Why I Currently Like the 3DS

The 3DS is not a worthless, gimmicky portable console. Not yet.

The short time I spent playing Nintendo's newest hardware changed my opinion of it from skeptical yet hopeful to hopeful yet skeptical. In a good way. Of course, the 3DS has very little to offer at launch, but that is no reason to denigrate the system's potential. And after getting a quick overview of a few of its games and features, I see how much the system has going for it.

Upon first launching Super Street Fighter IV (the first game I played)--actually, when I first turned on the 3DS, or first touched it, or saw it--the 3DS came with a lot of baggage for me. Opinions I heard and read seemed to have come from jaded former Nintendo fans or casual-game haters. I have to blame the swiftness with which the system was poorly previewed on the cursory nature of previews themselves, but when the atmosphere around a new product is so oppressive, I wonder why.

3D has its own stigma for a large portion of the gaming community; that's one. No game has yet used the system's eponymous feature to great effect, and it's in stores as I write this; that's two. There's a chance that people cannot easily accept the 3DS because of the Wii's pedigree; that's three. And perhaps the price tag is a little painful; four.

That said, Nintendo's release of glassesless 3D on a handheld device this year almost puts it ahead of its time. The research and development of the console progressed during a time when seeing 3D without eyewear was a cutting-edge, "wouldn't that be cool," science-lab-technology idea. Say what you will about the gimmick, but Nintendo has been doing crazy shit for many years. (Do you remember the GameCube controller? It was like a purple junkyard frankenstein sort of thing. And the original DS? "Hey, it's us: Nintendo. Look, we were thinking about screens and were like, 'two screens? let's do it,' so here's another screen. Enjoy. No, we're not sure about it either. Go for it." The give-and-take success of the Wiimote is a good indicator of what Nintendo can and will do for the game industry. I am always a little confused about why I seem to be one of the few gamers defending the Wii, but it's a solid, if perhaps not revolutionary, upgrade to its predecessor, (and it has many great exclusive titles.) And that crazy shit finds an audience.

But that isn't the question, is it? You wonder if it's worth it for yourself. And I certainly can't answer that, because I don't know. I don't even know if it's worth it for me, and I had a fun freak-out playing Face Raiders.

One last complaint about the issues endemic to the system. I've heard talk about how annoying it is that players must force themselves to hold their 3DS still while they play lest they tilt the screen and totally ruin the third dimension of a game, and the annoying process of readjusting their eyes to see it again. This is an overdone controversy. First of all, who whips and tilts their portable systems anyhow? Unless you're playing WarioWare Twisted, I don't see gamers moving their devices all over the place. And there is a little leeway, as well. The optimum optical effects of the top screen are not altogether lost if tilted a few millimeters this way or that. Rather, it takes a significant angle adjustment to knock the 3D out of focus. However, even in such a case--and I agree that such a case will happen often (though not constantly)--no trouble really arises. Personally, I noticed that the 3D effect was lost for a moment, I faced the screen toward me again, and there were Ryu and E. Honda, fighting with a very impressive depth behind them.

The first two-thirds of the 3DS's name will, I hope, offer more exciting experiences than mini-game collections. I'm confident that it will. I don't expect 3D to be a real game-defining mechanic (in the same way that HD graphics hardly changed the way a game is played compared to a PS2 or Xbox). But that isn't its intention either. It just looks amazing. It's fresh, at least for now. 3D is not the new standard, nor should it be, necessarily. But it isn't a buzzkilling, valueless trick either.

The most important factor in my or your review of the 3DS at this time is the willingness to watch its progress.