Nintendo has gone Apple. Welcome to the i, the DSi. At Nintendo’s Fall Press Conference, they’ve unveiled their latest handheld device. While not an official successor to the original Nintendo DS, the DSi offers plenty of new hardware and software features.
Hardware -
No more Game Boy slot: I’m sure Nintendo fans will be annoyed with this move, but hey the future is forward, not backward.
Thinner: Yes the DSi is now even thinner than the DS Lite. Hopefully you won’t break the handheld in fit full of rage as you lose to a 9 year old playing Mario Kart online.
Larger screens: Now you’ll finally be able to read lines and lines of poorly written video game dialog! With screens being enlarged by 17% to 3.25 inches, I’m sure everyone will be able to notice the difference.
Audio Enhancements: It’s unclear what Nintendo has done to improve audio on the DS, but apparently whatever they did is worth talking about. But I’m still want to be able to listen to the radio on my Nintendo DS.
SD Memory: Portable memory is key to the success of a handheld. No one wants all their data stored onto only one device. Transfer information over to your Wii, PC, etc. Think of the possibilities.
Camera: Remember how the Game Boy Camera, sucked? Well Nintendo is going back to its roots by offering a new twist on an old friend. This bad-boy 3 mega pixel camera (yes it has more mega pixels than my cell phone!) is going to ‘change the way we play games.’ Ok, that’s an exaggeration, cameras and video games have already been in a long-term relationship.
Software -
DSi Shop/DSiWare: Download games, music, and more stuff that a shop can offer. Now you’ll be able to actually save your downloads onto your DS! Pricing starts from Free, 200 points, 500 points and 800 points.
Built in Browser - Surf the net without having to pay for a browser! Is Nintendo now imitating Microsoft?
All-in-all, I cannot wait for the new Nintendo DSi. I’m a sucker for this stuff. It has a release date of November 1 in Japan, at a price of $179.
Thought that Nintendo’s Brain Age game was nothing but money-making crap? You’re in the disappointment line, because Scottish scientists have proved that it does indeed improve your mental skills and to be specific, they found that math skills were improved in the study.
The game was given to like half the student body and was incorporated in their daily school routine. Tests were taken at the beginning and end of the study. The results are surprising: the ones who had the game had their scores improved by 50% more than the other group (how this math works we have no idea, we don’t play Brain Age, apparently).
The game doesn’t show any apparent difference in the results between girls and boys, and most notably; between playing the game at school or home. So get your parent-approved DSs while you can, kids! The results also showed an improvement in school attendance. Not surprising: I’d show up on time everyday for school if we had some video game playing time.
So Brain Age is really that educational and brain-improving awesome? It will improve our math scores? What do you think?
Remember Pac Man? the original cool yellow dude around before Homer Simpson? Well, he is one of those gaming characters which will be remembered for the ages. He will be around in history museums with big cool boards teaching 8 year olds about his rise to fame and how he was the big thing at time of the release. Now we have had Master Chief as a big icon but the fact is most of the games coming out now don’t have memorable characters. Even the most hardened gamer will find it difficult to remember all the character names of the player characters in the current big releases like BioShock for example.
Perhaps this will be a sign of future things to come with big action becoming more important than character development. The thought to be left with is, when the future comes around and people look back at the big gaming icons from the ’00s which big characters will be seen to represent us now? Let’s hope it’s something as positive as Pac Man.
As a fun easy quiz, what are the player character names in these games? (no prize, answers after the continue click)
