Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Selling Me On the DSi

Sunday was a little different for me then usual. Usually I spend time at home, in my room, lamp on to focus on my homework which I regulate to Sundays. After all, the weekend only comes so often in the week, so any work is taken care of only when necessary.

Weeks before hand though, my membership in the Nintendo Club finally pay off. As a Platinum member (someone who's bought a certain Nintendo games and registered them on his online profile) I've finally received a perk for spending so much money on ill fated Nintendo games. I was invited to a special preview session of the DSi, Nintendo's upcoming third iteration of the Nintendo DS.

It's important to note though I'm a fairly skeptical consumer. When I first heard of the DSi a while ago, I immedeitely though, "Why should I get a new DS when mine works just fine?"

Well, after attending the preview, it's changed my mind, if only because of the special gift card they handed out that makes my current DS Lite worth $100 credit (it's normally worth $70).

The DSi's new features are certainly head turning in some aspects. It's built in cameras aren't anything to scoff at. These babies take fine pictures. Not high quality mind you, but nice enough that if something weird or interesting is on the scene and you always have your DS on hand, having a DSi ready means having a picture. Best part though? Since it uses an SD card, transferring pics is a simple task with no wires. Just slip it into the laptop and cut/paste.

The music player isn't something I'm terribly interested in, but if you don't have an iPod, it's definitely worth something. It's like having a nice MP3 player, but with one drawback: it only plays ACC format sound files. No MP3 filetypes, so I guess it's not really a freaking MP3 player in the first place. Still, it has nice visualizer effects, and it can cut down on the stuff you wanna carry around.

The DSi also hints at a DS Store, much like the Wii's Shop Channel. The Internet has already speculated on what could possibly go up for sale there, including classic SNES games and the like. We'll have to wait and see.

Really though, the biggest sell on me was the DS Lite $100 trade back value card, which will only work at the Gamestop I went to for the preview, but hey, my DS Lite's L button is kind of sketchy in function. It'll definitely pass the inspection process mind you, but getting a new DS with a better L button and a camera thrown in isn't all bad at $50, right?

No comments: