Maybe you're planning on waiting in line for a Nintendo 3DS on March 27th. Maybe you're simply planning on waiting until the dust settles and the hype dies down before you decide whether or not to buy one. Either way, you'll want to read on for our first impressions of Nintendo's latest and greatest.
In Video: Nintendo 3DS Unboxing
Nintendo 3DS Setup
The first thing you're going to do with a Nintendo 3DS is go through the setup wizard. (Thankfully, it's brief, so you can start playing pretty quickly.) You start by configuring the upper screen, which can display a 3D image--just put your head in front of the 3DS, facing it straight-on, and adjust the 3D image slider on the right-hand side to tweak the "3D-ness" of the Nintendo logo. Don't be shy--you'll probably be adjusting this on a game-by-game basis.
Next, you'll set up a brief user profile, though it's nothing more than a name, birthday, and geographical region. If you have access to a Wi-Fi network, you can also set it up at this point. Like the Nintendo DSi, it supports various flavors of WPA2 encryption, so you won't have to risk your network security to get your 3DS online.
Unless you're itching to dive into the action, though, you'll probably want to set up your Mii--Nintendo's cartoony avatar that'll show up intermittently in 3DS apps. Unlike the Nintendo Wii's Mii creator, you can actually use the camera to give yourself an easy starting point--the 3DS will ask you to position your face, take a picture, then find the closest available Mii features that match. (You can also start from scratch, if you like, but that's no fun.) Do your hair, maybe add some glasses, and bam--you're in your 3DS.
By now, you're probably itching to try some games. I sure was. So I cracked open the four launch games I had--Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Pilotwings Resort, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, and Madden Football--and spent a little time getting to know them.
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
Capcom promo event, but wasn't able to delve as deeply as I would've liked.
In short: Very impressive. Porting over Street Fighter is a tricky proposition for a few reasons, since it's designed to be played with a traditional arcade joystick controller and a nice big screen--neither of which you'll get with the Nintendo 3DS. Nonetheless, the controls work surprisingly well. The online play worked splendidly (in fact, it was even easier to find a low-lag match on the 3DS than it is on Xbox Live, though this might be because the 3DS isn't for sale yet), and the game played more or less like its big brother on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
SSFIV 3D takes advantage of the 3D display in two ways. The flashier application is the 3D game mode, which plays and controls exactly the same as the standard game mode, except that your point of view is now over the shoulder of your character, rather than perpendicular to both fighters. It's certainly an interesting look, and fun to play around with, but it takes some getting used to, and veteran players won't be able to gauge distances or block quite as accurately. There's a separate multiplayer mode for the 3D fights, so you won't be matched up with someone who's playing in the regular mode (thankfully).
The 3D actually comes into play subtly in the standard perpendicular fight viewing mode, and it actually looked pretty good. The problem with taking a fighting game designed for a big screen and shrinking it down for the 3DS is that you're forced to change the player's perspective slightly. On a big screen, you can have visually engaging, complicated background scenes as well as big characters with detailed models. On a small screen, you can either keep the characters big but shrink the background, or zoom out so you can see the background but make the characters tiny. The 3D screen on the 3DS uses the 3D perspective to effectively let you do both--the characters are big and easy to see, but the backgrounds are still detailed. The 3D screen essentially makes the game better, something you can't say about some of the rest of these games.
Pilotwings Resort
After dishing out some punishment in SSFIV3D, I was ready to play something more relaxing. Enter Pilotwings Resort. We've already teased a bit of a pre-release footage from Pilotwings Resort in our previous hands-on video. Check it out below.
In Video: Nintendo 3DS Hands-On Preview
The Pilotwings series has always been about the joy (and in some cases, frustration) of flight, and Pilotwings Resort is no exception. After a quick tutorial mode, I was cruising around Wuhu Island in a plane, hang glider, or rocket belt (kind of like a jet pack). I played a few easy training missions that taught me some basic flying skills with each of the vehicles, then I was off to free flight mode, where I could cruise around to my heart's content.
Pilotwings Resort isn't for everyone, but it does put the 3DS's 3D capabilities to the test--after all, the game is about moving freely in a 3D space, and that means it needs to look and feel good. Unfortunately, the first thing I had to do was turn the 3D slider down to about 40%--any higher and I was seeing double, which almost gave me a headache. Once I did, the 3D image looked a bit more tame, which made the game far more playable (your mileage may vary).
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
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