Nintendo 3DS

[osmosisch]

So far the 3DS has mainly felt like a downgrade after the simple perfection and excellent battery life of the DS Lite. The bigger screen is nice but not worth it, the 3D is headache-inducing and best switched off immediately and the plethora of unnecessary buttons is irritating.

 

Still, I'm a neophobe and things might turn out OK.

[Yasawas]

I made the jump from DS Lite straight to 3DS XL and felt similarly underwhelmed by the feel of the hardware at first but I've come to love it now. The D-pad on the Lite is perfect though, I do miss that fellow.

[Roderick]

I felt underwhelmage too at first, but then after a year I tried playing a DS game and was struck by how rudimentary it looked. It's frighteningly easy to underestimate the graphical leap the 3DS made.

 

The device isn't quite perfect, though. I'm still holding out hope for a twin-stick version with better batteries. C'mon Nintendo, do it.

[syntheticgerbil]

The battery life is my major complaint. Every time it dies and I am unaware, I miss out on possible precious Street Passes.

[Roderick]

Look at it like another layer of strategic interaction that you have to consider in operating the device. Holy cow, Nintendo is giving you so much gameplay for your buck!

[syntheticgerbil]

Precious precious street passes.

[Roderick]

A little further into Miracle Mask and my opinion of it has gone considerably up. I now see the game just starts slowly and explainy, but now I'm underway (2+ hours in) and the puzzels are coming and the story picks up. Notably the past bits are a lot of fun, dealing with a younger Layton. The exploration of the 3D environments remains entirely impressive: I'm getting major Curse of Monkey Island vibes from it, because of the warped-yet-soft art style. Adventurey goodness!

[Justin Leego]

Precious precious street passes.

 

Luigi's Mansion 2 picture puzzle street swap go go go!

[Sno]

Speaking of which, Luigi's Mansion 2 is pretty awesome, you guys.

[BigJKO]

Yep. Played the first four or five levels. So far, it is amazing. So much charm.

[tegan]

I traded in my old 3DS and bought Luigi's Mansion with some of the trade credit. I'm really digging it so far, plus I also got a free copy of Professor Layton through Club Nintendo!

 

this is a good day for puzzlin'

[BigJKO]

Is that Layton offer US only?

[tegan]

Is that Layton offer US only?

 

US and Canada. If you buy and register a 3DS XL and either Luigi's Mansion or Pokémon Mystery Dungeon with Club Nintendo between February 14th and April 30th you get one of five free games.

[BigJKO]

Oh, hang on. I think something similar came with my European 3DS XL.

[Yasawas]

All purchasers of an XL in Europe up to the middle of January got one of five free games including Layton and Mario 3D Land, pleased to hear other regions are getting something similar.

[Roderick]

So, HarmoKnight. I'm now in world 3. It is a fun and well-developed game that keeps throwing new surprises at you. In that sense, it's good and yes, worth the 15 euros. But you can also feel that it's somewhat limited in scope. Despite the gameplay twists, there's only so much that they're doing with this. If we're talking about gameplay evolution, I think this is kind of a dead end, unless they can build in a additional strategic layer without it becoming a mess.

 

It's almost funny that this is coming from Gamefreak. It's the complete opposite of Pokémon: instead of a world constructed ground-up from insane battle systems and intricate randomly generated things, here's a game that's purely about the tactile experience of pressing a button and seeing something happen. It's refreshing! Maybe they need a good marriage of the two, though!

 

Also, I keep thinking I'd be a lot better at HarmoKnight if I could tap on the screen with a stylus instead of pressing the buttons. The timing's a lot more difficult. Theathrythm uses a stylus and is so much more intuitive for it.

[Sno]

Rumors out of GDC are that Bravely Default is almost certainly coming to the West, The localization of Project X Zone was announced for June, an Etrian Odyssey spin-off with an emphasis on story was just announced, SMT4's release date has been more closely pinned down to July, while Soul Hackers is out in a couple weeks, and we're probably even getting Level 5's cutesy RPG "Fantasy Life".

The 3DS is going absolutely JRPG crazy.

I'm excited about Bravely Default, i've heard good things. I'm also quite amused that Project X Zone is being localized.

The Guild 02 games are looking pretty definite too. (Confirmed so far is some kind of first-person sci-fi adventure, and an arcade-style action game from Keiji Inafune.)

[Roderick]

Storyheavy Etrian Odyssey? You mean the thing I literally described as wanting a few weeks ago? This world is going nuts.

[Sno]

Apparently it's a remake of the first game with a class-changing system in place of a customizable party, since the party is a set group of characters who all have roles in the story.

[BigJKO]

I'm already pretty god damn happy with my 3DS purchase, having only played two games so far. My brain is exploding from the thought of all these amazing games that are on their way. Thanks for persuading me, Thumbs!

[toblix]

I have this asshole guy on Steam who keeps sending me creepy images of his bodies.

 

Anyway, he just got a 3DSXL, and wondered if my US-imported copy of 999 that works on my 3DS will automatically work on his Dutch 3DSXL. Does anyone know if it will, or if there is some nerd database that will tell me somewhere?

[Sno]

DS games are not region locked, so there should be no problem.

[toblix]

Thanks, NERD.

[Roderick]

WHY are people having all these questions about 999, a game that they should just put in any of their Nintendo-made handhelds of literally the last eight years, no matter where they bought them, and play it without any problems whatsoever?

 

Hey, remember the days when Nintendo didn't region lock their handhelds? Ancient and beautiful times, they were.

[dibs]

I want a 3Ds so bad caus of this thread:/