North American Nintendo DSi owners can download and enjoy Flipnote Studio—for free—starting today, giving them access to the DSiWare animation tool that Japanese consumers have been enjoying since last December.
The flipbook animation software, known as Moving Memo in Japan, is relatively simple to use, letting budding animators draw, record audio and upload their creations to the Flipnote Hatena web site.
There is already a wealth of strong stuff on the site, as Japanese hobbyist animators have been working with the software for months. It's definitely worth perusing. This brief animation of Captain Falcon fending off a massive meteor with nothing more than a Falcon Punch, for example, is worth a few seconds of your time. This one, featuring a decapitated Ronald McDonald, is fantastic commentary on... something.
DSi animators not willing to share their creations online can simply share them via built-in wireless or store them to an SD memory card.
Flipnote Studio is available now, no DSi Points needed.