A shiny new DSi for Rob!

I have not been having a very good time of it with technology recently. First came the dreaded red ring of death on my Xbox 360, swiftly followed by a broken laptop screen and a mysteriously disappeared mobile phone.

However, all these troubles paled in comparison with a recent horror that befell me - leaving my Nintendo DS on a plane. The DS has been as essential a travel companion as a passport for me and my old and battered launch system has seen three continents, several timezones and countless dodgy motels.

So, there was only one thing for it really. Abandoning hope of it ever turning up again, I took the only sensible option and headed straight to the nearest electronics shop and bought a shiny new DSi - Nintendo's third iteration of the massively popular handheld.

Having passed over the DS Lite in favour of keeping my chunky launch DS, the DSi is a bit of a revelation for me. Not only are the screen sizes bigger than the already larger DS Lite screens but the whole package is a beautifully designed piece of kit that wouldn't look out of place with an Apple logo on it.

The screens, both in size and brightness were a revelation coming, as I did from the original DS, but everything else about the handheld has been refined too. The controls and buttons are tighter and more responsive, it's more comfortable to hold, the sound louder and more crisp and the new Wii-like menu system is a classy touch.

Nintendo's advertising campaign for the DSi has centred around the two in-built .3 megapixel cameras, which, while a nice touch, do feel like a bit of a gimmick perhaps aimed at younger gamers. There's a neat edit suite to mess about with the picture taken in, but because of the low quality of the cameras themselves, it's not really useful for anything other than drawing moustaches on grainy photos of your friends. Fun for about two minutes, but not a system seller.

The in-built sound editor, which lets you play around with short soundbites records from the in-built microphone is similarly vacuous, however, the DSi does have some more useful features.

The new DSi Store, is an online shop that allows you to buy games and download them to an SD memory card in the console. While there's little available at the moment on the store outside of small snippets of old DS releases and some converted mobile phone games, the potential for the DSi Store is massive. There are already dozens of higher profile games in development for the Store and there have also been rumours of conversions of classic Gameboy Advance games being made available, which with the absence of a Gameboy cartridge slot on the system would make perfect sense.

Given the massive success of the WiiWare platform on the Nintendo Wii, a similar offering on the DS makes perfect sense and it might not be too long before we see the availability of a Virtual Console style section, offering Super Nintendo era games for the DS.

So the big question really is, is it worth upgrading to a DSi? For those who were like me, toiling away on the original Nintendo DS, I'd say definitely. The screen size and clarity is such a boost that it almost feels like a new generation of hardware, however those with a DS Lite might be better advised to stick with what they have. The screen difference is only marginal and while additions like the cameras and DSi Store are welcome, it would be tough to justify forking out for a new console in order to get them.

One recommendation that is easy to make however, is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS. I was always dubious about whether or not a 2D Grand Theft Auto could work again and still prove to be relevant, however after a friendly shop assistant threw a copy in with my DSi, I was instantly hooked.

Rockstar have managed to bring everything that made the recent GTA games such a global phenomenon to the DS, without ever compromising their vision for the series. Those expected a toned-down, fluffier GTA will be in for a shock as Chinatown Wars is every bit as gritty and more importantly playable as it's bigger console brothers, and is highly recommended.

Rob Wright