The biggest announcement at E3 2010 was the new Nintendo 3DS. While it was expected that Nintendo would be launching their newest handheld game console at the event, what the device would be capable of was met with much speculation. Nintendo put all of that speculation to bed, however, by having over one hundred of the consoles on display as the crowning jewel of their E3 booth, Ii you can even call it a booth any more… Moving along. The lines to get on the stage to play th 3DS were long and winding throughout day. Depending on what time of the day you got in the line, you could wait anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour to get twenty minutes with the new hardware and a variety of available software.
The name 3DS makes it obvious that Nintendo has taken part in the 3D movement by adding 3D capabilities to the system, this being the top screen. The top screen is now larger than the bottom touch screen, a departure from four previous versions of the DS (Phat, Lite, DSi, and XL) which had uniform sizes for the top and bottom screens. Now I know what you are going to say, “The 3D is just the newest gimmick in a long line of new hardware options from Nintendo”. Maybe 3D isn’t for you and that’s okay, because you can turn it off. There is a slider on the right hand side of the top screen to adjust it from 2D to full 3D and anywhere in between. The main thing that Nintendo is pushing with the 3DS is that you don’t need to wear glasses to view the games in 3D, and it does look very good. However, the drawback of this is that you need to be looking at the screen dead-on in order to see the 3D clearly. Any shift to the left or right will make it appear very blurry, so you can forget about having your friends crowding around the 3DS like the in the DSi XL commercials. I suppose when these moments, which are bound to arise, you can just slide the switch down from full 3D into 2D.
Sticking with the new screens, the graphical horsepower has definitely been turbo-charged and the screens have been upgraded to keep up. To give you an idea for what you can expect graphically from the 3DS, Nintendo had several impressive tech demos on display. Sure, they had trailers for the movies How to Train Your Dragon and Legend of the Guardians, but the most impressive display was Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater. Yes, this is a remake of the Playstation 2 game, complete with 3D done specifically for the 3DS, and it looked fantastic. This was not a playable demo, but it was a video of the gameplay that you can expect, starting with the opening credits and then ending with the final battle between Snake and the Boss in a sea of white flowers in glorious 3D.
The software announced was possibly the biggest announcement of all with tons of original Nintendo titles and third party support. There were very few playable titles up on the stage, as most of what was on display was tech demo videos of what you can expect in the future. In addition to the previously meantioned Metal Gear Solid game, you could take a look at Animal Crossing, Nintendogs and Cats, Resident Evil Revelations, Paper Mario, and Star Fox 64 (which was playable). Star Fox was pretty cool in 3D and it actually helped out a lot for the gameplay itself by giving you a better depth of field for moving your fighter plane around enemies and obstacles. The biggest games that were announced for the system were nowhere in sight on the stage. Those titles being the return of Kid Icarus and the remake for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Hopefully Ocarina of Time will get some polish on it to get it more on par with the capabilities of the 3DS than a straight N64 port with added 3D depth.
In addition to the 3D and upgraded internal hardware, there were several external changes made to the hardware. A couple of steps forward are the analog stick, WiFi switch, and the addition of another camera. The analog stick is very smooth and if you have used a PSP you know what to expect here, but it has been improved upon. It is a much larger button and it has a small lip on the edge to keep your thumb from slipping off. The addition of a switch for turning WiFi on and off may not seem like a big deal, but as a DSi user, I can tell you that it is a welcome addition. On both the DSi and DSi XL, if your WiFi is not enabled, you need to restart your DSi and go into the software settings to turn it back on and then return to your game. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but it’s a minor fix to solve a minor problem. The addition of a second camera on the outside of the 3DS is to aid with the overall 3D theme of the console. You will now be able to take 3D pictures as a result of the two cameras. The quality of the photos that they produce has been upgraded to 0.3 megapixels (yeah I know 0.3, but still beats VGA).
Other additions are a motion sensor and a gyro sensor. These were mentioned in passing and not many details were given, but this will be a huge addition to make for some very interesting gameplay elements. Other than these changes, the rest is pretty much the same. The D-Pad and YXBA buttons are solid like the they are on the DSi. My only complaint is that they went back to a slider for the volume control. Though it is not as bad as the volume slider on the DS Lite, I don’t know why they would go back when they had it dialed in so well on the DSi.
Overall, this is a very solid package which will take handheld gaming well into the future. The hardware upgrades are numerous and welcomed. The software support seems to be starting off very well, which is traditionally a problem for Nintendo systems at launch, besides a few first party titles. I was very impressed with the package that was presented and this will be a day-one purchase for me sometime in 2011.