Nintendo 3DS

For $ 250 that 3DS hits store shelves at prices far above its predecessor the DS. Larger number can also cause many a moment and consider where to spend their money. Although the date and also to be replaced soon, the PSP can be had for about half as much and offers a bigger screen, arguably look better, and doubles as both a portable movie player. The iPod Touch 8GB, no slouch game especially with the screen of the retina, also comes in a less with a price tag $ 229. Xbox 360, although one without a hard drive, costs only $ 199. For that purpose, as well as the Nintendo Wii itself. Basically I can buy one of them and games for the price of a 3DS. Cost of ownership is also rising. Games for 3DS, at least available at launch, costs $ 40. All told, glasses-less 3D comes as quite expensive luxury.
DS fitted look
But when I opened the box 3DS I do not see something that looks like a premium device that will deliver the 3D revolution. No, I see what looks like my trusty DS after someone has been playing around with it at an electronics store. From the outside looks harmless enough 3DS. Roughly similar to the DS in size and shape, edge angle makes 3DS looks more like a model earlier than the latest and greatest. And the coloring is slightly different between the base and lid to give the whole thing look unrivaled.
Inside, it offers functional improvements but keep the assembled visible. 3D screen look sophisticated against black bezel piano lid, but for a new screen size that I do not understand why this is not the same large viewable area that can be crammed into the lid. It also looks out of place compared to the rest of the machine. Return the bottom of the DS classic look, but with two extra nice. The new analog thumbstick works well, with strong action, but it looks like the prototype in a gray plastic plain. There is also a row of buttons at the bottom of the screen that introduces a "home" function allows you to easily stop the game on the trip. These features can wow in-the-know gamer, but I do not expect to attract a lot of ooh-and-ahhs just pulled out of 3DS.

 
Pint-size 3D big score early
This is the first generation device, though, and show real-stopper should pull it out and show off the 3D right in the palm of my hand. And for most, who garners admiration necessary. 3DS hand for spectators and 3D effects to-the-screen makes a strong first impression with both games included or 3D camera functions.
Play longer and practicality 3D, at least it was 3D, comes into question. 3DS display mode divides the picture into 3D reminds me of baseball trading cards lenticular. There is a fairly narrow sweet spot where the images discretely to go to each eye and the effect works well. Beyond that, shimmers the image, blur, into a double, and the 3D effect is lost.
For portable systems, tight tolerances required for viewing 3D with true cause problems. Just sit still, maintain the proper perspective, banging yourself in control with all kinds of intensity will be difficult. Start playing games that use motion sensors to control and it becomes almost impossible to maintain a good experience. Short silly sort of brace, I can not see how someone would keep the 3DS in the right place in front of their faces while rotating the shooting case. And while the musicians can get away with a harmonica rig hands-free, I'm not going to do the same with 3DS near future.
As long as I keep it in the right place, though, watching the screen did not appear to cause tension, especially large eyes. What happens fatigue seems more a function of the vibrating effect when I get out of alignment for a moment, breaking 3D. Slider to adjust the strength of the 3D effects have proven essential to my enjoyment of game play. For each one I found that I needed to take a moment and dial in the number of 3D that felt right. While the ability to make a big tuning, do not have a way to save the settings which means I have to find again the right place every time I play. I'm seriously considering cutting a notch into the case next to the slider to create some sort of measure.
code's get friendly
Ironically, 3D and even may not be the best reason to go out and drop $ 250 in 3DS. Nintendo took some welcome steps to connecting with friends and working on smart because the social impulse with 3DS. However, at the same time, glaring omissions reminded me that Nintendo still happy to know about modern social interaction connected.
For starters, with 3DS Nintendo finally institute a single friend code that works universally throughout the system. It's still a random set of numbers, but each other so it was; you connect with your friends for each game and to see when they are online and what they are up to.
But somehow that does not include share Mii. It puzzled me that on my friend's card to see my friends' Mii's face, but to get them on my machine, I had to import their Mii separately. And, of course, that can not be done online. To share my Mii either have to swap in person, or change your Mii into the QR code which can then be scanned to share. Oh, and to share that my QR code should take the SD card out of 3DS to be read on other devices. There is no way to upload directly from 3DS.
Keep it handy
There's a better chance I'll have my 3DS useful if I met a friend today. Besides adding them to my Mii Plaza, graduated Mii can be used for the two mini games. Puzzle Swap only tile picture puzzle where each Mii visit may or may not have a square to help solve the 3D image, nothing too exciting there. Find Mii, on the other hand, using visiting Mii as a hero in a simple role-playing game where they fight monsters to save your Mii being detained in a fortress.
That's a good idea, but was canceled by yet another error. For some unexplained reason, Mii can only take part in the game for a short time after it has been shared. So while the point of the entire Street Pass is to be passive joint experience in 3DS, if I am not quick to play the game right when the swap happened, I lost the chance to play.
Another incentive to keep on my machine all day came from coin play to be gained by walking around. Using the motion sensor as a pedometer, then 3DS tracks how many steps I take every day. For every 100, it gives me a coin. Coins can be spent in several ways. In Find Mii, a hero AI can be brought in to help search for 2 coins each. The coins are also used to purchase additional modes included in the Games AR. This is a simple economy, but very effective at getting me to take 3DS and put it in his pocket.
Who needs outside game that comes in the box?
Mii and productive addition to collecting coins, some of the most fun I had with 3DS so far come with two games included. Both use a combination of cameras, 3D display, and motion sensing for gaming reality plus. By holding 3DS up and use the screen like a window into the world, I see what the camera saw, with the virtual elements of the game plated onto the scene.
AR card games using the target to spawn a fantasy world on almost any flat surface. Its a shooting gallery and a marble mini-golf game crossed with a great pick up and play fun and great way to wow people with the system. Playing them is not all that practical, though. This card must stay in front of the camera line of sight at all times. So, moving around to shoot something, scene break when out of range. Worse yet, the camera is not very light sensitive so it is easy to lose the card in just a shadow of my body as I move around to shoot the things in the game. To actually play a game table, good light is necessary blocked.
Raiders face a little more player-friendly. Pictures from friends face, taken with the camera's built-in, a virtual target in the shooting arcade. The real world became the arena of play as a head without a body attack from all directions and must be shot down. I grabbed a few colleagues face and had a great time spinning in my desk chair fend off a wave of their attack. However, the action is fast-speed also makes this one game where the need to hold 3DS just in the right place to 3D be a real pain.
Ask yourself, is it worth it?
That's how my relationship with 3DS has gone. It's not quite a classic love-hate situation. I find myself more confused, wondering why things can not stop getting in its own way I love it. Every piece of machinery that makes me excited seems to come with a catch. Even the basic features I took for granted suffer this problem, such as support for all my DS games. Yes, 3DS run them but the new size of the screen above means that I either run them drawn to fill it, which makes everything blurry, or remember to press start and select when opening the game to run it at native resolution, which now looks a little extra on the screen greater.
There are really nice spark for the device here, and I imagine the second generation inevitably will discuss a number of issues. Until then, though, I would believe that I am willing to take the bad with the good before dropping $ 250 on 3DS.