Nintendo 3DS Early Impressions 273
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Soulskill
from the new-ways-to-freak-out-your-cat dept.
from the new-ways-to-freak-out-your-cat dept.
Now that E3 attendees have had a chance to try out the new revision of Nintendo's portable console, critiques of the 3D effect and updated layout are starting to filter in. Opinion thus far has been mostly positive. Wired writes, "The graphics, which are much more advanced than you’d expect from Nintendo, left me pretty much in disbelief. They're on a level with Sony’s PSP, probably even a little better than that. But the eye-popping 3-D effect makes everything that much richer." According to the Guardian's Games blog, it works "beautifully." They add, "You can perceive 3D only if the console is directly in front of you, but this is fine for handheld gaming. I actually found it pretty adaptable in terms of viewing from different vertical positions. It was much more sensitive if the handheld was turned slightly to the left or right, but really, it coped perfectly with the slight shifts and jerks you'd get on a morning commute." During Shigeru Miyamoto's annual dev roundtable, he explained how Nintendo felt that particular types of games, such as shooters, benefit more from the 3D effect than others, and how Nintendo hopes to update as many older games as they can to incorporate 3D gameplay in addition to 3D graphics.
Re:The same Sony that ruthlessly killed Sega? (Score:3, Informative)
The Saturn was not a bad console. It's hardware was on par with the PSX. The reason the PSX beat it is because it was easier to develop for so I'll give you that. PSX had good timing and a good price.
The PS1 (The development name for the original Playstation console, "PSX", has been reused as the name of a product, a PS2 with integrated DVR, and it should no longer be used to describe the PS1 both for this reason and since Sony hasn't called it PSX since release) had hardware transparency and the Saturn didn't, so you had to do it manually by using the second CPU for graphics. That's how Panzer Dragoon Saga did their water transparency effects, and they still weren't very good. The Saturn thus has inferior hardware to the PS1. I'd far rather bang on R3000 than SH2 as well.
My point still stands that Sony is what lead to a ruined gaming industry. The golden era of gaming was ended by Sony's PS2.
You're nuts. There were a super-shitload of games for the PS2 and many were firsts.
Re:Eh what? (Score:3, Informative)
Buh? I'm not sure how many more than 140 million consoles Sony could have sold if they'd "had [their] shit together on the PS2". Microsoft's entry into the market with the Xbox was through the sacrificing of roughly $1.5 billion, and the Gamecube was more or less a non-event until the same hardware was repackaged as the Wii.
The reason it's a 3 horse race at the moment is because Sony cocked up with a late delivered and needlessly complex PS3 coming up against a "good enough" Wii and the Xbox 360 taking the early sales lead by a long shot in the US. It's certainly not because of a lack of PS2 success.
3D because Sony says so (Score:3, Informative)
So why is it "3d"
Because otherwise, Sony wouldn't digitally sign it for booting on the retail console.
Also, because it's more expensive to draw every player in 2D at every angle. NBA Jam on 16-bit systems used a generic basketball player body scaled to about five sizes along with unique character heads. To add a new player, only the head needed to be redrawn at all angles. But now at least the upmarket players expect more than eight angles and numbers on uniforms, and at some point, it becomes easier for the artists just to make an octahedron, pull at it until it becomes a head, and wrap a texture around it.
Re:Nintendo is destroying Sony? (Score:1, Informative)
True. Which is why you can't get away with attacking him. You need to look at his arguments.
Just to be clear, when you say "him" you really mean "me", and when you say "his" you mean "my". Isn't that right, Mr. Malstrom?
Re:Why the 3DS is relevant here (Score:5, Informative)
Story time!
Sega got its start [wikipedia.org] in 1940, to provide coin-operated games for the American military to put on their bases. They were, quite literally, a child born out of World War II. While they had their ups and downs, they never really encountered any serious business success problems until the 90's.
Nintendo, on the other hand, got it's start in 1889 as a playing card company [wikipedia.org]. By the time Sega came around, Nintendo was already a granola chomper looking for its mid-life crisis convertible. They had a taxi company, a hotel chain, a tv network, a food company...and they all failed horribly. Nintendo brought itself back from having only 60 yen in stocks. I don't think Sackboy and a few Helghast are going to be much of a problem.
Re:Nintendo may be king of sinking ship? (Score:3, Informative)
"First of all smart phones (as we in the US know them) are almost non-existant in Japan. "
The iPhone has been here for years and is a major hit. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Android phone is NTT Docomo's best selling phone in recent history. You can also get Windows-based smartphones and Blackberrys, though they're obviously aimed squarely at the suit-and-tie set. And now the iPhone 4 is being heavily preordered while every carrier is coming out with Android models as fast as they can. So no, smsrtphones are not "almost non-existent" in Japan.
With that said, and as much as I love my android phone, you're right: if you want portable gaming, today's smartphones don't really hold a candle to a dedicated gaming device. Beginning with the controls, a dedicated device gives you a better game than a phone, and the addition of 3D is just going to widen that gap. A very common sight on the morning commute is people using their phones as a walkman while they play on a DS2.
Re:I see.... (Score:3, Informative)
An explosion of porn apps for the 3ds.
No console maker allows AO rated games, and there have been fewer than a dozen M rated games on the DS.
Re:Nintendo may be king of sinking ship? (Score:5, Informative)
Do they really think that people want to carry a separate portable gaming device, media player, and pda or smart phone in this day and age?
Yes, and 130 million DS owners prove it.
Re:Nintendo may be king of sinking ship? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Rebuy! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Nintendo may be king of sinking ship? (Score:3, Informative)
Why buy a dedicated handheld gaming device, when you can get smart phone, pda, or tablet like the iPhone/iTouch/iPad, Zune/WM7, Android, or WebOS device that is just as portable, will do a decent job playing games, plus let you surf the net, do your e-mail, and hold your media (music, videos, etc.)?
As an owner of an iPhone, a DS, and a PSP, I can tell you it's because the iPhone isn't so hot at playing games. You'll notice nobody's running around replacing controllers with touch screens. Buttons make a huge difference. Incidentally this didn't help the PSP.
If I was in charge of Nintendo, I would put a big chunk of flash in the 3DS, and include a browser, e-mail client, and media player. And also make a smart phone version as well.
With all due respect, do you really think you can tell Nintendo how to make more money?
Do they really think that people want to carry a separate portable gaming device, media player, and pda or smart phone in this day and age?
This was a bigger concern 5 years ago when anybody needed all those devices. Today my phone is a pda, smart phone, and media player. I have more pocket space available in the last year than I've ever had. Really, this is the silliest reason to think it wouldn't be successful. It'll succeed or fail based on how much fun per buck it is. We didn't hit some age in civilization that'll suddenly kill portable systems.
Re:I see.... (Score:2, Informative)
AceKard2i
Bought it when I got my DSi (around launch).
Works with the latest DSi firmware.
There was a period where it didn't work with the new firmware, but they did release an update that fixed it.
The card now poses as Danny Phantom.
Nintendo can't block the card without blocking that game. (In theory...)