Nintendo's Big-Screen 3DS XL Meets Lukewarm Reception 192
MojoKid writes "Nintendo took the wraps off its new, super-sized 3DS XL handheld on Friday, but reactions have been anything but enthusiastic. The new DS offers a larger set of screens (4.88 inches top / 4.18" bottom), better battery life, and will ship with a copy of New Super Marios 2 but it's launching into a very different market than what the original DS XL faced in 2009. The 3DS XL's battery improvements aren't just icing on the cake — they're seen as remedying a critical problem with the current handheld. It also won't support the second circle pad added by the Circle Pad Pro, which implies Nintendo is ready to kill that peripheral altogether. The other major problem is that a larger screen isn't really what the 3DS needed in order to be more successful."
What the3DS needed... (Score:2, Flamebait)
... in order to be more successful was for the iPad never to have been invented.
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
... in order to be more successful was for the iPad never to have been invented.
Wrong market.
Portable game systems are generally aimed at younger audiences and are built for immersion. The games tend to qualify as "games" rather than "time wasters", the sort of stuff you get on the app store doesn't compare to full RPGs or platformers with 20-60 hours of play.
The 3DS' problem was, and is, that it sucks. The 3D is not a big enough gimmick to make people want to leave their almost-the-same DS behind. Nintendo sold a butt-ton of DS consoles, the 3DS has better CPU/GPU/RAM but the crap battery life and price hurt that badly. Nintendo should have just come up with something new instead of riding the 3DTV bandwagon, they're at their best (Wii) when they stop playing follow the leader.
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Wrong. They're constantly coming up with useless gimmicks to justify a console with no 3rd party games and 1st party games that are all basically the same. This gimmick just ended up not catching on the way that gimmick did.
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Wrong. They're constantly coming up with useless gimmicks to justify a console with no 3rd party games and 1st party games that are all basically the same.
Aren't we supposed to stop calling them gimmicks when the rest of the industry starts standardizing on them?
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And that is the problem. Mommies or daddies who have already bought an iDevice for their little brats or darlings are less likely to buy them an additional gadget just to play Pokemon and fat plumber [wikipedia.org]. To a 'tween or teen, the difference between a dedicated handheld gaming device and a tablet or a smartphone is great, but to Mom and Pop it's just another "time waster" to Junior who's already too busy texting or networ
How do you count the iPod touch? (Score:2)
Makers of handheld consoles should also look at the collapse in the market for dedicated Mp3 players. Just as the iPhone cannibalized the sales of the iPod
In this case, are you counting the iPod touch as an iPod or as the 3.5" Wi-Fi tablet that it is?
smartphones will eat into the market for handheld consoles.
Multitouch smartphones like the iPhone and PDAs like the iPod touch have the same problem as the Intellivision II: you can't feel where your thumbs are on the screen.
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You can get controllers that solve that. They hold the phone in a mount. Far cheaper than buying another gaming device.
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Games that require an accessory (Score:2)
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I have no idea how normal they are.
Selling hardware with an app store seems pretty easy. Amazon could easily meet that need.
People who bought this also bought (Score:2)
Amazon could easily meet that need.
Yes, Amazon could solve this by adding peripherals to an "people who bought this also bought" list for each application, much as it does with its shippable goods business. So how should developers convince Amazon to do so?
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Perhaps by sending an email.
Perfection is the enemy of the good, is a lesson you never seem to have learned. Sometimes a compromise, like not having the ideal control scheme or missing some football games, is better than the alternative of buying two devices or paying for cable.
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Missed that one. I meant the (original) iPod as a synonym for mp3 players. So maybe the iPod has evolved into a low-end iPad..
As for not feeling your thumbs, most games playable on a handheld don't require the ultrafast reflexes necessary for a full console game as handheld games tend to be largely visual affairs. Also the controls of a console aren't really that great either when compared to something like the
Correlation, so what's the causation? (Score:2)
most games playable on a handheld don't require the ultrafast reflexes necessary for a full console game
We have a correlation here. And where there's correlation between two things A and B, there are four possibilities for causation: A causes B, B causes A, C causes A and B, or the two are independent. So which of these is most likely?
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The comparison is not a good one. With music, you can get the exact same content on an MP3 player as on an iPhone. You can not get Nintendo games for the iPhone. The iPhone does not cannibalize sale of portable gaming systems. Nintendo insisting on making the wrong games (those that don't sell
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Not exactly a hard thing to beat, since the DS sold really poorly at first (until Nintendo started making games people wanted to play).
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Then again, based on Wikipedia, Nintendos handheld line started with one of their key inventors spotting a bored commuter trying to play with his calculator, because there was not much to do in the Japanese commuting train. That the handheld line is still a vital piece of equipment for a commuter is not strange, its rather to be expected.
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No, that criticism is for Nintendo products, and it's true.
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It always fascinates me how people dismiss any game/system they don't like as being for younger audiences.
Smartphones are for people who can pay a smartphone's monthly bill. Kids in grade school can't.
You wouldn't happen to be Ilkka Raiskinen [slashdot.org], would you? :P
Joking aside, I'm afraid I don't see how saying smartphones are for people who can pay a smartphone month bill is related to saying that the 3DS a system for children.
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you mean Surface. Because that is going to totally steamroll the iPad.
Well, once they ship it.
Might take until they ship the second rev of the hardware, and the first service pack. But then, it's game over. Everything else will just be gone. PlayStations. Recycling bin. Wii's just wee in the corner. iPads (only the new ones) will be torn apart so their screen can be reused as an external monitor for the Surface. iPhones will be skipping rocks. Hell, desktops and laptops are done too, because the Surface can do it all. No compromises. Except for the small screen, no cellular wireless, keyboard you may have some issues typing with. But you'll still be able to run your DOS apps!
Only lockdown keeps DOS apps off Wii (Score:2)
Except for the small screen, no cellular wireless
Cellular comes with a fairly hefty monthly bill, making it a luxury that a lot of people in the North American market (which makes up three-fourths of the developed anglophone world) still can't afford. That's why the base model iPad, the base model iPhone (called the iPod touch), and the base model PS Vita still come without cellular.
Wii's just wee in the corner. [...] But you'll still be able to run your DOS apps!
If it weren't for Nintendo's lockdown, Wii would be able to run DOS apps too. There's a DOS PC emulator that can run on a jailbroken Wii [wiibrew.org].
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You mean wall candy?
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Informative)
and that children is why we invented dosbox
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Which also won't run on ARM Windows 8.
Why won't RT run a port of DOSBox? (Score:3)
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Interesting)
Contrary to the Apple Fanboy mantra, the iPad is not the be-all and end-all of everything electronic. Any gamer will tell you that there is no substitute for tactile buttons. Sure touch screens and motion sensors have their place, but when you want quick and responsive interaction, you can't go past physical buttons.
Yes, but you can download games using the App Store, and have a 10" screen to play them... oh, and games cost $.99 or maybe $5. A "real gamer" might shy from it, but for every "real gamer" there's 10x casual games. Sad thing is, Nintendo envisioned this back in 2007 with their Wii - not built to satsify hardcore gamers, but great at a party.
Nintendo's (and Sony's) mobile gaming market has be severely disrupted in both price and technology. Yes, a $30 Zelda game is probably a great game, but is it really 30x more fun than Angry Birds on a large iPad display? That's not even covering those freemium role playing games where you can pay $0 and spend hours enjoyably - again, on a much larger screen than the DS.
Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who played every Zelda and every Final Fantasy out there, I must say that yes, they are 30x more fun than Angry Birds and any free/freemium/5$ RPG I found on the app market.
Indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
What Final Fantasy 3DS game?
The 3DS sadly showed Nintendo did not quite get their own market.
The DSi XL was brilliant. Going to a tiny low res 3d screen after that felt insane. It is not just that 3D wasn;t as big a thing as some thought, the screen itself was pants especially compared to the DSi XL screen.
And right now, the new 3DS XL just seems very very low rez. The phone and tablet markets are in a pixel race and nintendo ain't even competing at the bottom. 400 x 240 is the resolution for the top (3D) screen. Back when Nokia still rules the phone market, they already considered this low. Very low. With retina displays and full HD phones out, this just looks BAD. REALLY REALLY bad. If anyone dared to launch a phone with such a screen they would be laughed out of the market even if they offered to pay you to use it.
And Nintendo not only expects you to pay but pay through the nose. The gap between other platforms and the Nintendo handheld has just kept on increasing, partly because the competition has leaped ahead while Nintendo has sat still.
The same issue is true with the Wii, when it launched, HD screens were not that widespread yet, but nowadays, they are and boy do the Wii graphics look bad. Some of the games are good but the graphics really hurt your eyes if they are played on a larger screen.
And the 3DS XL is just that, a bigger screen, the original 3DS games were already pixelated to hell and back, now they just increased the size of the pixels when everyone else has been making them smaller.
There is a limit to how low budget you can make your hardware and software look and still charge premium prices for it. See the mockups people made for the 3DS and how the final product turned out. Gosh, people sure were wrong weren't they... or maybe it was Nintendo who was wrong.
Markets move on. Nintendo hasn't.
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Smeared with vaseline? At the least get a composite video cable alreay. Interlacing should have been killed at the turn of the century, and not roughly next year.
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you mean component?
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Nintendo's (and Sony's) mobile gaming market has be severely disrupted in both price and technology. Yes, a $30 Zelda game is probably a great game, but is it really 30x more fun than Angry Birds on a large iPad display? That's not even covering those freemium role playing games where you can pay $0 and spend hours enjoyably - again, on a much larger screen than the DS.
YES. Given the cost of the platforms I would gladly pay $30-60 for games that didn't take someone sitting in their moms basement a week to make.
The wario slingshot touch screen bomb defender mini game included with mario 64 port to the DS is a heck of a lot more fun to play than angry birds ever was.
again, on a much larger screen than the DS.
If size matters the xbox on the jumbotron in my living room is lightyears ahead of the iP****
Not even worth $0.99 if you miss the buttons (Score:2)
when you want quick and responsive interaction, you can't go past physical buttons.
Yes, but you can download games using the App Store, and have a 10" screen to play them... oh, and games cost $.99
How are games worth even $0.99 if you're missing the on-screen buttons all the time because you can't even feel where they are relative to your thumbs? Consoles with a flat keypad [wikipedia.org] are probably part of why the market crashed in 1983.
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Consoles with a flat keypad are probably part of why the market crashed in 1983.
No it wasn't. The crash of 83-84 was simply do to everyone and their dog thinking they could make a video game for the 2600 given a single programmer and a month and thinking the game would be any good. Then customers getting burned by too many crap shovelware games and not buying.
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Re:What the3DS needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
First look at Retro, Square has actually been doing a lot of pioneering in this territory. All their FF famicom games have already been released for iOS(and most if not all for Android IIRC), and FF Tactics seems to be doing pretty well as well. Now RPGs are more suited to touchscreens as you dont necessarily need to react to everything in real time, but a lot of companies are having success releasing retro games for portables.
The other, perhaps for Nintendo even more important market segment is casual games, esp. those for adults. The DS was able to mop the floor with the PSP in terms of total units shipped largely because they appealed to the casual gamer, but the casual gamer is moving in droves to cell phones, largely because for them its one less thing to carry.
Cell phones will never be a complete replacement for consoles, but they can still do a lot of damage to the portable market..... While this generation of portables is still quite young, it will be interesting to see if Sony's play for the more hardcore portable gamer ends up paying off as that kind of gamer is much less apt to choose a cell phone over a console.
How do platformers work on touch screens? (Score:2)
a lot of companies are having success releasing retro games for portables.
How does that work in cases of retro games with more twitch play, which are the polar opposite of the more touch-friendly RPGs you mentioned? When you're directly controlling a character, such as in a platformer, you have to be able to hit the right on-screen button blind, and touch screens have historically been bad at that because they have no bumps.
the casual gamer is moving in droves to cell phones, largely because for them its one less thing to carry.
But do they buy one cell phone over another because of available games or because of another factor? I bought my dumbphone over a smartphone because smartphon
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But do they buy one cell phone over another because of available games or because of another factor?
Almost always another factor, games are a bonus, not the function of the device.
I bought my dumbphone over a smartphone because smartphone plans cost $35 per month while mine costs $5 per month. It's cheaper to carry more devices.
Yes, but you are not the "average person".and don't realize how much of an outlier you are.
Average-ism (Score:2)
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You still always position your fingers roughly correctly to the gamepad you are using regardless, so its not a issue. The largest issues I have seen is combin
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You still always position your fingers roughly correctly to the gamepad you are using regardless, so its not a issue.
I can see how it'd work for a game that requires only two buttons, like pinball: left button at bottom left and right button at bottom right. The problem comes when more than one button is assigned to each thumb. If I need to quickly slide my left thumb from up to right, how can I be sure where right is? If I have a jump button and two attack buttons under the right thumb, or I have punch, kick, and block, how can I make sure I hit the right one?
You still feel that you hit the screen
But I can't tell whether I hit the on-screen button or the ina
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If you look at the success of the DS, it sold because there were games for it that a lot of people wanted to play. People won't mind carrying one more thing if it actually has the right games. Remember, battery is an issue with today's smartphones. Why waste it all on game
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Unfortunately for Nintendo, the DS was also popular with groups like commuters on the subway. Those people have all migrated over to tablets and smartphones, and they're not coming back.
Turns out they like the convenience of having one device and the huge selection of games at low prices more then they like gimmicky 3D with no battery life. Go figure.
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How can you be so sure about that?
In other words, Nintendo's problem is not competition from phones and tablets, but rather their own inability to follow up on what made the DS sell?
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Except the iPad's games (with some exceptions) aren't up to the quality of the games on the 3DS. An example is "Scribblenauts Remixed". Here, 5th Cell failed an opportunity to make something great. Instead of producing the definitive version of Scribblenauts, they made a gimpped version that removes everything that made Scribblenauts great such as multiple play environments, a level editor, etc... If you look at "Scribblenauts Unlimited", it has all of those features plus the ability to create your own
Comfort? (Score:5, Insightful)
My biggest issue with existing handhelds is the size. Sony's PSP and Nintendo's offerings have always been designed primarily for a Japanese market. As a result, my hamfisted hands can never hold one of these things comfortably, and even moderate duration play sessions cramp the hell out of my hands. With a larger overall size to the device, I'm hoping it will be significantly more comfortable.
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I don't see the problem. The DS is still bigger than an SNES pad. Works fine in my western european man hands.
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Nintendo Doubling Down? (Score:3)
In forums it seems everyone wanted the 3DS Lite, with better battery life and form-factor, ideally with built-in second circle pad.
Nintendo hasn't announced how much better the battery life of the 3DS XL is compared to the original, just that it's 'better'. Better than the available aftermarket batteries?
The XL is now arguably too large to fit in a pocket. This is crucial, since once you get past 'pocket size' you have less reason not to go with a PS Vita or a tablet.
The larger size makes touch controls easier to nail, especially with the finger, which is useful for some games. Deemphasizing the circle pad pro is probably due to the games utilizing it mostly being shooters, and they don't want it to become a 'shooter system'. The people who buy a system for shooters would get a PS Vita, and trying to compete toe-to-toe with the Vita could be a big problem (the original PSP sold well but its games were mostly in different styles/genres from what the DS had.) In other words, market differentiation.
Something I was hoping for from a redesign would be better viewing angle for the 3d effect, as you have to look at it pretty head-on or else you lose the effect -- not good considering the system utilizes gyroscopes and cameras in games that require you to move the system around. And if you're on a bus or something, (I speculate) you'd lose the effect as you bounce around.
I see this as a move to give them an excuse to sell the system at a (probably profitable) $200.
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Kids normally carry these things around in a carrying case with about 9 other games + accessories, battery charger, etc. That then goes inside their school bag. Whether or not it actually fits in a pocket is pretty trivial for 90% of users, so long as it's smaller than a netbook.
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One of the selling points of the 6 inch ebook readers is that they still fit in a large pocket.
Summing Up The 3DS (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who does a lot of handheld gaming (need something to do on those long business trips...) I'm in complete agreement with TFA for once. They're spot on in summing up the 3DS's current shortfalls.
The 3DS really made two cardinal sins that are going to be difficult for Nintendo to correct for. The first was that Nintendo jumped on the 3D bandwagon at a great financial and technical cost. That autostereoscopic screen is really expensive to manufacture, and it's the single biggest power hog on the 3DS (it needs a very strong backlight). As a result it's also the primary reason for the 3DS's terribly unportable battery life of 3-5 hours.
The second sin was of course the control scheme. Actually, having one circle pad wasn't the problem; the problem was that Nintendo then went and designed their flagship 3DS title (Kid Icarus) around a convoluted control scheme that all but requires a stand in order to allow the user to use the one circle pad, the stylus, and the buttons at the same time. Consequently everyone who picks up Kid Icarus quickly comes to the same realization: this would be so much easier with two circle pads.
If Nintendo had gone in a different direction with Kid Icarus so that it worked well with the 3DS in your hands, no one would be the wiser. Instead by releasing a game with poor controls they've drawn attention to their own control deficiencies. Ultimately as a 2011 product they probably should have just done two circle pads in the first place, but really no one would have noticed or cared if their first party games had worked well with the one pad. Essentially they created the problem where there previously wasn't one.
Furthermore the 3DS XL can't really solve any of these problems, all it can do is exchange them for new ones. The larger battery improves the battery life for example, but now the console is oversized and unpocketable, and the pixel density becomes very poor. Nor does it do anything about the control problems, if not making them a bit worse since a Circle Pad Pro hasn't been announced for the XL. The only problem the 3DS XL really solves is the same problem the DSi XL solved: it allows Nintendo to go after the niche market of people who find the pocketable form factor too small to use (primarily the older generations with their poor eyesight and muscle control).
If Nintendo really wanted to fix the 3DS they could, but it would be painful and I can't blame them for not wanting to do it. They'd have to release a 2DS with a traditional (non-autostereoscopic) screen and a second circle pad. The former would solve the battery life issue, and the latter would solve the control issue. The problem with this being that besides the reputation hit they would take, it would also mean that current 3DS owners would be forced to buy the Circle Pad Pro, which would not go over well with what's effectively a budget market.
In the meantime the 3DS and 3DS XL are sitting on top of a dysfunctional mobile gaming market. Cell phone games suck because of control issues and the limited development resources that $0.99 can buy, the old DS is getting very long in the tooth, and the Vita - though the most traditional and sane of the current generation handhelds - is expensive and unpocketably large. No one seems to be capable of offering what the market has traditionally wanted: a cheap, pocketable device with good controls and the battery life to last through a transcontinental flight.
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Consequently everyone who picks up Kid Icarus quickly comes to the same realization: this would be so much easier with two circle pads.
My realization was "Gee, I sure wish I could use the D-Pad for movement!"
The way the circle pad is shaped, any amount of perspiration on you fingers immediately causes it to be uncontrollable.
And with fast paced games like Kid Icarus? Unusable.
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Yes, the same exact crappy battery life. Which is reason #3 why smartphones make for poor handheld gaming devices, right behind the lack of control options and the limited quality afforded by $0.99 games.
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The market has shifted (Score:2)
The reality for the 3DS is that the market shifted. A lot of DS's were sold to "casuals". Those people are discovering in droves that their phone also does gaming, and for many of them that's good enough. It's convenient & cheap. Nintendo has no answer for those people since they so steadfastly refuse to make games for other platforms (ie: the hardware people actually have).
Instead they're trying to make people pay a Nintendo hardware tax to play first party games on the 3DS, which is really all it's go
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We bought our kids an iPod Touch instead of a Nintendo 3DS last Christmas and it was a good decision. The iPod has lots and lots of free and very cheap games and no cartridges to lose or break. Plus the iPod does a lot more. If you want to play Mario, you have to buy Nintendo's hardware, otherwise I think there are much better alternatives out there, especially for children.
Up until that point, we have been spending lots of money on Nintendo stuff. Since then, nothing.
As much as people like to complain abou
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Not all genres work on a slate (Score:3)
Can't you see that the future of portable gaming is on slate devices that are not made exclusively for gaming?
Platformers, fighting games, and games in other genres where players need to press buttons blind work poorly on a slate. Do you claim that those genres are dead?
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How to sell such a bundle (Score:2)
How hard could it be to affix a traditional-style controller to the bottom or back of a slate and play that way?
For one thing, you'd have to convince everyone who buys your game to shell out $62 for an iControlPad. Games that come with their own controller are feasible on PCs and consoles because the bundle can be sold at retail. Furthermore, people who buy games at retail are used to paying upwards of $40 for game and controller bundles such as DDR, Guitar Hero, and Wii Fit. Games for current slate devices, on the other hand, are sold online, and I haven't seen any provision in the App Store or Google Play Store to
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I will agree with you for simple games. FPS and driving games SUCK on a tablet. no I dont want to tilt it, I want a zero lag controller. and buttons.
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Kids (and adult gamers) don't want to have to switch devices to check their Facebook and Twitter accounts, watch a movie, listen to music, etc.
in 2004 a company released, a portable gaming device that soon had a built in web browser, that had the ability to watch video and listen to music. Some Slashdot nerds said back then that the media ability was a waste and that it should have focused ONLY on games. So you're saying that the company involved, whos name might be Sony, and that the device which might be called the PSP, was a good idea all along?
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You aren't the majority, therefore your dollars don't count.
Nintendo Fail (Score:2)
My wife loved her DS, but since an ipad came into her life she has not touched it. I think that Nintendo really needs to knock it out of the park if they think they will survive in today's gaming world.
It was cute.... (Score:2)
when Nintendo fixed the Game Boy Advance by releasing the SP. Then they immediately jumped the shark and now every game system they release has 15 (exaggerating for emphasis) revisions before the next console. I haven't bought a Nintento portable since the SP if that's any indication of how I feel on the situation.
Sony can go fuck themselves too, but at least they finally put a second stick on their portable.
Besting DS Sales is Lukewarm? (Score:2)
I haven't owned a Gameboy since the GBA but the I keep hearing this assertion that the sales of the 3DS are weak. Out of the gate the Nintendo DS (which is thought to be extremely popular) had 14 Million sales year one. The 3DS did 17 million in sales the first year. Now I only went to public school, but I was taught 17 million is greater than 14 million.
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They are very popular in the k-8 school segment school buses have Mario cart running daily.
What? (Score:2)
Is Ernie Wise submitting stories now?
Re:Um, New Super Mario? Yes it is "new"! (Score:5, Insightful)
1st person shooters have done little to change despite a whole console (X360) dedicated to them. They change a few things and add levels; but THANKFULLY do not waste with redone themes and new cut scenes to disguise the rehash around a lame new movie plot.
Mario is THE platform game and all of the genre tries to achieve Mario's perfection. I am sure glad they don't make a "Mario: The yearly sequel" with video cut scenes from a plot book, "edgier" graphics, different enemies that all work the same, another kind of fireball which kills stuff the same, yet another tutorial level, and even more ironic realism.
Re:Um, New Super Mario? Yes it is "new"! (Score:5, Informative)
I am sure glad they don't make a "Mario: The yearly sequel"
2007 - Super Mario Galaxy
2009 - New Super Mario Bros. Wii
2010 - Super Mario Galaxy 2
2010 - Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition
2011 - Super Mario 3D Land
2012 - New Super Mario Bros. 2
2012 - New Super Mario Bros. U
Re:Um, New Super Mario? Yes it is "new"! (Score:5, Insightful)
They've been pimping Mario harder than usual lately, but really they have done a fine job of keeping it fresh until the last year. Even SMG2 (the most direct Mario sequel in years) did a great job improving on SMG1's concepts and exploiting what worked well. Rather than feeling like a rehash Nintendo made it feel like the game SMG1 should have been from the start, and consequently it's still the gold standard for 3D platformers.
Now the new renditions of New Super Mario Bros. on the other hand may be where the wheels start to come off. So far Nintendo hasn't shown that the new games are a great deal different than their predecessors; they don't do a good job showing off the capabilities of their new hardware, and if anything it looks like both games will be easier than NSMB Wii. At the same time Ubisoft has shown a shocking knack for 2D platformers with Rayman: Origins, which means for the first time in a long while a good platformer is available on a non-Nintendo console.
Re:Um, New Super Mario? Yes it is "new"! (Score:5, Informative)
And, I think bussdriver meant "Yearly releases" as it is typically used with games like call of duty: there's little to no difference between releases. Super mario galaxy and new super mario bros are completely different games.
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A lot of us are tired of rehashes, and Nintendo is the worst offender...or maybe tied with Capcom for that crown.
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A lot of us are tired of rehashes
So don't play them and don't whine about flamebait being modded flamebait.
Also, pray tell, which FPS developer makes the innovative breaths of fresh air that you occupy your time with, eh?
--Jeremy
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Valve.
Then again, I've been playing the same online FPS for 5 years [teamfortress.com], but it's still getting new updates including one scheduled for later this week [teamfortress.com] with the Pyromaniac update and the associated Meet the Pyro video.
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Actually, id play an FPS over another rehash device from Nintendo with its best game being more old, tired franchises.
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Re:Um, New Super Mario? Yes it is "new"! (Score:5, Funny)
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...because they're basically the same thing.
That hasn't stopped me from banging your mom and your your grand mother.
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Hipster alert.
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There IS something capturing about the games of 1990 era. Maybe it's that computers were sufficiently advanced, but not too powerful, which set just the right artistic bounds.
I disagree; I think the reason is that in the 90s, nobody was trying to industrialize game creation, or at least they didn't figure they'd gotten it right. A lot of the shining examples from back then were people that were self-motivated, self-organized, and given some free reign by publishers. As Big Business really got into it, they took the previous profit model--industrialization--and tried to apply it; that meant several things:
* Keeping up with the Joneses - If there's another competitor in your fie
Re:Um, New Super what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's face it. In the age of the touchscreen tablet, this rehash by Nintendo looks like something only the 10-yr old and under crowd would find acceptable, notwithstanding the cheapskate faithful addict market sector.
The trouble with touchscreen gaming is that it does not suit games that require a controller. The virtual d-pad is too finicky and is no replacement for real buttons (IMHO). I will happily play games that require the touchscreen or gyroscope on my iPhone, but I will jump back on my DS Lite for platformers.
The thing that stops me from getting a 3DS is the region coding. I don't want to have to even think about where I am buying something from when I am shopping online.
No sense of feel, like the Intellivision II (Score:2)
The trouble with touchscreen gaming is that it does not suit games that require a controller.
I agree. The problem is that the player can't feel where his finger is relative to each button. This has been a problem since the Intellivision II [wikipedia.org] got rid of the bumps on its keypad.
I will happily play games that require the touchscreen or gyroscope on my iPhone, but I will jump back on my DS Lite for platformers.
So to which platform should an indie developer port a platformer that has been developed for the PC? Or are platformers a genre for major labels only?
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So to which platform should an indie developer port a platformer that has been developed for the PC?
All of them. Or more accurately as many as you can.
Or are platformers a genre for major labels only?
No, but if you want to publish it, it would help if one was an already established developer. Many of those so-called "indie" dev houses did JME games before they did their big hit. As i've told you, the easiest way to break in the industry will be to work for an already established company. If you don't want to do that, just give it up already.
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As i've told you, the easiest way to break in the industry will be to work for an already established company.
I'm slowly trying to take you up on this. What are already established companies (the kind that are likely to be 3DS licensees) looking for in a candidate's resume and portfolio?
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The need for a real gaming controller (and supporting a device I never need to jailbreak) drove me to an OpenPandora... Not current AAA - mostly retro-gaming, but many many fun games I never got to play before.
Maybe it's just my Droid III (which has enough problems I have to admit) or my cheap chinese knock off tablets I've used, but touch screen gaming is very difficult for me exactly because I have to keep looking at the controls vs what's happening in the game... I couldn't play Chrono Trigger on my phon
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Back-compat (Score:3)
Nintendo can't add anything to it that wasn't in the original device without breaking backwards compatibility.
I beg to differ. Nintendo added color and extra RAM to the Game Boy Color, yet it played Game Boy games. Nintendo added a bigger screen, a 32-bit CPU, SNES-style PPU, and more RAM to the Game Boy Advance, yet it played Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. Nintendo enlarged the screen, added a second, and added more buttons to the Nintendo DS, yet it played Game Boy Advance games. Nintendo added more RAM and a USB/Bluetooth chip to the Wii, yet it played GameCube games. Nintendo added the first Circle Pad to t
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You missed the point entirely. Adding a second Circle Pad would break compatibility with CURRENT 3DS games. Developers would be split, unsure whether to make games with both sticks in mind, or just the one stick that most people have. The 3DS WILL NEVER GET ANOTHER ANALOG STICK AS STANDARD. The Pro add-on is specifically for a select few games, and that is all. It comes packaged with some of those games.
Not to mention the fact that the Circle Pad Pro add-on doesn't even FIT onto the 3DS XL.
The 3DS XL i