3DS impressions straight from Greece: A diehard fan's first impressions

[BulbaBot]

3DS impressions straight from Greece: A diehard fan's first impressions

They often say that you've got to see in order to believe and that's exactly the case with the Nintendo 3DS.

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[Tophat Dragoneye]

I just readed it, and I can happily say it has only sparked further interest for the Nintendo 3DS for me

 

[Gligar13]

Have you tried moving the screen while playing it, or tried playing it for more then 15 min? Since that seems to be what everyone is complaning about.

 

[Ivysaur]

Meh. Price, battery life, and lack of Mario Kart 3DS at launch still make me sad. I'll be waiting until the 3DS Lite, or at least a price drop. Or possibly whenever the first mainstream 3DS Pokemon game is released, excluding Gray.

 

[011284mm]

I have seen the stuff that goes into the 3d on the screens, and pre-loaded screens. I think that the consoles will be a good thing to have and a real part of the future like the wii was. I already have one on order and can not wait until they can produce big tv screens with this technology on them to watch movies on. The problem I believe with the viewing of the screen is due to its small size, you will quickly run out of bars for the left or right eye.
To be honest though, your eyes will hurt after a while the same as they do when you look at a tv, computer monitor or ds screen too long.

(Edit) - I believe given the games listed for the 3DS so far that the first Pokémon games we will see could be Pokémon XD, I would love that in 3D

 

[Joshawott]

Meh. Price, battery life, and lack of Mario Kart 3DS at launch still make me sad. I'll be waiting until the 3DS Lite, or at least a price drop. Or possibly whenever the first mainstream 3DS Pokemon game is released, excluding Gray.

In Iwata Asks, it was revealed that they have no plans for a "3DS Lite", as one of their goals was to make the 3DS as small as possible; hence why it's apparently only slightly bigger than a DS Lite.

 

[Shiron]

In Iwata Asks, it was revealed that they have no plans for a "3DS Lite", as one of their goals was to make the 3DS as small as possible; hence why it's apparently only slightly bigger than a DS Lite.

Yeah, everything's really packed in there pretty tight and there really isn't any room left for making it smaller. In the same Iwata Asks article, they also mentioned that they had to use all of the tricks they used for the DS Lite and then some on the 3DS just to fit in the largest battery they could (which they needed due to the 3D screen being a real battery hog due to how it's basically displaying two separate images on top of each other, which in turn required the screen to have additional backlights because otherwise it apparently it looked too dull). And on top of that, with battery life indeed being one of the worries people seem to have about the 3DS, I'm really not sure if we'll be getting a 3DS Micro at all and if we do, it certainly won't come until somwhere near the end of the 3DS's life. Much more likely in the short term would be for an XL version to be announced sometime in the next year or two.

 

[Ice Tyrant]

@Ryu: From the one chinese leak video from a while ago, it looked about the same size as a DSi. I've even seen the comparison between the 3DS and someone's hand, and I will assure you, that this thing is pretty small sized and not really needing a Lite version. How much smaller can something THAT powerful get anyways? If it gets any smaller, there may be issues with it's durability since it may be more fragile in that case (Even if something is large it can be fragile, but my old DS has survived loads of beating where simply dropping a PSP by a few feet wrecks the UMD Drive...).

 

[The Outrage]

@Ryu: From the one chinese leak video from a while ago, it looked about the same size as a DSi. I've even seen the comparison between the 3DS and someone's hand, and I will assure you, that this thing is pretty small sized and not really needing a Lite version. How much smaller can something THAT powerful get anyways? If it gets any smaller, there may be issues with it's durability since it may be more fragile in that case (Even if something is large it can be fragile, but my old DS has survived loads of beating where simply dropping a PSP by a few feet wrecks the UMD Drive...).

Not so much size as it is battery power and perhaps random aesthetic changes.

 

[SinCosTan]

I'm with Ivysaur, I won't be interested in the 3DS until a price drop.

 

[Ivysaur]

In Iwata Asks, it was revealed that they have no plans for a "3DS Lite", as one of their goals was to make the 3DS as small as possible; hence why it's apparently only slightly bigger than a DS Lite.

A 3DS Lite wouldn't necessarily have to differ from its predecessor in shape and size. It could bring forth new features and software - and more important, a better battery life. And Nintendo has constantly updated its handhelds in the past; why would they stop now?

 

[Shiron]

A 3DS Lite wouldn't necessarily have to differ from its predecessor in shape and size. It could bring forth new features and software - and more important, a better battery life. And Nintendo has constantly updated its handhelds in the past; why would they stop now?

No one's saying Nintendo's not going to do a revision of the 3DS at all--it's practically guaranteed that they will--but rather just that they're not likely to make a Lite version at all. On the other hand, Nintendo has never made a version of their handhelds that focused on just "new features and software"--they've all been different in shape and size so that people can easily tell them apart and not get them mixed up or confused or anything (plus, the better shape and size are a good part of why people typically like Nintendo's later revisions more, ala the GBA SP and DS Lite in addition to the new features they had like better backlighting).

And on battery life, that would just be one more reason to actually go with an XL version, so that they have more space for a larger battery, instead of trying to rely solely on finding more tricks to use to conserve battery life in a Lite version (and like I mentioned in my earlier post, Nintendo pretty much admitted to using all of their tricks for that sort of thing in the 3DS already, so, even giving it a year or two, they probably wouldn't be able to pull much more out of its battery that way, meaning that unless their's suddenly a breakthrough in battery technology in the next year or two the only real good option they have to significantly increase battery life is to go with a larger battery, requiring a larger model).

 

[The Outrage]

No one's saying Nintendo's not going to do a revision of the 3DS at all--it's practically guaranteed that they will--but rather just that they're not likely to make a Lite version at all.

The "Lite" suffix isn't being applied because people think its going to get smaller, its being applied as a tentative term for the future installment on the 3DS. Saying there isn't a "3DS Lite" would lead to confusion to people thinking you don't think they'd upgrade the 3DS.

And on battery life, that would just be one more reason to actually go with an XL version, so that they have more space for a larger battery

I'd like to think that our technological advancements in gaming (and in general, really) didn't occur because we up-sized ourselves from using AA batteries to a D battery to meet energy requirements. That and the DSLite managed a better battery life than the original while being smaller.

And the PSP's successor, having better specs than the 3DS in everything except in being 3D supposedly has a better battery life to boot.

Being clunkier isn't something that a portable gaming system should aim to be.

 

[fate]

In Iwata Asks, it was revealed that they have no plans for a "3DS Lite", as one of their goals was to make the 3DS as small as possible; hence why it's apparently only slightly bigger than a DS Lite.

To be fair, of course he's going to say that now. If he even as much as hints at the possibility of a newer model, sales for the original model will take a hit from people who will wait for next model. In the case of the 3DS, that actually looks like a lot of people, too.

 

[Ivysaur]

No one's saying Nintendo's not going to do a revision of the 3DS at all--it's practically guaranteed that they will--but rather just that they're not likely to make a Lite version at all.

What Outrage said.

On the other hand, Nintendo has never made a version of their handhelds that focused on just "new features and software"--they've all been different in shape and size so that people can easily tell them apart and not get them mixed up or confused or anything (plus, the better shape and size are a good part of why people typically like Nintendo's later revisions more, ala the GBA SP and DS Lite in addition to the new features they had like better backlighting).

Well, a few differences in the hardware should go without saying. But given how small and compact the 3DS is already, I wouldn't be surprised if differences in the 3DS Lite's hardware were minimal, and more focus was applied to aspects of the 3DS such as battery life and the backlighting.

 

[Arty2]

Have you tried moving the screen while playing it, or tried playing it for more then 15 min? Since that seems to be what everyone is complaning about.

I tried to brake the effect in any way I could. It does break when you move in strange angles, but even with he 3D turned off you wouldn't look at your console from these angles. The 3D was getting more comfortable the more you played with it.

 

[Noivern]

Guess what? I think I'm sure that I'll get a 3DS ASAP. Maybe it's because of this article. I hope that only good will come out from the 3DS.

 

[Red G]

The 3DS sounds even more awesome. I just hope MK3DS comes out by my birthday.

 

[Gordon]

I really want one... I don't know though. I'll likely wait for that month of every game coming out for it... but I really hope they reveal more than just 2 colours as well. I really wanted that Purple one.. and I already have a Black DSLite, so I'm not going with that again... but the Blue doesn't really do it for me either... though who knows, my N64 is about that colour.

 

[Arty2]

However, for those complaining about battery life, they assured us that it's almost as DSiXL's. Turning off the wireless communications, 3D and brightness really boosts the battery in case you're on say, a very long trip.