3DS

My step-son got a new 3DS for his birthday, and it didn’t take very long to Bogart it, so I’ve been play with it for a while, and trying out a lot of the features. Nintendo just dropped the price point on the machine so more people would go out and buy it, but his grandma got it for him a few weeks early at a slightly higher than current sale price at Costco. We ended up qualifying for the 20 free downloadable games, which are coming eventually. I’m kind of confused by the delay. To compensate for everyone who rushed out and bought it early, for over $60 more than they would pay now, Nintendo gave out free games. Only, you don’t get the games right away. You have to wait for them to be released at some future date. From their list, it looks like a lot of the titles are already available for download for around $2.99 to $7.99 apiece. So what happens if you buy one beforehand? It’s not as if you have the entire list of 20 games at your disposal every time you go looking in their Virtual Console area under eShop. You’ll be screwed over twice, just because you didn’t want to wait around.
Their eShop area is pretty dismal to begin with. I was expecting something akin to Xbox Live Arcade, but there’s only a handful of titles, dating back to 2009. They’re not exactly flooding the site with content. Most games are simply direct ports of pre-existing titles for earlier iterations of the Gameboy, and they still have the same monochrome graphics. They couldn’t even be bothered to code in colour. So you have a device in your hand that’s capable of delivering glasses-free 3D, but you’re playing 2D side-scrolling monochrome titles. You’d be better off digging out your old Gameboy, really.
The 3D camera option is a little weird to work with. The controls are all fine, it’s just the actual act of taking a 3D photo. With modern 2D digital cameras, you’re used to seeing the image on a display screen, which is in flat 2D. With the 3DS, you’re looking at a 3D projected image on a screen, which is like looking at a distorted, grainier version of real-life. It’s like wearing someone else’s prescription glasses and walking around. It’s a weird way of taking photos, because even in the old days of photography, photos were essentially taken with a 2D perspective, because you’d be looking through the window of the camera with one eye. Of course, the temptation of the user is to Avatar the hell out of every shot, with objects flying at the camera in 3D. There’s nothing wrong with that, but not every shot has to be an action shot, or a deep perspective shot.
I watched a Blue Man group video in 3D as well under Nintendo Videos. Only segments were in 3D, so you were left wondering if the screen was actually working until they got into the action. You have the option of turning 3D on or off at any time with the flick of a slider. Some menus and content are only available in 2D, but leaving the slider in the 3D position makes it look… weird, because the screen is still trying to trick your eyes. You’ll imagine things in 3D when they’re not. Of course, only the top screen is in 3D, and the bottom is in 2D. You need to look at both screens to use the 3DS. The 3D only works when you’re looking directly at the 3D screen. If you look at the bottom screen, the top screen, in your upper peripheral, will become distorted. Your eyes are doing a lot of things they don’t want to be doing.
Then there’s the whole AR 3D aspect of the system. Using easily damage and lost cards that come with the system, you can play AR games and take AR photos, like Samus shooting your action figures in the nuts. This requires you to position yourself correctly, and move around carefully in well-lit areas. So now you’re bobbing your head around as you’re looking at a 3D screen. It’s no wonder some people get headaches. I wasn’t necessarily dizzy after one quick session, but I had to blink for a while until my eyes adjusted to reality.
The weirdest thing about Nintendo ever since they came out with the Wii is how they insist upon their players moving around and exercising. They carried this over to the 3DS with a pedometer that counts your steps and gives you rewards for walking. Then there’s a Street Pass, where if you walk by someone with another 3DS, your systems will link up, and you’ll gain new characters and rewards in a semi-social context. I’ve heard of people using this feature at gaming conventions before quite efficiently. Only, this is the real world. I just took a 7000 step walk with the 3DS in Street Pass mode. There was a festival going on, so I walked by about 5,000 people. How many people do you think I met using Street Pass. Zero, of course. That’s because one has a 3DS. That’s why Nintendo dropped the price, because no one’s buying it. And why should they? They have DSs, DSi, and DSi XLs, which all work fine and all play the games they like. The 3DS is just a continuation of that with a new gimmick. Only, it’s not in competition with it’s predecessors anymore, it’s in competition with iPhones and iPads, which cost more, but do more as well. There’s a lot the 3DS does that an iPad does as well, but the iPad also has an ever expanding pantheon of downloadable apps, games, and content. When I went looking for apps in the eShop, I found pretty much nothing. The 3DS has internet, but it’s as slow and clunky as hell, making it virtually useless. It basically not geared towards the modern Western market that wants all of it’s devices to link up to their favourite apps and sites.
The game selection is pretty dismal, and looking worse for the future. The tops games are either ports or sequels. They’re repackaging old games without much else new about them, except they’re in 3D. I bought Nintendogs for the kid, because it’s something age appropriate, but looking at it, it’s hard to even call it a game, since it’s a sim. And there’s three versions of it, making it one of the most popular 3DS games, if only by volume. It a fun game, but is it going to last him? The other titles look too hard for him, and I’d probably have to end up playing through most of them for him, not that I have a problem with that.