Aside from getting the rare exclusive Game &Watch Collection, another perk of being a Platinum member of Club Nintendo is that I was recently invited to attend a special preview of the upcoming Nintendo DSi console. Since this wasn’t a press event, and my time playing the DSi was limited, my hands on preview may not be as thorough as some other Web site DSi previews.

Anyway, I was invited through e-mail to come down at one of two dates (two Sunday evenings) to a large GameStop nearby that was connected to a Barnes & Noble bookstore. I had to RSVP to one of them and I could bring a guest (I brought little brother Jeff). They had roped off a section of the store for the event, and it was run by a very nice lady named Elaine, who has been a Nintendo sales rep for 17 years! Wow, that’s pretty amazing and awesome to be working with Nintendo that long! Anyway, Elaine handed each one of us a DSi to play with, and she would go around and explain and help us use the camera and voice recording functions.

The DSi is basically a regular Nintendo DS Lite with a digital camera on it. There’s a slot for an SD card so you can store pictures. The menu interface is different, and you can download games by using points, kind of like the Wii. One disadvantage is there’s no longer a GBA game slot. The camera part of the DSi kind of reminds me of the old black and white Game Boy Camera. When the GBA came out, I got a couple of the GB Cameras on clearance for me and Jeff (only ten bucks each). How you can play with the pictures on the DSi reminded me of what you could do on the GB.

Anyway, first I took a few pictures of me and Jeff with the DSi. You can either use the touch screen or L and R buttons to click and take a pic. You could switch sides, meaning you could face the DS and take a picture of yourself, or switch and take a picture of something or someone facing you, while still looking at the DS screen. Using the DSi camera menu, you can alter the picture or give it frames. I distorted one picture and gave myself a really big chin! Another menu option lets you take a picture of someone’s face with a Mario nose, moustache, and hat on!

After that, I tried the voice recording option, which lets you record and play back snippets through a microphone. You can also save your recordings. After that, Elaine handed me a SD card so I can save my pictures to them. Then she put the card in a photo printer and printed off two photos I took of me and Jeff with Mario hats on!

As for freebies, we got some DSi lanyards (I’ve gotten so many lanyards in my game reviewing career it’s not even funny), and magnetic photo holder frames so we could put our Mario hat pictures on the fridge. And GameStop gave us some cards that we could use to exchange our DS Lites for a DSi with 100 dollars cash credit (doesn’t do me any good though, since I don’t have a Lite).

I wanted to try more of the online functions of the DS, and check out the downloadable games, like Wario Ware: Snapped. But they didn’t have any of that available. They did have a few games you could try on it, so I tried out the new Rhythm Heaven game coming out next week, too. It’s a music game done by the same folks who made Wario Ware, but I don’t know if I like it as much. I had trouble with the flicking controls, I didn’t think they were as responsive and the delay of the flick threw off my timing. So I’m not sure if I want to get that game at all, now.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ll get a DSi right away. But keep in mind that I never did get a DS Lite, as my DS Phat still works just fine. I never felt the need to spend more money on something that was slightly smaller. BUT, I’ll probably get a DSi eventually. The digital camera doesn’t pull me in, but the downloadable games and DSi enhanced and exclusive games that’ll come out eventually will. Especially stuff like Wario Ware Snapped, which I’d really like to play, as a fan of the series and all.

I hope the DSi doesn’t get TOO hard to find, like the Wii was for a while. I didn’t preorder a DSi. I thought about trying to get one at Wal-Mart. I got a pretty hefty Wal-Mart gift card from the last sales contest we had at work, and using it to get a DSi would be perfect. I want to at least get a DSi before the 1000 free points expire, which you get when you buy a DSi before some date that I can’t remember.

In the comments section, I’d love to hear your impressions and opinions on the new Nintendo DSi.  –Cary

Tags: Misc