My 3DS Blawg

Posted by Nighthawk on March 28, 2011, 12:25 a.m.

So I went to a midnight launch to get my 3DS last night. I showed up an hour early, and was sorely disappointed, as a mere eleven people showed up for it. So needless to say, there were no shortages. I grabbed a cosmo black 3DS and Super Street Fighter IV. I dropped my receipt on the way to the door, and after an awkward moment of panic, a kindly employee found the receipt, and I was on my way.

Of course I started playing the thing immediately. I opened the box, looked over the operations manual… By which, I mean: I looked at the operations manual, said, "heh," and then tossed it aside.

Honestly, everything on it looks incredible. Camera stuff is a little bit funky if you're playing in a dim room, and the sweet spot for the 3D is smaller than you might expect, but once everything is tuned in perfectly, the results are spectacular. I played around with the AR cards for a while. It was kinda fun shooting arrows at targets growing out of my bed. The face shooting game thingy was fun too. I was also quite eager to try letting the game make a Mii using my face, but the darn thing couldn't get it right. I tried using it four times, and got a completely different looking Mii each time. So I had to make my own from scratch. Other than that, all the little fun things that come with the 3DS worked great, and were a nice little distraction.

Super Street Fighter VI is awesome on the 3DS as well. The 3D doesn't have any impact on the gameplay whatsoever, but it looks great. To be honest, I'm a little annoyed by people calling it a gimmick simply because it doesn't affect gameplay. HD didn't affect the quality of the storytelling in our movies, Color TV didn't make our sitcoms any funnier. Are all aesthetic advancements in technology nothing more than gimmicks? Maybe, but who cares, IT'S SHINY!

Anyways, didn't notice any ill effects from playing with the 3D, at least not at first. After playing it all day, once I turned the 3D off, I did notice a minor headache. Nothing debilitating, and I recovered pretty quickly, but I would recommend pacing yourself with the 3D.

All in all, I'm impressed. It was totally worth the $320 I'm out for it. (DS + Game + Sales Tax)

Comments

RC 13 years ago

Could you get the other AR cards to work? Mine say they cannot be recognized, unless there's just not light enough in here, but even so, it recognizes the one with the dragon in it.

Cpsgames 13 years ago

Interesting read, although I'm not sold on getting one at all still. I mean, yes, if I had the spare money I'd maybe get one, but for 3D I'd rather get a 3D TV and use my PS3.

Is the 3D even that strong? I figured this thing would cause some bad eye strain :P

PY 13 years ago

The 3D is always going to be a gimmick. HD and Colour TV lets you put a lot more detail into the screen, they're useful. 3D can do the same - but not in the 3DS, Nintendo have decreed that since some people can't see 3D, no developer may have features in their game that don't work without 3D mode. Thus, it will never be used to its potential, or for anything beyond looking shiny. A damn shame, but there you go.

JuurianChi 13 years ago

@Cps

If you play any game for a long time it may hurt you.

3D is just a leveled-up version of that hazard.

Cpsgames 13 years ago

I'm aware, I meant that I thought it would probably do that a lot faster than a 3D movie even.

Nighthawk 13 years ago

Well the recommendation is a 10-15 minute break every 30 minutes. I'm sort of following that, but as someone who has played video games since I was three, "break" to me means simply turning the 3D off for a while.

KaBob799 13 years ago

"Thus, it will never be used to its potential, or for anything beyond looking shiny."

I honestly can't think of any good gameplay that would be possible in 3D but not 2D (at least when using current 3D screen technology, obviously holograms would allow cool stuff).

PY 13 years ago

Yes, KaBob, and now you never will. Not even gimmick tier effects, because they might break in 2D.

KaBob799 13 years ago

The point is that there's nothing worth doing that would break in 2d. I'm glad I'll never see whatever nonsense gimmicks companies would try to pull off just so they could be 3d only.

PY 13 years ago

I think that stopping them from trying at all is a terrible idea, though. You can't do 3D chess, or games that require you to estimate distance using 3D, or even something as simple as using 3D to make objects stand out. Just because you can't see the benefit does not mean it's fine to make sure that nobody ever tries.