Nintendo DSi in Stores April 5th, LA GameStop Release Party

Finally our burning envy of Japanese Nintendo DSi owners is coming to and end! The Nintendo DSi is hitting the North American market this Sunday. To celebrate, Nintendo is throwing a midnight release party on Saturday night in LA. Sadly, we won't be able to make it, but we know you will, and we want pictures!

The huge DSi midnight release bash will be at the Universal CityWalk LA Gamestop location--they've got music by VJ Fader, interactive exhibits, and the Pakour street extreme free-style walkers on hand for the festivities. We want to see pictures of your local release parties. Write up your thoughts about the DSi, send us some pics and we'll be sure to post 'em on our blog.

Send your photos of the art instillations, fun and hijinks to dsiparty@toptenreviews.com. You'll see them on our blog first thing Monday morning.

As the lucky video game store employees and Nintendo insiders unbox their DSi units early, I feel like a jealous younger sibling watching my older stepbrother open a Sega 32X on Christmas morning while I'm left with a stack of lousy coloring books and itchy sweaters. Despite some envy, the DSi looks pretty fantastic. Read more about it on our review site. You can also find photos and an interactive slideshow of the DSi at Nintendo.

You can tell just from looking at it, that the DSi is slimmer. It also has more memory that its predecessor and gives owners access to DSi "enhanced" games that will be not be fully playable on previous Nintendo DS systems. The DSi reads SDHC cards, doubles as an mp3 player with digital DJ mixer and features two digital cameras--that's right, two cameras: one pointing outward and one pointing toward the user.

Despite its various improvement the DSi does away with some of the backwards compatability you've come to love--the DSi doesn't accomodate GBA game cartridges.

The Nintendo DSi is already out in Japan and Australia. It will hit European markets tomorrow and North American store shelves April 5th. It will be available in matte black and blue for $170. If you're thinking about jumping on the DSi bandwagon, you'd better do it sooner rather than later. Users that purchase the DSi before March of 2010 will recieve 1000 free DSi shop points. Given that new DSi titles start at 200 points, we're talking 5 free games.

And if you live in LA, don't worry, we still want to see what's happening in your locale--be sure to check your local paper for release parties. And don't forget to send pics, impressions and anything else DSi to dsiparty@toptenreviews.com.

In the mean time, we have video game reviews and console info for you on our main site. For more news from the gaming arena, keep reading our tech blog:

Opera in New Places
Acer Hornet “Nettop” Details Leaked: HD Video and Wii-style Remote
Sony Wows With Whopping PS2 Price Cut
New Dell Desktops Match Fruity Decor, Still Allow Gaming PWNAGE
Bioware Shares Mass Effect 2 Details: Better Shootin’, Protagonist Not Dead
Blizzard Starting Work on New Secret Game?