Flipnote Studio Review for Nintendo DS

System: DS (DSiWare)	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Nintendo	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Nintendo	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Aug. 12, 2009	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: N/A	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

If you want to add sound to the animation, Flipnote Studio allows you to insert up to three short sound clips and a longer one for background music or whatever you can think of. These sounds are recorded directly from the program, which is very convenient. However, it would have been nice to be able to access previously recorded notes from the Sound Studio, since that program allows you to tweak speed and pitch, and even add sound effects. That's something Flipnote Studio doesn't offer, and it would have been really nice to have.

Flipnote Studio screenshot

You can easily save your creations onto the SD card or the DSi's memory, and you can even export them into animated .gif files that can be seen on your computer and uploaded to the Internet once you paste them into your hard drive. I bet soon enough people will start posting them on MySpace or using them as forum avatars! Additionally, you'll be able to send and share your animations with friends using the DSi's local connection. You can lock the file so they can only view it, or you can let them modify it, allowing them to be part of the creation and cooperate.

Apart from the issues I mentioned about lack of integration with the Picture and Sound Studio (and the lack of other colors), there isn't much to complain about. The program has a neat and user-friendly interface, it helps to promote creativity, and best of all, it's free, so what else can you ask for? Head on over to the DSiWare section of the DSi Shop and download it today to see for yourself. We can't wait to see what else people can make, including you! Just a little tip for beginners: check out Flipnote Hatena first (the green button when you open Flipnote Studio); you'll be able to see multiple examples created by other users, all of them classified in different categories, and they should give you an idea of what you can do and how to do it.

By Maria Montoro
CCC Site Director

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

4.5

Graphics
Flipnote Studio has a very neat and streamlined visual style that's pleasing to the eyes and helps you focus on the task at hand: creating.

4.0

Control
Main functions are mapped to the handheld's buttons, which is quite useful. If you want more advanced options, simply go to the menu. Easy enough!

3.9

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Froggy sound effects are overwhelmingly cute, and the ability to record your own sounds is nice, though it's missing a built-in sound editing feature.

4.5

Play Value
Like any social network activity, this is here to last. It's a new form of expression for creative people, and creating animations is so easy that soon there'll be millions of Flipnotes in Hatena's database. Fun stuff!

4.5

Overall Rating - Must Buy
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Let your inner artist loose with Flipnote Studio, an easy to use and surprisingly powerful animation application.

Create Flipnotes by using the stylus to write letters and draw pictures, capture sounds using the microphone, and even insert photos captured with the Nintendo DSi Camera.

Save a Flipnote with multiple pages that run successively and you've just made an animated Flipnote that works like a flip book!

if you feel like sharing your masterpiece, send it to your Flipnote friends or, if you are a registered Hatena.com user, release it via Flipnote Hatena, an online service run by Japanese Web-service provider Hatena.