Nintendo’s latest iteration of its ridiculously popular handheld, the Nintendo DSi, will be hitting shelves here in North America on April 5th.
Yes, Nintendo fanboys, you now have a date to mark on your calendars, though I wouldn’t get in line just yet – at least not without ensuring you’ll have someone to hold your spot while you go home to shower and sleep. Well, to sleep, anyway.
The DSi marks a greater leap in functionality from the DS Lite than what the Lite had over the original DS. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the DSi is a bigger change, because at least one of the modifications is a step backwards – the removal of the GBA slot, to be precise. All right, maybe it’s not all that big a deal, since if you really do have a hankering to play Golden Sun or Advance Wars right this very minute, you can probably just dig up one of the other dozen or so devices lying around your house that can play GBA games.
The major modification for the DSi, of course, is the addition of a pair of cameras: one on the outside, and one on the inside that directly faces the viewer once the device is flipped open and games are being played. I’m not quite sure if I want the world to see the faces I make while I play Elite Beat Agents, personally.
Also, the DSi locks out the current crop of flashcarts, meaning that homebrew and piracy – at least, that sort of piracy – is out of the question for the time being. You can decide for yourselves whether that’s a good thing or not.
