3DS: Good and Bad

[ECM]

Good:

*The 3D effect is great and I find it a bit hard to believe that anyone is moaning about the "sweet spot" (unless you have Parkinson's, this is an issue how??[footnote:1]On the upside, Parkinsons' sufferers don't have to walk to earn their daily allotment of Coins, so there's that.../going to Hell.[/footnote])

*I'm really enjoying the freebie games: the AR stuff; the Mii stuff; Face Raiders, etc.

*Transferring DSiWare over was fairly painless, although, as yet, I can't move over Pinball Pulse, which makes ECM smash happy.

Bad:

*As w/ all things Nintendo, all we'll ever get of these cool, freebie, games is what we have now as they'll *never* elaborate on any of them. (See: Miis and a massive, ridiculous waste of potential and all the mini games on Mario 64 DS that, basically, are the basis for every best-selling iOS game ever.)

*Uh, where the fuck are the games?? Everyone wants to jump all over the 3DS for the price 'gimmicky' 3D, etc., but when it all comes down to it, nobody would have anything to bitch about if there were actually more than a handful of 'must-have' games (and, personally, those must-have games are...none). Even the 3DSWare games are...one?? Almost 6 months after launch?? And *none* by Nintendo?!

*I really like the video trailers for most games on the shop, but why is it that most of them aren't in 3D! They even have that disclaimer you see on YT vids: "3D can only be displayed on the 3DS"...which I'm holding in my fucking hands!

*Love the idea of 3D 'remakes' but, uh, Xevious, Exciteibke and Urban Champion?? (Yeah, just what the world was clamoring for: a remake of a brutally awful 'fighting' game that was never good--how about, i dunno, something like Crisis Force?? Or even something good like, say...picking scabs?) And, hey, how about...16-bit games! Theoretically, they should be *easier* to convert to 3D since most of them have some degree of parallax scrolling already set on separate layers, so if they want to go the Xevious route, it should be very, very easy (unlike Xevious, which only exists on one plane).

*SpotPass is an awesome idea...in theory. But if you live where I live, your odds of actually ever coming across anyone, ever (even should the 3DS match the DS' success), are somewhere south of Nil, located in the western part of Nowhere. Pro tip: there is a world outside of Japan, Nintendo.

*This really drives me nuts: Starfox 3D has what looks to be an OMFG this is awsome MP mode BUT! OF COURSE! It's local play only! WTF! (To be fair, Nintendo, shockingly, was a lot better at the online thing than Sony and the PSP, but this is just clown shoes type of stupidity at this point, especially when Capcom's games have online MP.)

So, to buy or not to buy? Honestly, there's no real reason to get one right now since there simply (still) aren't any games that make it a 'must-have' (I assume Mario and, for some, Mario Kart, will remedy this, but, man, gimme some damn games!)

[feilong80]

^agree with all of this. I listen to the Cheapass Gamer podcast a lot these days (as the main guy is actually a naturally good sounding radio talent, which puts it way above par for most gaming podcasts) and they claim the 3D effect "sucks." Which I find astonishing.

[elchevalier]

Just put actual good games on it and i will eventually buy it, among them localize Layton vs Phoenix Wright dammit!

[ECM]

Yeah, sure: CAPCOM will force you to be connected to the Internet where they'll disable your ability to wipe the save data.

[feilong80]

The public: OBJECTION!
Capcom: Overruled!

[elchevalier]

CRAPCOOOOOOOOM!

[Borsalio]

On the 3D Classics, they apparently require significantly more development time than might be expected, which is why we've only got simple NES or Arcade stuff so far. Still doesn't excuse Urban Champion of course. Twinbee is the next one, and I'll probably pick that one up just for the hell of it. I only have Excitebike, and that's because it was free. It's fun enough, and the 3D effects are pretty cool, but it's still basically just Excitebike, and I got my fill of that long ago.

Fully agreed on the Starfox MP thing. I think that would have the potential to be amazing, especially with the portrait thing, and would give the proper justification for buying another N64 port. But, no online means very few people will ever get to use it. Sadly, I think some Nintendo interviews have mentioned that the sales of this one will determine the future of the Starfox series, which means no more Starfox series, I guess.

The 3DS is still operating mostly on potential now, much like the original DS's similar dry spell after release. Unfortunately, the current environment doesn't seem too friendly for a dry spell, leading to the current Oh Shit mode. Zelda, Starfox, and Devil Survivor are all great games, but they're also great games that are available on other great consoles. Mario, Mario Kart, and Icarus (is that one even coming out this year?) need to be great.

And on a personal note(vendetta), speed up the damn VC releases! More Game Boy/GBC games! Where are the Game Gear games? I want to see Lynx and NGPC games someday, too.

[ECM]

As I said, they could port over 16-bit titles a lot less painfully since they already feature, in large part, graphics set on different layers, whereas the 8-bit stuff needs to be *massively* overhauled to work at all.

And I think the "oh shit" situation is a bit overblown, though that's as much investors expecting the 3DS to immediately be as popular as the DS which is, of course, sheer lunacy given the DS is, literally, the best-selling gaming platform of all time and asking for the 3DS to match that is just pure ignorance of how massive a mountain that's going to be to scale. (It'll be like expecting the U, a console that will cost far, far more at launch than the Wii, to sell like the Wii did--ain't gonna happen!)

Still, of course, N could have done themselves a lot of favors by *not* having ceded the floor to 3rd parties for the 3DS launch and made damn sure stuff like Mario was ready then and there. (The 3DS launch window is an object lesson of how *not* to handle the U launch window.)

[Wintery Knight]

Sounds like fun!

[Justin]

THE GOOD: Price Drop

THE BAD: Nothing to play!

On a side note, I seen a LG phone that uses the same 3D technology and I was totally blown away. The 3D photos you can take with it are awesome.

Has there been any mention of any ports/remakes from the better end of the Virtual Boy's catalog? I really liked that rebuff of Mario Arcade on there.