Be sure to check out About.com Nintendo DS guru Nadia Oxford coverage for an overview and my previous coverage on the Sony Move!
The Nintendo 3DS created a serious buzz here at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Some news on the 3D without glasses handheld leaked months ago, but nothing prepared me for getting my hands on it this week. It's pretty darn impressive, and I look forward to the Spring 2011 release.
Our Nintendo DS expert Nadia Oxford has all the detailed specs and pics, but the most important shifts are the new thumbstick and the adjustable 3D screen. The thumbpad has been moved down and, right above, is a cool thumbstick. It has a concave feel, which works well with the thumb and grooves right in. It was natural, responsive and, frankly, should have been done much earlier in the DS line.
The 3D effect is solid and, depending on the angle viewed, stellar. First, there is a slide control on the right that let's you adjust the intensity from straight 2D to full 3D. 3D is done by basically duplicating an image and slightly separating the original and the copy. The slide determines how much space there is between the two images. According to Nintendo, the slide was included because the best 3D level varies based on the person and on the viewing angle. I found myself adjusting based on the game, but not on the angle. The best horizontal angle was always immediately in front of the device, though the vertical angle of the screen didn't matter as much.
The included demos were impressive, particularly footage from the underrated classic Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and the '80s revamp Kid Icarus Rising. The foreground definitely popped, though I'm curious how it will look outside of the contained conference environment and on the road.
Nintendo had one playable game, and it was a good one: Starfox 64 3D. The classic Nintendo 64 space shooter is well suited for 3D treatment since you are literally flying into the screen. The thumbstick worked well. The focus on Starfox 64 is on parallax scrolling, which means foreground and background visuals moving at different speeds to create the illusion of depth. It is a Nintendo 64 port, however, with cartoon visuals. The 3D was nice, but it wasn't as impressive as other games, like Metal Gear Solid, that have much better graphics.
I was pretty skeptical about the 3DS, but after the hands-on I'm really looking forward to what game companies will do with the crazy tech.
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