Nintendo has officially announced a new handheld unit dubbed the DSi LL. The latest version of the popular DS device features a 4.2″ screen (over 90% larger than that of the original), two touch-screen pens (one larger than the other), and a new price tag of $222.

The unit will launch with three color options: “WineRed, “DarkBrown” and “NaturalWhite”. United States and Europe availability has been confirmed by Nintendo however no specific release date has been set.

The Nintendo DSi LL splash page on nintendo.co.jp (shown below) displays the unit in a more mature setting atop a wooden table near house plant. My thought is that Nintendo feels the changes made to the DS will allow it to be more marketable to an older demographic. I personally don’t own one yet but I am a sucker for shiney things so who knows.

What do you think? Is the new Nintendo DSi LL worth your money? Sound off in the reader comments section below.

Thanks to /gamer for the tip.

Unlike most sequels, the Game Developers Conference Day 2 did not suck. The Ripten crew actually did stuff today! Amazing!

We met up in the press room to get our schedules straight (again), eat muffins, and get our daily recommended allowance of Mountain Dew. Jon Zungre drew first blood by attending the Independent Games Festival Mobile Awards, making us all look bad with his go-getting initiative.

When Jon got back, we headed over to the D3 Publisher’s GDC 2008 Press Event. While we were there, we got some hands-on time with the Dark Sector multiplayer, which we can’t talk about, and got demoed three more upcoming games.

The first and only game we are allowed to talk about was NARUTO: Ninja Destiny for the Nintendo DS. It was surprisingly solid for a handheld 3D fighting game. Look for our full impressions of the game later this week.

The other games we were shown were Bangai O Spirits and an as-yet unannounced game that we will spill the beans about next week, so be sure to check back for that. We were treated to some cheesecake and cupcakes before heading back out into the recently nerdified San Francisco. We had a few things to see, so we split up from here.

Jon and I went to see a new game called Freaky Creatures, an MMO game from Abandon Interactive. The concept was actually very cool, and even though all of the art and effects weren’t in the game yet, we walked away pleased. Look for our full impressions of the game very soon.

We headed from there to a press conference about the Emotiv headset, a device that reads your thoughts, emotions, and facial expressions. The event was almost a complete train wreck, mainly because the douchebags in the audience refused to disconnect themselves from dork headquarters — all those wireless signals in the room were messing up the headset’s reception. They promised us some hands-on time with the thing tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a better idea of whether it’s actually cool or just another expensive way to make me look more retarded.

While we were doing all that, Chad went to an ominously vague PC announcement, which turned out to be this. The invite did a good job of making it sound extremely important while also not saying anything at all. Those crafty bastards!

He then met up with a few others at the Sony Online Entertainment party. Apparently, Sony really wanted to solidify the competition they have with Microsoft by throwing an equally shitty, fallopian tube party — the female version of Microsoft’s Sausage Fest 2008. Packed with a bunch of old ladies, Chad fled the scene before the combined might of their mental undressings left him naked (the room was cold, too, so we couldn’t have that).

After that, we all took refuge in our overpriced dumpster that is somehow considered to be a hotel. As I said before, we don’t get to bite into the meat of the GDC sandwich until tomorrow (or technically today, considering what time it is), so things will only get better from here on out. If we somehow manage to stay awake and experience it, we’ll be sure to tell you all about it first because you are our very bestest friends.

Rumors surfaced this week that Nintendo had an even lighter DS Lite on the way. Evan Wilson, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, got word that a redesign is actually already done, and Nintendo’s just waiting around for DS Lite sales to slow a little bit (looking like 2010 then!). However, Nintendo doesn’t want us to think this is the case.

The redesigned DS Lite is meant to be even daintier, with a bigger screen and built-in storage. This redesign isn’t out of the question though, with Sony’s PSP slimming up, Nintendo would more than likely want to keep one step ahead. Nonetheless, Nintendo wisely doesn’t want anyone to catch on to a DS redesign (if they have one that is), stating that analyst reports were “Rumour and speculation and we are not commenting further.”

We’ve heard that before. It’s the company spiel for “back-off, we’ll reveal it in our own time.” Sony is famous for this, with PS3 price-cuts and a rumbling SIXAXIS Controller being denied, and then coming out a month later with the “big reveal”. What would be the use of announcing a DS redesign before the holiday season? It’d make your money stay firmly in your pockets until the new improved version was in stores. Naturally, we are just speculating ourselves.