3DS

Meh.

250 bucks for a gimmicky handheld that will make you feel sick after playing it for a little while.  Combine that with piss poor battery life, region lock out (wtf really?), and an unoriginal bunch of launch titles (yaaay.. more N64 remakes and Nintendo first party entries).  I was mildly interested when I saw there were two new Resident Evils coming out for it, but after seeing the recent gameplay videos, no thank you.  I'll probably just wait for the inevitable 3DSi Lite XL.  Until then, I'm happy with my dusty region-free DS Lite that can play Ouendan.

I'm probably going to pass on the 3DS for a while as well. I might actually have the money to buy one soon after it launches (March?) if I get a good tax return in April, but I'll just buy Mega Man Legends 3 when it comes out to support it and sit on it for a while until a better opportunity to get the system comes along.

And I have to agree with Mike on the N64 remakes... I played through Star Fox 64 for the first time a few months ago and I wasn't impressed. Had I played it years ago when it came out I probably would have but I doubt adding 3D will change anything.

Not getting the new console for the alleged sickness problems or whatever with some people and the 3D effect is kind of ridiculous and stupid - just turn the effect off.  I kind of feel like the software should be worthwhile with or without the 3D effect.

That said, a crappy launch lineup, region locking (gee thanks, Nintendo - it's not like I split my time between your two biggest regions or anything), and my current financial state mean that I'm probably going to wait this one out for a while.  It's not like my regular DS backlog isn't horrible as-is.

First, I'm definitely buying this at launch.  I've managed to do away with many of my bad OCD gaming habits, but owning new Nintendo hardware on Day 1 is not something I'm ready to give up yet, so I'll be getting this for the not very good reason of "because I have to have it."  I've got a Cosmo Black unit pre-ordered at GameStop.  After last week's Ghost Trick debacle, I had a nice long chat with both the store and district managers of my local GameStop, so hopefully they'll actually honor this one.  If not, they'll be getting another inquiry from the BBB.

Anyway, here's my take on today's news: Nintendo needs to please its shareholders, so it's rushing this out in all three territories before the end of its fiscal year to make the numbers.  The hardware's been ready for some time, but from the lackluster launch line-up, it's clear the software isn't ready yet.  That's to be expected if you look at previous system launches (outside of the original Xbox and the Wii, no system launched in the last 14 years has launched with a killer app), so I can live with that.  What I cannot accept, however, is the utter bullsh!t that you will find in the following news story: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/01/3 … oad-store/

So, no Shantae for me until Nintendo gets off its lazy ass and bothers to introduce the download store.  That could take months.  Ugh.  I'm also pretty irritated with the [expected] rise in software prices.  GameStop is listing every 3DS launch title at $40 except Dead or Alive which for some reason is clocking in at $50.  We all know how well PSP games sell at these prices, so good luck to Nintendo with that.  It's especially outrageous when you look at games for iOS and Android that average below $5 and rarely top out around $10.  The iPad might cost $500 for the unit itself, but I'd gladly pay $500 for the hardware if the software is all under $10.  I think both Sony and Nintendo are going to have rude awakenings with the 3DS and PSP2, especially outside of Japan where portable games are supposed to be portable experiences, not 120-hour epics that the Japanese seem to think are fun to play while hunched over a tiny screen.

I'm also somewhat irked by the visual look for the hardware itself.  Unlike Angela, I think both color schemes look fine, but what I don't get is why the back panel of the unit is a different tone and (worse) an ever-so-slightly larger size than the front panel.  It just looks sloppy, and I don't understand why they didn't make the lower half of the unit uniform.

Lastly, I can only shake my head as I read reports that Kid Icarus is a fun game, but physically painful to play since it uses the analog slider plus stylus control configuration from Metroid Prime Hunters and other DS FPS titles.  How do their testers not scream about this when anyone can tell it's uncomfortable from a five-minute demo?  I just don't get it.

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

Not getting the new console for the alleged sickness problems or whatever with some people and the 3D effect is kind of ridiculous and stupid - just turn the effect off.

The 3D is the single selling point of the entire unit. It is its reason for being.

XLord007 wrote:

I'm also somewhat irked by the visual look for the hardware itself.  Unlike Angela, I think both color schemes look fine, but what I don't get is why the back panel of the unit is a different tone and (worse) an ever-so-slightly larger size than the front panel.  It just looks sloppy, and I don't understand why they didn't make the lower half of the unit uniform.

Here's Nintendo's explanation of the above: http://www.1up.com/news/3ds-design-explained-detail

I still think it looks sloppy.

So I was able to give my first 3DS test drive at the demo pod located at Grand Central Station today.  From what I saw, they had Pilotwings Resorts, AR Games, Steel Diver, Nintendogs + Cats, Madden, LEGO Star Wars III, and Super Street Fighter IV available for play.  As Super IV was about the only title I was remotely interested in, I gave it a go.

Even after only five minutes of play, I came away pretty impressed.  I've not much experience with the DSi and DSi XL screens, but the 3DS's is a sharp improvement over the Lite's.  The 3D, too, makes a wild first impression, and seeing as how most importers concur that Super IV makes the best use of the effect, I'm glad I made it my first experience.  Even "Standard" mode looks freaken cool, and overall, I was amazed by the technical quality of this port.  It's confirmation that the 3DS does appear to be a very capable gaming machine, and I think we're going to see some potentially amazing stuff down the road.   

I did have a bit of trouble grappling with the controls, though.  I suspect more play time (as well as getting to configure my own buttons) would do wonders, but the d-pad felt a bit too rigid, and the circle pad a mite too sensitive for comfort.  I was only able to get Ryu's hadoukens out half of the time, and I was accidentally jumping for the rest.  On the plus side, the touch moves can be pulled off in a snap, but may still be too counterintuitive for Street Fighter vets to rely upon.

I'm a step closer to wanting a 3DS now, especially now that Super IV is scheduled for a same-day launch.  If I could get assurance that the online play will be as good as I'm hoping, I think I'd be willing to take the plunge straightaway.  Color-wise, the black does look pretty good in person - moreso than the blue, at least.

Getting to use one in the flesh, I was well impressed with the 3D. Way more impressed than I thought I would be. I think I half-expected the screen to be all liney, like those lenticular 3D images. But it looked great and was instantly 3D. Looked great. And the AR cards work great. It would be lovely if someone finds a great gaming use for these.

And the unit also looked (and felt) more solid and overall just better made than I thought it did when I saw images and videos. Seemed better in the flesh.

I wasn't impressed with the d-pad. It seemed, as Angela said, quite rigid and sharp. Just didn't feel comfortable. It will probably be fine for the right games but I'd be concerned about SF4. The only other concern, and it may not even be much of an issue, is that I was quite aware of the pixels on the screen. It seemed low res, probably because the horizontal res is halved for 3D. It didn't look bad but, in a HD age, the image already looked a little behind. But then it's 3D and no other unit has that. Not really sure that's going to be a real concern.

It felt great in my hands and seeing it in person made me want one even more. Just a few more days (is it 10? Not sure). Quite hyped for it.

So, has anyone pre-ordered? I shall wait until better exclusive games are available (I have no interest in Nintendogs nor a port of SFIV), although I do have to say it's still a breakthrough gaming system!

Yeah, I caved and put a preorder in for the Cosmo Black.  Took advantage of the Amazon promotional deal that takes $25 off any launch title, thereby netting me Super IV for just $15.

Can anyone recommend a good carrying case and screen protector brand?

I tried to do the Kmart deal today, but my Kmart didn't have any of the Nintendo titles or SSF4, so I said "no thanks" and just went to GameStop and picked up my pre-order without any games (no way I'm paying $40 for SSF4 when it sells for $20 on PS3 these days).  I haven't tried the 3D camera, Face Raiders, or the AR cards yet, so I can't comment on those things yet, but I did the Mii Maker, setup Street Pass, played a DS game, and watched the OK Go video you get after you do a system update.

I agree with Jay about the way the system feels in the hands, and I like the circle pad from the little I messed with it in Mario 64.  I recommend turning the brightness down to Level 4 if you're playing DS games to reduce (but not eliminate) the oversaturation of colors.  The image stretching on DS games is a bit noticeable, but it doesn't bug me as much as the oversaturation.  If you hold START+SELECT when you start a DS game, you can see it in its original resolution, but it makes it so tiny that it's not worth doing.  As for the 3D, I'm thoroughly umimpressed.  It's neat in a "well, isn't that something" sort of way, but I think I'll only be enabling it when showing others or trying something new on it for the first time as it makes the screen darker, less crisp, and requires you to concetrate harder on the top screen.

One of my friends is in NYC right now, and he said he went to the Nintendo World Store this morning to get his.  He said there were only 10 people waiting in line by the time the store opened.  I assume the poor turnout was due to the midnight launch at Best Buy.  I found plenty of units available for sale at both Kmart and GameStop so this launch seems to be consistent with my experience at the DS, PSP, and DSi launches where units were easy to get in the first week.

The 3DS also marks the first system I've ever bought without any games* which is a testament to how lackluster and overpriced the launch lineup is.

*Technically, I bought the GBC without any games since I imported it from Japan prior to the U.S. launch, but I picked up Link's Awakening DX and the terrible Quest for Camelot on the U.S. launch.

Was in downtown Chicago this weekend and they had 3DS Demo Stations set up at the main train station, so got to give it a quick 2 minutes of hand time.

Played one round of SSF4 and the 3d effect was quite noticeable and "neat", then went over to Steel Diver for a minute and got bored enough to walk away.

Cool for 2 minutes, but when I haven't even bought a 360/ps3/iphone/ipad, this doesn't qualify as a must have device either.

Angela wrote:

an extra Hori Lite screen protector which I was able to effectively place on my 3DS touch screen.  I'm all set.

Is the touch screen on the 3DS the same size as the Lite's was?  If so, I think I also have an extra DS Lite screen protector floating around that I should be able to use with the 3DS upon acquisition of one.