Nintendo 3DS Best Of Round-Up

Obviously the biggest news in gaming this week was the announcement of Nintendo’s new handheld, the 3DS. Highlights:

• UK launch date is 25th March 2011
• Price is around £200-ish
• Blue and black versions
• Single friend code across all games
• Adjustable level of 3D-ness (whatever that means)
• REGION-LOCKED (Booooo, hissss)
• Online shop for GBA titles

Since we couldn’t go check it out ourselves, here’s our pick of the best 3DS hands-on articles around the web.

Tom Goldman was underwhelmed.

The big problem was that 3D wasn’t all that special in most of the games I played. Flipping the 3D effect on and off with the 3D slider made me go from “oh” to “Oh” more than “oh” to “OMG.” It was neat, but if you tilt the screen slightly to either side the effect disappears and the screen has a flickering effect. It’s no big deal, and you can just reorient the screen to the proper angle, but in my experience this reorientation was straining on the eyes. Not that anybody plays handheld games sideways, but shaky hands really do have an effect.

– Tom Goldman, Hands-On: Is Nintendo 3DS Really a “Game Changer?”

Will Templeton likes the augmented reality features. Good set of 3DS questions answered on Daily Joypad as well.

The amazing first impression when handling the 3DS is that it works. There’s no fuss, no messing around with Magic Eye style contortions. You just look at it, and it works…

…by moving the 3DS around and using the room you’re in as a backdrop, you move your crosshair over each enemy to down them. Miss a target, and your ball will punch an imaginary hole in the image of the real wall behind it – and stay there, mapping that hole consistently in a facsimile of the room you’re in. It’s simple, but very impressive, and makes me anxious for some core Nintendo franchises with this functionality.
– Will Templeton, 3DS Impressions: The 3DS

Andy Robertson goes into great detail on just about everything with an epic write-up for Game People.

Although my eyes may have protested, my brain was very happy with the 3DS experience. The 3D affect doesn’t just add depth to the image, but introduces a series of layers. These create the sense of three dimensions, but also enable games to present interactions in new ways. For instance, a head up display in Zelda Ocarina of Time (3DS) becomes integral to the game world while at the same time floating some way in front of the action. The amount of screen real estate is multiplied by the number of layers the games introduce – which can be anything up to four or five.
– Andy Robertson, Nintendo 3DS Hands-on 3DS Review

I haven’t seen the 3DS myself myself yet and to be honest, I’m not that broken up about it. I have a DS. I barely use it. 3D isn’t a disruptive new technology that will revolutionise the way we play or give rise to new gaming innovations. It just looks a little bit cooler.