The DSi, sporting two cameras and the ability to download games, hit in April. The DSiLL (XL to folks outside of Japan) is all of that a more, well more in the sense of size, super-sizing the screen and mondo-sizing the stylus.

Of course, there were also games, plenty of games. Here's some of the top titles we reviewed on Kotaku.

What DS or DSi games would you suggest picking up for friends or family?

Art Style: Digidrive

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: The world's only game based on directing traffic, but fun
Value: Not many modes, but very deep gameplay, Tetris-like.
Buy it for: People who want an engrossing puzzle game for their commute — and the only puzzle game built well for one-handed play (good for shaky subway/bus rides.)
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Boxlife

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Uh, puzzle box-folding?
Subject Matter: Work in a factory, fold boxes, live the American dream
Value: Second-best of all DSi Art Style games, based on a clever, deep mechanic, and a bevy of modes and unlockables.
Buy it for: Fans of innovative game design.
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Pictobits

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Block-dropping puzzle game
Subject Matter: A Tetris twist with an artsy retro style
Value: Highest of all downloadable DS games, offering many levels, great nostalgia for old pixel art, and a high-quality full chiptunes soundtrack that re-mixes classic Nintendo themes.
Buy it for: Anyone with a DSi, anyone who is nostalgic for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Precipice
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strong>Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: Endless Tetris-style game featuring a man climbing falling blocks
Value: Doesn't have any modes, but its core gameplay is long-lasting.
Buy it for: Puzzle game fans and those who enjoy the DSi's innovative Art Style series
Read the Full Review

Bakugan Battle Brawlers

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Marble-shooting, creature-battling action game.
Subject Matter: Based on the wildly popular collectible toy game and cartoon series, Bakugan follows in the footsteps of Pokemon but adds transforming marbles to the mix. The game does a good job of capturing the essence of the franchise.
Value: With a relatively robust single-player campaign and ability to battle up to three friends on one screen in a slew of interactive arenas, this game is a pretty good deal.
Buy it for:fans of Bakugan and maybe even curious fans of Pokemon.
Read the Full Review

Domo Games

Price: $2 each (five games - download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Music, Sports
Subject Matter: The NHK TV mascot, Domo, stars in five re-purposed mini-games that were originally made in 2002
Value: Low, because the games are not fun.
Buy it for: Only people who love Domo and whom you don't love.
Read the Full Review

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Action/Adventure
Subject Matter: Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter is a relatively simple adventure game with similarly simple side-scrolling platforming levels and a touching, sometimes sad story. What makes it unique are its drawing features, which let the player customize their hero, what weapons they use and various elements of the game world all via the DS's touch screen.
Value: Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter's main adventure is brief, but the option to create new heroes, which can vary from flower people to ninjas to robots, extends the life of this charming 2D adventure.
Buy it for: the creative kid who may be too young for a more challenging Nintendo DS game.
Read the Full Review

DSi

Price: $169.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: The next step for the DS Lite features two cameras and the ability to download games from the Nintendo store.
Value: While the price isn't exorbitant, more than half a year after launch the Nintendo Store is still lacking in quality downloadable titles.
Buy it for: gadgetophiles, people who love Nintendo, children who don't own digital cameras, anyone interested in a DS but who hasn't taken the plunge yet.
Read the Full Review

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Price: $29.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Turn-based role-playing strategy
Subject Matter: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a thoughtful, modern day remake of an 8-bit medieval fantasy classic, telling the turn-based tale of Marth, heir to the throne of Altea who leads a band of soldiers in a tactical revolt against the Shadow Dragon Medeus.
Value: Over twenty five chapters, loads of characters, ample upgrade options, rare weapons via the online shop, and an excessive six levels of difficulty should ensure that your purchase of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is money well spent.
Buy it for: the fan of fantasy, strategy and epic adventure.
Read the Full Review

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

Price: $34.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Open world action-adventure
Subject Matter: Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is a 3D, top-down adventure, putting players in the shoes of Huang Lee, a spoiled son of a Chinese gangster. The typical Grand Theft Auto rise to power through sex, drugs, violence and bad driving flows over the course of the game.
Value: There's a lengthy story to be told, with Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars throwing in plenty of side missions and mini-games to keep the player interested.
Buy it for: the Nintendo DS owner sadly lacking in over-the-top violent content.
Read the Full Review

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Price: $39.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: An action RPG that bridges the gap between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Value: While those not familiar with the Kingdom Hearts franchise will find themselves a bit lost story-wise, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a lengthy game that fans will love for the back story and RPG fans will enjoy for its depth.
Buy it for: Anyone who is a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series.
Read the Full Review

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Price: $34.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: Mario, Luigi and their nemesis Bowser band together to fend off a common foe in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. As role-playing games go, it's heavy on the action, light on the story and packed with memorable, humorous characters.
Value: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story offers a lengthy adventure, about 20 hours worth of play time, but after the story's complete, there's little incentive to return to the game.
Buy it for: the younger gamer looking for a long, not too challenging experience (or anyone with a Nintendo DS and a sense of humor).
Read the Full Review

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again

Price: $8 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Lemmings-like puzzler
Subject Matter: Mainpulate girders and gadgets to enable Mario toys to march to their goals.
Value: Very high due to a generous amount of levels and a level-editor that supports downloaded user-made maps.
Buy it for: Fans of brain-bending puzzle games, as the solutions to some of these levels are hard to engineer.
Read the Full Review

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Price: $34.99
Rating: E
Genre: Adventure/Puzzle
Subject Matter: The Professor and his protégé, Luke, are out to solve a mystery surrounding a man who never ages and box that kills all who open it.
Value: With a crazy amount of puzzles and a new puzzles to download every week, this is one game that won't ever be very far from your DS during those long commutes.
Buy it for: Yourself and anybody you actually want to give a good gift to.
Read the Full Review

Rhythm Heaven

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Subject Matter: Rhythm Heaven is a loosely connected series of rhythmic and musical challenges with very simple controls, requiring little more than good timing and simple touchscreen tapping. Simplistic though it may be, Rhythm Heaven is inventive and fun.
Value: There are dozens of mini-games to unlock and play, with sound toys and more serious challenges for the player who masters Rhythm Heaven's main mode.
Buy it for: anyone with Nintendo DS that can keep a beat or longs for more WarioWare style mini-game fun.
Read the Full Review

Scribblenauts
Price: $29.99
Rating: E10+
Genre: Open world, spell-checking puzzle action game.
Subject Matter: Scribblenauts brings just about anything you can spell to life in the game, backing up a stunningly large visual dictionary with a web of interactions that can surprise and amuse as you work out how to solve puzzles.
Value: With 150 puzzles and 150 action levels, and the ability to use more than 22,800 words to figure out what to do, this is one of the best values this year in gaming.
Buy it for: children learning to spell, people who love lateral thinking and anyone with a sense of humor.
Read the Full Review

Rhythm Tengoku Arcade, which was introduced to Japanese arcades a couple of years ago, appears to include the same roster of musical mini-games as the original GBA edition. I had played through that GBA version a couple of years ago, so I was able to easily get through several sections of the arcade game on just 100 yen.

After I plunked in a coin, the game allowed me to choose one of several groups of mini-games and then try to clear each of the mini-games in my chosen group. I believe that clearing all mini-games in the group would let me play a mix that combines all of them — that's what capped off each group of mini-games on the GBA. But I didn't have time to play through all of the mini-games.

The controls in the arcade edition involve banging on giant versions of the GBA's d-pad and action buttons. Nothing special there. The arcade machine supports two-player, which the GBA one did not. We weren't able to try that mode.

The mini-games in Rhythm Tengoku, like those of the 2009 DS game Rhythm Heaven, are not complex. They are barely more involved than the micro-games in the WarioWare series, a series whose developers also made Tengoku. The Rhythm Tengoku games may even be simpler than the stylus-driven ones of the DS Rhythm Heaven. Most of the Tengoku ones require the player to simply tap a single button to the rhythm of both the game's music and the animations of actions on the screen.

On the video you'll see me try the onion beard-plucking rhythm game and a disco hand-clapping one. After we finished shooting the video, I also played a baseball mini-game, which involves hitting home runs into outer space. As I walked away, our Brian Ashcraft took over, testing the karate-man-punches-rocks one.

The machine was fun, but my experience was no different than it was on the GBA. The controller and graphics were simply bigger, not necessarily better. Maybe the game couldn't be improved by this arcade port, because the GBA release was top-flight, succeeding not with fancy graphics but with simple, stylish looks and a catchy conneciton of player to action via the rhythm of the soundtrack.

The GBA Tengoku is still worth checking out, if you can find it in Japan or through an importer. For the arcade game, come to the Sega arcade in Tokyo's Shibuya district.

At a panel in Los Angeles, Tsunku talked about his music career and rhythm. "Rhythm is something that hasn't really been valued in Japanese culture or in Japanese music," he said. "I really wanted to educate musically oriented people as well as the Japanese public on that."

While Japan isn't as clued into rhythm Tsunku pointed out, he did say that Americans know how to get down. And boogie. "I respect the American public as people who are very oriented towards music, but they do that thing with their whole body."

Tsunku the proceeded to do an "awkward dance" reports game blog Destructoid.

Painting with broad brush strokes here — there are obviously Japanese people who have fantastic rhythm and there are obviously American people like me who don't. However, there are few who have marvelous ascots like Tsunku.

Destructoid - Rhythm Heaven producer Tsunku says that America has rhythm [Dtoid]

There are many ways that star game reviewer and Giant Bomb honcho Jeff Gerstmann and star model Heidi Klum are unalike. One of those, may be their ability to impact the sales of games.

Klum may have the edge there.

Celebrities, EEDAR games research analyst Jesse Divnich wrote in a report issued this morning, are trumping reviewers.

"Using celebrities in a mass-market media campaign is certainly one of the most effective ways to create the perception of being a must-own title," he said. "In fact, the Guitar Hero/Rock Band war is a perfect example of how Guitar Hero was ultimately able to gain mass-market acceptance through celebrity endorsements and advertisement even though editorial reviews indicated that Rock Band was a better product."

Rock Band has had the better reviews. But it is Guitar Hero that has had Heidi Klum, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez and other celebrities dancing in their underwear on TV in order to convince the world how good Activision's rhythm game is. They mattered more, in EEDAR's analysis, than did the game's reviews.

Take that, Jeff Gerstman, Kotaku and every other person or institution reviewing games.

"In this new gaming market," Divnich wrote, "when targeting a mass-audience, it is not always the best products that succeed, but often what the consumers believe is the best product. "

Divnich's analysis was part of his preview for this Thursday's release of NPD game sales for the month of April. That month saw the release of Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS, a game that was promoted with a commercial featuring Beyonce Knowles. The EEDAR analyst believes that the game's sales will be shown later this week to be "nothing short of amazing" due to Nintendo's use of a celebrity to support it, moreso than because the game is exceptionally good.

For as long as video games have been around, celebrities have been enlisted infrequently to hawk them. Games have been treated like movies, allowing the content to hype itself.

But the prospect that Divnich raises is that maybe games should be hyped as products, like soda or cars. Instead of the occasional celebrity endorsement based on the celebrity's inclusion in the game — see Mike Tyson's commercial for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out — perhaps gaming is entering an era of celebrity pitch-people telling the masses what to play. If so, Nintendo and Activision, which have enlisted stars from Nicole Kidman and Mr. T to Ozzy Osbourne and Liv Tyler, appear to be leading that revolution.

OK. So which celebrities should have been pushing Prince of Persia and Chinatown Wars to help those games out?

How did candy pop wizard Tsunku add smash-hit game designer to his already impressive resume? Terada tells Wired that it all started with an unsolicited game submission to Nintendo. "In Japan, with games that use rhythm and sound, it's long been the case that the placement of accents and the timing of button-presses has had nothing to do with music," the producer says. "For someone like myself, whose work revolves around music, this has never seemed right, and I wrote up my proposal in hopes of doing away with this." For Tsunku, he needed Nintendo's help to bring his game to life: "I also felt that without Nintendo's expertise, realizing my idea for a rhythm game would be impossible."

But his submission was out of the blue! "It wasn't like I really knew anyone with Nintendo, either," he continues. "It was a bit risky, but my staff just took our proposal and approached them directly." After meetings (and several dance classes), he was able to get his idea across to Nintendo, and the game got green-lit. And now it's making loads of money. Funny how that works.

J-Pop Producer Tsunku Perfects Music Games With Rhythm Heaven [Wired]

Gamers who showed up were able to check out the rhythm game and then received free DJ lessons from professional DJs. Did anyone here go? Looking at the photos it looks like attendance may have been light.

The collection of more than 50 music mini-games is surprisingly deep for a title that relies on two touchscreen mechanics: tapping and flicking. (Okay, there is a tiny bit of rubbing too.) While the word "mini-games" may have become a dirty word to core gamers feeling pushed aside by the tide of short session compilations flooding Nintendo platforms, Rhythm Heaven is a quirky, feel-good medley of gameplay that's simple enough for more casual fans, but challenging enough to appeal to a core sensibility.

Rhythm Heaven is already a monster hit in its native Japan. Do we think that you should "tap into the rhythm" and add to the game's multimillion sales? Or does Rhythm Heaven miss a beat?

Loved
Style: Visually, Rhythm Heaven is loaded with unquantifiable charm. The game's design plays up the strengths of the Nintendo DS hardware, keeping 3D visuals to a minimum, packing the game with cute characters and environments rendered in a simple 2D style. The game's visual variety is not unlike that of the WarioWare series, but feels more homogenized, less intentionally bizarre.

Surprising Variety: The Rhythm Heaven developers utilize the Nintendo DS touchscreen controls to a consistently refreshing degree. Despite there being little in the way of complexity to the tap and flick scheme, rarely do two games feel alike. Later games still remain novel in their design, but the rhythmic skills you'll learn throughout make previously completed games much easier. Playing through the medley remixes is a blast.

Some Really Catchy Tunes: With the exception of a handful of tracks (see below), the Rhythm Heaven soundtrack rarely offends. In fact, there are a couple of tunes that are infectious, that not only complement mini-games well, but also make previously completed game easy to return to for an attempt at improvement (or perfection).

A Lovely Addition To The DS Library: There are few games like Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS. Fans of both iNiS's Osu! Tatakae!! Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents and Nintendo's WarioWare Touch will probably enjoy the smart musical gameplay most, as Rhythm Heaven has a great sense of humor and an off-kilter, but carefully crafted aesthetic.

Hated
No Restart Option: Rhythm Heaven can be surprisingly difficult, even for music game veterans. Part of that is due to occasionally vague instructions and the fact that the game doesn't do a very good job of explaining what it is you're doing wrong when you fail. The other part is that flicks sometimes don't register as the player intended. Most annoying though, especially when trying to score a "Perfect" rating, is that the game doesn't have a restart option to speed up the action. You'll have to quit the game if you screw up, then wait for the autosave, the loading screen and the practice menu to load.

Grating Vocals: There are a couple of tracks in Rhythm Heaven—Fan Club, The Dazzles and Frog Hop— that I never want to hear again. The common thread is that they all have vocal parts that are tough on the ears. The localization on the voiced parts is hilariously bad and will likely offend anyone who has played the import version.

Rhythm Heaven is easy to recommend, no matter how you classify yourself as a gamer. While the game has few design and localization quirks, the game features a level of polish that Nintendo is known for, offering a valuable package filled with enjoyable mini-games and post-completion challenges. It's delightful, addictive and can offer a serious challenge.

Embrace the mini-game!

Rhythm Heaven was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS, released on April 5th in North America. Retails for $29.99. Completed all mini-games, unlocked about half of the medal games.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

It is a whopper of a read. But I plucked this from the kicker. It's real fun when the company's top boss asks three guys all on the same team what they think of one another, in their presence.

Iwata:Oh, that's right. I've got a question for Osawa-san. What do you think of Takeuchi-san?
Kazuoshi Osawa: Hm?
Kou Takeuchi: Uh-oh… (laughs)
Masami Yone: Uh-oh… (laughs)
Osawa: Umm…
Takeuchi: I'm s-scared to hear. (laughs)

Iwata: What kind of person is he?
Osawa: I'd be…lost without him.
Everyone: (laughs uproariously)
Osawa: Spiritually…professionally…I'd be…lost. (laughs)
Iwata: I truly understand. (laughs)
Osawa: Is that answer…all right? (laughs)
Iwata: It's fine. What about Yone-san?

Osawa: He's very…kind. He knows how to read me…and cheers me up. When I'm feeling down, he e-mails me pictures of kittens.
Everyone:(roaring laughter)
Iwata: And th-that cheers you up. (laughs)
Osawa: Photos of cute kittens are a big help. (laughs)
Yone: In the morning, when he looks down-and-out, I send him pictures of kittens to help him relax.
Takeuchi: You do?! (laughs)
Yone: Sometimes.
Osawa: Sometimes.
Iwata: You shouldn't use company e-mail for that! (laughs)

Ha ha! That Iwata he's such a joker. He was joking right? And then everyone flees to go delete their email.

Iwata Asks - Rhythm Heaven [Rhythm Heaven]

Playing, watching, listening to Nintendo PR handlers, look at the camera, Beyonce, look at the camera, now look at the DS, sign some DSi handhelds, tell us about your first Nintendo game, can you sing the Mario theme song, can you shill the Wii please Beyonce...it's a full days work.

Reminds me of a dream I once had, where I was famous and doing the exact same thing. Except it was for Valkyria Chronicles, and I was paid in cupcakes...

Beyonce's celebrity endorsement of the Nintendo DS certainly isn't the first. She joins other professional famous people like Nicole Kidman, Liv Tyler and Patrick Stewart in convincing non-gamers that they too should upgrade to the camera-equipped DSi.

Ms. Knowles tells Entertainment Weekly that she's an old-school Nintendo fan, raised on Super Mario Bros. and the NES. Beyonce even claims to have a non-contractual interest in video games, with tastes ranging from Guitar Hero on the Wii to Brickbreaker on the Blackberry to the Shin Megami Tensei series. Yes, I did make that last one up.

Learn more handy Beyonce facts at EW, then impress your friends with useless trivia about celebrities!

Beyonce talks 'Rhythm Heaven,' 'Guitar Hero,' and more: An exclusive Q&A about music and videogames [EW - thanks, Jason!]

This year, Nintendo seems content with release Wii-controls versions of previously released GameCube games. On the horizon, we can see the already-released-in-Japan Rhythm Heaven and the eagerly awaited Punch Out! and...

Nintendo's thinking is apparently that the company needs to open up its platforms, which are traditionally dominated by Nintendo games, to outside game developers and give them a chance.

"Until now there have been complaints that Nintendo makes too many games or Nintendo dictates too much leadership," Nintendo's Japanese PR stated. "Complaining that Nintendo makes too few games is a first, isn't it?"

A true, but rather tangy, response from Nintendo. Perhaps it's just the development cycle, and all of Nintendo's best and brights are busy making something spectacular. Perhaps.

「Wii」向けの新作ゲーム　「任天堂なぜ作らぬ」とネットで不満 [J-Cast]

What's more, Amazon prices the game at US$40 and gives it a November 30 release date — both could be placeholders, though.

Rhythm Heaven [Amazon via Go Nintendo]

July 10 DS Densetsu no Starfi Taiketsu! ¥4,800
July 24 Wii Wario Land Shake ¥5,800
July 31 Wii Rei Gesshoku no Kamen ¥6,800
July 31 DS Rhythm Tengoku Gold ¥3,800
August 7 DS Fire Emblem DS ¥4,800
August 22 DS Inazuma Eleven ¥4,800

Details on the site are scant, but the titles are definitely something to get excited about. But remember kids, just because something appears on a Japanese blog, doesn't mean it's real. Just means, it's in Japanese!

Eds Note: Rhythm Tengoku Gold has been confirmed as real by the Nintendo Japanese site. Thanks, 刘治家! The new issue of Famitsu confirms the other games as well. Nintendo of Europe today has confirmed Wario Land as well. Hooray!

Upcoming Releases [Rambling Man via NeoGAF]

Rhythm Tengoku (Rhythm Heaven) The Japan-only GBA title is chock-full of 2~3 minute rhythm games played by simple button-pushing. There are level bosses to be beaten, after which players bag metals and prizes. Word is that the game is very strict about timing. Perfect because I have none at all. Games include a karate fly smasher and vegetable de-hairing game with tweezers! Rhythm Tengoku descends from heaven August 3rd. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [4CR]