An image of my face is flickering on the touch screen of Nintendo's newest tech toy, the DSi. Using a plastic stylus, I tap the area above my left eye and drag it out. My forehead and eye react as if they are rubber and they stay like that in the picture, like someone inflated a balloon in there. It reminds me of something. I tap the other side of my face, stretch it out, and there he is: E.T. the extra-terrestrial, with a slight familial resemblance.
The DSi, which will hit Canadian stores Sunday, is the third incarnation of Nintendo's dual-screen portable. The first DS, released in 2004, looked like an ungainly silver clam shell, and the second, the DS Lite, took style lessons from Apple's trimmer iPods. Nintendo has shipped 100 million dual-screen portables – including the DSi, which launched in Japan last year – around the world. In terms of gaming-specific hardware sales, that makes the DS line this generation's undisputed champion.
It got there largely on the back of that touch screen, which software developers have used to great effect. The system can recognize hand-writing – perfect for Sudoku, crossword puzzles and math games – and its built-in microphone turned speaking and even breathing into game-play tools. With crossover hits such as Nintendogs and the Brain Age series, the DS has been embraced by a diverse group of users, from retirees to the pre-school set.
The DSi, for its part, represents less of a makeover than a changeover. The system is slimmer than the DS Lite, and it has larger screens (increased to 8.25 cm diagonally from 7.6 centimetres), but the new svelte look comes at a cost: The port for Game Boy Advance cartridges has been removed.
In its place is a slot for memory cards, starting at four gigabytes and up, and not one but two cameras. One faces the user as he or she looks at the two screens, and the other is on the outside of the device, which still opens and closes like a book.
The memory card allows pictures to be saved, and it also turns the DSi into a portable music player. It can handle files in the AAC format, the type favoured by Apple's iTunes, but not MP3s, and it can play those audio files when closed, making it easier to carry around.
The real shift, however, is in the firmware, the operating software that translates these technological additions into functions and features. The DSi turns the cameras almost into games all their own. Its picture-manipulation software can take live images and apply 11 different lenses. You can morph faces or landscapes on the fly, add graphics and thought bubbles, and play with colours. With one touch of the stylus, you can turn a red wall into a green one, or add spot colours to black-and-white pictures. These photos can be stored and sent to other DSi users or transferred to a computer (assuming it has an SD, or Secure Digital, memory card slot).
The sound software is similarly robust. The audio files can be sped up or slowed down and the pitch can be adjusted. If you want, the singer can be removed, turning any song into an instrumental track. You can record 18 snippets – 10 seconds or less – and play them over a song. And, as this is Nintendo, there are several mini-games built into the music browser, one with a tiny Mario collecting coins and another with a race course modelled on the PC game AudioSurf.
Unlike the pictures, however, your sonic creations cannot technically be saved, although digital-savvy teens will probably overcome those intellectual-property restrictions by late Sunday afternoon.
What will potentially fill up those memory cards are downloads from a new service called DSiWare. It will operate much like WiiWare, the online shop for Nintendo's popular console. Software, from free downloads to $15 fare, will be available using a wireless Internet connection. The first free download is an updated Internet browser, and more are in the works (Nintendo is giving early DSi adopters 1,000 points, which equals about $12, to personalize their device). Many of the most popular applications in Japan fall into the “life tools” category: Calendars and social networking programs for people who want more out of the system than just games.
There is also the potential for video chat, the holy grail of portable communication, but that will not appear any time soon. Most of the initial offerings deal with still images, but one of the first DSi-specific games, WarioWare Snapped, takes a picture of your face and hand and then tracks your movements as you take part in wacky activities. It turns those actions into a movie-like presentation, meaning other video applications are sure to follow.
The DSiWare apps and new options for game-makers point to a good future for the DSi, but there is a hefty price tag. The system, in matte black or bright blue, will retail for $200 in Canada, compared to $140 (or less) for the DS, which Nintendo continues to sell. And the DSi does not ship with a SD card, adding more costs – anywhere from $24 to $70 – if users want to take full advantage of its new picture and sound features.
Right now, the best thing the DSi has going for it is the success of its predecessors: High sales mean a lot of attention from game developers, and there are some gems among the roughly 850 titles that have been released for the system thus far. What follows are my top five picks – feel free to add your own favourites to the online comments.
5. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (rated Teen; released January, 2007).
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Mature; March, 2009).
3. The World Ends With You (Teen; April, 2008).
2. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Everyone; September, 2008).
1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Everyone; October, 2007).
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