3DS Initial Impressions

The Nintendo 3DS was launched a few days ago and, despite a severely waning interest in anything Nintendo, I picked up two units and a few launch games. Despite record pre-sales and a very hip gimmick, I personally know very few people who actually bit on the $249 price tag. I won’t get too deep into the specs or advertised features but for those of you on the fence, I’d like to share a few hands-on observations of the newest entry in the still-not-a-GameBoy line of Nintendo handhelds.

First, I’ll get the details out of the way. I opted to use the Aqua Blue model for the purposes of this article because everyone else seems to be so enamored with the Cosmos Black. The games I decided to check out were Pilotwings Resort, Super Street Fighter IV, Steel Diver, and Ghost Recon. As of this moment, I’ve put about 30 hours on the device.

The first thing you notice after completing the initialization procedures is the look of the new top screen. It’s crisp and wider than the traditional bottom touch-screen we’ve come to know well over the last six years. I obviously knew to expect glasses-less 3D, but I wasn’t sure how it was implemented or how it would feel to use. Honestly, the best comparison I can think of to Nintendo’s 3D is to how 3D looked on the Sega Master System. Since I would imagine few people are familiar with that, you can also compare it to the sweet spot when staring into a Magic Eye puzzle.

The 3D is truly an amazing effect. It’s effortless and immediately immersive as long as you hold the device at the exact distance and angle from your face. Prior to seeing it, I was fairly sure I was going to turn the 3D off for the majority of my gaming on the device. However, after seeing it in action, it has got me fascinated and excited to see how future games will use it. The only time I turned off the 3D was when I got tired holding the device perfectly angled. The 3D makes gameplay basically unusable when it’s not held right, but it’s painless enough to simply switch it off and back on later. Most games look best at maximum 3D, but Pilotwings Resort looked best around 50%.

Many people have reported that playing with the 3D on leaves them with a visual side effect of seeing things in the same 3D after playing the 3DS. This isn’t intended to be a pun, as I’m aware everything is in 3D when we view it, but Nintendo’s 3D is a distinct effect and I can confirm that I too have been seeing the text floating against the background on my phone and even now as I type this. I hope this is something for which we can develop an acclimation and tolerance, because otherwise this may be the precursor to the blindness they so succinctly warned us about.

The major gripe I do have is that the launch roster is missing a true stand-out, and the system is missing the advertised browser and 3DS/DSi stores. They are estimated to be released in late June by way of a firmware update, but in the meantime I’d like to at least be able to transfer DSi purchases or catch up on anything I missed from the DSi store. I’m sure that’s why they packed in the neat augmented reality card games, but the novelty of those wears off quickly. I’m also not too happy with where the stylus is stored, but I’ll get to that later.

Now I’m sure you’ve probably heard of the infamous 3 hour battery life the 3DS boasts. Even with 3D at maximum, brightness all the way up, and volume cranked, I got between 4 and 5.5 hours per charge. I’d also add that if you’re using the 3D, you really shouldn’t play in marathon sessions because it does tire the eyes over time. I’m sure there are some that will be hit pretty hard by the modest battery life, but I really don’t think it’s a factor for most people. If you stick to playing in 2D mode or playing only DS games, you can expect roughly 8 hours of battery before shutdown.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was the physical form of the device. From a pure design aesthetic, there are some interesting choices reflected in the 3DS. The “overbite” design of the lid, the ever so slight slant on the hinged side, and the asymmetrical stacked look from the side all make it look much less sleek than its predecessors. The stylus returns to the original DS design and sits very snugly down into the spine of the hinge. It’s a smart looking retractible aluminum stylus, but really feels poorly placed compared to the easily accessible side location found on the DS Lite. The Start, Select, and Home buttons are a tad awkward being that they share one physical button with clickable pressure areas to designate each choice. That, along with the slider switches, really make the 3DS feel a tad on the chintzy side. The cameras are pretty standard if you’re familiar with those found on most smart phones, but I didn’t spent a whole lot of time messing around with the system software.

Overall the choice on whether or not to pick up the 3DS boils down to whether or not you can afford it, because it is a do-not-miss piece of technology and a very sophisticated offering from Nintendo. The utilization of the 3D effect is everywhere in the games and menus, and the only thing keeping me from playing it more is the somewhat disturbing side effect to my vision. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be reviewing the games I nabbed, so stay tuned for those. If you have any questions about the device, feel free to drop me a line in the comments or in the forums.