Like many people, I spent Christmas day surrounded by my family and having sat there trying to digest the mountain of food that my loving folks had insisted I eat (growing boy and all...) my niece was sat next to me on the sofa clutching her Nintendo DS, using the wand to control a dog. Perplexedly I asked something along the lines of 'So do you get to shoot anything?' at which point I received the mandatory teen sigh. I've never really been sold by the idea of the DS, I'm a console gamer to the core, I never saw the right reason for owning one but will that change with the advent of the latest DS carnation? – the Nintendo DSi.
 
So here's a brief run down of what to expect from the DS's cousin; its smaller than the original DS. Now having seen the DS my niece was using, this is surprising as it felt small enough as it was to me but Nintendo have reduced the overall size by just under 3mm at the expense of the ability to play games from the Gameboy Advance – size versus cross system compatibility and an increased games library, we shall see whether this was an adequate trade off or not. So the DSi is smaller, ok what else? Well a bigger screen has been developed so that the DSi boasts a screen of 3.25 inches compared to the 3 inch screen of the DS. Smaller, lighter and with a bigger, if only just a quarter of an inch, screen? Sounds like the DSi really could be the next level of the Nintendo hand held generation. But what everyone wants is funky new features right? Well features are exactly what Nintendo have packed into this nifty piece of hardware. Like most mobile phones, the DSi now comes equipped with a camera and audio capture technology and these are , justly in my opinion, promoted by Nintendo as fun tools that simply allow you to get more out of your DSi in an entertaining way; although with a mere 0.3 megapixel camera it should be interesting to see exactly what quality of picture will be had. That said, one must remember that the DSi is primarily designed for mobile gaming, its not a mobile phone or a digital camera and doesn't profess to be anything as such. Pictures and audio can also be stored on an external SD memory card which can then be viewed or listened to on your Wii console which I believe is a neat little option.
Righty, thats smaller, bigger screen and some fun gadgets – anything else? Why yes as a matter of fact; the ability to personalise your DSi through the ability to download software through a similar concept to the Wii shop, access to an internet browser (with increased technology to enable quicker Wi-Fi speeds) and soon the development to write 'handwritten' memos and notes, again with lots of added funky animation. Games and other software will also later be available to purchase from the download sales service; although the browser and animated notepad will be free of charge, items bought from the sales service will cost 'points' as the same way items are purchased for the Wii console.
 
So there we have it, a brief sprint through the funky new DSi – it is scheduled for release in Europe in the spring of 2009 for a price yet to be confirmed at the time of me writing this and will be available in a cool white colour and a rather sophisticated black.
 
I may contact Nintendo to get an answer to my 'So do you get to shoot anything' question however.