Nintendo's New Handheld is a Revamped, Redesigned 3DS

[Dragonbums]

I felt this was gonna happen eventually. The 3DS as is was running out of steam processing wise. I mean fucking Pokemon was suffering framerate drops in game when more than 3 pokemon were on the screen. It personally doesn't bother me because I was planning on upgrading from my current basic 3DS to an XL anyway. But for those with XL. I hope they do get a discount of sorts.

 

[Eiv]

All that being said, I'm glad for the inclusion of a "C" button. Dual sticks have always been the future of any console, so I'm glad the DS is getting on. What is up with those colours on the buttons though? The X was all right, but a red A button, green Y and yellow B... what madness is this!!! I mean I know it's not an Xbox, but a little uniformity wouldn't hurt. It's not a copyright thing, plenty of generic game pads have the Xbox layout.

It's the colors of the Japanese Super Famicom.

[img=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Super-Famicom-Console-Set.jpg]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Super-Famicom-Console-Set.jpg[/img]

Same colours as the UK Super Nintendo too.

Spoiler

 

[loa]

All that space! Look at all that fucking space!
How hard is it to put a second fucking thumbstick there?
Seriously.
Would it mean you would have to sacrifice, like, the gyroscope? Oh noo.

 

[BarkBarker]

take a page from VITA Nintendo, even if the device is unpopular at least it's control scheme is well designed and adequately sized for human hands

I don't have large hands by any means, but my thumb can't sit well on the vitas right stick without leaning over the buttons, at rest its annoying and uncomfortable, during frantic gameplay it could easily cost me to press a button by mistake, the damn thing is too close. What shocks me more is the guy who owns who I played for a bit? BIG OLD HANDS, the kind that thought the chunky xbox controller was amazing. What the fuck is up with that eh?

 

[FalloutJack]

Is it still remotely brickable? If so, not interested ever.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So it's pretty much the same as the current one but slightly bigger and got a tiny 2nd analog stick?

Even with the technical improvement, it's ain't worth a purchase for me even if I do want a 2nd analog stick!

 

[RetroMenace]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Nintendo makes a move that is highly anti-consumer. What else is new?

It's a shame that there are so many people with rose-tinted glasses who will eagerly buy a $200 console just for one or two first party Nintendo games. Businesses should be punished for these kind of moves, but since Nintendo has such a rabid fanbase, they get rewarded for it time and time again. If Microsoft did this kind of stuff, you know everyone on the internet would be up-in-arms about it.

But, as long as Nintendo does something, they're all fine and peachy. It's irritating, to say the least.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Will it be priced above the $200 mark?

Well, the Japanese Nintendo Direct put the prices for these new systems at 16,000 and 18,800 yen respectively, which at current exchange rates comes up to about ~153 and ~180 dollars.

I'm guessing either the new versions will be priced slightly higher than the current ones, but not by much OR the new versions will be priced the same as the older models while the old ones get a price drop. My bet is on the latter as that seems like the smartest move for Nintendo.

That sounds good. A significant price increase probably wouldn't go over very well, especially if people think that they can wait 6 months for a large price drop.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Greeeeaaat, I'll just be the only one here who's flipping their shit in excitement. Yes, it's a bad-ish move, no doubt. But the 3DS has been out for awhile now... Why is this so unreasonable? It can mean much greater things for the 3DS. We can get all sorts of impressive games on there. The higher viewing angle is gonna be fantastic. That nub... Could've been bigger. But I make due without the Circle Pad Pro, so, it's nice to have a small addition in there for the times I do want it.

Relax guys... They're not summoning Satan. It's just an overall upgrade for an already great hand held. I'm not gonna sit here in fear of what it *might* mean, and look forward to what it DOES mean. Bigger and better games.

But the thing is, the 3ds HASNT been out for a while. It launched in feb/march of 2011, not even 4 years ago. If Nintendo wants to make a new gen handheld, fine, but to do it less than 4 years from their last one is not cool.

That's the thing though. This isn't new gen. The most this upgrade is doing to improve the games is CPU speed on the system. That's all they're improving in terms of how the games work. The rest are things meant to fix the original 3DS' issues. The lack of a second circle pad, the viewing angles, slow downloads, etc. That's why they put this one out. It's not new gen. It's meant to improve THIS gen

 

[SD-Fiend]

I'm pretty fine with this really. What I really like is the better 3D angle and the swappable covers. Now I don't have to worry about special editions coming out after I bought a different special edition color.

 

[Lethos]

Well shit, I was planning on buying a 3DS next week and now I don't know what to do. 2015 is still a long way away.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

That's the thing though. This isn't new gen. The most this upgrade is doing to improve the games is CPU speed on the system. That's all they're improving in terms of how the games work. The rest are things meant to fix the original 3DS' issues. The lack of a second circle pad, the viewing angles, slow downloads, etc. That's why they put this one out. It's not new gen. It's meant to improve THIS gen

It's essentially the DSi; it's a slight improvement, but there's really nothing that warrants it being called an entirely new generation of handheld. The closest justifications are the new inputs, but even then it's pretty debatable. Nintendo says there'll be an exclusive or two like the Xenoblade port, but the DSi did too and that exclusives were actually pretty small in number.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Nintendo makes a move that is highly anti-consumer. What else is new?

It's a shame that there are so many people with rose-tinted glasses who will eagerly buy a $200 console just for one or two first party Nintendo games. Businesses should be punished for these kind of moves, but since Nintendo has such a rabid fanbase, they get rewarded for it time and time again. If Microsoft did this kind of stuff, you know everyone on the internet would be up-in-arms about it.

But, as long as Nintendo does something, they're all fine and peachy. It's irritating, to say the least.

You know the OG 3DS family will still be supported, right?

 

[SteveTR]

This is kind of worrying to me. It hasn't even been a full year since I got my very own 3DS and now there's a new one? I don't really care about the bigger size and 3D angles and yadda-yadda-yadda. The only thing I care about is the games.

The reason for why I even wanted a 3DS in the first place was the games. I had a DS Lite back then, so I was a bit sad that I wouldn't get to play all those new and shiny 3DS games all the cool kids are talking about. Then I suddenly owned a 3DS and I could finally play all of them. I still haven't caught up, to be honest. And now, the cycle starts anew.

Maybe I'm being sceptical. Maybe Nintendo will keep releasing major 3DS even after the New 3DS releases. Or maybe it won't.

Also, the New 3DS? Come on. Apple's done this exact thing in the past, and people complained a lot about it. Next thing we know, the 3DS Air will be announced.

 

[wadark]

Greeeeaaat, I'll just be the only one here who's flipping their shit in excitement. Yes, it's a bad-ish move, no doubt. But the 3DS has been out for awhile now... Why is this so unreasonable? It can mean much greater things for the 3DS. We can get all sorts of impressive games on there. The higher viewing angle is gonna be fantastic. That nub... Could've been bigger. But I make due without the Circle Pad Pro, so, it's nice to have a small addition in there for the times I do want it.

Relax guys... They're not summoning Satan. It's just an overall upgrade for an already great hand held. I'm not gonna sit here in fear of what it *might* mean, and look forward to what it DOES mean. Bigger and better games.

But the thing is, the 3ds HASNT been out for a while. It launched in feb/march of 2011, not even 4 years ago. If Nintendo wants to make a new gen handheld, fine, but to do it less than 4 years from their last one is not cool.

That's the thing though. This isn't new gen. The most this upgrade is doing to improve the games is CPU speed on the system. That's all they're improving in terms of how the games work. The rest are things meant to fix the original 3DS' issues. The lack of a second circle pad, the viewing angles, slow downloads, etc. That's why they put this one out. It's not new gen. It's meant to improve THIS gen

It's new gen insofar as at least one game is being produced specifically to work on this system and not the existing 3DSs. Should that turn out to be the only one, I will retract my complaint. However I seriously doubt that will be the case. I suppose time will ultimately tell, but for now I am looking upon this fairly skeptically and with a fear that the 3DSs I was just able to afford last Christmas for myself and my wife will be obsolete a year later. Not optimistic right now.

 

[Roxas1359]

Alright, I'm with a lot of people on the whole against redesign thing, but I can look past most of it except for 2 major things:

1) Why the hell would you a) put the second analog stick so high up, and b) make it based of the GameCube controller's C-stick which was too tiny (seems to be keeping that trend) and was too damn sensitive. Seriously, try using the Ocarina with a C-stick and you will hit the wrong notes by accident a lot.

2) Is it region locked for physical cartridges still? If yes, then fuck off Nintendo. Seriously, region locking digital content I can understand to a degree, but region locking the physical item I, and many others, go out of their way to import is just backwards in this day and age. Especially since localization is still a major problem, that is, if the game ever even leaves Japan. Currently there are 20 Japan only games that I'd love to own, but definitely won't come over to the US or to Europe, and hell Europe and PAL regions are just barely getting Shin Megami Tensei IV, and they don't even get a physical release for it. If region locking was as damaging as people say, then Sony wouldn't have kept physical games region free for as long as they have. Hell, even Microsoft has embraced region free consoles now, because they also realize that people study abroad or go on deployment for the military.

3) The name...seriously? You really have learned nothing if that's the final name of the product. People are still confused over the whole Wii U thing apparently, and calling it the "New 3DS" is only gonna make things worse. >.>
Either fire the person in charge of naming, or make names for your systems that won't confuse people. Better hope you have good marketing, because I still see people confused between a 2DS and regular DS, as well as people still confused about the differences between a Wii and Wii U. And since it's been years since both systems launched, that shows someone in your marketing department has failed hard. I'm gonna blame Scott Moffitt for this.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Nintendo makes a move that is highly anti-consumer. What else is new?

It's a shame that there are so many people with rose-tinted glasses who will eagerly buy a $200 console just for one or two first party Nintendo games. Businesses should be punished for these kind of moves, but since Nintendo has such a rabid fanbase, they get rewarded for it time and time again. If Microsoft did this kind of stuff, you know everyone on the internet would be up-in-arms about it.

But, as long as Nintendo does something, they're all fine and peachy. It's irritating, to say the least.

You know the OG 3DS family will still be supported, right?

Will I be able to play Xenoblade Chronicles on my 3DS XL?

 

[weirdee]

I haven't been playing my 3DS lately, but I may want to invest in that new one, maybe I'll trade mine in ASAP for maximum trade-in credit. I have to be honest, Xenoblade Chronicles as an incredible game and I would buy the new one just for that (taking into account I can still play my current games). I wish we had an idea about price though. If they are going to want 300 bones for this or something, it's going to be annoying as I can literally buy a Wii U for less at this point.

When this comes out it will have been at least 4 years since the original released, which is about average for Nintendo to want you to buy a newer version of something you already own that is better in some capacity. If I read that right though, they are going to have a small and XL version? That just doesn't make sense, just release the XL version.

the reason why they have a small one still is that some people's pockets/purses aren't big enough to fit the XL one

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Nintendo makes a move that is highly anti-consumer. What else is new?

It's a shame that there are so many people with rose-tinted glasses who will eagerly buy a $200 console just for one or two first party Nintendo games. Businesses should be punished for these kind of moves, but since Nintendo has such a rabid fanbase, they get rewarded for it time and time again. If Microsoft did this kind of stuff, you know everyone on the internet would be up-in-arms about it.

But, as long as Nintendo does something, they're all fine and peachy. It's irritating, to say the least.

You know the OG 3DS family will still be supported, right?

Will I be able to play Xenoblade Chronicles on my 3DS XL?

Is that a rhetorical question?

 

[WeepingAngels]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Nintendo makes a move that is highly anti-consumer. What else is new?

It's a shame that there are so many people with rose-tinted glasses who will eagerly buy a $200 console just for one or two first party Nintendo games. Businesses should be punished for these kind of moves, but since Nintendo has such a rabid fanbase, they get rewarded for it time and time again. If Microsoft did this kind of stuff, you know everyone on the internet would be up-in-arms about it.

But, as long as Nintendo does something, they're all fine and peachy. It's irritating, to say the least.

You know the OG 3DS family will still be supported, right?

Will I be able to play Xenoblade Chronicles on my 3DS XL?

Is that a rhetorical question?

No. Will I be able to play Xenoblade Chronicles on my 3DS XL or will I need to buy this new "New 3DS"?