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Saturday, 16 April, 2011 9:06 PM

The Nintendo 3DS console is well worth the purchase

Photo credit: www.nintendo3dsblack.org The all-new Nintendo 3DS handheld game console

by Ryan Porter rporter1986@yahoo.com

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Nintendo continues their dual screen handheld line into the next generation with the Nintendo 3DS. Coming off of the successful Nintendo DS line, Nintendo has once again upped the ante on quality handheld gaming. This time they have upgraded the graphics, added more cameras, gave us backward compatibility with regular DS games, and added a circle pad which acts like a joystick.

For all of these improvements however, none can compare to the technological feat Nintendo has accomplished with this unit; glassless-free 3D. It’s really quite a sight to behold. They actually made a functioning 3D experience without the assistance of glasses. Everything remains crisp and bright to look at as well. It also brings depth to gameplay which I will touch on more later.

Nintendo has done their best to place themselves as pioneers of gaming as always, but how well does the 3DS hold up?

Graphics:

The 3DS graphics can be best described as on par with the Wii or a little worse than it. In my experience with the unit thus far the graphics have been the best I’ve seen on a handheld gaming unit. I do not have a lot to go off of yet, but Street Fighter 4 looks nearly identical to its console big brother. Obviously, it’s smaller and there are more graphical “jaggies” but it’s still pretty good.

The 3D:

The 3D is quite amazing. The 3DS has a slider allowing to increase or decrease the 3D effect. I leave it cranked all the way up. Though, I haven’t really noticed the difference between the slider being halfway up or all the way up. There is a very mild difference if anything to me. But from what I understand everyone sees it slightly different as it is an eye trick for the most part.

The 3D ultimately gives more depth to gaming rather than give you pop out 3D. So it makes you feel like you’re playing with a really deep screen. It’s very interesting and fun to look at. There is really nothing else like this on the market. If you are a tech head don’t hesitate to at least check it out. There are demo units out at Best Buy, you really have to see it to believe it. Note that some games showcase the 3D better than others. Common consensus so far is Ridge Racer does the best job at showing off the 3D, but I imagine Zelda will blow us away in June.

Layout:

The 3DS has two screens one on top and one on bottom. The one on top displays the 3D images and is slightly bigger than the bottom screen which is a touch screen that uses a stylus. It has the same button configuration as the DS with ABXY and LR at the top. It adds a new “Home” button to get you to the hub screen as well.

The hub or “home” of the 3DS is a lot like the Wii’s setup. There are a bunch of squares for you to shuffle around programs like pictures, Mii channel, games, and so on. If you are familiar with the Wii then this will feel almost the same to you.

Hardware Pros and Cons

Pros: 3D looks great. Overall design feels solid and sturdy like all Nintendo products. Backwards compatibility with old DS games. Circle Pad will be wonderful for 3D games like Mario and Zelda. Fantastic graphics. Online seems more stable than the old DS. Comes with a 2GB SD card, sweet! You can take 3D pictures.

Cons: Stylus location is just plain stupid. DS Lite was perfectly under your right hand so you could whip it out at any time like a gunslinger. The 3DS places it at the top left of the unit making it awkward to take out. Battery life is only 3-5 hours. I’ve played it for a good 40 hours total now and I can attest to the battery being really short. I personally got an hour and a half out of a full charge playing Street Fighter online and in 3D with the highest brightness setting on. That…is…terrible. Keep it plugged in if you want to play, that’s my advice. Or buy Nyko’s battery add-on, it’s a very good product. Some of the 3DS features are still unavailable. The 3DS store and web browser are not available to use yet, so you kinda feel like you are missing some of the product you paid for… Picture quality is terrible. The cameras the 3DS has are about the worst you would find from a cell phone.

Software:

I bought two games with the 3DS after much research and making sure I’d be satisfied with both. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed.

 

Photo credit: www.slashgear.com

The Nintendo 3DS game console when it is closed.