Nintendo DSi

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Nintendo has made great strides in the last couple of years in its quest to bring gaming to everyone, including those who traditionally wouldn’t set foot anywhere near a computer game. The Nintendo DS, with its Brain Training and other titles aimed outside the usual themes of fighting and shooting things, enters its third generation of hardware with the DSi.

The device itself offers a few features not found in its predecessor, the DS Lite, most notably the cameras, which allow games to incorporate face and movement recognition. You can also take and edit photos, edit sounds recorded through the microphone and save files onto SD Cards. Perhaps more importantly, however, the internet connection has been beefed up. You can now connect via Wi-Fi to routers running WPA as well as WEP protection, and there’s a Wii-style online shop for downloading games and content. One such add-on, available for free, is Opera’s web browser, designed for DS-based browsing and previously costing £25.

If you’re a veteran DS owner who didn’t make the leap from the original DS to the DS Lite, then the unit brings obvious benefits – the screen is significantly bigger and brighter than the original, and the unit is lighter and more compact. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a slot for Game Boy Advance games, should you still be playing any. For Lite owners there’s less of a draw, unless those camera-based games become must-haves.

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