First Looks// Nintendo 3DS

Similarly, using the 3DS for AR-based 3D crazy-snooker packs a bit of wow, and the fishing... well, I'm just never going to enjoy a fishing game, but that's me.

Setting up Nintendo characters and Miis around your immediate environment and then photographing them is also pretty good fun, for what it is.

And Face Raiders is a bit of a lark, too. Your face and the faces of those around you buzz around the room and it's your job to shoot them down.

None of the above provides a particularly deep experience, but none of them are particularly meant to, either. They're there to make you exclaim, 'Oh jeeps, this is cool!' And they will. There's definite wow-factor served up by the 3DS's 3D. The use of cameras and AR really drives home the fact that the 3DS is going to offer up gaming options that aren't available elsewhere. Augmented reality might sound like a trick other platforms like the iPhone can perform, but AR in 2D just does not compare to the effect AR in 3D provides. Yeah, you will probably (in a cool, nonchalent in-your-head sort of a way) exclaim, 'wow, this is cool!'

You might, however, start to notice after a little while that the picture on the top screen's quite grainy when there's AR happening up there. More worryingly, you might start to pay more attention to the fact that the 3D slips too easily out of focus if you move the handheld a little way from the optimal position. You might worry that your kids, if you've got them, will find this frustrating. You might think, 'I can deal with seeing double a little bit in a daft mini-game, but can I really handle it in a game that requires pinpoint accuracy, like Super Street Fighter IV?'

I'm not particularly hurling blame at Nintendo for these slight technological shortfalls – I understand that 3D is still being figured out, and these nitpicks are most likely just a byproduct of the company striking a balance between performance and affordability. I also know that you have less cause to move the 3DS around when you're playing a more traditional game, so maybe you'll just get used to holding it in the right place. And hey, it's not like games are going to be stuffed full of AR to start with, anyway, and it is still pretty good fun.

So, what am I saying here, exactly? So far, the 3DS is looking like right good fun. There's no denying the 3D's going to have you pushing your gran off the balance board so you can show her the latest new-fangled gadget she has to figure out. Just be aware that it's not without its limits. Just take a moment to look past its shiny newness if you're still on the fence about buying one.

Oh, and remember the moment you first cooed over a 3DS so you can look back on it in all of two years and say, 'hey, remember when the 3DS seemed like the cutting edge of 3D and AR technology? Now I have these glasses that make you look like Jake Gyllenhaal and let me watch 3D X-Factor in my living room!!!'