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Your Pocket Gamer guide to the Nintendo DSi

Everything you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask

Your Pocket Gamer guide to the Nintendo DSi
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DSi

If you look at the row of tabs above these words your eyes will naturally be drawn to the one tagged with a little red mark. That's our new DSi section, and its sudden appearance can only mean one thing: The DSi is nearly here.

The launch line-up has been announced and everything: Paper Plane, Art Style: CODE, Art Style: Aquite, Pyoro and WarioWare: Snapped!

Some of you will have dismissed the DSi entirely as a more expensive DS containing a set of features you don’t want. Others will be nervously aware that as the months and years go by a growing number of DSi-only titles will come out and your hand, along with the credit card it’s clutching, will be forced.

Some of you will have pre-ordered the console, or will be planning to hit the streets at midnight on Thursday so that you can be amongst the first Britons to own a DSi. Some of you, of course, will have elected to take the moderate path: wait and see.

But you all need to know what’s waiting for you, so we’ve compiled a repository that will equip you with as complete a knowledge of the DSi as you could ever hope to need.

The review

For a start, you’ll want to know what the hardware’s actually like. Check out our review, which we first published back in November of last year when the DSi became available in Japan.

You can go straight to the DSi review by clicking here, but if the journey’s too gruelling this is what reviewer Jon Jordan had to say in summary.

“The DSi is full of potential, but at present it's mostly untapped. Given some forward-thinking software applications and the inevitable growth of DSiWare it won't remain that way for long. Above all, the DSi is a few levels ahead of the Lite in terms of both ergonomics and features, and it's a joy to use”

We gave it an 8 out of 10.

The comparisons

Knowing about the hardware in isolation isn’t enough, though. You also need to know how it compares to the other pieces of gaming technology vying for your attention. Most crucially, how does it compare with the plain old DS?

As you can well imagine, we’ve already tackled the question. Have a read of Kath Brice’s definitive comparison of old and new: DS vs DSi.

It’s not all about hardware, though. One of the central features of the new DSi is DSiWare, Nintendo’s answer to Apple’s block-rockingly popular App Store. Nintendo’s online service will allow you to download games and apps just as you can on your iPhone, and many would say the future of the handheld rides on its success.

In comparing DSiWare with the App Store we decided to mix things up a little and invite three developers to do the talking. In a two part feature, Nic Watt (Nnnooo), Thomas Kern (FDG Entertainment) and Luc Bernard (Oyaji Games) patiently explained the advantages and disadvantages of both systems, and you can read their views here (part one) and here (part two).

The reflections

Over the months we’ve had plenty of opportunity to think about the forthcoming DSi, and naturally we’ve published our reflections. Here are a few of them.

So far we’ve danced around the issue of whether or not you should buy a DSi, gently pushing you this way and that, but nothing beats getting straight to the point. Damien McFerran did exactly that in the frankly entitled Should You Buy a DSi? If you've been wrestling with that question, read the article.

The timeline

We’ve also been following the DSi’s approach with news stories. You want a rough timeline of the console journey from its announcement to its arrival on UK soil? Here it is.

Videos

And finally, here are a few links to the various DSi videos that we've collected, so that you can see Nintendo's update in action.

Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.