14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors regarding a new DS from Nintendo have been circulating for a few days, and it seems that somebody out there somewhere was actually onto something. Today, Nintendo held a press event in Tokyo concerning these rumors, and to our surprise it wasn't to deny them. The new large-screen DS was officially announced by the company, and a new console has emerged on the market. The news is bought by the ever vigilant Kotaku.
The new handheld platform has been entitled the “Nintendo DSi LL” and it will have a quite larger – compared to the original DS – 4.2-inch screen. It will be priced at ¥20,000 or US$220 and it received an official launch date of November 21. It may be true that it's bigger than the previous DS, but the “LL” title isn't really that well earned, at 4.2 inches. It may leave the pocket-size format that the entire idea of the portable console is about, but it's still, literally, inches away from actually being large.
At a 93 percent increase in screen size, compared to the DS Lite model, the LL was born through the fans' sheer willpower, as the company lent a compassionate ear to their requests for a bigger display. The DSi LL is also capable of displaying letters and characters in bigger font, which is actually a bit of an extra, if not a less useful altogether function. Even if it supports an Internet connection and music playback, reading wasn't really a problem on the old DS anyway, so this would indeed be the feature that is directly targeted not at the older, but at the downright senior citizens.
The Nintendo DSi LL will not come on its own, but will share the package with two touch pens, a shorter one and a bigger 129.3 mm one. It will also have three DSiWare products included, two brain training games, one for humanities and the other for sciences, and a DS Easy Dictionary. The new DSi LL will be available in three colors, Dark Brown, Wine Red and Natural White.