Nintendo 3DS Preview

Posted by: Chris Madore on October 5, 2010 at 3:45PM
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The New Nintendo DS is Going 3D

The Nintendo DS is getting on in years. At 6 years of age, it's lived a long and fulfilling life. Rumors were taken seriously when it seemed as though Nintendo would unveil a 3D handheld at the E3 conference of 2010. It was indeed revealed, and to great praise and favorable reactions. The Nintendo 3DS handheld system is a small clamshell-style gaming console with an upper and lower screen, similar to the Nintendo DS. The lower screen is a touch screen, meant to be used with the included stylus. The top screen displays in 3D, without the need for any special glasses. The Nintendo Conference in Japan on September 29th of 2010 gave us all the final details of the console and showed us more of what it can do.



Many would advocate modern 3D televisions, heralding them as the next step in home video technology, while others would attest that it's merely a gimmick, and not worth the extra expenses or having to wear special glasses to view it. Nintendo's approach, however, requires no special glasses to create its 3D effect, drawing both interest and adoration.

Nintendo 3DS Goes Beyond The DSi

Late in the console lifespan of the DS system, Nintendo released the DSi, a version of the console with internal memory and a camera that could support various downloadable applications. The Nintendo 3DS expands upon this idea and takes it further. The 3DS has an expansion slot for an SD card (supporting up to 32gb cards) and comes with a 2gb card, allowing it to download and store numerous applications and downloadable games for the system including a web browser, 3D picture application, and “Virtual Console” GameBoy (and potentially GameBoy Advance) titles. The system also comes with 6 augmented reality cards. When placed in front of the 3DS camera, the 3DS interprets a special character or graphical model in relation to the card. This is also Nintendo's first handheld console to feature an analog stick/pad, which appears to be similar to that of the Sony PSP. The dimensions of the console (134mm x 74mm x 21mm) are nearly the same as the Nintendo DS Lite. Further, the console has built in inertial detectors and gyros, allowing for tilting and motion control.

3DS Personalizes the Experience and Encourages Shared Game Play

Nintendo is stressing community for the 3DS. The Miis (small customizable characters) that were introduced with the Nintendo Wii make a “comeback with a vengeance” for the 3DS. In addition to utilizing the camera on the system to assist in making a perfect Mii look-alike of yourself, they can be traded automatically to other nearby 3DSes. This automatic download and exchange of data has been far simplified since its attempt on the Nintendo DS. The console needs only to be in sleep mode, and carried with you, and characters, record/challenge data, and other game-specific sharable data can be passed automatically to nearby people that have played these games. The game doesn't need to be in the console, nor does it need to be in any set mode. A player can also receive challenges for fighting or racing games, indicated by a light near the R button.



This increase in friendliness and usability extends into other facets of the console's firmware. A game can be paused, and the home screen brought up to utilize the other functions of the system while the game is running. A user stuck on a level can pause the game, open up the system's web browser, find a few hints, and go right back to playing without having to exit the game.

The system was also made powerful enough to attract third parties who would otherwise avoid the challenges of achieving good graphics with little to work with. According to the company President, Satoru Iwata, “The biggest reason why we developed the portable [with high specs] is because we didn't want developers to think that they couldn't develop their titles for Nintendo game machines due to the specs.”

The top screen of the console displays at 800 x 240 (400 x 240 per eye), and in 3D, (for comparison, the DS displays at 256 x 192, and the PSP at 480x272) which is an impressive feat for a handheld console, and screenshots at this point look very impressive.

Marketing 3D Technology in a 2D World

Out of the gate it appears to be a very ambitious project with an even riskier task for marketing; how to show off a feature that can't be shown over traditional 2D mediums? At the E3 conference, the entire crowd was able to play and test the console as a means of relaying their reactions. Those of us unable to be there will have to wait for a demo kiosk or a friend that has one to experience it. There is a slider next to the screen that allows the user to adjust the “level/depth” of the 3D effect, allowing it to be more adaptable for the user.

The release of the system is slated for February in Japan at a price of 25'000 yen. For America, this suggests a March/April release. The price point translates to $300, which is a steep price point for a console; a decision apparently strengthened by the favorable reactions at the E3 conference. Nintendo has their hands full just trying to show off the multitude of franchises and games representing the console so far, from Resident Evil to Metal Gear Solid to Street Fighter to Zelda. The potential for this little console is overwhelming. Look for it this spring; you need to see it to believe it.