Nintendo 3DS

[Sno]

http://www.joystiq.c...-19-for-199-99/

So new model of the 3DS, but it's nothing exciting, it's basically just a reprise on the DSi XL concept.

1 - The 3DS's screens probably look much nicer scaled up than the DS's screens did.

2 - It has a matte finish instead of gloss. (Does gloss bother anybody else as much as it bothers me? The 3DS is a magnet for grime.)

3 - It is definitely no longer something you can fit in a pocket. (Thing is enormous!)

4 - It has an ever so slightly better battery, Nintendo is talking like six hours as opposed to five.

5 - The shell was redesigned to be aesthetically similar to the Wii U tablet, and it's really quite ugly.

6 - 200 bucks, as opposed to 170 for the 3DS proper.

7 - Interestingly, no built-in CPP, and the existing peripheral obviously won't fit on this thing.

8 - The Japanese details for this thing revealed that, at least in Japan, it would not ship with its own charger! (Either you have a 3DS charger to use with it, or buy one separately.)

So, eh.

I'm quite glad it isn't anything i feel compelled to own.

[toblix]

No CPP?! Those bastards.

[Roderick]

Not shipping it with a charger is incredibly weird and arbitrary. If they aim the device at people who already have a 3DS it's weird and almost seems like a way to prevent them from selling on their old machine. If it's for a new audience, why? Why why? It directly breaks with Nintendo tradition and you are essentially buying an incomplete package. Surely the charger isn't such a cost post that it needed to be cut?

Also, I don't get this 3DS XL. It's just so strange. Indubitably, the 3DS screen is a little small, but unless they boost the resolution also, the bigger screen (almost twice as big!) will only make the games look fuzzier. Though, maybe it will actually be better, I've heard good things from the DSi XL.

The fact that the ccp is not supported is also a testament to the clusterfuck happening at Nintendo. And that after Miyamoto said not two weeks ago that he was happy with the 3DS and they had no improvements in mind.

[Sno]

My belief is that the DSi XL was made, essentially, for old people.

I have a mother that expressed interest in Brain Age and the like, but couldn't make out the text on the smaller DS screens.

Bought her a DSi XL and a few puzzle games, and i think she probably plays it every day.

However, the 3DS doesn't have that broadly appealing library of games yet, most of it has been very hardcore-minded, so i don't know who is going to buy the 3DS XL. (Aside from people who mistake it for the DSi XL.)

That all said, I think the 3DS screens definitely needed to be bigger, and there is a significantly higher pixel density than what was going on with the DS screens, so i don't think those images will look dramatically worse blown up. As such, I wouldn't mind seeing what a game like RE:Revelations looks like on the 3DS XL. The problem is that portability is a big part of how i use my 3DS, so that puts me out of the market for a 3DS XL.

It's very strange though, i don't know what to make of it, really. A lot is very strange about this product refresh.

I think you're right that it may be indicative of disorder within Nintendo.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Once you've played and gotten used to an XL version of a DS, the "normal" version seems TINY. I was holding off on buying a 3DS because I want an XL version -- and now there is one. Yay!

[syntheticgerbil]

3 - It is definitely no longer something you can fit in a pocket. (Thing is enormous!)

I feel like I want one, but seeing how I use my 3DS right now, which sometimes for games but mostly fuck around with Streetpassing or drawing Swapnotes, there's no way I'd walk around with a giant DS 24/7 the way I do now.

Also, what the hell is a CPP?

[Sno]

The Circle Pad Pro, the add-on stick.

[mikemariano]

My belief is that the DSi XL was made, essentially, for old people.

That's me! I bought a DSi XL for the big stylus to use with the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

I can't wait to spend another $200 to do crossword puzzles in 3D...

[SiN]

The DSi XL *is* for old people, and Nintendo said as much.

Personally, I love my mobile tech to be, well, mobile. So I never saw the appeal of a DSi XL. However, I use the 3DS almost exclusively at home. It's just not practical to play 3DS on my commute. Mostly because the 3D screen totally blows on a shaky bus, but also because the battery life kinda sucks. With that in mind, I'd actually consider getting a 3DS XL.

As for the CPP, I'm pretty sure Nintendo have no intention of it being "a thing" beyond a peripheral for Monster Hunter. And rightly so, a second analog stick is *really* unnecessary for the kinds of games that work best on handheld systems.

But man, you know what sucks? Being left handed and playing Circle Pad + Stylus 3DS games. I'd *kill* for a 3DS: Lefty Edition!

[Henroid]

I must be old people then, because I bought a DSi XL. I made the jump from the first DS model to it, and the screen size is something I appreciate for the same reason why I appreciate a larger monitor for my computer; it adds a little something to the immersion, it fills my field of vision better so I can tune out things around me. Also, I don't have to strain my arms lifting something up to my face; I can casually hold it away from me and not have to wonder at the smaller details on the screen (my eyes, with glasses at least, are fine, it's just the 'closer look' thing I'm talking about here). The screen size of the first DS seems horrendous to me, and the 3DS' screen size REALLY turned me off. I knew they'd be putting out a newer iteration eventually.

I don't play mobile game devices when I'm on the go. Never have. I've tried, but usually if I'm leaving the house I'm going to be busy doing something or another, and I'm not going to be that tool who goes to hang out with friends but is busy with his stupid fucking mobile when present with humans. So the portability lost in the 3DS XL doesn't bother me.

Longer battery life is longer battery life; I'm not gonna bitch about what it could or should be. It didn't go down, that's the important part.

Still, I'm not going to jump on buying a 3DS. The library is on the cusp of having things I feel I MUST play, so it's close, but I feel like waiting on a price drop. I don't object to the $200 mark necessarily, but there's a lot of things I can distract myself with until a price drop hits. The charger being a separate purchase sure is weird.

[Twig]

This thing is ENORMOUS. Every picture I see makes it bigger!

I kind of want it, but hey, no income, so that's not something I have to worry about!

[JonCole]

The bright side of this - a friend of mine remembered that he had a 3DS (yeah, that is apparently something you can forget) and decided to sell it to me for $60. So, anything I need to check out right off the bat? I'm on a pretty tight budget, so I'm thinking just a couple of eShop games like Pushmo and Zen Pinball in addition to maybe MGS: Snake Eater 3D if I get some Amazon trade-in credit together.

[miffy495]

Snake Eater 3D is a pretty bad port. Kid Icarus is the shit, and Mario Kart remains Mario Kart. Those are probably my two biggest recommendations.

[JonCole]

Snake Eater 3D is a pretty bad port. Kid Icarus is the shit, and Mario Kart remains Mario Kart. Those are probably my two biggest recommendations.

Fair enough, I'm not an enormous fan of MGS anyways. Do I need a CPP for Kid Icarus?

[miffy495]

I'm not even using the stand for it. I just rest it on my knee. You may want a CPP if you're a lefty, but it works perfectly fine for me. Did you play Metroid Prime Hunters? It's a similar kind of control. Oh, and I can't believe I forgot Mario 3D Land, which is fantastic.

[Sno]

Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Kid Icarus: Uprising are the games i would say you cannot go wrong with. (MK7 has a patch on the 3DS shop, so don't forget to grab that.)

Uprising is hot stuff, i think it's the best game on the system. (Miffy is correct, if you've ever played Metroid Prime: Hunters and were comfortable with that, you know what the deal is with Uprising.)

The CPP lets you have lefty control in Uprising, but only Revelations really needs the CPP. (MGS3D uses it too.)

^ Revelations and MGS3D both have demos on the shop, so hold off on those maybe, check out the demos first. (There's quite a growing library of demos on the shop.)

There's tons of cool 3DS/DSi-ware stuff on the shop. I strongly recommend Mighty Switch Force. All of Wayforward's Nintendo Shop stuff is an easy recommendation, actually. Really though, pointing out cool stuff on the Nintendo shop would be a thread in and of itself. (There is, in fact, already a thread for it.)

Also, it might just be because i am already particularly fond of these two series, but i really like and would recommend Ridge Racer 3D and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy. (Which has nothing to do with the 360/PS3 game, it's actually a remake of AC2.)

Oh, and Tales of the Abyss is a really nice and improved port of Abyss, so if you're into the Tales games and haven't already played that, that's another pretty easy recommendation.

Ocarina 3D is also worth mentioning, it's a very nicely done remake, but has some potentially detrimental issues. (Though every time i mention that, somebody yells at me and tells me that they didn't run into any problems.)

Some other games may be worth looking at too, the Starfox 64 remake is allegedly very slick excepting some odd additions concerning control options, and Tetris Axis is apparently quite awesome. (Nintendo continues to be the only publisher that treats Tetris properly.)

[JonCole]

Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Kid Icarus: Uprising are the games i would say you cannot go wrong with. (MK7 has a patch on the 3DS shop, so don't forget to grab that.)

Uprising is hot stuff, i think it's the best game on the system.

There's tons of 3DS/DSi stuff on the shop. (I strongly recommend Mighty Switch Force.)

A lot of demos too.

Only Revelations needs the CPP. (MGS3D uses it too.)

^ Revelations and MGS3D both have demos on the shop, so hold off on those maybe, check out the demos.

Lots of pro-tips there in a short space. I'll be sure to check out demos, that'll be sure to help with penny pinching. Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus, and Mario Kart 7 are surely at the top of my list, thanks guys.

[SiN]

Yeah, I was just going to mention Super Mario 3D Land. Definitely my favourite 3DS game.

Also: if you're a lefty Kid Icarus is no fun. I bet the CPP would help, but I couldn't find one at a reasonable price.

[Henroid]

No love for the upcoming Etrian Odyssey 4?

[Sno]

If we want to talk about upcoming 3DS games, the two i'm most excited about are

and

. (That latter one obviously has different titles in different markets, but it's the sequel to 999.)

Square's upcoming 3DS RPG, the amusingly titled "Bravely Default: Flying Fairy", also

[Roderick]

I'm going to start a fire here, but could someone explain to me what makes Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater such a popular game? I played the 3DS demo and here are the things I found:

- It played very clumsily and poorly. Maybe that was due to the 3DS port.

- The world doesn't take itself seriously, but at the same time it does. It has an overwrought story, but the characters are ludicrous and the dialogue eurgh. Doesn't this bother anyone?

- It was almost impossible to judge when I was hiding and when people were seeing me. There are vague patches of grass that you can hide in, but visually you're never actually hidden, so it's hard to tell what is going on.

- It was incredibly boring and arduous. That may be me.

What am I missing?

[Sno]

So, speaking as somebody who is a fairly casual observer of the series, I have honestly always kind of dreaded the MGS games as... you know... games... I mean, the part where you play them, i think they're kind of awful. Somebody else is going to have to help you on that one, i have never played any of those games for their gameplay. (Having only played a few of them, admittedly.)

I kind of love them as insane narratives though, the way those games just revel in overwrought melodrama and ludicrous plot-twists, nevermind the hard swings into outright absurdism. All at once, it's completely self-serious, knowing, and proactive about how convoluted and dumb it is.

Kojima, as a story teller, either doesn't know when to stop or knows exactly how far off the cliff he has to go.

Rather than a failing, i think that's the actual appeal of that series, and it's probably something you're into and get, or aren't and don't.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The DSi XL *is* for old people, and Nintendo said as much.

Nintendo said the OPPOSITE, actually.

Here's a Japanlish version of the presentation made by the CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, announcing the XL:

"When you only hear about this feature [bigger screen size], you may wonder if the bigger screens are the only difference, or whether Nintendo is launching a Nintendo DS for seniors only. Nintendo does not offer new product for such limited purposes only."

http://www.nintendo..../091030/09.html

[JonCole]

I agree completely with Sno. I have to admit, though, the shortcomings of the mechanics really got to me in a recent attempt to play MGS4. The quirkiness of the narrative only goes so far for me.

In doing more research about games available for the 3DS, I've come to the conclusion that there simply aren't that many games out there for the system. It's strange, I haven't really observed this before as I've never owned a console so early in its infancy at a time where I could actually afford games (ie, I had an Xbox early but I was also a baby with no money). It also strikes me as disappointing that some of the better games are just remakes of N64 games.

[Sno]

In doing more research about games available for the 3DS, I've come to the conclusion that there simply aren't that many games out there for the system. It's strange, I haven't really observed this before as I've never owned a console so early in its infancy at a time where I could actually afford games (ie, I had an Xbox early but I was also a baby with no money). It also strikes me as disappointing that some of the better games are just remakes of N64 games.

Almost without fail, the first year or two for any new console will be incredibly slow. It takes time to build up momentum, getting publishers, developers, and the public to have enough faith in the system to where things can snowball. Basically every game system of the last decade has gone through this pattern in varying degrees.

Relatively speaking, the 3DS is in actually a very good place right now and has a pretty promising future. It has just recently hit its stride in the last few months, there are some genuinely really great games available, and there is a ton of potentially interesting software on the way.