Hands-On: Is Nintendo 3DS Really a "Game Changer?"

[AzrealMaximillion]

i barely care about the 3d effect.


the thing i care about is that it's basically a handheld gamecube with upgraded graphics. i find it difficult to get into handheld games that aren't pokemon, and i think the graphical update, bigger cartridge space, and analog stick will really immerse me as much a stationary console.

plus, freakin' ocarina of time and kid icarus.

if they put on majora's mask i'd buy two 3ds' (as long as that was the only way to get it, other wise i'd stick to one)

well if all you care about is better mechanics, than wait for the PSP2... oh god, PS3 in the palm of my hand.

if that floats your boat.

i'm more of a Nintendo/Xbox fan, and therefore am more inclined to tilt their direction. plus 3ds has an analog stick. plus remakes with better graphics that tug at the nostalgia factor. plus it's 3d. plus it seems to be doing Nintendo games the old way (nostalgia factor again).

I recently bought an Xbox 360, excited for the many exclusives it brings... then I realized that there is hardly such thing as an "Xbox 360 exclusive"... it's more of a Microsoft exclusive. Almost everything for the 360 I can get for my new gaming laptop. I just find the 360 to be the poor man's way into owning something that will give him the ability to play computer games on something other than a computer.

But that's just me.

I really have not been impressed with the system at all. It's sad really.

But I agree with you that Nintendo is awesome! I may have to get this 3DS.

true, it has many flaws, but my computer can't run any thing bigger than a barely graphically upgraded morrowind (2011 killed my computer) also i'm a halo fan (and not a raving lunatic like near everyone believes).
but i digress, as this thread has nothing to do with Microsoft.

honestly i think every action nintendo makes is a game changer, not in the sense that they are fantastic leaps forward, but in the sense that microsoft and sometimes sony copies them.

* cough gamecube-> xbox.

* cough Nintendo revolution(now known as the wii) -> xbox 360

surprisingly nothing for the ds that i know of.

*cough motion controls on wii-> motion controls for everyone else. i'm not even convinced sony didn't just add a ball and paint the wiimote black.

Back that train up.
How is Microsoft Copying Nintendo?
The gamecube lead to the xbox?
How so? The Xbox took a completely different route than the gamecube, it offered more a huge array of 3rd party games and it solidified its place in the gaming world by taking up the banner that people want to play multiplayer with people all over the world and thus made Xbox live, the core of the Xbox brand. While Nintendo raised the banner of "No body wants to play online" and thus stuck with its tier of 1st party titles and alienating itself with 3rd party developers that still plagues them today.

And yes Microsoft is copying teh Wii by making the Xbox 360...except for the fact that the Xbox360 came out a full year before the Wii.... and even then its the same strategy for both parties as the last gen.

So you might want to check out that cough before you just go spouting your Nintendo love.

uhg.

i realise now that i should've been more specific. i was referring to the names.

game-cube. x-box. you might as well call it virtual-reality rectangular prism.

the revolution was the first title of the wii. you know when they changed it? when the xbox 360 was announced. i figure you understand the similarity, but if not: revolution=360 degrees.

i am not a nintendo fanboy. the xbox is completely different aesthetically and software-wise. i was commenting on the name. in fact the only actual software thing i mentioned was motion control. (i'm not even a fan of it, it just seems to be the way major game corporations think the future is).

i'm sorry you did not understand the intention of that segment of my post (which was to point out that it seems where nintendo goes the other two seem to follow, be it in name or device.)

The Xbox actually got it's name from DirectX as is was based on DirectX technology. The original codename for the Gamecube was the Dolphin. Again your arguement of the other companies copying Nintendo falls flat. Yes the PS Move is essetially a PS3Mote but it's an improved version. I wouldn't toot Nintendo's horn too loudly if the competitors basically made add-ons that do what the Wii is supposed to do much better. The tech that MS and Sony use have already surpassed Nintendo, why would they copy them now?

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

i was referring to the names.

game-cube. x-box. you might as well call it virtual-reality rectangular prism.

the revolution was the first title of the wii. you know when they changed it? when the xbox 360 was announced.

That's incorrect. The Wii got it's name at E3 2006. The Wii came out Fall 2006. The Xbox 360 came out 2005. Research before you make a point.

 

[Taunta]

Someone's going to jump down my throat for this, but personally, I think motion controls are a dead end. They're great for a few gimmicks, and don't get me wrong, the Wii has a few games that work spectacularly for it and I can't imagine playing on an analog stick, but especially with the functionality that the Kinect has, I feel like developers have explored all the possibilities with motion controls that they could. Well, and at risk sounding like a fantard Yahtzee parrot, "I don't care how serious your game is, if it requires me making wild funky motions then it's not immersive."

So considering how I feel we've already mined all we can from the land of motion controls, I appreciate that Nintendo is trying to go in a new-old direction. While yes, the Virtual Boy was a huge flop, the 3DS has several strong games coming out for it, and if fans of the classics will be fans of the classics, then they'll buy the 3DS just so they can have Ocarina of Time (or whatever) on the go. At least I know I will. And I'll giggle like a madman as I turn the 3D slider all the way up so it's almost like I can stroke Link while murmuring lullabies to myself as I fall asleep at night.

 

[darksakul]

>Nintendo is promoting the 3DS as a revolutionary system. Does it live up to the hype yet?

Do you mean like The Game Boy Printer and the infamous Virtual Boy, or motion controllers on the Wii, something Nintendo failed to fully deliver until the Wii Motion Plus which in my mind a dollar short and a day late.

Nintendo has a bad history of poorly given or undelivered promises. Like for example Nintendo's Answer to the Sega CD Which later became Sony's PlayStation (seriously the PlayStation was originally supposed to be a SNES CD add-on under that particular name), the failed DVD support for the N64 (or the time it was promised Ultra 64), the 64DD which is something akin to a hot swappable hard rive support for games that require unusual storage sizes, who here in the United States or Europe remember the Bandai Satellaview (google it) for the SNES. I was a hard core fan of Nintendo for the NES and SNES til the N64 left a terrible taste in my mouth, bad games and worst controller.

So I tend to not trust Ninteno's empty promises til I see it for my self.

 

[veloper]

Piece is a bit short and doesn't touch on all the aspects of the device. The batteries for one.

 

[Xanthious]

So far, with the exception of Kid Icarus, the 3DS is nothing more than an excuse for Nintendo to remake a bunch of games we've already played before, slap a shitty gimmick on them and then jack up the price. Sorry, I refuse to pay 60+ dollars for N64 and Gamecube games regardless of what Nintendo's newest gimmick is. Everyone can save themselves a LOT of money just buying an N64 and a "magic-eye" book and forget this piece of garbage ever existed.

 

[InevitableFate]

Nintendo do like to be stubborn sometimes.

This friend code thing. I'm glad they're finally making it more intuitive, but as far as I can tell, there's a significantly better alternative.

Brief backstory first:

Nintendo introduced Friend Codes with parental controls and user privacy at the forefront of their reasoning. Essentially, 143234672123 is much more anonymous than xXMagicLizard56Xx. It also handily prevents innappropriate names.

Anyway, while this has certainly been a success in what it set out to do, it's simply far more bloated and difficult than usernames. However, there are solutions to this.

My own suggestion is that the "Friend Code" is instead changed to functioning as an ID number (for backwards compatibility) and the player is allowed to choose a user name. If Parental Controls are enabled on a system, that system will only show the Friend Code ID of the system, and that of other players. While off, usernames are used instead. Both sides are accomadated that way.

 

[Defense]

I fail to see how it's a game changer. 3D is nothing more than projection of 2D images, it's not an actual gameplay changing feature like the Wii with motion control or the DS with touch screen. It's not even an appealing gimmick, in my opinion at least.

 

[UberNoodle]

It's not the the Second Coming, but what can be? I'm excited. The system will kick ass and there will be some killer games out this year and the next. What more is there to demand? Today I bought a HTC HD, but I almost bought a Sharp Galapogas because it also has a 3D screen, possibly with the same technology. I'm not sure. The reason that Wii and DS was such a shock was that they came out at moments when the public weren't already settling in with such technology already. Touch screens. Sure, they've been around for ages, but not on a proper gaming system, especially one with two screens and actual buttons as well. Motion control? Well, Nintendo, Sega and even Microsoft, had made prior attempts at such control devices, but the Wii was the first gaming system dedicated to motion controls. Now we have the 3DS and it's mostly an update on the DS. It's bells are refinements, and the 3D, the biggest bell it possesses, is already old news for the tech savvy public. However, 3DS brings together:

*Dual Screens
*Analogue stick control
*A directional pad
*Plenty of actual buttons
*Touch input
*Motion control
*A 3D camera system able to be used integral to gameplay
*A 3D screen
*FINALLY FRIEND CODES AND ONLINE TIED TO THE SYSTEM AND NOT TO THE GAMES!

PDAs and smartphones may have some of these already but they don't have the vital features that only dedicated game systems can have. This is why I'm excited about the 3DS.

 

[UberNoodle]

Nintendo tried glasses free 3D before, the Virtual Boy failure was among the worst in gaming.

LOL! That console failed for so many reasons NOT to do with 3D.

 

[UberNoodle]

The Xbox actually got it's name from DirectX as is was based on DirectX technology. The original codename for the Gamecube was the Dolphin. Again your arguement of the other companies copying Nintendo falls flat. Yes the PS Move is essetially a PS3Mote but it's an improved version. I wouldn't toot Nintendo's horn too loudly if the competitors basically made add-ons that do what the Wii is supposed to do much better. The tech that MS and Sony use have already surpassed Nintendo, why would they copy them now?

Sorry to interupt your attempt at owning someone. Is that what the kids are calling it now? Anyway, you do realise that Nintendo's technology for the Wii is significantly older than the tech for the Ps3 and Xbox 360. And before you show me a link to a old Playstation Eye demo that we've ALL seen and which has been endlessly misconstrued and over interpreted: yes, the Ps3 tech is also based on an older technology too. However, what Move is today blows that older tech to Kingdom Come. So really, it's not a "gotcha" moment when you point out that tech released today is better than tech released several years ago. That's progression. Your warning not to toot Nintendo's horn too loudly is therefore significantly neutered.

That Sony and MS followed Nintendo this far, is proof of that, regardless of the obvious fact that their technology is better by benefit of progression alone. And ironically, despite that flattering emulation, Nintendo is hardly dead in the water or even in danger of it. I'm no fanboy. I'm just a guy who's first console was bought in order to play Pong. I don't give a rat's ass who's 'better' or 'first' or whatever other things impress gamers today. I've been watching this industry long enough to know that NIntendo deserve the respect and credit they receive, even if they've had a lot of misses. It's only when you play things safely, do you tend to always hit the mark.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

The Xbox actually got it's name from DirectX as is was based on DirectX technology. The original codename for the Gamecube was the Dolphin. Again your arguement of the other companies copying Nintendo falls flat. Yes the PS Move is essetially a PS3Mote but it's an improved version. I wouldn't toot Nintendo's horn too loudly if the competitors basically made add-ons that do what the Wii is supposed to do much better. The tech that MS and Sony use have already surpassed Nintendo, why would they copy them now?

Sorry to interupt your attempt at owning someone. Is that what the kids are calling it now? Anyway, you do realise that Nintendo's technology for the Wii is significantly older than the tech for the Ps3 and Xbox 360. And before you show me a link to a old Playstation Eye demo that we've ALL seen and which has been endlessly misconstrued and over interpreted: yes, the Ps3 tech is also based on an older technology too. However, what Move is today blows that older tech to Kingdom Come. So really, it's not a "gotcha" moment when you point out that tech released today is better than tech released several years ago. That's progression. Your warning not to toot Nintendo's horn too loudly is therefore significantly neutered.

That Sony and MS followed Nintendo this far, is proof of that, regardless of the obvious fact that their technology is better by benefit of progression alone. And ironically, despite that flattering emulation, Nintendo is hardly dead in the water or even in danger of it. I'm no fanboy. I'm just a guy who's first console was bought in order to play Pong. I don't give a rat's ass who's 'better' or 'first' or whatever other things impress gamers today. I've been watching this industry long enough to know that NIntendo deserve the respect and credit they receive, even if they've had a lot of misses. It's only when you play things safely, do you tend to always hit the mark.

I'm not telling him not to toot Nintendo's horn for lack of progrsseion. That much is obvious. He's tooting their horn for the wrong reasons, like the reasons for the names of the competing consoles. And I never said that they were dead in the water. What is it with people here and putting words in peoples' mouths in arguements? I merely stated that even when Nintendo first released the Wii, their tech wasn't even as accurate as they advertised. Nice try at neutering my arguement.

And it was Nintendo's "playing it safe" that birthed the failed Phillips-CD while they stabbed Sony in the back, which also birthed the Playstation. Sony and MS haven't followed too many of Nintendo's moves. That's what makes them competitors and not just knock offs.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Nintendo tried glasses free 3D before, the Virtual Boy failure was among the worst in gaming.

LOL! That console failed for so many reasons NOT to do with 3D.

Well the 3D sucked and brought unbelievable pain so people's eyes so yeah, I'd say that the 3D was a bit of a problem.

 

[Gralian]

The 3D gimmick is nice, but there's one thing i hate more than anything - and that'd a complete regurgitation of a game that's already been re-released. I don't mean reusing IP's. Hell, i really don't mind about that because we all get attached to big names like Mario and Link. What i do mind is when they don't make a new game with the same IP but re-release an old game and barely changing anything. It's lazy, it's money-grubbing and i hate it. I already have Ocarina of Time on Wii Virtual Console. Hell, i still have it for my N64 and i still have the N64 with which to play it! Granted i don't know much about the new OOT. If they change it considerably, like what Super Mario 64 DS did, then i can understand their position and i'd be fine with re-releasing, as that game had a bunch of new characters and stars. It felt suitably new and nostalgic too. One of my other major frustrations is how many iterations of hand-held nintendo has gone through. The DS. The DSi. The DSi XL. The 3DS. It's getting a bit silly... don't you think?

Edit: And let's not forget the fact OOT was even included with Wind Waker on a seperate disc. (At least here in the UK it was). I get it, it was a masterpiece. Now make something else already, geez.

 

[cthulhumythos]

i was referring to the names.

game-cube. x-box. you might as well call it virtual-reality rectangular prism.

the revolution was the first title of the wii. you know when they changed it? when the xbox 360 was announced.

That's incorrect. The Wii got it's name at E3 2006. The Wii came out Fall 2006. The Xbox 360 came out 2005. Research before you make a point.

yeah, i just checked wikipedia. honestly i did the whole xbox 360 announced thing for dramatic effect. and was crushed due to not doing the research.

but the name (this time according to wikipedia) DID actually come first. revolution was actually mentioned at e3 04, whilst the 360 was unveiled 2005. unless i'm wrong, in which case inform me. i don't like sounding like a fool.

PS i'm not a nintendo fan boy, i just held opinions i gained while much younger (i saw the similarities in names; and my gamecube was older than my xbox, and so i thought nintendo thought of it first.) and i never really thought to research it.

and finally if games think 3d is the future, i'm gonna be pissed. maybe i'm sentimental, but i think the classic console with hand held controller and 2d effects is the way to go. if everyone goes 3d crazy(like they did with motion controls) it will get obnoxious (like motion control has in my opinion)

 

[UberNoodle]

I'm not telling him not to toot Nintendo's horn for lack of progrsseion. That much is obvious. He's tooting their horn for the wrong reasons, like the reasons for the names of the competing consoles. And I never said that they were dead in the water. What is it with people here and putting words in peoples' mouths in arguements? I merely stated that even when Nintendo first released the Wii, their tech wasn't even as accurate as they advertised. Nice try at neutering my arguement.

And it was Nintendo's "playing it safe" that birthed the failed Phillips-CD while they stabbed Sony in the back, which also birthed the Playstation. Sony and MS haven't followed too many of Nintendo's moves. That's what makes them competitors and not just knock offs.

I wasn't putting words in your mouth. I was merely interpreting what you had written and how you had written it. My apologies if I misinterpreted you.

Now, the Wii controls were as accurate as Nintendo said they would be. I personally have not had all the "waggle trouble" that is so apocryphal in forums. Such anecdotes remind me of ones exaggerating RROD. But that's not where I'm going to take this simply because the Wii's initial controls were not a 'flaw'. They were not as accurate as with the Wii Motion Plus (which also has a lot of apocryphal criticism but which I as a frequent user have not experienced), but they lived it up the actual specs presented at launch. It was the HYPE that skewed perception of the Wii's control abilities. That is Nintendo's fault but it also in a major way, OUR fault. The advertisments for the system should have been taken as the marketing hyperbole that they clearly were, in hindsight; just as Pepsi won't make you beautiful and cigarettes won't transplant your life to a beach paradise.

As for my supposed attempt to "neuter' your argument: in that sentence of yours, you are referring to a completely different argument, one which had never attempted to neuter.

And CDi was created with very little influence by Nintendo. The Zelda and Mario games on it were examples of licenses used in the worst possible way. If anything, CDi had more to do with consumer electronics manufacturers, Sony partnered with Philips to design the format. Nintendo were not "playing it safe". They were allowing Philips to buy a license and thereby undertaking an experiment. You seem to think that CDRom technology was the best option for games at its inception. My guess is that you played very little of them at their time of actual release. I did, and though I was amazed at the introduction of CD sound and video, I was appalled at the often unreasonable loading times, repetitive loading times, and well, the loading times. Nintendo's objection to the format for all those years was exactly that problem. They, at that time, valued the near instantaneous loading of solidstate storage. That's not 'playing it safe'. That's choosing the most viable solution for your values.

In regard to 'following', it seems you attribute more meaning to the word than there actually is. It need not insinuate theft or mindlessness. When there is an inovation, everybody else therefore 'follows'. Nintendo has, by benefit of its long history in video games, had reason to be followed, and it still does. OBVIOUSLY Sony and Microsoft can lay claim to the same position as well, for they lead in many of their own innovations. All three companies are competitors, but it is a realm of business and marketshare most recently defined by Nintendo that we are talking about, and that is where the other two businesses have followed.

 

[UberNoodle]

Nintendo tried glasses free 3D before, the Virtual Boy failure was among the worst in gaming.

LOL! That console failed for so many reasons NOT to do with 3D.

Well the 3D sucked and brought unbelievable pain so people's eyes so yeah, I'd say that the 3D was a bit of a problem.

I see, and where did I say that the 3D was NOT a problem?
Read my post again. You will see that I stated that the 3D was not the sole or the biggest reason for its failure. Lack of software and support, the controls and ease of use, the lack of portability, that it was quite ugly, that it was intended to be a TOY rather than a new system: these caused its failure.

Nintendo tried glasses free 3D before, the Virtual Boy failure was among the worst in gaming.

Your original statement appears to be a logical fallacy. Are you attempting to imply some omen of failure for the 3DS simply because of a failed product many many years ago? It seems that way. If it's not, then explain your reasons for the statement.

(NOTE: regardless, the Virtual Boy was certainly NOT 'glasses free'. The unit was in fact a very large pair of boxy, red glasses on a tripod, using dual screen technology.)

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Nintendo tried glasses free 3D before, the Virtual Boy failure was among the worst in gaming.

LOL! That console failed for so many reasons NOT to do with 3D.

Well the 3D sucked and brought unbelievable pain so people's eyes so yeah, I'd say that the 3D was a bit of a problem.

I see, and where did I say that the 3D was NOT a problem?
Read my post again. You will see that I stated that the 3D was not the sole or the biggest reason for its failure. Lack of software and support, the controls and ease of use, the lack of portability, that it was quite ugly, that it was intended to be a TOY rather than a new system: these caused its failure.

The 3D sucking was one of the bigger problems though. Lack of support was because it wasn't selling. Why lose more money by making games for a platform that won't sell? If it sold more units, more games would've been made. It came out at $180 in 1995. Three years later the GameBoy Color came out at $89. Hell, the original GameBoy came out at $89 in 1985. It cost too much for what it could do.

 

[CrystalShadow]

i was referring to the names.

game-cube. x-box. you might as well call it virtual-reality rectangular prism.

the revolution was the first title of the wii. you know when they changed it? when the xbox 360 was announced.

That's incorrect. The Wii got it's name at E3 2006. The Wii came out Fall 2006. The Xbox 360 came out 2005. Research before you make a point.

Also... There's a second flaw here.

Play Station

Yes, station isn't directly analogous to box, cube or whatever...

But game / play are pretty closely related concepts.

Names aren't really that creative when released. And nintendo's are hardly creative. (The codenames are.)

Look back on their history:

Game & watch? - Self explanetory. You can play games on it, and it has a clock.

NES -> Nintendo Entertainment System. The Japanese name was Famicom, which is Fami[/I]ly Computer
The Western name is kind of obvious too. More so if you remember Nintendo was keen to avoid being associated with the Atari Gaming collapse of that time.

SNES -> Well, duh. Take the Nintendo Entertainment System, add Super to it's name. The obvious implication is that it is like an NES only a lot better.

N64 -> Started life under the code name 'project reality' (3d graphics being seen as more realistic than 2d ones I gues), then became the Ultra 64, Ultra probably being an obvious step up from 'super', and 64 being from a technical issue in that it was using a 64 bit cpu architecture. That then simply became Nintendo 64

Product names in general seem to be in the category of 'well, duh', if you look at them carefully...

 

[Atmos Duality]

This 3D business can fuck right off for all I care (and thankfully, the 3DS has the option of doing that with firmware controls, no matter the title).

That bit of restraint on Nintendo's part is the only thing that's keeping my attention for the time being now that I've seen the Launch lineup.

Can't wait for all them remakes...