My wife and kids have a habit of buying me a new Nintendo portable gaming device on Father’s day. The GBA came in 2004, and the DS came in 2007. Now in 2009, I got a DSi (it came at no better time as the right shoulder button on my old DS broke on Friday).
I’m not sure how I feel about it. It has some cool features, but it seems they have all been hobbled. It takes photos, but they are .3 mp. It can record sounds, but they can’t be moved off to the SD card. It can play .mp3s off an SD card, but not video (even though it has a nice color screen). You can download games, (they even give you 1000 pts free), but there is little to get. You can surf the internet, but there is no plug-in support.
Two of my three kids bought one with their own money and they love the picture taking capability. They snap shots of the cats, each other, etc. Then they draw on the pics and whatnot.
Every Monday there are new games for purchase on the DSi store and today’s Art Style game is getting good reviews. Check it out! Also, Mighty Flip Champs is a superb use of the dual screens. Great game. Mario vs. DK is another good title and the rest of the ArtStyle games are certainly worth looking into.
Heck, even Bird and Beans is a silly throwaway bit of fun for 2 bucks.
My kids have had mine since I opened it yesterday morning. Mostly taking pictures of me or my butt (clothed) while standing and then distorting it or adding effects. I want to play!!
While the camera and internet browsing haven’t impressed me much, the DSi Store and the general UI improvements are pretty handy.
Having a soft reset that takes you to the DSi launcher beats the hard reset that was necessary on the older models.
I’ve picked up all three of the ArtStyle games that have been released for the US, and I’ve enjoyed them all. They’re easily worth the 500 points if you like puzzle games. I’ve only played the BoxLife one for half an hour, but it’s pretty interesting, although I suck at box making, apparently.
The biggest downside is the lack of a GBA slot, but I think that’s more than made up by the new features and the downloadable games, which for the most part have been really cool.
I’m of the mind that the last edition GBA SPs were the way to go for GBA games anyway. Same bright screens as the DS but that nice and small form factor.
Yeah I prefer the Game Boy Micro anyway. Carrying one of those and a DSi is probably still less overall volume than the original DS.
Other than that, the DSi is hands-down the best DS in every way. Best screen, best D-pad, best buttons, best downloadable service, best OS experience, best form factor, best lime green version…
My 8 year old was so excited…to give it to me, of course…that her hints pretty much gave it away a week in advance. She got the 3 year old excited and neither could get to sleep the night before, then they woke up at 5:30 like it was Christmas.
Mine Too! It was awesome. I believe the 6 year old was excited because she figured she would get to have my old DS. She was right. She can play games without the right shoulder-button anyway. The 11 year old was more subdued…but she did wear her “My Dad Rocks” t-shirt all-day-long unprompted, so that’s worth something.
