Nintendo DSi - System Review

Nintendo DSi - System Review
a review by Shade

Below are a selection of videos that are DSi related. Feel free to watch.

Game Montage for the DSi


The Nintendo DSi Launch Video


DSi Ware Downloads

Introduction

The Nintendo DSi has been keeping Nintendo fans excited for months to come. Now I am here, with my brand new black DSi, and I'm going to review every single feature in the system to make sure that my $170 were worth it.

Structure


The DSi is much thinner than the DS Lite and much thinner than the original DS. The front exterior of the console is very smooth and sleek, and the outer camera shows. The LED lights in the top left of the top of the console represent wireless communications, charging light, and battery power, in that order.

On the back of the console, there isn't much to see. The surface is still smooth, as was the top. You can see the DS Card slot, DSi logo, stylus holder, battery cover, and serial number. Nothing major here.

On the left side of the console, the volume control buttons appeared. On the right side, you will see the SD card slot and stylus. On the lower part of the console, the 3.5mm headphone jack resides there, and on the top of the console, there is a place to plug in the charger, DS card, a place to put a wrist strap, and the L/R buttons.

When you open the console, there are two screens. On the top section of the DSi, two small holes are on both sides of the top screen, allowing the sound to come out. On the DSi's hinges, the camera is located in the middle, with the microphone placed conveniently next to it. On the left, the LED lights are still visible. On the bottom section of the console, you will notice the main controls for the console. Placed on the left side of the touch screen is the control pad and Power button. Located to the right are the X, Y, A, and B buttons for selection purposes and the Start/Select buttons.

The overall feel of the console is above average. It's easy to grip the DSi and the surface is comfortable for your hands. The buttons pop out of the console, which make the surface a bit rougher around the controls. The Power button takes a bit of push to get it down, so it won't turn off the console during intense gaming situations. The touch screen is very responsive and works perfectly. The console's weight isn't much, either, so it's not a chore to support it during gameplay. The top screen remains locked in place for the most part.

The console's design is above average and is better than the previous versions.


The DSi Menu

The DSi Menu. Shown applications (from left to right): System Settings, Mario Kart DS (the DS Card slot on the menu), DSi Camera, DSi Sound, DSi Shop, Pictochat, and DS Download Play.

The DSi Menu is great looking and easy to access. There is a bar along the bottom that allows you to scroll through the menu to view your applications. You can also use the buttons to do so. On the top screen, a picture can be displayed and the date, time, username, and battery life are displayed along the very top, unlike the previous versions of the DS. Overall, the menu is sleek and the sounds are similar to the Wii, quiet and calm. I must say that this is a big step up from the older versions. I found it fairly simple to navigate through the menu and get to what I wanted. There are plenty of spaces for downloads through the DSi Shop, which won't be a problem until we face something similar to what the Wii has experienced with storage troubles. The appealing colors kept your eyes wandering, even if you got to what you wanted to see. You can move your applications around to fit your needs and easily navigate to the ones used most often. The DSi Menu is customizable to a certain extent and will please many.

The Good
- Customizable
- Colorful and user friendly
- Multiple ways to navigate through it

The Bad
- Memos from the DSi Camera do not show up
- No Calendar/Standard clock, only digital clock (uses military time) and current date

Graphics: 8/10 - It's great, and there were actually animations in the icons. The colors fit the Wii/DSi theme. This is a strong point with the DSi Menu.
Sounds: 8/10 - Basically calming music. It is still a nice, small touch to add to the menu. The music is instrumental, as well, which is hard to tell.
Interface: 9/10 - You can use the stylus to navigate through the menu, you can use the L and R buttons to immediately access the camera, you can organize the icons how you feel is necessary, and there isn't a much better way of doing this. The DSi Menu is very interactive and customizable, as stated before.

The Nintendo DSi Camera

One of the many DSi photo editing tools. Shown is the gallery, which allows the user to play slideshows, edit images with the lenses available, etc.

Basic Version (can be accessed by pushing the L or R button on the DSi Menu)

Once the system reset after I saved my profile information, the system asked me if I wanted to take a picture. I thought, "Well, why not" and went into the camera screen. You can also tap the L or R button from the DSi Menu to access the basic camera (Note: This is the basic camera, no effects/special lenses and such). There were three buttons on the bottom: Back (return to the DSi Menu), Capture (Take the picture), and Switch (Switch to the outer camera), along with a button on the top right: DSi Camera (takes you to the actual application instead of a basic version of it). The quality was about the same to a cell phone, which isn't bad, but not the best thing ever, either. I could at least see myself in the picture, so I was alright with that. The only problem I noticed was a slight delay after you push the Capture button, so the picture displayed as you capture the image isn't the picture that the DSi will save.

The Good
- Good for quick snapshots

The Bad
- N/A

Graphics: 7.5/10 - The camera was average, which is exactly what I expected. The buttons were clear and sleek, which I liked.
Sounds: 7/10 - The shutter goes off even though my volume is off? Well that's perfect, what if I don't want to disturb anyone around me? Other than that, there isn't really anything to rate.
Interface: 8.5/10 - Hmm. The cameras could be switched easily, the touch screen is utilized quite well, and that's about it. Good enough.

Full Version

Now, as for the actual application, this is a totally different story. You can post your photos onto the calendar to display when desired by the user, view your photos from either the system memory or SD card, or Other (which is where you would exchange photos, copy them with other local DSi users, or go through a tutorial of the DSi Camera application). So, I go to the camera, which I've already been to. There are eleven lenses available to the user: Normal, Distortion (drag the stylus across the screen to distort the image), Graffiti (draw on images), Color (add a hint of color to black and white images), Colorpad (Change colors in the photos), Mirror (add a variety of mirror effects to the photos), Mischief (add humor effects), Emoter (change the emotion of your image), Merge (merge two faces together), Resemblance (compare how alike two faces are), and Frame (add silly frames to the images).

The Good
- It's easy to pick up and immediately use
- Basically the same as the basic version, just with the core features that make up the DSi's photo editing options.
- You can create your own frames by erasing parts of pictures that you have already taken or an image from your gallery.

The Bad
- The Color lens has awful color addition, for example, when I opened the lens and tapped my image, it colored the whole image. There were several different colors in my picture, so coloring the whole image didn't make any sense. I clicked a blue object, yet it filled the whole picture with color.


For Graphics, Sounds, and Interface, see the above entry.

DSi Sound

DSi Sound Application. This is what editing the music tracks looks like. Shown here is increasing/decreasing the speed/pitch of the track.

The DSi Sound application is wonderful. The audio is clear, the microphone pickup is nice, and the music playback is great. Using this application, you can record your voice for a maximum of 10 seconds and speed the noise up/slow it down, adjust the pitch, and add effects to it, such as making it sound as if you were talking into an electric fan. You can store plenty of sound clips using the internal memory. As for music playback, the quality was fine, and you can apply the same effects the you can apply to the sound clips. You can make a top 10 favorites playlist as well. The images at the top of the screen while playing music are incredible, ranging from Excitebike to a thunderstorm. Some are even interactive, such as the Mario Bros. one, where you use the R or L button to collect coins. And the R and L buttons can be used for beats, such as a drum, to use during your songs. Overall, this applcation is extensive. If you have headphones connected to the DSi, you can close the DSi and music will still play, even if you were editing the music.

The Good
- Many different things to keep you entertained while you listened to music
- Good use of editing music tracks

The Bad
- Only supports MP4 (AAC) music files
- Reduces the DSi battery life by several hours with the headphones connected

Graphics: 7.5/10 - Sprites again. Still, it gives the DSi a retro feel to it. The buttons and menus looked fine.
Sounds: 8.5/10 - This thing is all about sound. How can I say something bad about it? The music playback was fine, the voice recordings were alright, so yeah. It's nice.
Interface: 8/10 - DSi Sound is easy to get through and such. I basically have said this for all of the application's interface's so far, and I'll most likely continue to do so.

Nintendo DSi Shop

As soon as I opened the DSi, this was the first thing that I went to. I saw that I got a free 1000 Nintendo Points (I was shocked to see this) and I immediately went to see what was available. There was a small selection so far, but the system JUST launched, so it's understandable. The connectivity was great, the DSi has a much better wireless signal than the Lite and Original. The Nintendo DSi Shop was also a pleasure to look at because the menu was so neat. The downloads can be free, 200 points, 400 points, 600 points, or 800+ points, which is already a tad cheaper than the Wii Shop Channel available on the Wii. The search features on the DSi Shop were similar to those on the Wii Shop Channel, making it very easy to locate what you need. Expect games using the DSi's unique features, such as WarioWare: Snapped!, which makes use of the DSi's camera. I'm curious as to how some of these downloads will work.

The Good
- Easy to navigate through
- Fast load times
- Features a wide variety of games

The Bad
- Slow startup time

Graphics: 9/10 - Nice display. No further explanation needed.
Sounds: 8/10 - More calming music, it's not a bad thing to have in there.
Interface: 8.5/10 - Once again, easy to navigate through. I don't need to explain any further.

DS Download Play and PictoChat

PictoChat. Keyboard and drawing/sketching are available to the user to send messages. The top screen shows message history.

When I clicked on DS Download Play, it brought me back. The old DS Menu appeared on the top screen and the exact same screens from DS Download play on the original DS and Lite appeared. EXACTLY the same. Overall, DS Download Play is alright and underused. PictoChat also looked exactly the same. Is there anything to say here? Not really.

The Good
Pictochat
- Compatible with previous versions of the DS using Pictochat
- Has 4 chat rooms, each has a maximum capacity of 16 people
DS Download Play
- Allows players to play trials/demos of games via wireless download
- Decent transfer times

The Bad
- The same as the previous software bundled in the DS and DS Lite

Graphics: 6.5/10 - Not that retro isn't good, but the exact same display? It's a new system, it could've used an update.
Sounds: N/A - The constant buzz of the DSi searching for a host is it. That's the only sound besides for a beep when the host is found. And for PictoChat, the little sound when a message is sent is all for PictoChat. Maybe the use of the keyboard, but there isn't enough for me to rate.
Interface: N/A - Not much else to say here, either. You tap basically two or three buttons or draw, what is there to rate?

The Internet Application is not bundled with the system upon purchase, just letting you all know. It is a free download on the DSi Shop.

DSi Internet Browser

Since we are talking about a DSi, I didn't expect much from the web browser. Well, I was right. You use the stylus to move around the web page and a larger view is on the top screen and a zoomed in version is on bottom (this can be changed). On the homepage, there are the options to go to a web page, search (select a search engine, Yahoo or Google), favorites, help, settings, and history. The keyboard is basically the same for the whole system. On the bottom toolbar, there are back/forward buttons, search, favorites, home page, swap screens (switch the close up and zoomed out screens), and a menu that contains page info, go to page, etc. Tap a link to go to a page, the usual.

The Good
- Decent load times

The Bad
- Low RAM (Random Access Memory)
- Not supportive of audio and video

Note: Mobile versions of websites are recommended if available due to the low RAM of the DSi Browser.

Graphics: 8.5/10 - Surprisingly good. I was amazed at the detail.
Sounds: 7/10 - Barely any sounds at all. Clicks, clacks of a keyboard, etc.
Interface: 9/10 - Just think of it this way, without the interface (touch screen), why even have the internet? Interface was wonderful.

Bottom Line

DSi is an overall nice system. It was worth my money, and I plan on using it quite a bit. The applications aren't exactly the strong points of the system, but once the library of downloadable games increases, the DSi will be a solid portable. In the future, the DSi will show what it can do and prove to be a great gaming platform.

8.5/10


For more information, click the links for threads containing information on the DSi.

Five new Nintendo DSi details that my or may not blow your mind

Sony says the DSi is for kids, the PSP is for winners

DSiWare Release Titles Announced!

5 reasons not to buy DSi