Due out on April 5, 2009 in the US, Nintendo’s latest handheld seems impressive.
Nintendo pioneered hand-held entertainment in the 1980’s with the Game Boy video game system. There have been very successful incarnations (or iterations) over the years, and now Nintendo is releasing the Nintendo DSi
handheld system. Priced at a manufacturers’ suggested retail price of $169.99, this new handheld features a sleek and slim design, the largest screen Nintendo handhelds have seen yet, a set of two cameras (external and internal, pointed at the user), an interactive voice recorder, and music player. Both the new sights and sounds features can be manipulated–photos can be taken using interactive lenses, and music or voice can be altered. The system will be released in black and matte blue versions.
Similar to the Nintendo Wii’s Wiiware, the DSi platform will allow downloadable games and applications using Nintendo DSi Points. Of course, there will be the usual retail games designed specially for the system.
Is it backwards compatible? In other words, will kids be able to play their current Nintendo DS games on the new DSi? The answer is “for the most part”. It will be able to play most DS games, according to Nintendo.
The system will be launched along with the game, Rhythm Heaven, a unique musical game that has been quite popular in Japan since its release.
For more information and/or to preorder: Nintendo DSi
This is so cool but I hope I still get to play a lot of my Nintendo DS games here with just a few tweak. And i hope the launching price would go down soon.
The DSi did turn out to be a great improvement over the DS. This year I hear there will be 3 new colors. ..and maybe a phone in the future.
You know, since the DSi has wifi, you might be able to use skype to make calls. I can do that with my iPod touch. It looks like a simple jump to the DS i-phone 🙂