Nintendo DSi Review


The Nintendo Dsi is upon us! Well it was upon us since April 5th but whatever! This is Nintendo's newest handheld monster, created in an attempt torule the handheld gaming (and now music) world. Well ok, so it's just an upgrade of the original DS and DS Lite....

I picked up my sleek black DSi on June 12th, 2009. I expected it to be really cool because this is my first DS and it really did turn out be cool. So i got home and ripped it open. Nah, kidding carefully gently opened it and found out that the books weigh like 5 pounds so at the store when I got the box in my hands it was like heavy and I swear I could have changed my mind but nah so yeah the books weigh like 5 pounds(316pages). Anyway then I took my baby out of the box and my baby actually doesn't weigh that much (atleast in comparison to the manuals) and then like usual you get an extra stylus and AC adapter.

Anyway lets get on with my review:


Settings channel:

This one is the same as the Wii's setting channel and so if you don't have a Wii get one already because of NSMBWii.


DSi Camera channel:

This starts your DSi's cameras. So not obvious, right? lol. Here, the camera that is facing you is started first. At the top of the touch screen, you can choose to use many lenses: normal, distortion (move your stylus to distort the image in numerous ways), graffiti (draw on the image), color (turn a black and white pic into their real colors), colorpad (change certain parts of the image into different colors), mirror (mirror your pic into three different types), mischief (put certain objects in the image), emoter (turn a face in an Emote), merge (merge 2 faces together), resemblance (see how much 2 faces resemble each other), and frame (put a frame around an image). Now, you can create your own frame or use a default one. The camera is pretty fun to use. While trying to take a picture, just tap Switch to go to the camera that is mounted in the front


DSi Sound channel:

Here you can play music (only AAC format) or record up to 10 seconds of sound. You can do all sorts of stuff with your voice or music... with your recorded voice, you can play it backwards, play it as an instrument. Oh and I love this feature: you can make it sound as if you're in a tunnel, talking into a fan, etc. the list goes on. You can also change the pitch and speed of your voice (i.e., you can be high-pitched and talking fast..). As for the music, you can have fun with it too... again, you can change the pitch of the song and make it play slow or fast. You can also play the music backwards. Also, you can do effects with the music: play only instruments, have an echo effect, play as if on a radio, or even play it as it would sound in an 8-bit game. And if you wanted to, you can throw in your recorded voice at random parts of the song.


DSi Shop channel:

I am being Captain Obvious here. Here, you can purchase DSiWare titles and DSi apps (such as the DSi web browser). When you first buy your system and go to the DSi Shop, you will receive 1000 free points and the web browser is free. This offer expires October 5th though, so BUY YOUR DSi NOW! Keep an eye on that channel for new DSiWare game coming to a DSi Shop.


DS Download Play channel:

Again obvious, right? Here you can download free DS games but too bad its only from designated Download Play Stations such as EBGames or Gamestop..Buy your DSi at Gamestop or EBgames and open it there and download free demos huh!!! Or you could come home and then download it through the Nintendo Channel on your Wii!

PictoChat channel:

Quite useless, in my opinion unless you have friends beside you but still whats the point? I mean its not ONLINE. So why not just talk to them?


DSi Browser channel:

The DSi's browser channel is quite slow, slower than Wii but the innovative Touch Screen really brings it out over the PSP's browser(had a psp before). It may just be my psp or everyone's i don't know but the page always overlaped so it wasn't fun and it is really slow. However DSi has a great browser with the two screen layout and how you use touch screen for scrolling around the page while same page on the top screen shows where you are aiming at on the page and also the bottom screen is zoomed in. You can change the layout though.  However, it doesn't run Java... so no YouTube videos BAD ninty


I don't know which category this comes in so i am just going to add it here. There is also an SD Card slot for your pictures and music. The Stylus is better and thicker so better grip.


Overall score: 8.8/10  

If I have made any mistakes at all includingthe features please let me know and be brutal, lol i don't know and oh guys can u answer 1 more thing in the comments? Tell me if I am NICE or really mean. I think i might have turned mean because i have been hangin out with this mean neighbor kid but now i don't because he is also lame at the same time. This is his diss: You are so fat that you can't fit inside your house so yeah u see the point???lol 

Picto-chat is "useless," it only plays AAC format music, and the "browser channel is quite slow" yet you give it a 9.0?

well i know picto chat has a problem but for it plays only AAC is true but you can always download a MP3 converter which i have now and i s really really easy to use and with all the features for DS Download Play Bacward music playing pitch controlling and everything else i mention in sound channel, thats what made me give it a nine and all of the lenses in the dsi camera channel 

also the browser maybe slow but thats only probably for me because i have a bad connection way up in my room but when i took it to my friends house it worked well still not as fast as the wii but faster than psp and it doesn't have overlaping problems like the psp but hey i am also not saying that the psp is bad for those who find it offensive(psp fans) because psp has great high quality games....

my point...browser a little slower but better than psp so -0.3 out of 10 and then only AAC but then there is the converter so again -0.3 out of ten and then picto chat is plain use less so -0.3 but i guess in that case i should have done -0.5 ok so in that case the overall score comes down to 8.8 out of ten....i will edit my orginal post....

I just picked up my black DSi a couple weeks ago as well.

If I had done a review, I would have mentioned things like how crappy the open/closing part is to the SD card slot, how shoddy the shoulder buttons feel, or how low the volume is on some games even on its highest setting.

I just want to know one thing. If you put music from your SD card to the DSi will you use it like a MP3 player with AAC files

killeryoshis said: I just want to know one thing. If you put music from your SD card to the DSi will you use it like a MP3 player with AAC files

i don't perfectly get what you are trying to say but i think i might know....

i think what you are trying to say is can you play music staright from your sd card and the answer is yes as long as the files on the sd card are in AAC format.. please let me know of anything else or if i misunderstood your question...

@ Words of Wisdom

personally i think the shoulder buttons feel fine but it may just be me and as i said in my review, this is my first ds (owning it) although have played it at a friends house so if you are comparing to old ds then i would no  

the open and closing thing sure is crappy but thats how it is in the psp and it didn't come off on my psp and wasn't a problem so i don't expect it to be a problem on my DSi but just my thought

and as for the volume being so low well i have only two games one lezend of zelda phantom hourglass and brain age 2 

ps. i only got brain age 2 for sudoku so i could play on my way to florida next week!!!!!