Although the Nintendo DSi XL has been out in Japan under the moniker Nintendo DSi LL, it has yet to hit US shores. At the event, many of the stations used the DSi XL as opposed to the DS Lite. This being my first encounter with the up-scaled handheld, I had a mixture of thoughts, most of them positive. As a note, due to the nature of the event, I wasn’t able to listen to the audio the device put out.
For one, it’s bigger, though that’s obvious, it’s noticeably bigger. Not just ‘grandma has a quaint milk mustache and you try to tell her about it,’ but, ‘a cow has landed on her and you’re struggling to pull her out from under it’ much of a difference. My hands felt immediately at home with an easier time to grip the system. When I first heard about it, I thought that my small hands wouldn’t fit the system and I’d have troubles with hand cramps more so than I already do. You can imagine the surprise on my face when I held the system and started gaming on it just as I were to ride a bike.
The screens are larger and just as vibrant as the DS Lite. When playing games I didn’t notice any weird scaling issues. It had me hypnotized to the point of not paying too much attention to the stylus which I vaguely remember felt great and didn’t have any complaints about. The touchscreens were just as responsive as any of the other pieces of hardware in the DS line are.
Now to the downside of the system, it’s huge. It’s not something you can throw into your purse and still have room for anything else. Then again, that’s also one of the strengths of the system. For a road warrior, it’s probably not a great solution if you’re looking for portable gaming, however if you play at home quite a bit, this might be worth it for the investment of $190.
