How about that 3DS?

[Dreakon139]

Just some harmless questions. Looking at it, the lineup for it seems to be getting better these days... which has me turning my head a little bit. Wouldn't mind getting into some Mario again, trying some of the N64 Zelda classics, the new Resident Evil coming out for it, etc, etc.

But I'm so used to "next-gen", I'm wondering how the 3DS sits in that regard.

1. When playing online (I assume it uses Wi-Fi), can you voice chat? If so, how? Bluetooth headset?

2. Is there any overarching "online service" with friends lists and online stores and stuff?

3. For anyone who has it (or is interested in it), what good does the 3DS offer? Just, you know, talk it up a little bit. What makes it better than say... the Vita or other more recent handhelds? Not that it is better overall or anything... just maybe some areas where it has it beat?

[Parker]

I regret my 3DS purchase. It has a few good games on it (Mario and Mario kart are fun) but the fun only lasts a few hours for me. The 3D isn't anything astonishing (it really doesn't look much different) and the battery life is pretty terrible when you consider the system specs and what the games look like.

When I tried the online portion of Mario Kart I played for about 30 minutes before I quit. You have to be sitting right next to your wireless router in order for there to be minimal lag, but most people don't so everyone is lagging all over the place and the races aren't fun, in my opinion. Nintendo makes single player, or local multiplayer games in my opinion, I haven't found an online Nintendo game I've enjoyed.

There are still friend codes and I think there is a friend list as well, although I'm not positive because I haven't played the system in a long while.

If you think the games justify the price tag I'd say go ahead and get it, but if you already own the games on the N64 or plan on using the system mainly for online gaming I'd give it a pass. I would wait for the Vita personally, I don't see one area that the 3DS has the edge over Sony's system (well, I guess 3D...) and I think Sony will really do a lot of good with the Vita to try and gain some more ground in the handheld market.

Parker

[DanielVT]

Screw Nintendo, all of their systems are second-rate and the opposite of cutting edge. It's a PS Vita for me! To anyone that asks, I had but ended up selling my DS and also I have played the wii so I'm not biased, just honest!

[Piggie_Pie]

here is me after 10 minutes of playing the 3DS in the store

**15 minutes later has a bad headache**

Yeah, im gonna go with the Vita in about 6 months or so i think... i want to wait until there are more titles that i want to play...

[Kirbz]

1. When playing online (I assume it uses Wi-Fi), can you voice chat? If so, how? Bluetooth headset?

i have not played online yet, BUT there is an option to use voice chat, it has a built in microphone as some games use it for stuff such as mini games

2. Is there any overarching "online service" with friends lists and online stores and stuff?

there is a friend list, first you create a mii, which is your avatar, then you get a friend code. you can add people by their friend codes, and there is an online store, but it only has 15 games that are remakes of snes, nes, or gbc, or some other exclusive stuff... but there isnt much stuff, but hey at least its cheap

3. For anyone who has it (or is interested in it), what good does the 3DS offer? Just, you know, talk it up a little bit. What makes it better than say... the Vita or other more recent handhelds? Not that it is better overall or anything... just maybe some areas where it has it beat?

the 3d effect is pretty good, but it hurts your eyes quickly and gives you a headache after 30 minutes. i prefer playing without the 3d effect. for games such as starfox, you need to move the 3ds system to move, but the 3d effects go off when you move, and it all becomes blury and weird so you have to turn it off. i dont really like the 3d, but the n64 remakes are a good enough reason to buy a 3ds.

[griffthedragoon]

I like the 3DS, dont play it as much cause all the good games are not out yet or I have beaten them. So it sits there till Tales of Abyss comes out

[Dreakon139]

the 3d effect is pretty good, but it hurts your eyes quickly and gives you a headache after 30 minutes. i prefer playing without the 3d effect. for games such as starfox, you need to move the 3ds system to move, but the 3d effects go off when you move, and it all becomes blury and weird so you have to turn it off. i dont really like the 3d, but the n64 remakes are a good enough reason to buy a 3ds.

Does turning off the 3D effect increase battery life? I think I heard that somewhere.

[Kirbz]

Does turning off the 3D effect increase battery life? I think I heard that somewhere.

yes it does. but the battery is not that good. when its fully charged you can play it for about 5 hours before the battery dies out, and if its fully charged and in sleep mode, the battery will die out after about 48 hours. i have not used the 3d effect for more than 15 minutes without going back to normal, so i cant tell you how long the battery would live with the 3d on, but when the 3d effect is on the battery does drain faster.

good thing about the 3ds is that you dont have to plug in the cable to charge it, theres a small charging deck included for free. but if you prefer using the cable then you can do that too.

(the pics arent mine. i have a pretty zelda 3ds)

[Christopher]

Because of the illusion that creates the 3D affect on the 3DS, I really don't enjoy it, just because it gives me a major head ache.

On the other hand, I also haven't owned a DS system since the original one.

[Zallera]

I pretty much got the 3DS for some of the RPGs that are due out on it: Etrian Oddessy, Tales of the Abyss, Paper Mario etc.

Mario 3D land is pretty fun tho and Mario Kart 7 is a solid racer despite a few things that need fixing.

if you swap out the battery for the nykas? battery or however its spelt you get a decent battery life.

The friends list is a joke compared to the PS3/360/Vita and the only way to communicate via text is slow and awkward at best.

The system has great potential but it will probably never live up to it, After the great DS Lite Nintendo seems to think their customers will lap up whatever they throw out on the market. The system also lacks 1st party support in a bad way. Almost all of the series you expect are totaly absent over a year after release. No Kirby, Metroid, hell even the Zelda game is just a remake. They had to drop the price by $60 only a few months after launch and had to give early buyers 20 free NES/GBA games to appolagize for the quick price drop.

Honestly if nintendo doesn't get its act together and get some solid quality games on the market soon, the Vita will probably crush it as it seems like Sony is actually planning on supporting the Vita unlike the PSP where they just kept trying to patch it to stop hackers.

[Christopher]

I pretty much got the 3DS for some of the RPGs that are due out on it: Etrian Oddessy, Tales of the Abyss, Paper Mario etc.

Mario 3D land is pretty fun tho and Mario Kart 7 is a solid racer despite a few things that need fixing.

if you swap out the battery for the nykas? battery or however its spelt you get a decent battery life.

The friends list is a joke compared to the PS3/360/Vita and the only way to communicate via text is slow and awkward at best.

The system has great potential but it will probably never live up to it, After the great DS Lite Nintendo seems to think their customers will lap up whatever they throw out on the market. The system also lacks 1st party support in a bad way. Almost all of the series you expect are totaly absent over a year after release. No Kirby, Metroid, hell even the Zelda game is just a remake. They had to drop the price by $60 only a few months after launch and had to give early buyers 20 free NES/GBA games to appolagize for the quick price drop.

Honestly if nintendo doesn't get its act together and get some solid quality games on the market soon, the Vita will probably crush it as it seems like Sony is actually planning on supporting the Vita unlike the PSP where they just kept trying to patch it to stop hackers.

Maybe this is a little opinionated, but the Vita targets a completely different audience than the 3DS. The players of the 3DS, in my eyes, are completely different from people who grew up with Zelda, or Metroid. It's a younger audience, who would happily settle with the new Nintendogs.

As for the PS-Vita, there wont be many 5-12 year olds with it, and the game market will surely go to show this.

Back from my semi tangent, the younger audience doesn't always care how quality the games it gets are, and sometimes they are just overwhelmed with fun from the idea of playing Sims Kartz 7

[FurryMcMemes]

Honestly I like my 3DS. I enjoy playing the classic Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and now NES games. So far I only have OoT3D and SF643D, both games rock by the way, but games like Resident Evil Revelations and Snake Eater 3D are on my list of purchases.

[Jason_Rocks68]

After owning my 3DS for a month I'm pretty happy about this shiny brick. True while there is not a giant library of "must-own" games yet, what it does have is pretty satisfying. Only having about seven titles (two are ports, LoZ:OoT & LoZ:LA both are amazing games bite me) I'm still kinda chugging along with them really looking forward to later this year.

The 3D is pretty intresting in some games but overall not really important, you could argue "3D is the only way to play a game" but last time I checked there wern't any rules on how to play games you own.

As for content, the starting software is alright for a second or two or just to show to a friend nothing serious to put several hours into. It is pretty cool to pass by people with another 3DS and see a notification from them, get a puzzle piece, or have them join you in a super simple mini-game/RPG for hats.

The AR function is decent@best but they really need to do something with it, the AR cards I recieved are just sitting in the box at the moment. The camera on it isn't the best thing there is but I'm not really a picture kind of guy so couldn't tell you more.

Online stuff is something I really haven't checked out yet so sorry bout that.

All in all it's a good handheld, battery life is not what I would want it to be but it gets the job I suppose.

If I had to list some "must-own" games I suppose it would be:

1. Super Mario 3D Land
   
2. Mario Kart 7
   
3. Resident Evil: Revelaitons (hehe)
   
4. Pushmo
   

I GIVE THIS SYSTEM A: 7/10

[Parker]

Still regretting my 3DS purchase here...

I've recently bought the Harvest Moon 3DS game (the only reason I bought the system to be honest, I'm a god damn sucker for that series) and while I personally feel it's the best game out for the 3DS it still doesn't justift the purchase price. Mario Kart is decent (although after playing ModNation Racers I haven't been able to get into a Mario Kart game newer than Mario Kart 64) and Mario Land is decent but very short. Star Fox is better played on my N64, same story for OoT. If you've never played the originals it may be worth the purchase, but for someone like me who has my N64 hooked up in my game room it's much easier and more satisfying to play Mario Kart 64 with my wife than play it on the 3DS with some hooligans on the shoddy online system Nintendo has.

I'm still holding out for Snake Eater (even though I have multiple versions for my PS2 and the HD Collection for PS3) and maybe a decent Metroid game (like the GBA games) will be announced soon.

I have noticed something quite pathectic though. I've owned the 3DS since launch and I own 3 games for it. Harvest Moon, Mario Kart and Mario Land (I've played many others though) and I already own more Vita games. I've already bought Uncharted, Hot Shots Golf, Wipeout, Ninja Gaiden and Rayman which is double the games for a system that isn't out yet.

I've been meaning to check out Resident Evil on the 3DS though, I've heard it's quite good.

Parker