Nintendo Wii and DSi Nintendo DSi handheld games console

Nintendo DSi, £115

The DSi is great for interactive puzzle games

The DSi is Nintendo’s follow-up to its popular DS and DS Lite handheld games consoles. Compared with the DS, the DSi is slightly longer and wider, which results in a larger touchscreen and display. 

Crucially, the DSi is compatible with all DS games, but if you're playing Game Boy Advance games on your DS, you won't be able to play them on the DSi. So it's debatable whether these improvements make it worth upgrading your DS to the DSi, but if you're buying new and don’t have any Game Boy Advance games already, the DSi is the better bet.

Like the Nintendo Wii the DSi tries, and succeeds, in giving the user a new experience – in the DSi's case by using two screens, one of which is a touchscreen using a stylus as the main control interface. It has the usual plethora of control buttons (six plus a cursor pad) for more standard games.

Scribblenauts is another DSi original puzzle game

Setting up the Nintendo DSi 

Set-up is simple, with the usual setting of date, time and console name. You also have to calibrate the touchscreen, but this is a straightforward process and you can be gaming within a few minutes of opening the box.

While there's a whole host of games available for the DSi in all the usual categories, a high percentage of these are puzzle and strategy games. It's fair to say the DSi does not lend itself so well to fast action games, but it is unrivalled when it comes to its interactive approach to puzzle games. 

Visually, the DSi is not going to stun you with its graphics but, as with Nintendo’s Wii, this is not something that detracts from the pure playability of the system.

Taking pictures on the DSi

The main addition to the DSi over the DS is its two cameras and a microphone that allow you to take pictures and record sounds, then manipulate them to your heart's content. However, you can only store up to 412 photos on the DSi's tiny 256MB of internal memory, so an additional SD card is a must. 

The DSi supports standard SD cards as well as high-capacity (SDHC) cards over 2GB in size. You can also use mini and micro SD cards with a suitable adaptor. 

Nintendo does warn that, regardless of card size and remaining capacity, the maximum number of photos that can be stored on an SD card is 3,000 - but this should be enough for most people. You can also upload photos taken with your DSi to Facebook.

The DSi can be used to store and play music, although it doesn't support the popular MP3 format and, as there are no headphones supplied, you'll need to buy your own.

Nintendo DSi online capabilities

You can access the internet wirelessly with the DSi

You can use the DSi to connect to the internet wirelessly. Once you've set up your wireless connection, you have to go to the Nintendo DSi shop to download the free browser, although this is both quick and easy to do. Browsing the internet is easy and you have a choice of Google or Yahoo browsers ready to run.

Other downloads from the DSi shop include small software applications such as the Mario clock as well as full games. Unfortunately, Nintendo persists in making consumers use its Nintendo points system, so you're forced to buy points which you have to upload to your account before you can buy anything. It costs about £16 for 2,000 points, with downloads costing anywhere between 200 and 800 points.

The DSi can not only connect to the internet wirelessly, but can also communicate with other DSi games consoles within range. Features include Download play and PictoChat. 

Download play is a pretty handy system that allows you to host, or join, multi-player games – even if you only have one copy of the game – by downloading the game software between consoles. PictoChat simply lets you send and receive wireless messages between up to 15 DSi users.

Pros: Connect to the internet at any Wi-Fi hot spot, uses cheap SD cards to boost memory.

Cons: Can only store 412 photos on the internal memory, can't play video, can only store music on an SD card, MP3 not supported, no headphones supplied, can only display photos taken on the DSi.

Nintendo DSi specs

What’s in the box?

DSi games console, battery and charger, 2 x stylus.

Extras worth considering

To make the most out of your Nintendo DSi games console, you may want to think about getting the following extras:

• large SD card (at least 4GB) 
• pouch/cover
• headphones for use on the move.

Find out more about Nintendo DSi accessories.

File types

The following file types can be played / displayed:

• Image: Only those taken via the DSi can be displayed
• Music: ACC (with .m4a, .mp4 or .3gp extensions)
• Video: None.