Nintendo 3DS

If you've been on the internet AT ALL today, you likely know by now that the Nintendo 3DS releases on March 27th with a reasonable price tag of $249.99, but some may be wondering, "What does it do that would make me want to spend that much money on it?" Well, young inquirer, let Uncle VGTribune tell you!

3D

The first thing worth noting is the very thing it was made for, 3D without the use of any form of eye-wear. I have yet to understand how it works fully, because I'm no scientist, but ClanOfTheGrayWolf on youtube made a pretty good video showing how it works.

The setback to this form of 3D (and of any, really) is that if you have only one eye, or are blind in one eye, the 3D will not work for you, rendering the 3DS useless- BUT WHAT'S THIS?! Nintendo thought ahead and didn't just make a system for people who can see the 3D imagery, they wanted to include everyone! So as you can see on the right side of the top flap of the 3DS, there is a small slider, this slider controls if 3D is on or not in the games that you are playing. This is not only useful if you aren't able to see 3D, but if your eyes get tired easily, or if your eyes get tired during game play after many hours of playing, this works great! Some people who have played the 3DS have also reported nausea after playing, likely caused by the 3D imagery and the effect on your eyes, so the slider is useful in this instance as well. Not to mention the battery life you'll save by shutting off the 3D.

There is, of course, a setback to turning off the 3D setting of the system. Because the system is made for 3D, most of the games will use it as a gimmick and make things really pop out at you for dramatic effect, Metal Gear Solid 3D has shown how that will happen with lunging snakes and such. With the 3D turned off, you miss out on some of these very important things that are meant to put you into the game.

Then there is the 3D camera placed on the front of the system that can take pictures in 3D for multiple purposes, whether that purpose is to see 3D photos or to make a Mii using only a face shot. Sometimes it can even be important for games, you'll never know until you try it for yourself.

Hardware Specs

• CPU: 2 x 266MHz ARM11
• GPU: PICA200 133MHz GPU by DMP
• RAM: 64MB
• Video RAM: 4MB
• Storage: 1.5GB Flash-based
• Battery Life: 3-8 hours depending on position of 3D slider

The RAM on the 3DS is extremely good for a handheld gaming system, however the onboard storage is a bit small, with only 1.5 GB, luckily you can plug in your SD card that you've been using for your Wii and DSi all this time, so memory is never an issue!

Features

Now of course some of you are seeing this and wondering, "Okay, but what can it DO?" You'd be amazed. The Nintendo 3DS is not just a gaming system, it does much more than that. For example, the 3DS can play 3D movies in the palm of your hand, it was shown doing this last year at E3 with Warner Brother's movie "Legend of The Guardians". And for those who didn't understand the specs, the graphics on the machine are around the capabilities of the Wii, not amazing for a home gaming console, but for a hand held, Nintendo has reached the future.

The 3DS also is constantly searching for other 3DS systems and wi-fi connections, meaning that if you come in range of a free Wi-Fi signal, you will automatically connect to it and be able to browse the internet from your beautiful Nintendo 3DS, rather than use your phone's 3G internet. And to add on to that wonderful feature, the internet browser is much easier to navigate than the DSi's browser, which was definitely not a walk in the park. And when it searches for other 3DS units, it does an automatic data swap after coming in range with one. This data swap is called Street Pass and activates while your 3DS is in sleep mode or in use, the effect of it is that it exchanges Miis and recent game play stats with your swapping partner. You may never even see the people you swap with, but you can only imagine the excitement that you'll get each time this happens!

After that last paragraph, some may have seen the word Mii and thought I suddenly began talking about the Wii, nope! The 3DS has it's own Miis and can use the 3D camera on the front of the system to take pictures of peoples faces and auto-create a Mii based on their facial features, you can, of course, edit the Mii after it has been auto-created for you if it isn't to your liking.

Pre-loaded onto the 3DS are a few Augmented Reality games, meaning that it uses the 3D cameras on the front of the system to play games in whatever environment you may be in. In one game, titled Face Raiders, simply take a picture of a face and it will make it into a target that you shoot through use of the touch screen, to navigate and find other targets, move the 3DS around and change your view of what's on the camera.

Remember the DSi Sound app that we all used for 2 days and then never opened up again? Well, now there's 3DS Sound. Essentially, it's the same thing, but now it supports mp3 files rather than just AAC format files. But if Nintendo put it on the system again, it must have some sort of audience who uses it, I'm just not involved in it.

While there was some worry as to if we would be able to transfer our DSiWare titles we purchased to our 3DS, I'm happy to say that that hope has become reality and DSiWare titles previously purchased can be loaded onto your 3DS (supposedly) free of charge! And on the subject of downloadable games, the 3DS will have a Virtual Console-style shop where you can buy and download old Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. Hopefully this will lead up to downloads of Game Boy Advance games and a possible re-release of a little game called Mother 3... It'll never happen.

And for all you health nuts, the 3DS works as a pedometer. Nintendo seems to be building a theme here with the use of the 3DS pedometer and the PokeWalker, the Pokemon pedometer that came with Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver that could level up your Pokemon as you walked. And as the 3DS bonus with the pedometer, you earn Play Coins as you walk. Play Coins can be used to purchase additional content for specific games. Looks like working out will actually get you somewhere in gaming this time!

And finally, unlike a certain hardware developer, Nintendo has never charged a monthly fee for their online service and they don't plan on changing that with the 3DS, or any system in the foreseeable future for that matter.

Read more = http://vgtribune.com/all-the-3ds-info-you-need/

Order online = http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/