Features// Nintendo 3DS: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The 3DS Menu: It sounds like a small point to make, but the way Nintendo has redesigned its system software for the 3DS is in fact a rather large hint towards just how much the company has listened to its users. The interface has been refined to include the best of the DSi and Wii menus, while making it easier to access other functions between games.

Upon pressing the Home button, the top screen displays details of the currently suspended game, while the bottom allows you to change software, take photos without interrupting your progress, and view any notifications from online friends, passers-by and Nintendo services. You can also scribble notes while gameplay is suspended, to refer to at a later date and even send to nearby friends.

Network Functions: Excitingly, the 3DS will only require users to remember one Friend Code for all games on the device. That alone would be good news, but Nintendo’s Street Pass software marks huge potential for developers to allow data to be shared by friends more easily when travelling, and Spot Pass opens the door for some interesting content delivery. The Aardman animation studio and BSkyB have already announced that they will be offering streaming video over a wireless network. The lure of being able to catch-up on the week’s sports is enough for a lot of football fans to bite.


The Bad

Don’t Move Your Head: The 3D technology in the 3DS relies on your eyes focusing on a central point of the screen. Move your head, and the magic disappears. Worse than that, it seems that the impact this will have differs from game to game. In Steel Diver there wasn’t much of an issue as the game allows you to move the device from left to right in order to rotate a first-person viewpoint, and Dead or Alive Dimensions will simply display a negligibly-irritating double-vision effect if viewed from a different angle - but Samurai Warriors took the biscuit. Have your head in the wrong position, and the jarring visual effect is enough to have you reaching for that 3D slider.

3D Photos A Bit Disappointing: You’re able to take snaps of people doing crazy things on your 3DS, much like you can with the DSi. A selection of effects can be applied to give your scene some creativity, and you can share these images with your friends too. In the demonstration I was given of the actual 3D side of things, however, I didn’t really see that much pop-out. A bit like watching Alice in Wonderland in 3D, the photo capabilities here smacked of pointless post-production effects. You can upload these images to social networking sites and allow your friends to ‘scan’ the images from their computer screen onto another 3DS though, which sounds very funky.

Ports? As bowel-shatteringly incredible as it is to get ‘proper’ support from three of the biggest Japanese publishers on the planet, there is a little bit of an unfortunate trend going on. Most of, if not all of the third-party offering consists of ports. It’s great to see Super Street Fighter IV in a whole new dimension, don’t get me wrong, and I understand that you’re not going to get 100% creativity in a new console’s launch lineup, but I worry about how committed Capcom, Tecmo Koei and Konami really are to the device when all they have planned are portable versions of Xbox 360 games.

The D-Pad: I wouldn’t use that thing in a hurry. As previously mentioned, the D-pad joins the rest of the 3DS’ button arsenal in being enjoyable to the press - but its actual placement has a bit of ‘PSP Nub Syndrome’ going on about it. Super Street Fighter IV might be a more accurate experience on Nintendo’s cross, but I’m not willing to make my thumb triple-jointed for the pleasure. Sorry.