When Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies came out a few weekends ago, everyone in my household played their respective copies non-stop for the first two days. Everything was going great at first, but then I started to get a horrible headache.

I started to notice that my hands were killing me. I realized that I was squinting the entire time I was playing, and the small size of the console was increasingly uncomfortable in my hands.

It was time to give in, admit that I am an old man, and grab a Nintendo DSi XL.

I’ve had the DSi XL for about a week now. I have noticed the soreness in my hands has started to go back to its normal levels caused by working a day job of web development.

I have pretty bad eyesight, and the advertised “93% Larger Screen!” was one of the things that intrigued me about the system in the first place. The resolution is obviously the same as the regular DS and DSi, so the images are just being stretched to the larger screen size. Because of this, it can sometimes make things, particularly text, look a little blurry. The only time it is really noticeable is on the DSi’s standard welcome screen where there is a lot of white. I never noticed it during gameplay.

I tried out Dragon Quest IX first, since it was the game that motivated me to buy the console. The use of 3D within the game already has some jaggies, and they were even more apparent on the larger screen. The game by no means looks bad. It’s probably the best use of 3D graphics on the DS so far.

Next I put in New Super Mario Bros., and was pleasantly surprised to see that its graphics look just as smooth as when I played it on my DS. The larger screen had no ill-effect on that games aesthetics. Finally, I tried Contra 4. The sprite work looks fantastic on the larger screen.

The buttons on the XL are the same size and just as responsive as on its smaller counterparts, but having them spaced apart was much more comfortable for me, especially in the high level of action that Contra provided. Also, I could finally see those damn bullets!

The buttons feel a lot more clicky than on my DS Lite. This is nice, as I am a big fan of having tactile feedback in my games (suck it, Apple’s hatred of real buttons). They are easy to press down, so finger fatigue has not been an issue either.

The DSi XL cameras are still about as good as your standard cell phone. So, not great. The best use of the DSi cameras so far has been Photo Dojo, which you should go buy if you have any version of the DSi.

The DSi XL comes pre-loaded with a few pieces of software. The webbrowser (which is still the terrible Opera browser), a clock, and a couple of brain training games. These are Brain Age Express: Math and Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters. Just like their retail counterparts, they are more of little math and word puzzles designed to get your brain working more than they are standard games. This goes along with the fact that the XL line was designed for older gamers. It is also the reason they come in Burgundy and Bronze (aka poop brown). Sure, there is a young hip blue color, but that defeats the purpose.

All in all, the DSi XL is a solid device. It is likely a little too large for younger players, but if you are like me and are getting into your thirties, you might want to consider it over it’s smaller counterparts.

THE UNBOXENING!! Photos:

Compared to the standard DSi

"It's Thinking!"

Our very own Lucas Janke never had a Dreamcast when it was first around. After having been at Gamer Time for a while, his co-workers finally convinced him to pick one up. Sadly, before he ever had a chance to try it out, his house burned down taking his game collection down with it.

Shortly after that, he found one at a garage sale on the cheap. Not just someone’s old gaming console. No, this one was brand new in the box. He has been waiting to open it, so we are very happy to be able to bring you the unboxing of a brand new Dreamcast on the console’s ten year anniversary.

See all the pics after the break.

As you can see, Sega was very confident in their console at the launch. It was not misplaced, it just turned out the mass audience was still hung up on Sony’s Playstation brand.

Not only did they include a modem, they even had their own internet service you could sign up for in the form of SegaNet. The 56k modem was pretty standard at the time, but if you did have high speed internet, there was an adapter available.

I have a feeling Microsoft’s designers were Dreamcast fans. The 360 controller’s look and feel is very much a modern take on what Sega did with the DC controller.

So clean and shiny, fresh out of the box. I am insanely jealous.

"The Money Shot"

Click to see the gallery!

UPDATE: I found that pictures moved onto an SD card can be found in the “DCIM/100NIN02″ folder. I didn’t see them because I was looking in the “private/ds” folder. They are jpegs and are 640 x 480 at 72 pixels per inch.

The Nintendo DSi actually released while I was at Emerald City ComiCon. I was, however, able to pick mine up on Monday.

This is my fourth DS. I had a fat DS, then upgraded to a Lite. Eventually, the sound gave out and I got another Lite. The second Lite’s L button started to go out on me. I used that as an excuse to purchase this Nintendo DSi. Was it worth it?

Read on!

The DSi has a completely new operating system. From my experience so far, it’s much more solid. Gone are the days when changing a system setting or trying to leave pictochat would force a shutdown of the system. Now, you can simply go back to the menu screen like you should have been able to in the first place. There is also a soft reset executed with a tap of the power button. Firmware updates are now a possibility, meaning the system can evolve and expand new features.

Speaking of features, let’s talk about the DSi camera. First off, it is 0.3 megapixels. What does that mean? It means it takes tiny pictures by today’s standards. What people don’t seem to realize is that instead of complaining about how many megapixels the camera has, they SHOULD complain about how there doesn’t seem to be any way to actually retrieve these pictures for use on your computer (if you find a way, let me know!). You can, however, transfer them to the Wii Photo Channel.

I think the real purpose of this camera is for goofing off. There are a lot of different photo manipulation options for screwing around. None of them are in depth or serious in any way. The distortion lens is the most obvious choice for making abominations as seen below:

"With great power comes great responsibility"

Next up, we have the sound program. There is a voice recorder. You can use this to screw around with recordings. It allows you to alter the time and pitch independently. This means you can make the recording both slower and higher pitched at the same time. There are also a few effects you can throw on there if you’re feeling especially bored. I would like to have tried out the options for music, but I’m afraid I don’t have anything in AAC format. That’s right! No support for mp3. This is my biggest disappointment with the DSi.

When I visited the DSi Shop, I was awarded with ten buckaroos (aka space bucks) worth of points. I spent five of them buying “WarioWare Snapped!” which I will get into a bit later. Fortunately, the progress bar during downloads is much more readable than on the Wii. Various Mario characters throw blue stuff into a box. The more blue stuff is in the box, the more downloaded it is. Luckily, it is really just a progress bar that fills vertically instead of horizontally. Unlike the Wii, there is more than 3 spots on the progress bar.

While I was shopping, I grabbed the web browser which you can download for free. The browser seems to work fine. My wireless is a bit on the slow side, so the process required a bit of patience. Navigation seemed easy and intuitive enough. There was, however, no support for flash.

There is 256 megs of internal flash memory as well as a slot on the side for SD cards. I’m not sure what use I have for the SD card slot at this point since the photos I copied to it I can’t seem to get on my computer, and I don’t use AAC format for music. I suppose if DSiWare takes off, then I will be using it for that. Perhaps DSi enhanced games will use it for storing large things. I could see a racing game, for example, using the SD card to save replays as a DSi only feature.

It’s time to get physical! All the buttons on the DSi feel tighter than the Lite. Everything is so clicky! I think one of my favorite improvements are the L and R buttons. They are raised more and feel much tighter (less squishy) than the Lite’s. Considering that my last Lite’s L button gave out on me, this makes me feel a little more secure. As most people know, the GBA slot is gone forever. There is promise, though, of downloadable GB and GBA titles. The power adapter is changed. You cannot use a DS Lite charger on a DSi. Why? I have no idea.

The screens are slightly larger and can be set to be even brighter than the DS Lite. The outside is a matte black instead of shiny. Personally, I think this looks much sexier and is less prone to finger prints.

My first gaming attempt with the DSi was “WarioWare Snapped!”. This game works by setting the DSi on a flat surface with the internal camera pointed at your face. Then, after a camera calibration, you use your face and hands as the controller. What I didn’t realize is that after you finish doing all the micro games, it shows you what the camera saw. This completely reveals what a total ass you just made of yourself:

I have yet to try the multiplayer mode, which apparently involves 2 people simultaneously losing their dignity on the same camera. Though the game provides some hilarity for its five dollar price tag, there are a couple problems.

The first is the camera calibration. Everything seemed to work fine the first few times I played it, but later it started telling me my skin was too similar in color to the wall behind me, even when it seemed like it should be fine. The other problem is that there are only 4 quick courses to play. I suppose I can’t expect much for 5 dollars. Still, it’s a nice way to humiliate yourself if you’re running out of ways to do that.

All in all, I don’t regret the purchase of my DSi. Most of the things I like about it, however, are the little things. I’m more impressed by the L and R buttons than I am with the camera, for example. Whether or not it is worth buying is hard to say. I think there is a lot of new potential with the announcement of DSi only and DSi enhanced cartridges using the system’s increased processing power. And if DSiWare takes off with interesting products, things could get interesting. Right now, though, most people probably have little reason to go out and buy one.

Click to see the gallery!

It actually came on the ship date despite the man on the phone telling me it wouldn’t come until the day after. I rushed on over to pick up the ps3 version of the collector’s edition with the Ryu headband preorder bonus. The line was literally frozen in front of me, not because of excitement, but because the person ahead of me was trading in an entire stack of games. Finally, I made it to the counter and, for what is probably the first time in history, left GameStop without being asked to preorder anything.

Rather than opening it right away, we decided to savor the moment and have a meal first… at least until Jonah’s camera finished charging for the impending photo shoot. We then promptly went downstairs with our bag of delights. Since the headband was a preorder bonus, separate from the rest of the collector’s edition box, I knew what I had to do before going any further. I tied that piece of red cloth around my head, knowing full well of the ridiculous photos that would ensue.

"It says Street Fighter IV and has a picture of Ryu on it, just like the one in the game!"

It was a little weird to find out that most of the collector’s edition box is actually taken up by the plastic containing the Ryu figure. I mean, everything else is easily contained in 2 blue ray cases, so it makes sense. It was just a little surprising. The figure is pretty sweet, though it only stands somewhere between 2 and a half to 3 inches tall. I opened the movie case to see which things were inside. The case contained the 65 minute anime movie, the collector’s edition soundtrack, the collector’s hint book, and the voucher for the first costume pack, which includes Abel, El Fuerte, E. Honda, Rufas, and Zangief. Unfortunately, I found out that you can’t actually redeem the voucher until Thursday, when that particular DLC pack officially releases.

Despite what I thought, this does not come with the 2 disc official soundtrack. The collector’s edition soundtrack is a single disc with 17 tracks. It only contains the character themes and clocks at about 50 minutes. This is not bad, though, considering the character themes are what I wanted most. I have yet to watch the anime movie it comes with, but my understanding is that it takes place before the game. We’ll make sure to watch it before next week’s podcast. The collector’s hint book is cooler than I thought it would be. Basically, it shows you how to do the moves of the new characters, but displays them in comic frames with drawings accompanying each attack.

"The best damn hint book in town!"

Finally, it was time to boot up the game disc!

I cleared the table and started setting up my X-Arcade Dualstick. In our haste, we ran into problems getting it to work properly on the ps3, but it was only a minor setback before it all was figured out. After changing the voices to Japanese, we managed to play one round before mutually deciding the install should be required instead of optional. Seriously, it was a really long load time. The install didn’t take terribly long, though it forced us to resync my Dualstick. After the install, loading times were improved tremendously.

Jumping into Vs. mode felt every bit as natural to Jonah and I as it should have. The controls felt super tight and many of the moves on the returning characters were already familiar. Once we took a look at how special moves work, though, things got even more interesting. There are essentially 4 kinds of special moves in Street Fighter IV. If you were to perform a quarter circle and punch with Ryu, you would perform the standard hadoken that takes no special bar to use. If you were to do the same action, but with 2 punch buttons you would do the EX version of the hadoken. This will take 1 segment of your special bar. Almost every special move has an EX version, so there are lots possible strategies. If your super bar was full and you performed 2 quarter circles and pressed one punch button, you would perform the super combo: “Shinku Hadoken”. There is a separate bar called the revenge gauge. When this fills up at least half way, you can perform the same action as the super combo with all three punch buttons instead of 1 to perform Ryu’s ultra combo: “Metsu Hadoken”.

While the super bar fills up by performing attacks, the revenge bar fills up from getting hit. An interesting thing about the 2 bars is that only the super bar will carry any remaining energy into the next round. The revenge bar will completely empty itself between rounds, so you need to make sure to use your ultra combo before it’s too late. The 4 types of special moves utilizing the 2 different bars makes for a very deep and enjoyable fighting experience.

The graphics are amazing thanks to the heavily emphasized style. The music fits the mood of the stages and is all around great to listen to. There was no lag on any of the matches I played online.  There is a lot of extra challenges to keep you busy. There is even anime cut-screens at the beginning and end of each character’s story mode. The only real complaint I have with the game thus far is its final boss, Seth. To put it bluntly, Seth is a cheap bastard. Almost all of his moves seem to take priority over yours. Seth is a relic of the arcade scene, designed to make you put more quarters in the machine to finish up that last little bit before the credits roll. Despite all of this, he’s not nearly as bad as most SNK bosses.

Annoying final boss or not, Street Fighter IV is one of the most satisfying fighters I’ve played in awhile. It stays true enough to its roots that you can jump right in while adding enough extra layers of depth to really set it apart from its predecessors. It’s truly not a fighter to be missed.

For the full photo gallery: click here!