I have the opera browser cart for internet access, and a Games-n-Music to run DSOrganize and play music (MP3s, not AAC. I can’t even find a program to convert music to AAC.) I’m not particularly excited, since it adds nothing that I need and I really like “Guitar Hero On Tour”.

Eventually my DS Lite will break, or a DSi only game will come out that I really want. I just wish there was some talk about boosting the general horsepower. Right now it sounds like a DS with a Slot 2 card reader soldered into the GBA slot and a camera pasted on.

New features are the carrot; the earliest possible obsolescence of the DS will be the stick.

I don’t say this as someone who wants to cling to my DS Lite, because I’ll be getting a DSi as soon as it’s opened for homebrew; I say this as someone who’s watched Nintendo and other companies do this sort of thing for about 30 years.

But really, how many games released here in America use peripherals for the ds? 5 or less? And count those against the hundreds of other games on the system that don’t use it. I say small sacrifice for the other features added on (although Raindog is right that the Japanese will feel that loss harder).

And going forward, especially if your a wii owner, are you really that sad about not being able to get more peripherals? (and for a portable gaming system no less)

And lastly, we don’t have to pick this thing up if we are perfectly happy with our phats and lites. It’s not like DS games are gonna suddenly stop being made or that we are gonna be forced to upgrade.

Heh, its just gonna burn knowing that there is a better version of our system out there that we chose not to own, however we deny it

A simple form factor redesign this is not.

But it’s the SD slot where the real change is here. You’ll see DS Ware type stuff along the lines of the Wii Ware stuff you can get on the Wii now. Smaller games, more experimental stuff. And yes, that’ll suck for people that don’t upgrade, but it’s almost necessary if you’re going to branch out into the digital distribution model, and that’s a model that’s going to become increasingly important going forward. This is a very good way to proof of concept that stuff too, and having that network established and in place well in advance of a new hardware update makes a lot of sense.

All in all, this is a *much* more significant change than the Lite redesign was, and as such I’d actually consider buying it instead of just sticking with my DS Phat. The loss of GBA-slot peripherals kinda sucks though, but since those were almost entirely relegated to individual games, the damage should be very minimal. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s a replacement expansion slot, which means that there can never *be* any peripherals with this thing. That’ll be a bit limiting.

For example, good luck playing Guitar Hero on the DSi. The Japanese have it way worse, though, because they’ve gotten GBA slot peripherals we never did.

- like certain DVD commentaries, one could shoot live video while at the same time having another stream for your reaction to primary video stream in a small corner square on screen. Not sure how that could be used in a game, though

- Ext. cam shoot a scenery shot to be stored and used as a background layer in a game. Int. cam shoots you’re face and puts it on an in-game character.

- in a new PictoChat, video conferencing and shared “vision.” In other words, not only do you see each other, you also see through the eyes of the person on the other end as well. When chatting with someone w/ a DSLite or “phat,” still images could be auto-simplified to b&w pixelated ‘drawings’ to send over.

- since the cameras differ in quality, the lesser one is a thumbnailer, for quick previews in any kind of photo-viewing application within a game or channel. However that means turning the DSi around and taking 2 pictures

- live webcam host for a website, while ext. cam is used for either shared vision or to take a static background shot

- Yoga exercises through EyeToy-like interface. When using ext cam, audio tells you what to do

- speaking of EyeToy-like interface, facial expression = more ‘action buttons’. i.e. stick your tongue out to launch a bomb.

- two cameras facing different ways can prove where you are and that you’re there. Go to a historical monument, for example, and send the two pics online to a game server to unlock something

- detect motion for motion-based moves. i.e.: shake the DSi left and right to tilt a pinball game. Tilt to steer a car. Probably really difficult for dev’s to do this, though.

I’m shocked they actually stepped a bit outside of their comfort zone but not sure I like the results, losing the GBA slot for a slimmer frame is soemthing i’m not too sure about yet.

Having the slot removed kills a lot of cool add-ons that used this but also might hint strongly at Nintendo’s direction moving on with how their next portable might be (seems like the GBA brand might be dying for good this time).

I like it but don’t love it only because this is the 3rd iteration of DS. Like many above me have stated, I am willing to buy this new DS (probably towards the end of next year), but I don’t want my purchase to become semi-obsolete if they plan on releasing another redux of the DS, or worse, the DS 2.

But that aside, I feel the DSi has features that pretty much every hardcore nerd has been asking for and more.

-Larger screens: Always good

-Built in Opera browser: reading infendo on the toilet helps motivate the plumbing

-SD card slot support: You can buy 4gig SD cards for $10 on Newegg.

-2 cameras : interesting gameplay options there

-Backwards compatible with all DS software (excluding those that need the gba slot): As expected. No system coming out now should ever cut out the previous gens’ library with out some access to it (bc or digital distribution)

Some of the negatives people are complaining about I can’t seem to understand.

-No gba slot: I understand if you don’t want to loose the convenience of playing game carts from 3-6 years ago. But honestly, how much time do you actually spend playing gba games? I feel like the inclusion of the sd slot, coupled with the new DSi shop just screams gameboy virtual console which will negate the need for the gba slot altogether. And if you don’t wanna re-purchase that gba game you own, play it on that original gba you have stuffed in its box in your closet.

-short battery life: It was stated in the article that the battery life is, for the most part, completely dependant on the brightness of the screen setting. As far as I’m concerned, the current brightness level of the ds lite is fine by me and setting my new dsi to ” the brightness of 3 suns” won’t be neccessary. So battery life should not be as prohibitive as say on the psp.

All in all the only real negative I see is the fact that its another iteration of the ds, which is fine. But being only about 2 years from the release of the lite, I hope this is the LAST DS we get from nintendo until the ds 2 in like 4-5 years.