[Antony6555]

Nintendo is so gimmicky these days, first they give us the ds (why do we need to small screens instead of 1 nice screen, does your council need two screens to work or a touch screen?) Now they give us 3D, the most gimmicky technology of the moment. It's disappointing to me, since gba is perhaps my favorite council ever; I loved all of the old snes ports. Nintendo has so many classic series, from Fire Emblem to Golden Sun, but their recent hardware has been super disappointing. It's like they just gave up on trying to compete with Microsoft and Sony at a technical level.

 

[Kirosia]

I'm worried about the actual games themselves. I was not a fan of certain DS iterations of well-known IPs, i.e. Wario, Zelda, and Metroid. (Loved the GBA ones though)

 

[Landis]

Quote:

Nintendo is so gimmicky these days, first they give us the ds (why do we need to small screens instead of 1 nice screen, does your council need two screens to work or a touch screen?) Now they give us 3D, the most gimmicky technology of the moment. It's disappointing to me, since gba is perhaps my favorite council ever; I loved all of the old snes ports. Nintendo has so many classic series, from Fire Emblem to Golden Sun, but their recent hardware has been super disappointing. It's like they just gave up on trying to compete with Microsoft and Sony at a technical level.

I loved me some GBA as well (Fire Emblem and Castlevania was crack), but remember, they're a business and they're in a business where novelty and nostalgia are key; if they bring back an old favorite (or 10) and add a new twist to it (motion controls or 3D) it makes it new again. The Gamecube was the last console they really tried to compete graphic-wise with and they failed to win over the majority, but adding novelty with similar graphics won them the mass of the market. There are rumors of the next Nintendo console having BD support and competitive graphics, but without a doubt they will try to twist novelty back in there with some kind of gimmick.
 
On the plus side, Nintendo building up mass profits of their consoles isn't entirely a bad thing-- if they can afford to pay out whatever royalties for HDMI, BD and platform rights for games in the future, that means awesomeness for the graphic-loving gamer. Although, the question lingering in everyone's minds is "will they really want to compete when they can live off novelty?"
 
Oh, and on a side note, I opened a 3DS today and it's really some good ol' fashioned eye-caner-Virtua-Boy novelty fun. I wouldn't buy it right away, but once a revision (3DSi or 3DSi XL) is available, I'd consider it.

 

[marvin]

Quote:

It's like they just gave up on trying to compete with Microsoft and Sony at a technical level.

 
 
Why would Nintendo want to battle it out with Microsoft and Sony for the increasingly marginal core gamer market? The casual market is much larger and significantly more profitable. Combined with Nintendo's steady revenue stream from their classic franchises, there's little need to wade into the core gamer bloodbath and plenty of reasons to avoid it (See: HD generation development costs).
 
As far as 3D goes, it doesn't add much to the 3DS BOM cost and provides a great hook/feature for casuals that the iPhone can't match. Not a bad deal for gamers if that's what it takes to keep dedicated portables alive. And hey, it's a fun little feature that can be disabled at any time.

 

[Digital-Pride]

Guys, with Nintendo it all boils down to the quality of the games.  Back when the psp was introduced, many(including myself) thought that from shear graphical and media advantage the psp had, that Nintendo's hold over the handheld market was done.  Well, fast forward five years and tens of millions of DS units later not much has changed.  Nintendo seems to have a sort of magical touch when comes to the portable gaming market, and I have no doubt that despite the technical advantages of the new Sony NGP, that fact is not going to change much.  By the way, who has gotten their system now?  How about some pictures to show it off?

 

[headstr0ng]

i think its bad for your eyes

 

[Kirosia]

I finally tried the 3DS in store, and the 3D effect was cool, but not something I could see myself using on a regular basis. (Though can change with actual ownership) I tend to move my head a lot, and the screen kept going weird on me. 

 

[JoetheArachnid]

Digital-Pride: Sorry for not getting back to you faster. Yeah, there are some jagged edges in Ridge Racer - overall I wouldn't call it visually stunning, but it's not bad either. Broadly it's just very fun and looks fabulous in 3D (though I'm prone to flailing around a bit and losing the effect). If you want really impressive graphical fidelity, Super Street Fighter IV looks just as good if not better than I'd expect a Wii port of the game to look. On such a small screen it actually gets very close to the PS3/360 versions, the only caveat being the static backgrounds. It also plays very well with the touchscreen comands and the thumbslider.
 
As for Nintendo making quirky decisions: where have you been? Nintendo's been making odd decisions for years now. And if I might be so bold as to say so, the industry's been all the better for it. The DS essentially introduced the world to touchscreens in a big way years before the iPhone, and the Wii popularised the idea of accelerometers and their use in common electronics (iPhone again), and who knows what will happen with autosteroscopic 3D a few years down the line? I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decided to pick up on that, too.
In the gaming world, without any other kind of innovation we'd just have behemoths battling it out in an unwinnable processing power war that would likely alienate anyone outside of a core gaming crowd through massive hardware costs and a mountain of samey shooters. Nintendo, for better or worse, has forced them to switch up their game and move outside their comfort zones in an attempt to appeal to other audiences. That can't be a bad thing.

 

[marvin]

Got my Aqua Blue 3DS in yesterday and initial impressions are pretty positive. It's a slick piece of hardware, certainly more DSi than original DS in terms of execution.

The controls about as good as can be expected. Buttons and D-pad are nice and clicky, analog pad has good resistance and tackiness, touchscreen is same as ever. Hate the new stylus though, the old location was better, as was the full sized stylus. Screens are bright with good color saturation, a bit low rez compared to smartphones though.
 
Graphical quality seems to slot in between Gamecube and Wii in terms of fidelity. Still quite a bit of aliasing, but no ghosting or ugly screen door effect a la PSP. The 3D effect is very cool, even if I don't see myself using 3D all of the time. It's easy enough to keep in focus under normal circumstances but not so much when tired. The ability to adjust 3D on the fly was a very smart move for Nintendo.
 
Far as price goes, $250 is admittedly a bit much. Based on the BOM cost, looks like Nintendo's built in a healthy early adopter tax along with a couple of price cuts. I suspect we'll see pricing drop to the $200 price point within a year and eventually settling down to a ~ $160 price point.

In short, the 3DS may not be the future of consumer electronics, but it should be good enough to secure Nintendo's position in the dedicated portable gaming market, especially if the NGP breaks the $300 barrier. Whether or not it'll survive the long term loss of casuals to iOS/Android is another matter.
 
Far as games go, the only launch game I've played extensively is Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. The list of negatives is pretty extensive: graphics are somewhere between DS and PSP quality, 3D effect is fairly limited, characters are generally stock .mil racial stereotypes, storyline is bog stock cliched military thriller, and no multiplayer. Other than that, it's a great Western style TRPG with most of the genre's bells and whistles, good level design, and solid gameplay. Highly recommended for genre fans or people looking for something to play during the long post-launch dry spell.

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

Digital-Pride: Sorry for not getting back to you faster. Yeah, there are some jagged edges in Ridge Racer - overall I wouldn't call it visually stunning, but it's not bad either. Broadly it's just very fun and looks fabulous in 3D (though I'm prone to flailing around a bit and losing the effect). If you want really impressive graphical fidelity, Super Street Fighter IV looks just as good if not better than I'd expect a Wii port of the game to look. On such a small screen it actually gets very close to the PS3/360 versions, the only caveat being the static backgrounds. It also plays very well with the touchscreen comands and the thumbslider.
 
As for Nintendo making quirky decisions: where have you been? Nintendo's been making odd decisions for years now. And if I might be so bold as to say so, the industry's been all the better for it. The DS essentially introduced the world to touchscreens in a big way years before the iPhone, and the Wii popularised the idea of accelerometers and their use in common electronics (iPhone again), and who knows what will happen with autosteroscopic 3D a few years down the line? I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decided to pick up on that, too.
In the gaming world, without any other kind of innovation we'd just have behemoths battling it out in an unwinnable processing power war that would likely alienate anyone outside of a core gaming crowd through massive hardware costs and a mountain of samey shooters. Nintendo, for better or worse, has forced them to switch up their game and move outside their comfort zones in an attempt to appeal to other audiences. That can't be a bad thing.

Right you are!  It's that inovative spirit that keeps the industry honest, so we're not constantly bombarded with Halo clones and the like.

 

[go099]

I love my 3DS! But the 3DS XL has a longer battery life on one charge and the 3D looks better on the bigger screen. http://goo.gl/O8CQb
 
[size=small]The [/size]Nyko Power Pak+ for 3DS (original 3DS) [size=small]double capacity battery provides up to 2x the playtime on a single charge. If you need more charge capacity check [/size][size=small]it out http://is.gd/K9LUHm[/size]

 

[Duartisimo]

*edit

 

[kjk1281]

I don't know if the 3DS has a volume limiter, but I've generally found the volume of my 3DS LL (XL) to be on the lower side. Some headphones like the PX95 are actually slightly lacking in volume. More sensitive IEMs may be a bit loud, but certainly not enough to go deaf (at least for several hours). Also, some games have volume control for music and voice inside their options menu, so that's also a way to decrease the maximum volume on a game-by-game basis.

 

[Duartisimo]

*edit