Not everyone agrees that the DSi XL was a necessary step; after all, the original DS and DS Lite were the best selling game things on the market with their little screens and limited brightness. But when you hear about parents and grandparents enjoying a game of Picross or Professor Layton, you start to remember that yeah, there are other people in the world. And maybe they could use a device more suited to their needs.
That’s kind of the other side of the the coin in the games-as-art debate. They’re also mass market entertainment, and we gamers need to let go of the elitism that was born in disk-switching and mega-hard NES games. There really is a market for Grandpa games, and devices should reflect that.
At any rate, the XL will be hitting our shores on March 28th, according to a Nintendo spokeslady. $189.99 gets you a big old 4.2″ screen (two of them, I should say) and a real pen-sized stylus. I might just have to hit this up, since I get claw hand from holding onto that tiny little stylus all day. Well, not all day. I have to reach into the chip bag every hour or so.
[via Kotaku]