New DS with camera announced; Punch-Out Wii too @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on October 02, 2008

News: A new DS and a long awaited sequel to a beloved franchise.

Nintendo of Japan has held their annual Fall Press Conference and they have dropped a ton of major announcements starting with a brand new DS.

The new DS, known as the DSi, will include bigger screens (3.25 inches as opposed to the current model's 3 inches), a built in digital camera and an SD card slot that can be used to store music or pictures. Like the Wii Shop, the DSi will also have access to downloadable games, not surprisingly known as DSiWare.

To fit all of these new features into the system, the DSi will not have a Game Biy Advance game slot. The DSi will be released in Japan next month (November 1 to be exact) and will retail for $179.

Next, Nintendo moved to the Wii and announced that Wii owners will finally be able to play Virtual Console and WiiWare games from an SD card, effectively giving the Wii up to 2 GB of storage space. This feature will be launched in Spring 2009 and will likely be how Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 will be able to offer DLC that works with the Wii.

Finally, there are the games. First, Nintendo announced that they will be re-releasing classic GameCube games in a "Play on Wii" series. The series will start with Pikmin in December. As for new games, the company announced a few games that should make the hardcore gamers happy: Punch-Out!! Wii, Trace Memory Wii, Samurai Warriors 3 and Sin and Punishment 2.

These announements are not too shabby, if I say so myself. More details (and pictures of the DSi and Punch-Out!! Wii) can be found at the Kotaku liveblog of the event.

It's unknown when (or if) any of these games or the new DS system will be released outside of Japan. But Nintendo of America is also holding a Fall Press Conference today, so something good will likely come out of it.