Nintendo Unveils the 3DS

[toonarmy]

I took my 3DS to work today and it was quite the hit. A couple of my coworkers had been giving me hell on Monday when I told them I went ahead and bought a 3DS. Those same coworkers are both going to buy one tonight after playing it, lol. Any doubt they had about this machine was erased once they played it. Several other coworkers played it as well and were blown away by the graphics, 3D, and functions of the system. I had to recharge it midday because they sapped it of its juice and wanted to keep playing around with it. Thankfully the power cable has a nice long cord so they could keep playing. Everyone that tried it saw the 3D quite easily and remarked about the beauty of the graphics. They were tripping out over the cool 3D photos you can take. Bust-A-Move and Ridge Racer were the hit games with them since nobody knew anything about soccer, however they enjoyed watching the cool default camera angle of PES even while getting destroyed by the CPU. There were no headaches and nobody felt like their eyes hurt.

I got to play about an hour and a half more of PES this afternoon and it keeps getting better and better. This is the first handheld PES game where I really feel like it is close to a console in terms of gameplay. The PSP versions are not bad, but they don't offer the level of control and smooth gameplay like the one on the 3DS. I played Bust-A-Move for another hour very late last night/morning and am really loving the 3D look of it. It actually has a popout effect as opposed to a "popin" effect.

I will be putting up some impressions of Ghost Recon and SSF later tonight.

[wco81]

Blown away by the graphics?

Did they just awake out of a 20-year coma?

They didn't announce numbers but apparently it's not sold out. Target is indicating wide availability, same thing at Amazon.

Didn't the various versions of the DS sell out at initial release and people had hard time getting them? That was certainly the case with the Wii.

Of course iPhone and iPad had shortages for weeks or months.

[toonarmy]

Blown away by the graphics?

Did they just awake out of a 20-year coma?

They didn't announce numbers but apparently it's not sold out. Target is indicating wide availability, same thing at Amazon.

Didn't the various versions of the DS sell out at initial release and people had hard time getting them? That was certainly the case with the Wii.

Of course iPhone and iPad had shortages for weeks or months.

They produced a ton of 3DSs for launch so there wouldn't be shortages. If you make 100 of something and sell out it is not greater than if you produce 1000 and sell 800.

[toonarmy]

I mainly played SSF online. Online play is sweet. Doesn't take long at all to find a match, and the matches have zero lag and feel like you are playing the CPU. I got my ass handed to me most of the time since I do not know the move sets yet and was button mashing just to see how well online play worked. I'm impressed with the detailed fighter models and 3D effect in this game.

Ghost Recon is very cool and may end up being better than Advance Wars in terms of strategy. The graphics are not a showpiece of the 3DS' capability but look sharp and good. I think this game was originally slated to come out for the DSi, so I guess that is why the graphics are nothing groundbreaking. The 3D effects are solid and give a nice perspective of the maps and fights. One thing I do not like at all about the 3DS is the location of the dpad. You have to use the dpad some in GR and it is very uncomfortable for me. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the dpad where it is needs to be slapped.

All in all I am enjoying the 3DS and am very glad I went ahead and got one. The 5 games I have played are all good and will see additional play time from me. Considering this is only the beginning on the 3DS I cannot wait to see what kind of games will be made in the future once developers get the ins and outs figured out.

[fanatic]

Perhaps playing the 3DS for 15 minutes under the bright lights of Best Buy isn't the greatest way to gain a true impression of this product, but I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed. I was able to test out some of the AR games as well as Street Fighter.

While the 3D was certainly cool to see on a handheld, I couldn't help but feel that it would be much better served on a bigger screen (i.e. at least that of a DSiXL). I also felt the 3D effect was altered quite a bit by slight head or hand movements. The work my eyes had to do to get everything back in line was a little much.

That being said, it's probably the case that after some more playing time I would have found that "sweet spot". However, feeling some significant eye strain about 10 minutes after walking out of the store did not make me feel particularly reassured in this matter.

All in all, I think Nintendo has created a magical device, but I feel the 3D technology is still a little behind where it needs to be. I'm sure that when Super Mario 3D is released I'll be seriously tempted, but until then, I think I will be content to catch up on dozens of DS games I haven't had a chance to play yet.

[WillHunting]

In 20 years, we will look back at the 3DS like we look at the original Gameboy.... you played games on that blurry monochrome brick?

[Slumberland]

I want TVs with this 3D tech.

[toonarmy]

I want TVs with this 3D tech.

The computer tech guy at work said the same thing as you yesterday when he was playing around with my 3DS. He was thinking out loud about whether or not it would be feasible to make a 17" monitor with this kind of tech and make it affordable.

[dbdynsty25]

Wow...played a 3DS for about 10 min. at best buy and wanted to throw it out the window. I don't see how you guys can look at this thing with the 3D enabled...makes me go crosseyed. Guess that's why I don't see any need for 3D in any form. Made me go from being curious about it to absolutely not wanting it. The games looked great in 2D tho...so I guess there's that. I must have jacked up eyes or something. Seriously...I'm wondering if something is wrong with me if you guys find that exciting and fun.

[toonarmy]

Wow...played a 3DS for about 10 min. at best buy and wanted to throw it out the window. I don't see how you guys can look at this thing with the 3D enabled...makes me go crosseyed. Guess that's why I don't see any need for 3D in any form. Made me go from being curious about it to absolutely not wanting it. The games looked great in 2D tho...so I guess there's that. I must have jacked up eyes or something. Seriously...I'm wondering if something is wrong with me if you guys find that exciting and fun.

It took me a while to get used to it and for my eyes to get things sorted out in seeing the various layers of 3D in a couple of the games. Not sure which game you played, but Pilot Wings seems to be giving people the most trouble. Some people seem to see the 3D crystal clear right away while it takes others such as myself a little while to adjust. I'm not too worried about it though since I have a really good proctologist in case my eyes go bad.

[Rodster]

Sweet, a butt doctor that fixes eyes too. I hope he has cheap rates.

[toonarmy]

Sweet, a butt doctor that fixes eyes too. I hope he has cheap rates.

He gets a real good look at my bugged-out eyes every time he stinks something up my ass.

[dbdynsty25]

Something stinks up my ass at all times.

And yes, it was pilot wings. Totally disorienting.

[sportdan30]

Something stinks up my ass at all times.

And yes, it was pilot wings. Totally disorienting.

Had the same respnonse with Pilot Wings Db. Literally played it for 5 minutes and felt rather disoriented as I walked away. Not a very good impression.

On a side note, I noticed Walmart (and I believe Game Stop does as well) will give you up to $100 off the 3DS by trading in an older model DS. We only have DS Lites in our house, so that only fetched $50 per. But, the DSIXL or whatever it's called can get you $100 off.

[Naples39]

If I recall in 3ds previews, pilotwings supposedly had the shakiest 3d experience of the launch titles.

That's a shame because I love a good flying game and 3d sounds ideal for it, but maybe it's not the best game to judge the 3d effect as a whole.

[Slumberland]

Haven't had a problem with the 3D in Pilotwings. I am finding overall that the system has to be sort of close to me if I want to have the 3D all the way up. If I'm sitting on the subway and want to have it resting on my lap, I gotta turn the 3D slider down quite a bit, but I still get the effect.

Trying to learn Street Fighter makes me feel old. Training mode with the dummy set to CPU control is good for an endless fight where you can learn moves, though.

PES is great, I concur with toonarmy in saying WE9 on the PS2 is its closest relative. It's just too bad that the new, flashy default camera is near unusable, because when you switch to a traditional view, the 3D becomes very undramatic outside of goal kicks, corners, and replays (which might still be enough).

Going to rent Scribblenauts, as I've never had a DS, and that game always sounded fun.

This system need a good baseball game! It's criminal that this thing is region locked. Pro Yakyu Spirits. Tokyo Swallows all the way. They're the Mets of Tokyo.

[Murph]

Guess that's why I don't see any need for 3D in any form.

Agreed and that goes for TVs, games, networks like ESPN 3D, movies...Yes, we all saw Avatar and were wowed, but the 20 movies that came out in 3D after that...Bleh. I'm just not on the 3D bandwagon at all.

[toonarmy]

I am at close to 60% in Ridge Racer. It has taken a crap ton of hours to get to that point but the game still has that addictive quality that past Ridge Racer games have had. This iteration of RR is a bit easier than past ones, though. I am about to get the races in which the CPU historically gets really hard, so hopefully I can get a good challenge.

I'm part of the way through my Master League season in PES. This is one game that is hard to put down. I like the simplicity of the Master League and the gameplay. It's like the old PES games before they got too cute with the formula. The one thing that would make this game perfect for me would be the ability to edit unis and dl option files. Still, this game is a blast.

I completely finished Bust-A-Move. Now I see why it is 29.99 retail price. It's a wonderful game, but on the short side. One thing that will give it a little more legs is the achievements built in to the game. There are a ton of goals to shoot for, which adds to the amount of life of the game. Next time around they need to add at least twice as many levels and more modes.

I am spending a lot of time each day gaming on the 3DS and getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. I finally did the whole AR cards thing, and that is a pretty damn cool feature. Developers have a lot of potential to add some cool content to their games using AR cards. Between MotoGP 10/11, GT5, and all the 3DS games, I have been gaming way too much for my own good, lol.

[Slumberland]

Vertical Wide is proving to be a nice camera for PES 3D.

[Slumberland]

Toonarmy, any idea how I can check the fatigue of my players mid-match in PES? I can't seem to find it in this edition.

[Lancer]

toonarmy : have you experienced any eye problems? or any headaches or side effects?

[toonarmy]

toonarmy : have you experienced any eye problems? or any headaches or side effects?

None whatsoever. It has been the same as playing the DS lite and DSi and PSP. I think the eye and head problems have been vastly overblown by people. Perhaps playing at first may be disorienting a bit, but after that you get used to it and it is non-issue.

[ScoopBrady]

toonarmy : have you experienced any eye problems? or any headaches or side effects?

None whatsoever. It has been the same as playing the DS lite and DSi and PSP. I think the eye and head problems have been vastly overblown by people. Perhaps playing at first may be disorienting a bit, but after that you get used to it and it is non-issue.

I think a problem might be that people aren't looking at the screen right. The design is such that you should be looking straight on. If you veer to one side or the other things get a little blurry. That would be a likely cause for headaches IMO. I could be wrong but I haven't had a single problem with the 3ds at all. Prolonged sessions never gave me a headache. I love it.

[TCrouch]

Same here, and I never even feel like I'm crossing my eyes. No eye strain or headaches or anything like that. If I twist it or tilt it slightly, it can look weird...like you're looking at 2 images through a prism or something. But through normal play I've never had an issue.

[toonarmy]

Toonarmy, any idea how I can check the fatigue of my players mid-match in PES? I can't seem to find it in this edition.

I just assumed that the green/red bar above the heads of the players on the pitch are the fatigue indicators. I cannot find a screen in the menu area that shows fatigue.