My 3DS

In classic Downcast fashion, I'm posting this waaaay late. You see, I DID get the 3DS on 3/27 at 12:00 AM EASTERN, but I thought I'd really get to know it before I made my judgment. Besides, I was having too much fun to be writing for this pointless little blog.

First issue I want to get out of the way is the 3D effect. Here are the facts:

• It's very impressive. In my launch title of choice, Ridge Racer 3D, the 3D effect really shines. You can see the road stretch forever as your car becomes a blur, then suddenly a little leaf falls and sticks to the "windshield" and steals your heart.
  
• It's really pretty. This is hard to explain without visuals, but having a different image shot at each eyeball doubles the screen resolution! Your brain possesses some epic anti-aliasing effects, especially when the images are in motion!
  
• It definitely adds to the game play. I found it harder to play Ridge Racer with the 3D off, once I had gotten used to it. Some games might not benefit as much, though. It's also well known that Nintendo is working on software titles designed to do things they couldn't do before because of the lack of depth perception, mainly a proper Super Mario Bros. game (I'll have none of this Galaxy nonsense!) in which jumping from one platform to another becomes the main focus of the game again.
  
• It's still tricky. I didn't find the infamous "sweet spot" to be so elusive, (Just keep it centered and parallel to your eyes) but sometimes you tilt the screen a bit when the playing gets too intense, and it's horrible. One of the cleverest features in this system is the 3D analog slider; you can always adjust the effect or turn it off on the fly. I normally turn it down real low when I suspect I will be moving a lot, since the images are not so different the "ghosting" is entirely negligible. Also, after a few hours you'll start holding it at a right angle on muscle memory. If you absolutely hate the 3D, the graphics are still gorgeous on 2D. I just hope software developers eventually start using the user-facing camera and motion sensors to have the software ease off on the 3D when you're breaking the sweet spot.
  
• It has all the nuisances of real-life 3D. Do you know that feeling when someone tries to show you something but holds it too close to your eyes and you find it hard to focus so you instinctively push it away? This does not happen because real life has poorly implemented 3D visuals; that is just the way your eyes work! There may be times in a game when you're looking far into the background then something pops up in front of you, back in the days of 2D this wouldn't be an issue. I hope developers design their game to minimize situations like these.
  
• It takes some getting used to. At first, after some extended play my eyes felt tired, and I was seeing blurry for a bit. I suggest you seriously consider the in game "take a break" warnings, and just turn the 3D off altogether when playing in less-than optimal conditions until you've gotten used to it. It wasn't long at all before my eyes didn't feel tired when I was done playing. Seriously, if you still find it uncomfortable after a week, I suggest you switch the effect off and see an eye doctor.
  

Now that I've covered the 3D aspect, let me tell you about everything else. On day 2, while trying out Street Fighter IV 3D in a demo unit at a game store, I overheard a guy saying "It's just a more expensive DS with 3D". Let me assure you it's not. Yes, it is still an upgrade to a DS, I mean, hey only added a "3" to the logo, but so much more has been upgraded. It is indeed the next generation. It's to the DS as the Playstation 2 is to the Playstation.

The wider, sharper top screen is definitely delightful to look at. If you have been spoiled rotten by the iPhone's gorgeous 326 PPI pixel density, this might look disappointing, but I crunched some numbers and turns out the 3DS, in 2D mode, has a 133.28 PPI (pixels per inch) rate but PPI goes up to 238 in 3D. This might be debatable as the screen is split in half for each eye, but remember that the 3DS costs less than half as much as an iPhone and there are no monthly fees. So yeah, for the cost, the screen density is great.

Speaking of things the iPhone doesn't have, the new analog nub is perfect! It's so nice I've brought out my old DS games and have been playing them a lot more now; even with the slight distortion from enlarging the DS-sized picture (polygonal graphics are still rendered in high-res). It's a bummer they didn't include a second nub, as most games nowadays require it, but the touch screen more than makes up for it. The only thing I didn't like at all is the kind of buttons they used for start, select and home; they are almost impossible to find by touch and usually required a bit of extra effort to press, luckily most games don't use them.

Graphics wise, I can say this is the first time I play a handheld with home-console-grade graphics. Traditionally handhelds are two or three generations behind their home counterparts and the graphics on ports feel forced, but that is not the case. The graphics can be easily compared to the previous generation of current home consoles, like Dreamcast, PS2 and even Wii.

Something else that gives it a console-y feel is that the system doesn't have a start-up screen, the first indicator that you're not supposed to turn it off EVER. You're supposed to carry it around wherever you go so it can wirelessly communicate with other 3DS systems and exchange information. Each game you own can be registered for StreetPass and the feature will work even when another game is loaded. This adds yet another social aspect to the whole experience. This way you can share items, scores, characters, and the joy of owning a 3DS with total strangers on the street.

There is a toolbar of sorts on top of the lower screen with four functions that can be used when in the home menu, even when a game is suspended in the background (multitasking!): Notes, Friend List, Notifications and the Web Browser. You can also take pictures by hitting L or R. These applications are pretty self-explanatory. Additionally, this toolbar shows brightness controls, battery status, date, time and steps taken and "coin" balance (more on this later)..

When using the Friend List you can register nearby friends wirelessly or via friend code. When one of them is online, you get a blinking led notification and you can check here for their status and what game they're currently playing. You can even update your "status message" kind of like a social network. When a friend logs on and off the status is updated for you to see even after they're gone. As far as I know, there is no way to exchange messages with your friends.

The system also comes with some neat pre-installed software. Every "game" is obviously designed to be the ultimate marketing tool by showcasing one or more of each of the features of the system. They apparently worked so hard on these that some of the promised software got delayed. The web browser and "app store" equivalent should be available in May along with (hopefully) a few surprises).

With AR Games you can place enhanced-reality cards on a flat surface to make 3D images appear on top of them and interact with them. The games are fine on the long run, but very neat to show off. One of the games lets you use the character-specific cards to see 3D figurines of them. I was blown away when I started switching cards and it responded almost instantly, then I accidentally panned too far to the card pile and it read the card on top as well! Turns out you can use all 6 cards at once! This, together with the wireless capabilities, gives us a pretty clear idea of what the next Pokémon game will be like.

Face Raiders lets you collect "faces" to use into an enhanced-reality shooter. This one showcases the motion sensors as you have to swing the 3DS around scanning your room for… uh, faces. It also showcases the system's cameras and face-recognition capabilities. This is an awesome game and if it didn't make me look so goofy I'd play it all the time. It also has a convenient "show a friend" mode.

Mii Plaza doesn't offer much to show your friends, but does a great job at spreading the joys of streetpass. You send your Mii around with a custom greeting and some basic gaming stats. The Miis you receive can be used in two minigames within. One has you collecting puzzle pieces for different pictures and the other sends the recruited Miis to a dungeon rescue mission. I found the latter to be really addicting.

The new Mii maker (as opposed to the old one on the Wii) can make a Mii (that probably won't look like you) based on your picture. You can proceed to fix it with the enhanced customization options.

There are sound and photo apps like in the DSi, but with a handful of extra features, each. This time around you can play music in most digital formats, and in most cases you can watch pictures that were not taken with the built in cameras.

The activity log turns your system into a pedometer whenever it's on sleep mode, and awards you points you can exchange in different games. The amount of daily steps is displayed as well as daily game usage. You earn 10 Play Coins for every 100 steps with a maximum of 10 per day and 300 total. I really wish I could earn more coins but I guess they capped it to reduce the need for cheating; I once maxed out my coins on a Sunday without leaving the house.

Now that I mention the pedometer, it's about time I get to the airing of grievances!

On day 2 I took 3,973 steps (Oh yeah, I check the activity log quite regularly), including two train stations and a huge mall with stops in 2 game shops and an arcade. I only got one StreetPass contact! I'm afraid they were thinking the rest of the world is also Tokyo when they designed this. But maybe I'm worrying too much; it'd only been a day since it came out.

So don't have a lot StreetPass "guests", that's OK; I might have to format my 3DS' memory anyway in order to turn it in to have it replaced! I suspect I got a defective right speaker and a slightly wobbly hinge. I did some research and those seem to be common issues with the first shipment, and not really that common. Sometimes I get this buzzing from the right speaker as if it were vibrating against the plastic case, very annoying. It's gone now, but I still worry it may come back; Is it broken or is it just poorly designed and some moving parts inside are rattling loose (the 3d slider maybe?), or maybe the volume control on the software-side is not properly calibrated. The screen only wobbles so slightly, but if the speaker keeps acting up I'm having it replaced. Anyway, when you get yours, test it at the store, there have been reports of defective units.

On the software side, even though we were warned, I can't help to be disappointed that most of the features will be available after the May update. I say this because, together with the underwhelming streetpass support, there is nearly no social aspect to the system unless you buy a game with multiplayer that your friends are into. It gets real lonely, real fast.

Besides that, the system was worth every penny, and it certainly met all my expectations. I'm anxiously waiting to see what's around the corner when the May update comes, meanwhile, at $40 a pop, I should have a rather healthy library of games in no time, so stay tuned for more of my infamous Outdated reviews!