Nintendo has come a long way with their handheld portable devices. Many competitors have tried to outsell Nintendo with flashier graphics, bigger hardware and cooler accessories but Nintendo has still managed to be the #1 selling portable device in North America. The Nintendo DS has been around for a little over 1 year already so we finally decided to review the system after having gotten our hands on one and been able to play it for a bit.
Highs:
-3D graphics
-Ability to enjoy 3D gaming without the need for special glasses.
-Backwards compatible with Nintendo DSi games
-New analog stick is tough and feels comfortable when using it
-Increased screen resolution
Lows:
-Poor photo resolution
-3D graphics
-Top lid is flimsy
-Directional (D-Pad) is out of place
-Poor battery life
-3DS is a little too heavy
-250$ price tag (has since been reduced to 150$)
When we first tried out the 3DS, the first thing we noticed is how much stuff Nintendo has thrown in for free inside the box that they aren’t overcharging you for. You get a 3DS charger, a memory card and some pre-loaded software to take advantage of the 3DS’ sound capabilities and 3D graphics. The other noticeable thing that stands out on the device is the system’s first ever inclusion of an analog stick. The analog stick feels heavy in your hand and moves 360 degrees very easily without too much pressure. Unfortunately, the new analog stick has forced the directional pad to the lower left corner of the device where it feels out of place and uncomfortable to use especially when a large percentage of the 3DS games use the directional pad only.
The screen resolution on the 3DS is much better than the DSi and now uses a 400 x 240 screen resolution compared to the 256 x 192 resolution from before. The 3DS can take photo captures but they are only 3 megapixels which is poor compared to Apple’s Iphone which can do 5 megapixels. Another disappointing part of the 3DS is the battery life. The system can only run for 3.5 hrs. which is very poor if you’re using the device in a car for a long road trip. The 3DS is a little heavier than the DSi but can still easily fit in your pocket without making it too much of an inconvenience. One other issue we found is that the top lid can be a bit flimsy. This can be an issue as you need to hold your head in place to focus on the 3D graphics and it can be frustrating if the lid moves while trying to keep your head steady. Furthermore, the price of 250$ is steep for a portable gaming device when there are devices like the Iphone or Ipad that can do a lot more and are priced cheaper than the 3DS. Nintendo is aware of this and has since sliced the price of the device down to 150$ during the 2011 holiday season.
The final and most important thing to discuss is the 3D graphics themselves. The 3DS is the first ever glasses-free 3D gaming device. This means that you can play Nintendo 3DS games in 3D simply by looking at the screen in front of you. The 3D works well if you don’t move your head too much and focus straight ahead at the screen. There’s even a slider on the side of the device that allows you to tinker with how much 3D glare you want to see while playing. If you don’t like 3D gaming, you can simply slide the glare to ‘none’ and you won’t see 3D graphics any longer. The 3D is both a blessing and a curse. It can work quite well for some games and help make your gaming experience much more enjoyable but it can also hamper your experience and get in the way for other games. The 3D can take some getting used to and after a while I shut the 3D off as it was making me nauseous. In the future, the 3DS device is supposed to be able to stream 3D movies or television programming to the device and allow you to watch movies on it with Netflix.
That’s it for our review of the 3DS and we hope you have fun enjoying the device and take advantage of the system’s 3D capabilities.
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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