Earlier tonight I went to a Gamestop as part of an Exclusive Club Nintendo Platinum member event. The first event of its kind, one which allowed me to try out the Nintendo DSi. First off, I was on the fence with this system. Second off, the Nintendo rep was the very same guy who comes into my store, Bill.

The DSi is actually surprisingly fun, these were actual DSi units, and I'm sure people are wondering why should I upgrade from my DS Lite? The main draws are the photo functionality, Music, and DSi Shop.

-Up to 3000 photos on an SD card, you can edit pictures before you take them, or after. I totally had a wicked curly mustache. And sunglasses. The camera does have face detection that works really well. I seriously doubt that most of you really care about the photo stuff, but if you do care ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them from what I played with. It has two cameras, I've been told one was .3 megapixels, but after using it I do think that may have been miscommunication. They are actually pretty good quality.

-Sound functionality uses AAC files, I think up to 10,000 songs, 100 per folder, and up to 8 folders deep. The quality is really good, and excellent with headphones on. You can adjust tempo and do other things to alter while on the fly, including make it classical, Echo style, another one which escapes me... and 8-bit style. They are really awesome, 8-bit style sounds great, I was extremely impressed.

-Buttons are spring loaded, they feel great, L/R buttons are vastly improved. They stick out a bit more, but not by much. Screens are a bit larger too, I compared my Kirby Superstar with the one in one of the DSi units, there was a noticeable difference. You can change screen brightness while you are in a game (hold select and up or down on the volume). It also has a different charger.

-One other fact that is interesting is the DSi shop will probably have a Virtual Console like service with Gameboy games, one example was Pokemon Yellow... which was brought up in one of the meetings they had. I say Pokemon Yellow because of the possibility of transferring Pokemon from Yellow to... Platinum.

That is essentially the basics, most of the time I was playing with the system or getting free stuff. I got two hats, a new lanyard, and three wrist bands all in different colors. As well as a nice trade in deal in which I can save $100 by trading in my DS Lite. Good thing I have a second DS lite! XD

If you guys have any questions on stuff I didn't cover feel free to ask them. And if I can I'll send Bill an email if you have questions I can't answer.

Kohaku