Debate '08 - Geek Style: Nintendo DSi - Upgrade or POS?
Nintendo just announced their lineup of games at their October Summit, and so far, everyone's first statement is: OMG Nintendo DSi! Evidently, people are enjoying it. Unfortunately, I am not. I'm not enjoying it for a variety of reasons. The main one: It's a piece of shit. This isn't jealousy talking. This is in all seriousness.
Let's look at the gameplan Nintendo has had for the past few years:
(Stats and numbers from this point on are retrieved from PC World's hands-on.)
DSi screen diagonal is now 3.25" over the DS Lite 3". This is pretty well ignorable. I'm not digging a bigger screen, only because the screen size was fine to begin with. Increasing the screen size by such an unnoticeable quarter inch on the diagonal matches the spec that Atlus had in their ads, if anyone wants a graphical representation that is about accurate. There's no resolution increase because there can't be: it would make older DS games obsolete on the new device. The question lies "Why a new bigger screen?" Perhaps the bigger screens are just to slightly raise the potential profitablilty of the handheld, or to stroke the ego of the new device. Either way, new screen doesn't matter to me, even the slightest, but I'm a core gamer, so I don't matter in the equation.
New Size: DSi is 137mm x 75mm x 19mm (rounded up decimals - P.) DS Lite is 133mm x 74mm x 22mm. It's clearly slimmer than the old DS Lite, by comparison, but people won't care about that as a sell-point in 2009, when these things hit North American stores. It's also slightly longer, but people won't notice the length, they'll notice that slimmer, sleaker casing. This is a step in the right direction, but I bet with sandpaper, I could slim down my DS Lite, if I felt like it, about 1 mm. The size of the portable doesn't matter to me at all either, but once again, I'm a core gamer, I use a PSP a lot, and a DS Lite a lot (Off the Record: I have 2 DS Lites.) but when it comes down to being in my pocket, I really don't care as long as they don't weigh my pocket down. The PSP certainly does with its shear bulk being the difference, the DS Lite absolutely doesn't. Which brings me to...
New Weight: DSi is 214 grams, DS Lite is 218 grams. To be honest, I never realized they were that, dare I say, "lite". The DSi's new weight accounts for the new parts as well, meaning they've probably jammed a smaller chipset into the handheld. This new weight though will be unnoticeable, as PC World suggests as well.
Battery Life takes a hit. Life expectancy of a single charge of the DSi is 3 to 14 hours. The DS Lite has a life expectancy of 5 to 19 hours. Reason to this is the new added parts on the DSi, and the larger screens. I'll dig into the added parts in a moment, for now though, the larger screens suck batteries dry, and I'm disappointed that they couldn't put a larger battery into the unit to accommodate these screens. This is just an assumption of mine, but you'd think that too from reading that stat about battery life.
Charge Time takes a step in the right direction. Less time to charge is always a step in the right direction. The DSi charges from dead to full in 2.5 hours. The DS Lite takes 3 hours to do the same. That definitely helps for those gamers on the go, much like I will be, but if you're sleeping when you're charging, that half an hour doesn't really justify itself enough.
The New Parts: The DSi, according to everything I've seen, includes the following new bits, or changes compared to the DS Lite.
Instead of a GBA Slot, they've moved Slot 2 to the side of the DSi, and made it an SD Slot. Definitely a step in the right direction, because Wii already uses SD Memory for a variety of uses, and many more I'm sure, after the DSi becomes mainstream. I can see the new Pokemon games using this tech as well, and Nintendo probably has plenty of crazy ideas for the Miis using SD Memory to port over to the DSi (assumption). Of course, many people are moaning over the loss of the GBA slot. To those people, I say "I guess you won't be leaving your DS Lite behind, huh?" Guitar Hero addicts, I somewhat feel your pain, but dudes, fret not, just keep using that DS Lite, and forget the DSi until Activision makes an SD Memory slash Guitar peripheral that you'll instantly love forever and ever.
Not one, but two 0.3 megapixel cameras. One is located on the front of the unit, and the other is located where the old mic unit would be on the DS Lite. Potentially, these are for camera functionality like what cell phones use. Also, certain DSi games (more on that in a sec) could use the cameras as motion sensing or code reading tech, like the PS3 Eye Toy or Xbox Live Vision Camera. One camera has VGA support, which leads me to believe a potential chat program to make use of the camera. It's a very diverse idea, but whether or not Nintendo capitalizes on the opportunity to make a stylish yet extremely innovative communication device over WiFi remains to be seen.
Software contains a built-in web browser (let's assume Opera, although I haven't read anything to clarify) and built-in music player. No longer behind the times with these two nice perks, but unfortunately, I'd say that Nintendo is too late. The music player market is dominated by Apple. Apple made a statement with the iPhone for gaming, and this is Nintendo's great counter-initiative? Sorry, Sony has had this tech since the early PSP days, how can Nintendo finally decide they want to cash in in the US audio market? Not happening. The built-in browser is too obvious to add, because the Nintendo Opera Browser for DS required a memory expansion, which used the GBA slot. Clearly there's some memory expansion in the DSi, but as I said, I haven't read anything that proves me right, I'm assuming as such.
DSi Store. You can buy apps and things from the store, some being free, others costing money, similar to WiiWare and the rest of the Wii store. A very logical choice by Nintendo.
"Audio enhancements". What, like true stereo? Sweet. Yeah, I'm ragging on the fact that the stereo the DS Lite uses isn't that great, but whatever, if you have a DS Lite, you pretty much use headphones for the really good game, right? Elite Beat Agents, I'm looking at you.
There isn't enough to convince me to even buy a DSi in 2009. Alright, I hear the DSi is getting games that only the DSi will play. I'm not certain that 3rd party developers will jump on that bandwagon so soon. It took a while as it is for many people to get to know the DS for being a great handheld, did it not? Screams of "gimmick" and "perk" raised cane all over the Internet when the touchscreen was the talk of the town. So what makes the DSi truly special? Finally, Nintendo has made a device that is attempting to shut Apple up about the iPhone. That's what this is all about. The DS is king in the handheld gaming market, and the stats don't lie. The DSi plays DS games. There's a good point there, Nintendo, because the iPhone certainly can't play your games. But the true test is seeing how many Wii adopters will go ahead and get the DSi just because they can interact at a social level with each other, via the SD Slot. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the SD Slot wins people over huge here. It's very important. Anything now can be done with that port. DLC is possible, cross-platform interactivity is definitely way more possible, the options are nigh endless.
In the long term, most DS Lite owners are going to be very disappointed in the DSi. I admit, I am that way right now. It's hard to say that it's jealousy or not, but most likely, us DS owners feel somewhat betrayed that we have to buy another new handheld to play newer games, and we don't really enjoy buying stuff that doesn't play our old stuff too. Once again, I refer to a debate ~ the DS Lite can't play GB or GBC cartridges and people were mad about that. Sadly, Nintendo realizes that the core will go ahead and buy it anyways, because we're "The Core". If we give them money, they punch us in the face with a iron fist, and we take it and love it! It's the same with Wii: Wii Fit, Wii MotionPlus, Wii Speak. "Wii're" suckers for it now. "The Revolution" has taken over. Nintendo's number 1, and they're rubbing our faces in it.
I've never been one to back the top dog. I prefer underdogs all day. I've been an Ottawa Senators fan forever, and I've seen my team ~ typically underdogs ~ fail over and over, because we hit the top, and the underdogs bring us down every time. Seeing Nintendo on top like this, it only makes me wonder: Which underdog is going to bring Nintendo down?
Let's look at the gameplan Nintendo has had for the past few years:
- The "Core" Do Not Come First
- Innovation is Worth the Risk, because "We're Nintendo, it's in our history."
- Online Support is a must.
(Stats and numbers from this point on are retrieved from PC World's hands-on.)
DSi screen diagonal is now 3.25" over the DS Lite 3". This is pretty well ignorable. I'm not digging a bigger screen, only because the screen size was fine to begin with. Increasing the screen size by such an unnoticeable quarter inch on the diagonal matches the spec that Atlus had in their ads, if anyone wants a graphical representation that is about accurate. There's no resolution increase because there can't be: it would make older DS games obsolete on the new device. The question lies "Why a new bigger screen?" Perhaps the bigger screens are just to slightly raise the potential profitablilty of the handheld, or to stroke the ego of the new device. Either way, new screen doesn't matter to me, even the slightest, but I'm a core gamer, so I don't matter in the equation.
New Size: DSi is 137mm x 75mm x 19mm (rounded up decimals - P.) DS Lite is 133mm x 74mm x 22mm. It's clearly slimmer than the old DS Lite, by comparison, but people won't care about that as a sell-point in 2009, when these things hit North American stores. It's also slightly longer, but people won't notice the length, they'll notice that slimmer, sleaker casing. This is a step in the right direction, but I bet with sandpaper, I could slim down my DS Lite, if I felt like it, about 1 mm. The size of the portable doesn't matter to me at all either, but once again, I'm a core gamer, I use a PSP a lot, and a DS Lite a lot (Off the Record: I have 2 DS Lites.) but when it comes down to being in my pocket, I really don't care as long as they don't weigh my pocket down. The PSP certainly does with its shear bulk being the difference, the DS Lite absolutely doesn't. Which brings me to...
New Weight: DSi is 214 grams, DS Lite is 218 grams. To be honest, I never realized they were that, dare I say, "lite". The DSi's new weight accounts for the new parts as well, meaning they've probably jammed a smaller chipset into the handheld. This new weight though will be unnoticeable, as PC World suggests as well.
Battery Life takes a hit. Life expectancy of a single charge of the DSi is 3 to 14 hours. The DS Lite has a life expectancy of 5 to 19 hours. Reason to this is the new added parts on the DSi, and the larger screens. I'll dig into the added parts in a moment, for now though, the larger screens suck batteries dry, and I'm disappointed that they couldn't put a larger battery into the unit to accommodate these screens. This is just an assumption of mine, but you'd think that too from reading that stat about battery life.
Charge Time takes a step in the right direction. Less time to charge is always a step in the right direction. The DSi charges from dead to full in 2.5 hours. The DS Lite takes 3 hours to do the same. That definitely helps for those gamers on the go, much like I will be, but if you're sleeping when you're charging, that half an hour doesn't really justify itself enough.
The New Parts: The DSi, according to everything I've seen, includes the following new bits, or changes compared to the DS Lite.
Instead of a GBA Slot, they've moved Slot 2 to the side of the DSi, and made it an SD Slot. Definitely a step in the right direction, because Wii already uses SD Memory for a variety of uses, and many more I'm sure, after the DSi becomes mainstream. I can see the new Pokemon games using this tech as well, and Nintendo probably has plenty of crazy ideas for the Miis using SD Memory to port over to the DSi (assumption). Of course, many people are moaning over the loss of the GBA slot. To those people, I say "I guess you won't be leaving your DS Lite behind, huh?" Guitar Hero addicts, I somewhat feel your pain, but dudes, fret not, just keep using that DS Lite, and forget the DSi until Activision makes an SD Memory slash Guitar peripheral that you'll instantly love forever and ever.
Not one, but two 0.3 megapixel cameras. One is located on the front of the unit, and the other is located where the old mic unit would be on the DS Lite. Potentially, these are for camera functionality like what cell phones use. Also, certain DSi games (more on that in a sec) could use the cameras as motion sensing or code reading tech, like the PS3 Eye Toy or Xbox Live Vision Camera. One camera has VGA support, which leads me to believe a potential chat program to make use of the camera. It's a very diverse idea, but whether or not Nintendo capitalizes on the opportunity to make a stylish yet extremely innovative communication device over WiFi remains to be seen.
Software contains a built-in web browser (let's assume Opera, although I haven't read anything to clarify) and built-in music player. No longer behind the times with these two nice perks, but unfortunately, I'd say that Nintendo is too late. The music player market is dominated by Apple. Apple made a statement with the iPhone for gaming, and this is Nintendo's great counter-initiative? Sorry, Sony has had this tech since the early PSP days, how can Nintendo finally decide they want to cash in in the US audio market? Not happening. The built-in browser is too obvious to add, because the Nintendo Opera Browser for DS required a memory expansion, which used the GBA slot. Clearly there's some memory expansion in the DSi, but as I said, I haven't read anything that proves me right, I'm assuming as such.
DSi Store. You can buy apps and things from the store, some being free, others costing money, similar to WiiWare and the rest of the Wii store. A very logical choice by Nintendo.
"Audio enhancements". What, like true stereo? Sweet. Yeah, I'm ragging on the fact that the stereo the DS Lite uses isn't that great, but whatever, if you have a DS Lite, you pretty much use headphones for the really good game, right? Elite Beat Agents, I'm looking at you.
There isn't enough to convince me to even buy a DSi in 2009. Alright, I hear the DSi is getting games that only the DSi will play. I'm not certain that 3rd party developers will jump on that bandwagon so soon. It took a while as it is for many people to get to know the DS for being a great handheld, did it not? Screams of "gimmick" and "perk" raised cane all over the Internet when the touchscreen was the talk of the town. So what makes the DSi truly special? Finally, Nintendo has made a device that is attempting to shut Apple up about the iPhone. That's what this is all about. The DS is king in the handheld gaming market, and the stats don't lie. The DSi plays DS games. There's a good point there, Nintendo, because the iPhone certainly can't play your games. But the true test is seeing how many Wii adopters will go ahead and get the DSi just because they can interact at a social level with each other, via the SD Slot. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the SD Slot wins people over huge here. It's very important. Anything now can be done with that port. DLC is possible, cross-platform interactivity is definitely way more possible, the options are nigh endless.
In the long term, most DS Lite owners are going to be very disappointed in the DSi. I admit, I am that way right now. It's hard to say that it's jealousy or not, but most likely, us DS owners feel somewhat betrayed that we have to buy another new handheld to play newer games, and we don't really enjoy buying stuff that doesn't play our old stuff too. Once again, I refer to a debate ~ the DS Lite can't play GB or GBC cartridges and people were mad about that. Sadly, Nintendo realizes that the core will go ahead and buy it anyways, because we're "The Core". If we give them money, they punch us in the face with a iron fist, and we take it and love it! It's the same with Wii: Wii Fit, Wii MotionPlus, Wii Speak. "Wii're" suckers for it now. "The Revolution" has taken over. Nintendo's number 1, and they're rubbing our faces in it.
I've never been one to back the top dog. I prefer underdogs all day. I've been an Ottawa Senators fan forever, and I've seen my team ~ typically underdogs ~ fail over and over, because we hit the top, and the underdogs bring us down every time. Seeing Nintendo on top like this, it only makes me wonder: Which underdog is going to bring Nintendo down?
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