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Recently, I was lucky enough to experience the 3DS in person. Nintendo held UK based events that allowed the general public a chance to experience the 3D effect before its release. I personally attended a preview event in Manchester, although other events were held in Bristol, London, and Glasgow. The trailers I had seen up until then showed much promise, but to understand the 3D effect – the consoles primary selling point – I had to see for myself. The 3DS, launching 25th March 2011 here in the UK, promises a 3D playing experience without the need of glasses. A difficult mechanic to create, certainly, but one that Nintendo more than anyone could achieve. I set out to experience this console before it has been released to the market. What follows are my views on the event.
Upon arrival, we were escorted into a museum of sorts, showcasing the handhelds of the past; from the simple beginnings of the game and watch, through every incarnation until the DS. This was an interesting exhibit as background information on each system was provided, making waiting for the event to begin seem relatively short.
We were told that the important theme of the afternoon, and of the 3DS itself, would be the Experience. This term was used frequently, and it was easy to understand why, just seconds later. Led into a dark room and seated – I as near to the front as possible – an incredible sight soon unfolded. Two men, easily identifiable as Ken and Ryu, were enacting a battle right out of Street Fighter, before our eyes.
An entertaining Street Fighter Fight that took place during the start of the event.
The experience continued; into the next area we were led. Once more at the front, I was witness to the horrors unfolding: The undead! Fortunately, Chris Redfield and Claire Valentine of Resident Evil fame were there to see us through safely. I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be living out Capcom based scenarios when I woke up that day but it was entertaining nevertheless.
Chris Redfield and Claire Valentine leadings us through to the next area
After the crazy experience of street fights and zombies was over, we were taken into one final before we could play the 3DS system for ourselves. A trailer, linked below, showed some of the great titles coming to the console in the near future; with games such as Nintendogs + Cats and Lego Star Wars 3 to Resident Evil and Super Street Fighter IV there seemed to be a game on offer to interest anyone to the console.
With the trailer finished, it was at least time to get hands-on with the system itself. The display stands seemed to include almost every title included in the trailer, although the room was laid out in such a way that it was impossible to be sure, short of walking right up to a console to see. With so little time to spare, it was a game to try as many titles as possible, while still allowing time enough to experience the 3D effects of the system sufficiently.
With a sprint towards the first 3DS game I could find, it’sseemed natural to be playing a sports title first in Pro Evolution Soccer. Initial reactions were towards the system at first though. The system felt incredibly light when I picked it up, much lighter than my current Nintendo DS lite which was a pleasant surprise. Based on the pictures I had seen prior to this event, the handheld looked rather big,similar tothe original Nintendo DS design, however looking at the design of it in person confirmed that it’s a much improveddesign than even the DS lite.
With no signs for what games where available in this dark room it was luck at finding a particular game
Once I had my first glimpse of the system, it was time to try the 3D effect. Using the slider to change the 2D image into 3D has to be one the best experiences I have ever witnessed in a video game. Having grown up with the Pro Evolution Soccer series on the PlayStation 2 I was familiar with the look and feel of the game already, but switching for the 2D image to create the depth of the game changed the game I knew dramatically. The 3D effect doesn’t come out of the screen but creates depth into the screen to create the 3D effect. The way that this game worked in 3D would be to place the camera over the footballer similar to a 3rd person action game and the 3D effect would show the length for the pitch creating an accurate image of how close or far away the other footballers would be on the pitch.
Then my enjoyment of the 3D effect ended when I started to play the game. Since the football was coastally moving from the foreground to the background in addition tothe footballers, I found it really have to keep my focus on the game which causedmy eyes to strain in just the few minutes I was playing in the 3Dmode. It might be worth noting that I don’t wear glasses and I have perfect vision, so my eyes could see the 3D effect just fine.I wasn’t expecting to find playing football this hard in 3D. Also switching the players at random didn’t help with this situation.
After conceding a goal, I thought I might be better to try a different game to see if I had a problem with the 3D effect with other games or whether it was just the implementation of it in Pro Evolution Soccer that caused the problem. This is when I tried Pilot Wings Resort, which at the time I thought it was just a Wii Sports themed game for the DS based on its appearance, but as I later found out I was a series that can found on both the SNES and the N64. The game seemed to be a variety of airborne based missions which the player must complete in order to win medals, which seemed easy enough to understand. The levels I tried were also very easy to complete in that I hardly needed to move to get through the levels. However I still had a problem with the 3D effect in that my eyes were straining while playing this game too.
It was only when I tried Resident Evil did I trying playing around with the options of the 3D effect with the slider. What is great about using the 3D slider is that not only can you enjoy the change from 2D to 3D but you can also adjust how much depth of the 3D effect you can show on the screen. With the previous games I had the slider at the highest setting and having issues with the 3D effect. When playing Resident Evil, I tried playing the game with the slider set to halfway and found the overall experience easier and more enjoyable. Even with the slider set to halfway the game can still create a 3D effect, the difference is that the depth of the 3D doesn’t go as far into the screen as it would on the highest setting. Personally this seemed to be the best way I could experience 3D without the eye strain, for others the highest setting could work just fine.
It was at this stage of the event I started to take notice of the controls for the system. The biggest change from previous DS handhelds is the analogue stick that has been added just about the directional buttons. It’s really comfortable to use and makes playing games such as Pro Evolution Soccer and Resident Evil much easier than trying to use either the direction buttons or the touch screen. The analogue has a slight indent to rest your thumb into and is made of a soft rubber which makes it comfortable to use. Another big change I began to notice at this stage was the size of the top screen and how it affects the gameplay. When I first saw images of the Nintendo 3DS and how the 3D screen was wider than the touch screen I instantly thought of games I played on the DS lite such as Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. These games use the touch screen for the action and use the other screen to display an in-game map. With the 3DS having a larger top screen, it would make those kind of games look strange as the map would be larger than the action found on the touch screen. However when I was playing Resident Evil, I realised that the get the game needed to be in widescreen to fully show of the visuals for the game. Still I came away thinking would it be a huge issue to make the 3DS a little wider to make both screens the same size? That way games like Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword can be created, but then I guess the focus is on 3D gameplay rather than touch gameplay this time round.
The handheld is very light and the analogue stick is comfortable, it’s just the bottom screen size being smaller than the top one that bothers me about the system.
The next game I got to play was Super Street Fighter IV, which was personally the game of the event. The use of the 3D effect for this game was far greater than anything I had played the entire day. I think this was because of the game being set on a 2D plain compared to the other games I had played which were set in 3D environments. With Super Street Fighter IV, it was really clear to see all the different layers of the 3D effect which made it easier to play the game. The fighters would be in the middle layer while background and foreground details would come into focus during the encounters. This then confirmed my play through of Dead or Alive; even though the game was both stunning and enjoyable to play, the use of the 3D plain didn’t generate an effect use of the 3D effect compared to Super Street Fighter IV.
The Dead or Alive demo was cut short as we were all asked to leave the room so that it could be set-up for the next group of visitors. This next room was a complete contrast to the pervious one in that it had light. In this room, the Nintendo helpers would show us features that could be found on the Nintendo 3DS along with videos of up and coming games in 3D.
Nintendo helpers showing people the new features found on the Nintendo 3DS
One feature I did manage to try in this room was the Mii Maker. This is software that can be found on the system when your purchase it and it can create a Mii avatar, similar to the one found on the Nintendo Wii, by taking a photograph of yourself. It doesn’t capture your image like the video shown at pervious events as you need to add a few details to make sure they appear in the final image. That said I was impressed with the final result that it create and I can image a lot of people enjoying this feature when they start using their new Nintendo 3DS.
Before leaving the event, I manage to watch a 3D video of the Metal Gear Solid demo based on the 3rd game of the series, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The game is a stealth action game set within a jungle setting and it’s this jungle setting which helped show a great example of using the 3D effect for the system. The way in which the jungle foliage appeared in both the background and the foreground showed how implementing the 3D effect correctly can make an interesting experience. However it may have been different if I were controlling the game compared to a constructed trailer.
Once that trailer was watched, I was told that was the end of my Nintendo 3DS experience. So what did I gain from my experience? I found out that the 3D effect is effective depending of both the game and the strength of the 3D. I’ve found out that the system is very well designed. The addition of the analogue stick can create so great games that couldn’t be found on the previous DS models. Though I hope the size of the top screen doesn’t stop developers creating great touch screen experiences. I’ve also found out that there needs to be more live action stage stories based on video games.