Spotlight: Nintendo 3DS
Posted: 2011-04-08
Small things, big changes
I’m not a wonderful person to give a handheld, I’m not that fond of them, the DS didn’t interest me, the DS-Lite didn’t float my boat and the PSP and so on just left me cold. But over the years I’ve kind of warmed a little after watching friends play various iterations of the handheld market and some of the games. So taking some time with someone’s 3DS and writing a spotlight on it seemed to be a dangerous move.
We like danger, so...we did it. You know how I feel about 3D in games, because you’ve probably read my article on it. So it was a test, would I actually find anything to like about the 3DS or would I be ready to throw it back to my buddy and demand that it never cross into my hands again?
So before you worry that I’m going to hate it, I don’t. If I wanted to get a handheld, then the 3DS would actually be one I bought. Not particularly for the games, but the features are quite nice and the handheld itself has a nice feel to it. It’s not too weighty and the controls are pretty easy to use, things that I presume go down well for a new user to the handheld market and those veterans that were playing handheld LCD Pacman games back in the days before the internet.
I’m also not going to do one of those prosaic in-depth gadgety reviews, this is more informal and it’s more going to be a bunch of features as I think of them, ones that interested me or at least ones that should appeal to a gamer.
3D
The biggest draw for me in the 3D regard, no glasses, it’s all based on depth and I can see straight away where the games market could take this technology and how they can implement it. I had a crack at Face Raiders and after using the camera to take some amusing snaps of various people, I spent a while spinning around like an idiot and shooting them in their amusingly animated faces for points. The 3D here is really well done and the slider controls the intensity of the 3D on the handheld itself, you can shut it down completely if you want...but that would be rather defeating the point of having a 3D capable handheld though.
The stereoscopic 3D runs in the top screen and it’s immediate, you get a good sense of depth and you can actually make better judgments in terms of positions of your game characters, making fewer mistakes and generally improving your hand-eye coordination. So that’s a bonus right there.
Augmented Reality
This is basically a really neat little feature of the gadget, the 3DS takes the background for a game like Face Raiders from where you are, the cameras allowing you to see it in perfect 3D and the game superimposes the graphics atop of this, you move the environment around by shifting the 3DS across its major axis and shoot the oncoming evil faces and targets. The most impressive thing though is the reaction of people when they see the background, they can see the shop they’re in, or the park, or the underground...their living room. It gives a deeper connection to the player than before.
You can also watch the various Augmented Reality cards change, alter and pop out when you point the 3DS at them. It’s a feature I didn’t spend overly long on since I was eager to rock out to some of the games, which played pretty well. Pilot Wings, Street Fighter and so on...it’s all good stuff.
3D Camera
It’s a pretty decent resolution camera and the 3D effects it can create are great fun, you can take stereoscopic 3D pictures and view them on the handheld. Having depth to a wedding photo or just a shot of your garden is something unusual, perhaps even a bit gimmicky but it’s also pretty effective. I give this feature the thumbs up because I’m all for innovation and this actually has a use. I can see several uses; most of them do fall outside the realm of handheld gaming though.
Dual Screens
Now this is something I am really not used to, but I can see the advantages of it on the 3DS and most of the DS’ I’ve seen. It’s useful having the main game screen up top and a Resident Evil style inventory or menu system down below. The 800*420 res top screen really makes for some relatively eye-popping visuals and supports the 3D very well. I’m told it allocates just over 400 or so pixels for each eye, and even though that’s something that goes over my non-tech head...it still sounds impressive enough.
The 16.77 million colours (phew) 320*240 res bottom screen is where all the menu fun happens and so on, again it’s crisp and delivers a nice resolution image that remains rock steady. Fortunately I wasn’t made motion sick by the 3DS so I can’t really comment on that, but I hear some folks are sensitive to that kind of thing.
Motion Sensor and Gyro Sensor
I had to do some research on this particular facet of the handheld, mainly because I’m pretty fond of the Kinect and PS Move. I quite like motion controls in general and the 3DS offers since it lets you spin and tilt the handheld to look around the screen, seen actively in Face Raiders and most of the camera functionality when setting up the 3D, via those adorable little cards.
Controls
The circle pad is directly above the +Control Pad. They control is also analogue and offers a good deal of feedback in the games. When you add all of this together with the regular buttons, motion controls above, microphone input and even the 3D camera and touch screen...you have a recipe for games that use a lot of unique controls to control the play and immerse the user into the game world a lot more. The developers haven’t yet cracked the ultimate 3DS app...But I am sure someone will!
I’m not a wonderful person to give a handheld, I’m not that fond of them, the DS didn’t interest me, the DS-Lite didn’t float my boat and the PSP and so on just left me cold. But over the years I’ve kind of warmed a little after watching friends play various iterations of the handheld market and some of the games. So taking some time with someone’s 3DS and writing a spotlight on it seemed to be a dangerous move.
So before you worry that I’m going to hate it, I don’t. If I wanted to get a handheld, then the 3DS would actually be one I bought. Not particularly for the games, but the features are quite nice and the handheld itself has a nice feel to it. It’s not too weighty and the controls are pretty easy to use, things that I presume go down well for a new user to the handheld market and those veterans that were playing handheld LCD Pacman games back in the days before the internet.
I’m also not going to do one of those prosaic in-depth gadgety reviews, this is more informal and it’s more going to be a bunch of features as I think of them, ones that interested me or at least ones that should appeal to a gamer.
3D
The biggest draw for me in the 3D regard, no glasses, it’s all based on depth and I can see straight away where the games market could take this technology and how they can implement it. I had a crack at Face Raiders and after using the camera to take some amusing snaps of various people, I spent a while spinning around like an idiot and shooting them in their amusingly animated faces for points. The 3D here is really well done and the slider controls the intensity of the 3D on the handheld itself, you can shut it down completely if you want...but that would be rather defeating the point of having a 3D capable handheld though.
The stereoscopic 3D runs in the top screen and it’s immediate, you get a good sense of depth and you can actually make better judgments in terms of positions of your game characters, making fewer mistakes and generally improving your hand-eye coordination. So that’s a bonus right there.
Augmented Reality
This is basically a really neat little feature of the gadget, the 3DS takes the background for a game like Face Raiders from where you are, the cameras allowing you to see it in perfect 3D and the game superimposes the graphics atop of this, you move the environment around by shifting the 3DS across its major axis and shoot the oncoming evil faces and targets. The most impressive thing though is the reaction of people when they see the background, they can see the shop they’re in, or the park, or the underground...their living room. It gives a deeper connection to the player than before.
You can also watch the various Augmented Reality cards change, alter and pop out when you point the 3DS at them. It’s a feature I didn’t spend overly long on since I was eager to rock out to some of the games, which played pretty well. Pilot Wings, Street Fighter and so on...it’s all good stuff.
It’s a pretty decent resolution camera and the 3D effects it can create are great fun, you can take stereoscopic 3D pictures and view them on the handheld. Having depth to a wedding photo or just a shot of your garden is something unusual, perhaps even a bit gimmicky but it’s also pretty effective. I give this feature the thumbs up because I’m all for innovation and this actually has a use. I can see several uses; most of them do fall outside the realm of handheld gaming though.
Dual Screens
Now this is something I am really not used to, but I can see the advantages of it on the 3DS and most of the DS’ I’ve seen. It’s useful having the main game screen up top and a Resident Evil style inventory or menu system down below. The 800*420 res top screen really makes for some relatively eye-popping visuals and supports the 3D very well. I’m told it allocates just over 400 or so pixels for each eye, and even though that’s something that goes over my non-tech head...it still sounds impressive enough.
The 16.77 million colours (phew) 320*240 res bottom screen is where all the menu fun happens and so on, again it’s crisp and delivers a nice resolution image that remains rock steady. Fortunately I wasn’t made motion sick by the 3DS so I can’t really comment on that, but I hear some folks are sensitive to that kind of thing.
Motion Sensor and Gyro Sensor
I had to do some research on this particular facet of the handheld, mainly because I’m pretty fond of the Kinect and PS Move. I quite like motion controls in general and the 3DS offers since it lets you spin and tilt the handheld to look around the screen, seen actively in Face Raiders and most of the camera functionality when setting up the 3D, via those adorable little cards.
Controls
The circle pad is directly above the +Control Pad. They control is also analogue and offers a good deal of feedback in the games. When you add all of this together with the regular buttons, motion controls above, microphone input and even the 3D camera and touch screen...you have a recipe for games that use a lot of unique controls to control the play and immerse the user into the game world a lot more. The developers haven’t yet cracked the ultimate 3DS app...But I am sure someone will!
