Touch Ruminations: Dreaming of DSi
In the latest edition of Touch Ruminations, former DS and Wii Fanboy Lead David Hinkle talks about the big news of the week: DSi release date and price. The opinions expressed here belong to the author and don't necessarily reflect those of Joystiq, Weblogs Inc. or its affiliates.
Earlier this week, I hit a wall thinking about this week's topic. I was going to talk about atmosphere and House of the Dead: Overkill, but the column focused on Wii last week, and I really wanted a DS-centric piece for this week. But, really, the only DS game I've been playing is Retro Game Challenge, and everything that needed saying was covered in the review.
Luckily, Nintendo bailed me out when they announced the DSi release date and price on Wednesday. Now I can talk about that!
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First of all, seriously, this color? Can we all agree it's ugly? I'm all for the color blue -- the cobalt blue DS Lite is very sexy, after all -- but this shade of blue looks off. Good thing there's a black version, though, as it'll hide the smudges much better than I imagine the blue version would. I anticipate my first few seconds holding the handheld will be like a boy's first glimpse of Playboy: awkward and shameful.
As nice as it is to ogle the outside parts, a handheld is really only as good as the games inside. Thankfully, DSiWare is looking crazy awesome, with Japan getting some really good games that will, hopefully, make their way over here. I'm especially interested in Moving Memo Pad and the Art Style games. Oh, and do you know I'm a Mr. Driller junkie? And the prices are very reasonable for all of these downloads, so I expect the DSi to be flooded with as much good digital content as the original DS was with retail games. It's both exciting and scary -- at the same time!
The system's potential is near endless, and even though a cheaper price would have been preferred, the DSi is still affordable. So, instead of trying to talk about more of the stuff you likely already know, I'm going to link to some awesome DSi stuff you might have missed:
MTV Multiplayer got some time with the DSi, making for an interesting write-up
Engadget has posted the U.S. DSi launch video here
If you're lost on any of the new features, bone up on your knowledge of the handheld here
Oh, and if you haven't already, check out our unboxing feature for the Japanese DSi here
Finally, I suggest you pre-order one. The thing has been selling well in Japan and, well, you can't risk not having one. This thing is pretty essential to lifelong happiness.
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