Nintendo 3DS

[Link]

Sites aren't reliable sources for most gaming needs. I mean, they sometimes tell you the correct date for games and consoles, but most of the time they get things wrong.

[ChobiChibi]

Brb, going to Nintendo HQ to find out the release dates...

[ChobiChibi]

*lol double post*

I actually got to play a 3DS today. It really does fuck with your eyes if it's not exactly right. But you can turn the 3D off, so that's alright. Has a load of pretty cool features, including this built in game where you take a picture of someone's face and then fire tennis balls at it...

Needless to say, I enjoyed firing tennis balls at my friend who works in the game shop XD

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Oddly enough, I have never had problems with my eyes while playing videogames. I could go like 15 hours of 3D non-stop and always wondered why some friends of mine complained how their eyes hurt. Well we'll see what this little device will do, then!

[ChobiChibi]

I guess it was partly cos my eyes were tired anyway and I wasn't wearing my specs. But you defo can't watch someone else playing when you've got the 3D on, you have to be in the exact right place.

Also, the thing is bloody clever. Whilst it's off, its wireless is still on, and your Mii interacts with anyone else who you walk past that also has a 3DS, getting you stuff. What stuff, I don't know, but that's so cool O_o

Having seen/played one, it seems like a really good investment. It's no thicker than a DS Lite, epic new software... Why not?!

I also got to play White 8D

[Blademaster]

I only have one good eye. I doubt the 3-D will ever be of use to me...

[classy_cat18]

I can't wait to try it out for myself. I'm the kind of person who has to wear her 3D glasses in front of her prescription glasses, so it's a pain.

[Roy Karrde]

Oh man Becki I am so freaking jealous I have desperately been wanting to play the 3DS! Did you try out the game where you scan the cards and you can see the monsters on the screen?

[Drago]

I got a call from Tesco today saying they had made an error in pricing on the website, so they've cancelled my order and refunded my payment

No cheap 3DS for me.

"Every little mistake helps!"

[ChobiChibi]

Na Roy, I did not. Gamestation basically only had one to try and they had some AR cards that they weren't allowed to show yet. T'was still pretty nifty though.

[Jeff]

So Iwata just finished up his keynote at GDC. At one point he turned it over to Reggie, and as expected, they both had a few big 3DS-related announcements, the big ones I remember were Netflix, Game Gear and Turbografix games on the 3DS VC, and a new 3D Mario game for 3DS. From what I was able to gather from my stuttering Internet connection at that point, supposedly we'll find out more about the Mario game at E3. I did see a few screenshots which will likely be on the Internet shortly (if they aren't up already).

Edit: Speak of the devil.

[Blademaster]

Looks like SMB in 3-D... Wonder what it is?

[PNT510]

It was also announced that the team making it is the team that made SMG1&2. And the logo for the game had the shadow of a raccoon tail.

[Link]

SMG 3, perhaps. Nintendo, ah they never fail to create exciting new mario games.

[Jeff]

I'm guessing "Super Mario Bros. 3D". There do seem to be some similarities to Galaxy due to it being made my the same team, but it looks like it'll be more closely related to the SMB games than to Galaxy. The bottom-left screenshot shows a short Mario, so it looks like this game will use the same health system as the 2D Mario games; instead of a health meter, you start small and need to get a mushroom to get big. There's also a star coin in the bottom-right screenshot, and the whole thing with the raccoon tail, so it seems like this is going to be a straight translation of 2D Mario into 3D, which I've been wanting for a while.

In other news, Sega announced the first 5 Game Gear games for VC in Japan:
Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble
Sonic Drift 2
Shinobi
Dragon Crystal: Shirani's Maze
Columns

Columns is pretty much a sure shot to make it here, and I'm really exited for it. I remember putting hours into it as a kid. The thing is, I never owned a Game Gear, it was a friend's. Needless to say, the next time she came over, she made sure to bring her AC adapter.

[Blademaster]

The Raccoon/Tanooki Tail shadow is reason enough for me to buy that shit Day One.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I went to a shop yesterday and asked if I could pre-order 3DS for the 25th of March. They said it's not possible. I'll just go to break their windows before 10 o'clock in the morning and pay some extra afterwards.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Just bought mine, along with Ridge Racer 3D. No matter how I hold it, my eyes don't hurt. Same with a friend of mine who has played since he was a child. But other friends complained about their eyes at once!

Now when's Dead Or Alive Dimensions going to be out?

[Link]

Dead or Alive Dimensions is supposed to be out for the 3ds on May 17th.

[Roy Karrde]

Grabbing mine Sunday. The deal at Wal Mart is just too damn good to pass up!

[Jeff]

I preordered mine from Best Buy weeks ago. I'll be picking it up Sunday.

[Blademaster]

I just got Pokemon Black. It'll be a few... months... before I can afford this.

I'll be waiting~

[DarkestLight]

I'm with blade. If someone got it for me tomorrow, that would be sweet, but otherwise, I'll wait for 3DS lite. The "Lite" series really fits my hands better, them other things are just too damn big >.>

[Link]

How do you en<span style="text-decoration: blink;">JOY</span> Black, Blade? I mean, it's a milestone for the series in terms of what they put into each game. I am liking the graphics better than any of the other games out for the DS.

[Blademaster]

If that jumbled series of symbols is supposed to be the word "enjoy," Heracross, then I gotta say, I'm really liking the way it's structured. It feels like there's a bit more to it than just getting the 8 Badges compared to its most recent predecessors (Having 2 friends/rivals AND Team Plasma AND N really keeps things kinda exciting. And annoying. More battles right before the next Pokemon Center. )

As much as I'm gonna sound nostalgia-goggled for saying this, I'd say Black is the best game I've played since Crystal. It just feels and looks like a whole new world again.

[Link]

That jumbled text was supposed to be enjoy, yes. I am liking Black because I caught Virizion, Cobalion, and Terrakion. I also ran into Thundarus and almost ran into it again at another loation. Have you caught any legendary yet, Blade?

[DarkestLight]

I do agree. Its something completely different from what I've expected from Pokemon main series games.

[Blademaster]

No, Heracross. I was late to the party, and have only just reached the fourth Gym.

[Roy Karrde]

I got the new 3DS! Black

I have to say it is a shock to jump from a 1st year DS to the new 3DS with all the features.

It takes a few minutes for your eyes to really get adjusted, and to find the perfect 3D setting ( Mine was at about 3/4th power ). That being said the biggest feature, and greatest is the 3D pictures. You have to try it to understand, but normal pictures just are not the same now.

[Jeff]

Yeah, it's definitely one of the big features that anyone can pick up on. My mom was asking me how it's 3D, and I tried looking through all the pre-installed stuff to see something I could show her, and I found the perfect thing, a 3D pic of my little brother that I snapped with his hand sticking through the screen.

And just as I'm posting this, it looks like that same brother is done playing Mario RPG. Time to go transfer my Mii so I can get my friend code.

Edit: So it seems that there's no way to transfer Miis from the Wii to the 3DS until you've created one from a picture or from scratch, weird. Well, I still managed to "transfer" it manually, and you can't pick a DS game as your favorite title? WTF?. Anyway, FC: 3866-8018-5231.

[Roy Karrde]

Hey Jeff just so you and everyone else knows. To play regular DS games on your 3DS at their regular pixilation, hold select and start for a moment. The game will spin around and be fine to play

[Jeff]

So, after playing with it for a week I've noticed a few things.

The camera app is buggy. It's crashed three times on me already and at one point it suddenly stopped reading the SD card, and I had to restart to get it to read it again (not sure if resetting the 3DS did it or if I only needed to restart the camera app though). Of course that's nothing that can't be fixed with a system update later on.

The battery seems to hold out really well in sleep mode, but yesterday I noticed it went from four bars to two pretty quickly and today I think I found out why. I've been setting it on my DSi when I'm at my desk, and when I did that today, I heard sounds coming from the 3DS. I'm guessing the magnet that activates the DSi's sleep mode is counteracting the magnet that activates the 3DS's sleep mode, causing it to come out of sleep mode even though it's closed. Considering I like to turn the volume all the way down when I'm just playing around on the menu, that would explain why I didn't hear any sound yesterday to clue me in that my 3DS was out of sleep mode.

The 3D effect is cool and the inclusion of the slider was a great idea. I've come to the conclusion that people who have claimed to get headaches were playing with the 3D turned all the way up. I keep it at about halfway, which is enough to see the effect, and I haven't noticed any side-effects. When I first got it though, I did notice that when I look at my computer screen after playing the 3DS the text on my monitor seemed to pop off as if it were 3D, but I haven't noticed that happening lately.

[Blademaster]

3DS improves eyesight. Nintendo has invented a medical breakthrough.

[Telume]

Bad news for 3DS owners it seems:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...fund-headaches

[Jeff]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you get headaches from it, turn the 3D down, that's the whole reason it's adjustable, so you can make it comfortable to you because everyone sees 3D differently. Unfortunately, people seem to think that the higher the slider, the better the effect, so they always try to keep it all the way up. Articles like that don't help with that misconception, when it says that nobody wants to lower the "quality" of the 3D effect.

[Telume]

I don't have a 3DS and things like this are why I don't just grab it at launch. I will get one, I'm just waiting until price goes down.

[Blademaster]

I'm waiting for a bundle. Or Paper Mario 3DS.

Also, no headaches for me because - yep - I can't see 3D!



...

[Drago]

I can totally see where this is going...

If the Nintendo 64 can have a control stick, the DualShock controller will have two sticks!

If the Nintendo Wii has motion sensing capabilities, the PS3 will have more motion sensory capabilities!

If the Nintendo 3DS gives people horrible headaches, the PSP3D will kill them all!!

[Andrew]

I tried one a few months and I wasn't impressed.

I'll hold out for

1) Upgraded model with less issues and better battery.
2) Games. Better games. They are all shitty ports atm.

But I'm not fussed on the 3D Effect. Just seems annoying. The Resident Evil game also crashed the 3DS multiple times hahah.

[Drago]

Dammit Starfox 64 is sexy. MUST... RESIST... URGE... TO... BARREL ROLLLLLLLLLLL