ThatObviousUser
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IGN said:This week we've been counting down the days to the DSi's Japanese release by examining the new features of the system, one at a time, and dreaming about what the future might hold for them. What kinds of games will make use of the DSi's unique capabilities? What can we expect to see that we've never seen before? And what can Nintendo's past products help us to predict about the company's future endeavors? We've looked at all those questions and more over the past few days, and will wrap up our discussion today and tomorrow.
Monday | Cameras
The most immediately obvious difference between the new DSi and soon-to-be-old DS Lite is the DSi's addition of a digital camera to the hardware design. Two digital cameras, actually, as one is placed on the external shell of the device while another is positioned inside, on the hinge, facing the user. Both cameras will have the capability to capture images at a 0.3 megapixel resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. And the snapshots will be stored either on the DSi's internal flash memory, or on a removable SD card.
Those are the facts -- those are the things we know. What we don't know, yet, is just what kind of crazy game ideas the Big N has in mind to employ one, or both, of those included cameras. But three past products produced by the publisher could point to some possibilities -- they are Pokemon Snap, the Game Boy Camera, and the Japan-only DS design Facening de Hyojo Yutaka ni Insho Up: Otona no DS Kao Training (Face Training, for short).
Tuesday | Sound
The current DS hardware has been no slouch in the sound department, as the speaker set-up used in both the original DS and DS Lite models has proven itself much more capable than the simple systems heard in Nintendo's old Game Boys. That set-up is getting another fresh upgrade for the DSi, though, which promises to improve the system's audio performance even more than before -- check out the new oval-shaped speaker holes in the image above, replacing the six little circle holes you see on your current DS.
More interesting than the internal changes to the hardware, though, are the upgrades to the new DS system's software -- those freshly enhanced new speakers will be supported by a built-in application called DSi Sound. The app brings the DSi one step closer to what most other portable electronic devices are trying to achieve, but while it won't replace your iPod it's interesting that Nintendo is getting its feet wet in the area that Apple's mastered.
Wednesday | DSWare
First up, the Internet Browser. The current models of Nintendo's DS hardware already got an Internet Browser application last year, but it would be understandable if you didn't know that -- the software was horrible, and rated a laughable 3.5 out of 10 in Craig's review. With over a year more development time to improve the product, then, we hope that the DSi's version of the same Opera-based Browser will see significant improvements. It should, theoretically, be helped out by the fact that it will no longer need an external memory pack to function -- and if it does work, and work smoothly, then the promise of actually being able to surf the web through your portable Nintendo device could come to pass.
Next we have the Moving Notepad. This little app seems like PictoChat's big brother -- it's a piece of software that allows you to sketch out drawings, like the DS system's well-known built-in chat program. But then, unlike PictoChat, it lets you set a series of your drawings into a sequence to create an animation. Like the paper-based flipbooks you probably had a brief interest in in elementary school, the program will cycle through each "page" to create the illusion of movement. You can even add in bits of sound over the action, using the recording feature of the DSi Sound program we discussed in yesterday's feature.
Next we have the Moving Notepad. This little app seems like PictoChat's big brother -- it's a piece of software that allows you to sketch out drawings, like the DS system's well-known built-in chat program. But then, unlike PictoChat, it lets you set a series of your drawings into a sequence to create an animation. Like the paper-based flipbooks you probably had a brief interest in in elementary school, the program will cycle through each "page" to create the illusion of movement. You can even add in bits of sound over the action, using the recording feature of the DSi Sound program we discussed in yesterday's feature.
Thursday | Virtual Console?
First of all, the very idea of the Virtual Console coming to the DSi is pure speculation -- nothing has been officially announced about it. The facts that make it a viable possibility and an almost certain likelihood, though, in our opinion, are the known existence of the DSi Shop, the established popularity of the retro gaming download service on the Wii, and the fact that Nintendo's entire back catalog of portable software has yet to be utilized for the existing VC.
The library of games from the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance systems are all just sitting out there in the aether, waiting for the Big N to come along and make them available once again -- and make money off of them once again. Nintendo's making nothing but pure profit on the Wii's Virtual Console every time it uploads another one of its classics to the service. It takes very little effort to transform most classic titles into VC-compatible form, so nearly 100% of the Wii Points being spent to download things like Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country and Star Fox 64 are just dollars going straight into the corporate account.
Friday | DS+Wii Interaction
In the current age of the industry, we've yet to see any solution for playing DS games on the big screen -- the very nature of the product prohibits it, given its dual-screened hardware and touch sensitivity on one of the displays. The most recent portable-to-console adapter device released is still the Game Boy Player, a last-generation peripheral that doesn't function with the Wii. Clearly, then, there's an area of opportunity here that hasn't yet been explored by Nintendo -- it doesn't have to be a "play DS games on your TV solution," but there must be some creative ways for the DS and Wii to interact with one another that the company hasn't yet taken advantage of. Though it's beginning to.