My DSi and I are friends, don’t get me wrong. It came in the mail a few days before its official U.S. release, and though it’s not the beautiful, North American blue, I still appreciate how it’s sleek casing makes my DS Fat Phat look like the ugly sister.

Nintendo sent me the DSi after I visited Golin Harris’ San Francisco office — that’s their PR company — for a one-on-one preview (which was actually five on two: a number of reps plus myself and GayGamer’s wonderful Flynn Demarco) which I was, theoretically, writing up for Forbes. As I mentioned though, Forbes has fallen on some hard times, and now I find myself with comments on the DSi which lack a home. So here are my impressions:

- The system frankly isn’t different enough from the DSlite for gamers to purchase it as a next generation Nintendo console.
- The camera and voice features – which let DSi owners alter photos and recorded clips, rendering them variously goofy – are fun for the first half hour you pick up the system. Word on the street is it’s great at parties, but pragmatically it’s a novelty, not an important edition to the device as a gaming platform.
- The camera and voice features skew the system toward a younger audience – which is the last thing Nintendo needs, in the view of someone who already worries about their kiddie image, but might just be some sort of brilliant sales ploy, considering the PSP has already cornered a more mature audience.

None of that means I’m not enjoying my DSi. Still, I wouldn’t have bought one on my own, and none of the new games for the system have blown me away. Maybe something will come up in the future though that makes me glad to have that sexy little portable at my disposal.