New DSi Game Makes The Real World An RPG

Spirit Hunters, a new game in development by Nnooo for the DSi and “future nintendo handhelds”, is an augmented reality title that promises to be, in the creator’s words, “a role playing game set in the real world”.

Players use the DSi’s (and, presumably, 3DS’) camera to view the world on their handheld’s screen, upon which information will be displayed. The aim is to hunt and capture spirits, which will show up anywhere and everywhere you go.

Sounds simple, but then it’s a DSiWare downloadable game, so it’s not exactly aiming for the moon. And while there are plenty of applications like this already available for smartphones, they’re not exactly common on dedicated gaming devices.

Interesting for Pokemon and Ghostbusters fans, then, and for the rest of us as well, since it pretty much confirms that the 3DS will have a camera setup like the DSi.

Like Pokemon, there’ll be two versions released, Light and Shadow, and it’ll be out in late 2010.