New DS coming to Japan, other news from Nintendo
Nintendo held a press conference in Japan yesterday, where they announced that the new DSi (no forensics or blood splatter for me, thanks) will be releasing on November 1 for what converts to around $180 US. The news was reported by 1up, who snagged a few tips from Wired’s Game|Life blog.
The biggest new feature you’ll notice right away about the DSi is a 3-megapixel camera, and new functionality that allows for touch-screen photo editing. The system will also have an SD memory card slot to take those pictures with you, either to the Wii console or to the nearest photo kiosk for some hard copies. Gone is the GBA game slot, which reduces the overall profile of the system, allowing it to be slimmer even than the DS Lite. Despite the smaller external size, though, the screens have been enlarged to 3.5″ each.
The other very interesting part of this announcement is the fact that the DSi will sport some on-board memory, something its predecessor lacked. This will allow users to go online (another new function) and download games from the DS store and the new DS Ware catalog (not as catchy as WiiWare, but oh well). The games will come at four price points: free, 200, 500, and 1000 (or $0, $2, $5, and $10), and can be purchased using the cards formerly known as Wii Points, which are to be renamed “Nintendo Points” sometime in the near future.
This is pretty exciting news, and we’ll have to wait and see what kind of new hardware upgrades the system has, whether or not it can handle more graphical power than the current versions. The DS Ware also sounds intriguing, since several quality games have come out from independent developers for the WiiWare service already, and no doubt some of those companies will be prepping games for the handheld. The service may also allow for downloads on a system similar to the Wii’s Virtual Console, as 1up.mentioned, seeing as how the system no longer has the GBA slot. Super Mario Land or green-scale Tetris? Sweet!
In a separate article on the conference, 1up also mentioned several new games that were announced, including a new Punch Out!! for the Wii (Yes!), Mario and Luigi 3 for the DS (cool, cool) and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, which apparently will have Wii and DS sharing functionality (interesting; one to watch).
The best part about all of this - Nintendo is having an American press conference today, so we won’t have to wait long to see if any of these goodies are going to end up on our shores by year’s end. We’ll keep you posted with updates from that show later in the day.
Thanks to 1up.com for the pic.
