has taught us that people really like taking photos of themselves. Really, people, you don’t look THAT interesting. Not enough for a thousand photos where you’re making the same pouty emo face, anyway.

Ah, but I digress, as I am wont to do – where were we? Ah yes, photographs. The camera interface of the DSi is pretty cool. You can choose to activate either the inside camera or the outside one and then photos can be taken with the press of several buttons. You can even apply funky filters after the fact and mess around with the pictures some more. While the camera quality is somewhat sub-par when compared to the ones found on modern mobile phones, the fact that this is a DSi camera interface means a lot, particularly for the future of game-play potential.

Imagine an Animal Crossing game wherein you activate the camera to scan QR codes of new items and they appear in the game. Imagine something similar for a Pokémon title, where gamers can buy a pack of cards at a comic store and then scan their new characters into their games. This of course sounds very similar to something awesome that Nintendo already tried but promptly gave up on – The E-Reader for the Game Boy Advance. With the proper set-up, it was actually possible to scan items into the GameCube version of Animal Crossing. The fact that this set-up required users to have a GameCube, a GBA, the E-Reader, and a GBA-GCN link cable probably only hastened the gimmick’s death – but it was one that was really cool and would be much easier to integrate here with the DSi. I could go one with more game-play ideas, but until I actually work for Nintendo in that capacity, that’s all they’re getting from me!

6. Bigger screens

To look at the DSi in photographs is one thing, but to actually use one quite another. It’s somewhat akin to looking at naked pictures of people versus actually having sex. In pictures, the DSi’s increased screen size doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal. And on paper, the fact that the new bigger screens have the same resolution as the DS Lite’s makes it seem like the image won’t be as sharp. But let’s put it this way – would you rather by a 13” HDTV or a 79” one if price was not important? Anyhow, the difference between the DSi and DS Lite’s screen sizes is noticeable while the reduction in picture sharpness is really non-existent. In fact, the bigger screens mean you won’t have to hold the screen as close to your face, which will ultimately mean you won’t be playing with such a hunched-over posture as people are prone to doing when playing games, especially on public transit while trying to ignore the people around them.

7. Speakers

The DSi’s speakers sound better than the ones on the DS Lite and part of this is because they’re not so tinny while the other part is because they have a better dynamic range. There’s really not much else to say about them. I guess we’ve run out of the positives, so let’s move on to the real reason you wanted to read this article: The part where I poo-poo the DSi:

Three Reasons You Won’t Love the DSi

1. No GBA slot

For what it’s worth, no one at Toronto Thumbs cares that the DSi has no slot for Game Boy Advance games. We don’t care because we think Guitar Hero On Tour is stupid and because we already have a stack of GBAs and its variants lying around the office. It’s kinda hard to walk anywhere here without tripping over some sort of Game Boy and dying, actually. It’s a bit of a health hazard so it’s a good thing we don’t get visitors. A good reason we don’t get visitors is because we insist that everyone entering the office take showers and put on clean suits while they’re in here.

Anyhow – the lack of a GBA slot isn’t a big deal to us. To you, it might be. And if it is, then screw the DSi!

2. Price

Are you made of money? If not, you might want to hold off on buying a DSi right now. If you haven’t noticed, even our super strong Canadian economy is in the crapper right now despite what Stephen Harper might have desperately tried to get you to believe before his re-election last fall. The DSi is a cool device, and yes, it’s worth the $200 price tag. But it’s not worth getting if you’re worried about your job. So, if you are made of money, go and buy a DSi. And while you’re at it, buy us a few, too. Thanks.

3. You already have a DS Lite

While the DSi introduces many new features to the DS brand, odds are you already have a DS Lite, what with it being the most ubiquitous gaming device on public transit. Until must-have titles are released exclusively for the DSi, there remains little reason to go out and buy one if you already own a DS Lite. If, however, you’ve treated your DS Lite like crap and it’s falling apart, it might be time to upgrade to the DSi. Similarly, people without a DS Lite thinking about buying one would be better off picking up the DSi instead.

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Posted in Awesome, DSi, Gear Reviews |