With the 3DS, Nintendo has a potentially killer product on its hands. It's a powerful little 3D gaming system that could reinvigorate the company's momentum now that Wii fever has long since peaked. But the platform's lack of an online store and a truly sparse selection of titles on launch day may have dinged the public's first impression of the device.
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The Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo's latest gaming system went on sale on Sunday, promising to deliver a 3D gaming experience without the need for cumbersome 3D glasses.
While the concept is great and the timing seems right considering the wider trend toward 3D, there is little reason to buy a 3DS today.
The 3DS Plan
The 3DS device itself is certainly exciting. It has been nearly five years since the most recent new gaming platform was released, and gamers are hungry for something new and exciting.
Combine that with the momentum of the 3D industry right now and the bleeding edge idea of glasses-free 3D technology, and the 3DS has everything on paper that it needs to be a hit.
However, at the official launch event in New York City, the crowd was big but not overwhelming. Event staff handed out bracelets to everyone who entered the line, warning that once the bracelets ran out, you were not guaranteed a 3DS. But Nintendo never ran out of bracelets.
It was an unseasonably cold day in New York, but nevertheless, there wasn't a whole lot of incentive to buy a 3DS on launch day.
No Good Games
To launch a Nintendo system without any sort of "Mario," "Pokemon," "Donkey Kong," "Kirby," or "Zelda" game seems like a slight to the droves of faithful fans. The DS launched with "Super Mario 64 DS" and the Wii was released alongside "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."
For the 3DS, though, the most recognizable title from Nintendo was" Nintendogs + Cats." Aside from that, there were a lot of third-party titles that are little more than tweaked versions of existing games -- like "Super Monkey Ball 3D," "Asphalt 3D," "Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition", and "Lego Star Wars III."
It may have been the lack of stellar launch titles that made consumers shy away from grabbing the system on day one.
An Incomplete System
Or it may have been that the 3DS could be called incomplete at this time. A couple of the main features of the device -- the ability to browse the Internet and download games -- are not available. Those options will be added in a system update in the coming months.
In contrast, the Wii Shop was available on the day of the Wii launch, with a bucketload of games for consumers to browse once they came home from the store. The same was true for Nintendo's DSi and the DSi Shop. It is disappointing that the 3DS doesn't follow the same path.
3D Headaches
The other issue is with the way the gadget's 3D effects affect players. Nintendo recommends holding the 3DS about 10 to 14 inches away from the face to create the optimal 3D presentation. Holding it closer or farther away may cause the image to appear as though you're looking at a picture cross-eyed. Also, players must be looking at the display head-on, otherwise the same blurry effect, known as "crosstalk," occurs.
It's easy to get used to the perfect holding position; however, even when playing in optimal conditions, the 3DS really gives your eyes a workout. I could actually physically feel as though my eyes were focusing harder than on any other sort of electronic display I've looked at.
After a while, I started getting a bit of a headache. I switched the display to 2D mode and continued playing without incident, and the headache quickly went away. Nintendo recommends taking regular breaks, or setting the 3D slider to a more comfortable position if you have problems with the full-blown effect.
Future Potential
What Nintendo has with the 3DS is a product brimming with potential. The system was just released, and no one can expect the moon from day one. However, when compared to the last few major product launches from the company, this one falls behind. There are no 3DS games with Nintendo's powerhouse characters, and the same kind of online functionality that was available day one with the Wii and DSi is not available here.
In the future, the digital "eShop" has the potential to be a highly valuable asset. Nintendo has promised to release classic titles from the 1990s Game Boy library through the digital storefront, the vast majority of which have never been re-released on any platform. Nintendo die-hards could justify buying a 3DS for that reason alone.
But these kinds of factors that would make the 3DS a must-buy system are absent when it matters the most -- the first impression.
Nintendo scored big with the Wii, but the problem there is it was a novelty device. The Wii is slumping now with a lack of big-budget games from developers and decreasing consumer interest. The 3DS needs to prove it is more than that. There's a lot of powerful technology under the hood of the 3DS, and if Nintendo can unleash it properly, it has the power to be a killer success.
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