Bigger screen is key feature of Nintendo's new DS console
Gamers who wish the screen on the Nintendo DSi was a little larger can now enjoy the enlarged screen of the Nintendo DSi XL console. Our Adam Balkin has more.
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Nintendo's new dual screen handheld player, the DSi XL, provides an "extra large" screen that is 93 percent bigger than the last Nintendo DS Lite. Games that can be played on the standard Nintendo DSi can be played on the DSi XL, as the new console does not yet have new exclusive games. Yet that may soon change.
"While the screen is larger, there's no degradation to the quality of the graphics and that's something I'm sure some players are concerned about, players who enjoy Nintendo DS games as they are," says Nate Williams of Nintendo.
The DSi XL has a new stylus that resembles an actual pen and a few preloaded "Brain Age" games that better suit the more mature gaming crowd that interested in Sudoku and crosswords. There is also talk about the DSi XL someday acting as an eReader for electronic books.
Developers especially tout the DSi XL's wider viewing angle, which allows for more cooperative gameplay and can let several people use the same console.
A title coming out on March 28 that lends itself to cooperative gameplay is "America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking," an interactive cooking tool that makes preparing the meal kind of like a game for the whole family. Players pick one of the 300 different recipes from the "America's Test Kitchen" television show, set up profiles for each family member and then the game assigns each person different tasks and even illustrates how to do those tasks.
"You can create profiles for your family members. For example, you can have Mom and Dad and then you can have two kids," says Williams. "You'll notice that when you're setting up those profiles, you'll be able to set whether this [particular] profile can use knives and hot surfaces, and that becomes important later when you're cooking and you're assigned tasks."
As players who will use the game will probably have messy hands, everything can be controlled via voice commands using the console's built-in mic.
"America's' Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking" will be sold for $20, while the DSi XL, which comes in either burgundy or bronze, will also hit shelves on March 28 for just under $200.