Nintendo is a household name when it comes to portable consoles, and they certainly have come a long way since the glory days of the Game Boy (and the classic Game & Watch collection wayyyy back), moving on to upgraded versions of the Game Boy followed by the GBA – a revolution back in the day although it disappointed many (me included) with the lack of a backlit display. Never mind that, the GBA SP was up next, being the first portable Nintendo console that did not run on AA batteries but featured an integrated lithium ion battery instead. After that we had the DS line, where the Phat was the ugly pioneer followed by the sleek, sexy and wildly successful DS Lite. The next evolutionary step? Why, the DSi, of course!

While the Nintendo DSi has been announced since last year and have made quite a splash in its home country, Japan, in terms of sales, the rest of the world is still waiting. For folks who live in North America, it is time to get your party hats ready and mark April 5th on your calendars – Nintendo will be bringing the DSi to that part of the continent on that date at a recommended retail price of $169.99, roughly $10 cheaper compared to the $180 one would have to pay if one were living in Japan (after currency conversion, of course). The Nintendo DSi will be out in blue and black colors at first, and rest assured that Nintendo will release a myriad of other color choices in the near future as it has done with many of its previous handhelds.

Just to recap, the DSi will come with dual cameras which can be used right out of the box. The most interesting thing that we look forward to would be the Nintendo DSi Shop – we hope that this platform will offer a wide range of relevant and fun on-the-go games as well as applications. The Nintendo DSiWare application will help keep your Nintendo DSi stocked with downloadable software straight onto the handheld using Nintendo DSi Points – somewhat akin to how Wii Points work for the home-based console. Both large and small developers are welcome to create software, and we hope that this will be as robust as Apple’s App Store in the long run.

Press Release