N +

Okay. It's about time I did a DSi review, hmm? Let me get on with it. This is going to be a microreview like many of the ones DotEd has done, except his epic video. I'm going to tackle the menus. I'm not as fortunate as DotEd to have a video camera, and you all would probably be laughing at my accent more than paying attention to what I have to say about whatever I'm reviewing in a video anyway. This is perhaps more safer for me and you. Some of the mods have heard my voice and can provide testimony to my claims. If I were doing a video it might be easier to show everything off, but since I'm having to do everything by the way of prose I'll need some translations done; my magical translation wand as you can see already is being used in this case.

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N+ moderators Khadgar and myself were lucky enough to receive two Nintendo DSi's with the Opera web browser preinstalled a few weeks back, and we've been putting them through some rigorous testing (literally - I dropped mine twice, and I never drop anything, so it must have been for science).

Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting daily on the DSi. We're going to cover EVERYTHING because it seems like no other blog did. Exclusive to N+ will be our unique coverage of the new DS Browser - because our DSi's (even though they are Japanese language versions) were sent to the sexy folks in Norway where they downloaded it for us from DSware before shipping to N+. This new version has obvious updates like no need for additional RAM, it becomes a 'channel' on the DSi home screen, and since it's software based there is potential for updates, like the Wii browser has seen (and will get again).

What we'll need from you is comments and feedback on what you want to see, so we get you the most interesting info. DSi compared to DS lite, in every way. New DS browser compared to Old DS browser, in every way. DSi compared to G.I. Joes, in every way. New DSi Browser compared to Opera Mini, iPhone, iPod touch, GBA, GameBoy Player, a cat named Skoo, etc., in every way.

So give us some work to do in the comments, tell us what you want to see, while we compile our data from the past weeks and we'll give you guys and girls something to read daily on the upcoming European and North American Nintendo DSi.

Also, follow @NPlus on twitter for kicky fast notifications of new posts or subscribe to our new N+ RSS Feed so we can get some stats to work with to better serve the community.

How many of you knew we had an IRC chat? We do! Our fearless leader even wrote about it before, and we have a link on the front page to that post of his. Us frequent visitors to the chat room have neglected it as of late, and let it expire. Remco was kind enough to re-register the chat room for us. Why don't you all pop in from time to time?

If you're unfamiliar with IRC My Opera contains some excellent tutorials on how to use IRC, especially within Opera itself. Of course you're welcome to use a client of your own choice other than Opera. The easiest way is to follow a hyperlink straight to the chat room like this one. If you're using a modern OS (and a browser like Opera) your preferred IRC client should load.

Typically you'll be able to find either myself or G-Off on there, and eventually if we get a good enough crowd we might try to hold IRC-only events. Hope to see you on there.

N+'s layout is broken due to new markup for My Opera. I was a beta tester for My Opera, but before I could finish fixing things for it the test server's login was changed, rendering me incapable of testing my changes anymore. Things will return to normal soonish, but please bear with me while things look rather messed up (especially with photo albums).

When Cap'n and I discussed the headers for August and September we thought of kawaiipikachu and that he wanted more cuteness in N+. We delivered on that for August, but for September we've gone even further. We've made the cutest header of lutherjw's mom Wario... cute if you're sick in the head. This new header comes complete with a new layout for N+ as well. This part of the September surprise (wtf? It's only August!) was only known to a few of the mods. It's been kept a secret even from the majority of the mods here.

The design is intended to properly separate the content from the sidebar, something the previous layout didn't do too good of a job of. Everything's been styled, even the forums. The layout's been tested, but like everything else there could be problems here and there. I'll fix them as I find 'em.

The header came from an idea I've had for a while, and when drawing it I thought it'd be excellent to do it like those Bill Wray Ren & Stimpy closeups where you'd see the most gross things imaginable. Well, I hope I've made him completely gross. I'm sure the enormous fart cloud would be enough for that.

Like all of our headers the original image used to create the header graphic is viewable by everyone in our Photos section.

Last week, we asked what brightness you normally set your DS to.

10% of y'all (I'm Southern.) don't even have one of them darn DSes. I feel sorry for ya. None of you had it on the lowest (rightly so), two percent had it on 2, 19% on 4, 14% of ya' had an original DS without any ability except off or on with the on setting triggered, and none of you obviously had it turned off on the original either. Not surprisingly either... all of you knew you could change the brightness. What does luther think you all are? Idiots? Bah.

The majority of you all at 52% (including myself) have it set to three.

This week, Luther was off doing something and unfortunately for you all I've made this week's excellent insane query (at least until he changes it, of course).

Ook?

• Ook.
  
• Ook-ook.
  
• Eek.
  
• Oooook!
  
• Ooook. Ook-ook, ook.
  

As always, votes can be cast in the sidebar on the right, and you must be a member of N+ to vote. Feel free to comment on your choice below!

Did I get your attention? Yes? Good. I've just finished writing my will as a result of creating this most evil of header images. Since I'm done with that I thought I might as well write this post. Well, we've decid.ed on who to select out of the multitudes of applications we received for moderator status on N+. It was a most difficult quest to decide on who to torture grace with the status of Moderator, so we decided on FOUR, yes FOUR. They are as follows:

1. Ace Jon
2. PVGummiand
3. Spook81
4. Jayvee

It was an extremely hard choice, but we all agree unanimously that these suckers people will make excellent additions to our moderator staff. The process isn't over, yet. We need each of the new moderators to submit their acceptance to one of us through a PM. After that we only need to wait for our fearless leader, DotEd, to flip the switch to give all the ones selected moderator status. He's on his way back as I write this from a glorious trip in sunny California.

We hope to see quicker response times from news and other things as a result of these moderator additions. Give the four a round of applause.

Yesterday when Kotaku showed a blurry screenshot from Weekly Shonen Jump showing Chrono Trigger DS I was HIGHLY skeptical. These past few years have been plagued with thousands and thousands of people wasting their time and their crappy Photoshop skills to make fake screenshots of some form of a Chrono Trigger remake or a sequel. SquareEnix has expressed no interest as of late to revive the Chrono series despite the first game in the series’s status as one of the greatest games of all time. It does, however, look as if they are finally going to do something with the series, a remake of the timeless classic on the Nintendo DS as both the Japanese and North American websites for SquareEnix features Chrono Trigger DS, abeit rather vaguely.

Rumor sites have been ablaze since yesterday about this game with fans needing a dosage of ritalin to keep themselves calm. Why is this? Well, it’s because unlike SquareEnix’s other series this one hasn’t been beat to death with multitudes of inept sequels, just one. Since Chrono Cross’s release on the PlayStation in 1999 (Japan) and 2000 (North America) fans have been clamoring for a good Chrono game. My personal opinion of its sequel is that it was a complete failure of a game although it did have a good story if you were capable of playing through it. Its soundtrack, however, is one of the best from any game; it could be considered as good or better than its predecessor’s. A remake of this game would only be beneficial for them, bringing one of the best games ever made to a new audience; the last time a remake of Chrono Trigger was made was in 1999 (Japan) and 2001 (North America). A couple of the mods here were hardly out of diapers by then.

Once SquareEnix provides screenshots we’ll be back with more information.

UPDATE: It's true! Square Enix just sent out a press release confirming the game, which you can read after the break. CHRISTMAS 2008 BABY!

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