Nintendo in a new dimension
Published: February 16, 2011
If there’s one bit of knowledge you need about the 3DS, it’s this: Coin block cards can now, anywhere in the world, spawn fire dragons and melt tables.
Nintendo stopped by our Washington office today to show off what will probably be the little gadget of the year: The Nintendo 3DS. For those of you who haven’t heard, the 3DS creates the illusion of a 3-D image without the need for any special glasses. The gamers at Stars and Stripes have been eager to see first-hand how this works since it was announced at E3 last year. And after about 45 minutes with the unit in my hands, I can say the effect is amazing, especially when it’s joined with the system’s other impressive abilities.
At first glance, the system looks similar to the older versions of the DS. It's a bit thicker. All of the normal knobs and buttons of a DS are there, as well as an SD-card slot for saving games (the 3DS will come with a 2-gig card) and a 3-D depth slider, which controls (or turns off) how pronounced the 3-D is. Nintendo has also added a sort of joystick, called a thumbslider, that adds analog control to the DS for the first time. Though it’s extremely flat, unlike a regular joystick, It feels firm and give a good resistance to pressure.
Nintendo has expanded upon some of its Wii and DSi online ideas, and built a system that does it all from day one. This unit is a multitasking fiend, and Nintendo has packed the system with a bunch of little apps to show off of the device’s hardware. The system has a ‘Home’ button now that will suspend your game and bring up a list of software options. There’s a notepad to scribble down game ideas, a friends list or view something online. There’s also a Mii creator that uses your face to help you fine-tune your look (you can also import Mii’s from your Wii).
Nintendo is pushing two new wifi ideas with the 3DS: Street Pass and Spot Pass. Street Pass was explained as a sort of game-data-sharing feature. If you leave your system on while you travel around, but close it, Street Pass will search for other 3DSes nearby. If it finds someone, you’ll share Mii data and anything else developers can think up. Don’t fret privacy people, parental controls are included. Spot Pass is similar, but more commercial. Any Nintendo-partnered store can push content: movies, special offers, etc., to your 3DS while it’s in sleep mode. There are special lights on the outside of the system to let you know when all this stuff has happened, we’ll just have to see how popular Nintendo can make it.
The unit has several cameras, two on the backside, one facing the player, and Nintendo has included a couple photo apps to show it all off. The cameras on the backside can actually take photos of anything you want in 3-D, which by itself is neat, but one app does a lot more by adding face-meshing and other lens effects. Photos are saved to the SD card so you can share them in 2-D later if you wish.
In several minigames included with the system, the cameras on the backside act as a sort of camcorder, but instead of showing you whatever space you’re in, what you see is augmented with new objects. Your face turns into a mean spaceship and floats around the room as you try to shoot it down. Or a card on the table transforms into a tree with targets on it, then the table melts in on itself, and you have to literally move the 3DS over the hole to shoot the next target. Or the card spawns a huge fire-breathing dragon that you have to physically outmaneuver to vanquish.
This stuff has been done before (re: the PlayStation 2’s Eyetoy), but never in 3-D. And that’s where the gimmick becomes the game play. Combined with the system’s motion sensing abilities, these little games bring something to the table (and do something to the table) that’s never been done before. Sure, I’ve fought plenty of dragons in my gaming days, but I’ve never literally walked around one. Wow.
We saw a few of the standalone games coming out, too. There’s “Pilotwings Resort,” where players will fly in hang gliders, planes and “rocket belts” around the island from “Wii Sports Resort.” “Steel Driver” is a take on what it would be like to be a submarine commander. You control your sub’s depth with the touch screen, and literally turn yourself and the system to scope the scene.
By far the most polished game we saw was “Street Fighter 4.” Our Nintendo demo guy was a huge fighting buff, and swore by this port’s ability to stand up to the console versions. The game runs extremely smoothly and features some optional angles to view the fighting – looking really cool with the 3-D slider turned to high. “SF4” also utilizes the system’s online features well: There’s online multiplayer and a Street Pass mode.
After the dragons were felled and the table unmelted, I was left with just one negative impression: the battery life. Each game that was demoed was shown on a separate 3DS system, and it seemed like Nintendo reps were juggling constantly to present a charged system. Nintendo revealed the 3DS’s battery life at about five hours, so plan for that if you’re thinking about letting the kids mesh faces and fight dragons on the next family road trip.
