Nintendo 3DS

My friends, I had the pleasure of testing a Nintendo 3DS for 3 hours last night, and I must say it is everything we expected and more. Sheer perfection.

Those who can access my Facebook pictures can see pictures I took at the testing with my DSiXL. Pictures never come through as what you really see when using the 3DS, but you can clearly see the distortion that tricks your eyes in the images, and some of the pictures show things they never showed at E3.

I incourage you all to ask as many questions as you want, and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities. It would take a very long time to explain everything myself.

The PSP2 truely looks dead before it could even start to begin.

How did you get to test it?!?!

I've heard some rumors that it'll hurt your eyes if you play longer than 30 minutes. Apparently that's not true, is it? Does it feel awkward using the D-pad when it's below the slide pad, instead of its usual place? How are the games? Does it really have motion sensing?

Forestgur wrote:

How did you get to test it?!?!

I've heard some rumors that it'll hurt your eyes if you play longer than 30 minutes. Apparently that's not true, is it? Does it feel awkward using the D-pad when it's below the slide pad, instead of its usual place? How are the games? Does it really have motion sensing?

-Special invite by Nintendo, it was held in a Gamestop they closed down early that day, and wouldn't unlock the door for anybody that didn't have the papers.

-It didn't really hurt my eyes, just messed with 'em a bit. Anybody that says this probably had the 3D slider on max. You can adjust it to fit your own eyes, tis why the sliders there. You can also turn off 3D entirely.

-Honestly I never tested the D-pad. The Slide Pad feels so comfortable that I was happy I didn't have to use the D-pad. xD

-Games we got to test were, Face Raiders, Nintendogs and Cats, Pilotwings Resort Demo, and the AR Card system. More details later gtg soon.

-Yes! That was probably the most exciting thing was the gyro system. I'll explain later.

I might have to get the 3Ds.... Everything I've heard about it is really positive! How's the screen though? I've heard that if you don't hold it at the right angle it can really mess with you eyes.

Rin Kagamine wrote:

I might have to get the 3Ds.... Everything I've heard about it is really positive! How's the screen though? I've heard that if you don't hold it at the right angle it can really mess with you eyes.

This is true, if you hold it too far from the side, or try to watch your friend play a 3DS, it will not appear 3D, instead you will be able to visibly see that there are 2 images, and the distortional eye trick becomes obvious. But, the great thing is, you can turn off the 3D to let your friend see, etc. Or just turn it down a bit.

Greenganon wrote:

Forestgur wrote:

How did you get to test it?!?!

I've heard some rumors that it'll hurt your eyes if you play longer than 30 minutes. Apparently that's not true, is it? Does it feel awkward using the D-pad when it's below the slide pad, instead of its usual place? How are the games? Does it really have motion sensing?

-Special invite by Nintendo, it was held in a Gamestop they closed down early that day, and wouldn't unlock the door for anybody that didn't have the papers.

-It didn't really hurt my eyes, just messed with 'em a bit. Anybody that says this probably had the 3D slider on max. You can adjust it to fit your own eyes, tis why the sliders there. You can also turn off 3D entirely.

-Honestly I never tested the D-pad. The Slide Pad feels so comfortable that I was happy I didn't have to use the D-pad. xD

-Games we got to test were, Face Raiders, Nintendogs and Cats, Pilotwings Resort Demo, and the AR Card system. More details later gtg soon.

-Yes! That was probably the most exciting thing was the gyro system. I'll explain later.

Ok, time to explain those last two bits.

-Pilotwings Resort (May not be official games's title):
This was a different mode of the same game of good old Wii Sports Resort, except all the games were flying style over the same old Wuhu Island. This game was the first thing I saw on the 3DS, and the 3D mode was off when I picked it up. The first thing I thought was, "Oh my god... This looks exactly like the Wii." The graphics possibly weren't exactly up to the Wii's power, but it was very hard to tell they might've been any weaker. I'm convinced that the 3DS definitely can match the graphic power of the Wii, which, even though that's not the best in the world, for a handheld, it's damn amazing. So I turn the 3D on, and instantly I freak out. Literally, I didn't even expect it to work that well, and that smoothly. Instantly everything I knew about gaming was changed right in front of me. It's hard to describe it, it really is. So anyways, the game: This game lets you pick your vehicle, between the old plane in WSR, a new, and awesome Jetpack that rotates around and controls surprisingly well, and a hang glider that just slowly falls as you go around. Really, there isn't much to do in this game, but it was amusing for the Jetpack, and the sheer fact of, "Holy shit, 3D!" Best part of this one: I flew to the top of the volcano with the Jetpack, and lowered down into it. With the Jetpacks manueverbility and the 3D effect, this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

-Nintendogs + Cats:
This was interesting. You know the very first thing those dogs do in these games is run up and jump the screen for a petting right? Yeah... They did, and in 3D they freaking jumped me. It was kinda scary the first time. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this game really, because, well, it's just Nintendogs in 3D and I have those games in 2D and they tend to get boring, I almost never play my old ones. The cats? I mean, if your a cat person, I suppose that's cool, but it really didn't seem that different besides being in 3D. I didn't have enough time with it to see if the cats had somewhat of a different feel to them, perhaps they entered different competitions and such? Who knows? But hey, it was still pretty neat regardless. This next thing took all my attention away...

-Face Raiders:
Ok, this, was a trip. Seriously. Thought I had gone crazy and delusional for a moment. Anyways, this is a game that comes in the machine when you buy it. You know, like the DSi's came out with some BrainAge or some crap built in? Yeah. So this game tells you, 'Take a picture of a new face.' Oooookay... So I got some guy to stand there while the thing recognized his face and all that, and then it shows me the camera view of everything in the room, just like your looking through the 3DS camera. Yeah, 3D real life looking... real life, on screen. And all the sudden this dudes face appears out of nowhere inside a floating helmet, making weird expressions and laughing maniacly. No, really, it happened, as weird as it sounds. So then the evil face helmet starts flying around the room, even leaving the screen, so to find him, you have to move the 3DS and look around the room, yes, the real life room, to find this virtual flying evil helmet face and shoot it with the A button. And no, of course it's not that simple. The thing starts making virtual rifts in space in the room that aren't really there in real life, but your 3DS can see them. So it hides in these rifts and other stuff in the room until you shoot it several times. Sometimes it even has fake imposter helmets where they put a crude image of a mustache or glasses on the face, and your not supposed to shoot that one, just the original face. Anyways, I can honestly say this is the weirdest game in the history of time I've ever played. While this game was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen, as it seemed to be bending reality, it also has many forseeable downsides. For example, you can't play this in public. People will laugh and you and think your insane for turning around constantly trying to find things that nobody else can see. But you have to, because you can't play without taking a picture of a new face right? It's just bonkers.

-AR Games:
Imagine not needing a game to play a game anymore? Well, now you don't, all you need is a card. Yes a flat card, like a playing card, only smaller. These cards warp reality around them, making an instant game on any surface. This will be hard to explain, so you might want to look up my pictures on Facebook. (I'll try to get the images to this sites gallery as soon as possible.) Let's start with something simple. You take your Mario card, and lay it on the table. Get in your 3DS camera mode and just watch the card, it will soon recognize the image of the card in its database, and create a virtual 3D model of Mario on the table atop the card. But he doesn't have to stay on the card, you can move him around, change his pose, as long as the Mario card stays in your camera's sights. You can move around the table, look at the Mario from any angle, anything, just keep the card in the sights. Even if you stop looking at the card, you just go back to it, and it reappears how you left it. Can it read multiple cards at once? Yes indeed it can, as seen in my pic of Samus and Kirby together. Not sure how many it can see and register at once, but it works. Now for the games. Theres this one particularly epic card, which is a simple image of the Mario [?] Block. It tells you to shoot at the front side of the cube that appears to you virtually. A menu unfolds, yeah, a 3D virtual menu of 6 cubes on that real life surface your using. Some of the blocks were locked, possibly for testing purposes, but there was an Archery game available. Instantly a hill, made out of flat table appears. Yes, a hill, you could move and look at it from any angle, and somehow they had made a hill bump out of the table, made out of the same looking stuff the table was made out of. There were of course targets scattered on the hill and around it, and you could go around shooting them with the A button, from any angle you wanted to, which made them easy to shoot but oh well. After the hill, the card appeared to sink downward into the table, into a virtual crevasse. Yeah, now there was a hole in the real table that wasn't there. And in order to see the targets in the hole, I had to lean over the table to be able to see down, into the hole in the table, that wasn't really there. Really, this thing was shattering my brain.

-Gyroscope Explanation:
In case you guys aren't picking up on this tech, the Gyroscope is what allows Face Raiders and AR Games to work. Seeing the model from all sides, it must know which direction and angle you are looking from. The clever hill, and hole in the table? Though mind shattering, this is the Gyroscope working... somehow. I still don't understand all those tricks, but to know where I was in reality, to look into that hole, and be able to know spacially where I would be able to see through a real hole if it were there. That's the Gyroscope working. I understand the tech involved and it still breaks my mind. It's truely a machine you have to see to fully believe and know for yourself to figure out.


Please feel free to ask more questions or even comment and just discuss the thing. This is technology that will be implemented in various things for 5+ years to come. It's really the future, and I still can't believe what I saw there. Still crazy excited.

Oh another thing I want to point out is that, alot of people seem to think it's only the games that are in 3D and only the new ones. That's entirely false. The games, 3D. The camera, 3D. Even the system menu appears in 3D, which surprised me. Old DS games? I'm not sure on that one, we couldn't put anything in or take anything out of the systems, there was obviously security things. But no, it's not just, you turn on the game and whoosh, 3D, it's the entire everything the system does. (No, the touch screen is never 3D though. So don't get confused there.)

Just reading this breaks my mind. Aaand now I've soiled myself.

If the 3DS virtually bends reality, the NGP is already dead. Like "Screw this, I have a 3DS" dead.

In fact, Nintendo might actually win the console wars with the 3DS.

Meh I don't fear Sony, because they never play smart. I do still worry about Microsoft though, they're smart enough to not compete with handhelds and save all their resources for next console.

This might actually kill off Sony. Their PS3 mistakes was a real kick to their shins as it was, and now they're gambling the rest of their money on the NGP and the PSP phone. Both highly expensive endevours that look already outmatched. I mean, have you seen phones now? Announcing making a phone like that in a year? It can easily be beaten in that market by then. I just don't know what they're thinking.

Sony's repeating history, and goin down like Sega...

Greenganon wrote:

Meh I don't fear Sony, because they never play smart. I do still worry about Microsoft though, they're smart enough to not compete with handhelds and save all their resources for next console.

This might actually kill off Sony. Their PS3 mistakes was a real kick to their shins as it was, and now they're gambling the rest of their money on the NGP and the PSP phone. Both highly expensive endevours that look already outmatched. I mean, have you seen phones now? Announcing making a phone like that in a year? It can easily be beaten in that market by then. I just don't know what they're thinking.

Sony's repeating history, and goin down like Sega...

The PSP phone? I think that's a big mistake. Is Sony trying to go the way of Apple's iPod with the PSP? Sure, the iPhone was an exciting innovation when it came out, but now it just seems rather taken for granted. The PSP phone would be just "meh, I don't care since I have a phone and a PSP/NGP." Sure, there are fans who want it, but the idea of turning a handheld into a phone just seems cliche to me.

Sony shouldn't focus mainly on trends in gaming. I bet this whole 3D fad (even though I kinda like it) will end in a couple years, like it did in the 1960s. Those 3DTVs are really expensive, so why spend more money on enabling 3D in the PS3 if only about 10% of gamers can afford it? The 3DS is like 7% of the total cost of getting a 3DTV, a PS3, a pair of 3D glasses, and a 3D-enabled game.

...Did I just rant?

But it is affordable how Nintendo makes it. I actually think this tech might be implemented in iPhone 5 or 6. Anything handheld can now easily have reality bending stuff. Who wouldn't make apps for that?

Anyways I got on to say that Nintendos now sent an update too all Wiis (connected to net) for the Nintendo Channel. It now shows some videos and info (in 2D sadly) of the 4 things I discussed here. Check it out when you get the chance.

A 60 inch 3D TV costs $4500 (including four pairs of glasses). And yeah, in a year or two that price will be slashed in half. Not to mention, this is first gen tech. By the time the prices are cut, something new and better (and expensive) will come out. Just like, by the time you buy an iPhone 5, number 6 will already be out lol

PSP PHONE? You're shitting me. Seriously, what is it with people and phones? Did ya know there's a godamn car now that'll read you updates/comments off your Facebook page? Yeah.

MS most likely will come out with something to compete. They watch and wait and then they come out with something better. Hence how they wiped out a lot of competition in the tech world, for a time at least. (and yes, I know about all the lawsuits and blah blah blah).

Sony is a sell-out. I got a PS3 mainly for nolstalga puposes and 'cause of Blu-Ray. But PS3's are sort of pointless if you want 'em for the graphics and you don't have a HD TV. My dad plays his 360 on his computer monitor (which is not HD, although I'unno if that's even possible for it to be) and graphics are as clear and good as they are on the TV...

I'm not sure if MS will ever compete in handhelds though. At least not soon. I try to keep on top of tech announcements on all ends and I've never heard MS talk about a handheld.

Greenganon wrote:

I'm not sure if MS will ever compete in handhelds though. At least not soon. I try to keep on top of tech announcements on all ends and I've never heard MS talk about a handheld.

Who knows? They might be planning something big.

Anyway, back to topic. I'm updating the Nintendo Channel as I speak.

So- how did you get invited by Nintendo?

Apparently I've gathered so much stuff over the years that I'm officially recognized as one of their biggest fans or something.

GB Original
GB Color
GBA
Nintendo DS
DSiXL
NES
SNES
Two N64s
GC
Wii
+So many games and system accessories I can't count them all if I tried.

Probably around 5,000$ total over my lifespan.

So I'm on a list now for getting 2 weeks preview on some things.

You're nuts, GameBoy lol

Greenganon wrote:

Apparently I've gathered so much stuff over the years that I'm officially recognized as one of their biggest fans or something.

GB Original
GB Color
GBA
Nintendo DS
DSiXL
NES
SNES
Two N64s
GC
Wii
+So many games and system accessories I can't count them all if I tried.

Probably around 5,000$ total over my lifespan.

So I'm on a list now for getting 2 weeks preview on some things.

HOLY CRAP. -bows down-