Posted 06.15.2010 at 6:30 pm
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Nintendo 3DS official shot
Nintendo
We've just spent some hands-on time with the Nintendo 3DS, the 3-D version of the company's classic DS platform unveiled earlier today at E3. While at first it's tough to shake the idea that it's little more than a gimmick, the 3-D effect does work. And perhaps most importantly, it works without the clunky glasses.
After playing the game demos available and viewing 3-D trailers for films and future games on the device's 3.5-inch top display (the bottom one is a conventional 2-D touchpad), the 3-D effect is surprisingly easy to watch. Nintendo wouldn't get into the tech behind the screen, but it is almost certainly a parallax LCD, which uses structural variations in the screen itself to split the image into a separate view for each eye, creating the 3-D illusion. It's the same tech used in Fuji's glasses-free 3-D camera, the Real 3-D W1 we tested last year.
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Gadgets, 3-D, gaming, nintendo, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Parallax, VIDEO GAMESIn the demos we played, the 3-D effect shows the same ambient restraint as the latest crop of 3-D Hollywood offerings. After a few minutes, you find yourself tuning the effect out. But then it leaps back into your attention at odd times, like a giant snake popping out of the foliage in Metal Gear Solid. But as the "off" position on the 3-D depth slider makes clear, the effect is more eye candy than primary gameplay element.
A tech demo of a target shooting game combined 3-D visuals with the device's motion detector and gyroscope. Tilting and moving the DS made target shooting a more active experience. Hitting targets in 3-D does take some practice. Because you must keep the 3DS directly in front of your face to hold the 3-D effect, aiming can become a strain.
Other demos of Starfox 64 3-D, Pilotwings Resort and Kid Icarus Uprising (a confirmed launch title, although the date remains unknown) made clear that Nintendo can now raid its back catalog to produce lots of updated content for the new system. And these simpler games of yesteryear feel fresh when polished up with a new coat of 3-D paint. One of the games that best showed off the power of 3-D was Nintendogs and Cats, in which cuddly animated puppies that excitedly bounded off the screen toward you. Cute, it seems, was made for 3-D.
As far the rest of the hardware, the 3DS feels comfortably familiar in your hand. The new machine is about the same size as the standard DS, and most of the key buttons are in the same place. But now there is a start, select and home button on the machine's face, and a quarter-sized flat analog stick in the upper left-hand corner. The stick's range of motion feels a bit limited, but it seemed responsive enough. Two parralax-positioned cameras on the back also allow you to take your own 3-D pictures.
Looking forward, an interesting facet of the future of the device is planned support for 3-D movies from major Hollywood studios--revealing again who ultimately has the most at stake in the great 3-D push. A trailer for Dreamwork's How to Train Your Dragon was squashed to the screen's tiny size. But with the DS held close to your face, an Avatar-like effect was noticeable.
The 3DS may not be the revolution in technology Nintendo is boasting. But it's a cool trick, and one that is sure to make the units disappear from store shelves once the system is released.
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Pardon my French, but Nintendo sh*t on E3 this year.
Ever since Nintendo's press conference concluded, I've had a persistent erection (for well over 4 hours now). I should probably contact my physician -- my eyesight is becoming somewhat blurry.
All jokes aside, the 3DS has an amazing list of Third-Party support as well as what I personally believe to be the all-time, overall best list of launch titles for a console ever.
why do ppl always blame the french? did they invent all the cuss words known to man?
pardon my czech but exqueze messi lantan shoulke
are you crazy? killzone 3, metal gear for xbox, uncharted 3, twisted metal, dead space 2, the list goes on and on. what was so great about nintendo this year? 3ds. Are you going to buy 5th DS now. Why dont they just make a whole new unit already.
@inaka_rob
"Why dont they just make a whole new unit already."
Have you not been paying attention? The 3DS IS a whole new unit with far greater horsepower and of course, 3D. The system's graphics potential now rivals (and possibly exceeds) that of the PSP. It's literally like comparing a Gameboy Advance to the DS lite.
Quick question: Were you one of those people who got mad when Super Mario Galaxy got an overall higher rating than Red Dead Redemption?
kinect and 3ds are the only groundbreaking things at E3 this year. PS3 motiondildo is a terrible april fools joke that got out of hand.
plus, just because they released alternative versions of the DS, it doesn't mean you have to buy them all. The 3ds is 4x more powerful than the original DS so I'm gonna buy it.
plus, killzone sucks
kinect and 3ds are the only groundbreaking things at E3 this year. PS3 motiondildo is a terrible april fools joke that got out of hand.
plus, just because they released alternative versions of the DS, it doesn't mean you have to buy them all. The 3ds is 4x more powerful than the original DS so I'm gonna buy it.
also, killzone sucks
kinect and 3ds are the only groundbreaking things at E3 this year. PS3 motiondildo is a terrible april fools joke that got out of hand.
plus, just because they released alternative versions of the DS, it doesn't mean you have to buy them all. The 3ds is 4x more powerful than the original DS so I'm gonna buy it.
plus, killzone sucks
sorry for the triple post, my school uses a crap browser with terrible censoring scripts
Dear Popsci,
Isn't this a Popular Science magazine and not a gizmo review magazine?
How about explaining how the 3 dimensional display works, and not the feel good fluff? If I want gizmo bling, I could read all the other tech shallow reviews of all the news outlets.
Play your part and exlain the tech side, not the product review side. Popular Science is in danger of becoming a fancy catalog.
Don't you think its a little bit early to be calling it little more than a gimmick? Every time Nintendo comes out with some new technology they want to add to one of their game systems, there are people who call it gimmicky or that it won't catch on before its even been released to the public.
I mean, didn't some people consider a touch screen a gimmick when Nintendo first announced the DS? How many phones have touch screens now? And look at how different control styles have developed on the DS because of that touch screen? The early DS games did seem to be games with touch control added in, but as time went by we got more games that relied almost entirely on touch control.
And what about motion control. I remember reading reviews calling the motion control of the Wii a gimmick, until Nintendo presented some hands on use of the motion control. Now Sony and Microsoft are playing catch up with their motion control schemes, and look at how many cell phones now have some sort of motion sensing capabilities. Sure, the early Wii games mostly were normal games with motion control tagged on, but look at how it has progressed since then.
The hardware hasn't even been in developers hands for very long. Give it some time before you call it a gimmick. As developers learn the new system, you will see games that use the 3D perspective as a core part of the gameplay.
Um how can anyone complain about this?? They are remaking Ocarina of Time and Star fox 64!!! Even if those were the only two games released I would most definitely buy one! Some people are too picky.
"Dear Popsci,
Isn't this a Popular Science magazine and not a gizmo review magazine?"
Nobody is forcing you to read the articles, get over it. However, I enjoy reading these, and would love to know how it works (though i think i have a general idea, i would like to know specifics). Being a gamer, I would definitely buy this system, though i wash the screen could be a few inches bigger. Thank you, Popular Science for having articles I like.
@ScienceFreek2010 - Come on, this is the same gizmo review that you can read every where else.
When Popular Science reprinted all those old articles from yesteryear, I realized that the big difference between now and then is that Popular Science would explain how things worked. Now they seem to gloss over the How and just explain the Function.
Wouldn't you expect a different and specific review angle from a magazine that calls itself Popular Science? This same article's viewpoint review can be found on Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, Yahoo and CNN.
At this time, the original Nintendo Unveils 3DS, the First Portable Gaming System to Support 3-D
By Corinne Iozzio posted 6/15/10 on Popsci has no comments. It is odd that the only comment you have made is on this blog. Was this current article linked by some other game review blog?
nonsquid ...
First, this is a free online site, not the official magazine. It used to take a long time to write an in depth article, but now people want the information as soon as it's released. It's not how it once was.
Second, Nintendo didn't officially release the 3DS, so there's not much to go on. PopSci can make assumptions on how it may work, but until they break one apart, there's not much they can say. Nintendo even had the systems tied to models who told the press they couldn't take pics of the actual 3D screen.
Hi kormiko,
Thanks for the response.
I subscribe to the magazine, too. Usually the same magazine articles are reprinted on the web site.
Let's take Popsci's catalog section "What's New". The article about the next dimension by Corinne Iozzio and the gloss over 3-D effect with stacked LCDs that direct images at your right and left eyes. This is like comparing Gatorade to water, saying Gatorade is better because it has electrolytes in it.
Look at the "Kick Grass!" article by Mark Anders. "Players rely on cutting edge gear to help score". Now here is some real science. Jock toys and where to buy them.
I do admire Popsci's How 2.0 section. This is how the whole magazine should be and is the only reason I still buy this magazine.
Seriously, dude, not cool. The article offers a link to an explanation of how parallax screens work in another recent article. Even if it's misspelled. = )
I too disagree that 3D here is a "gimmick," though. At the very least, acknowledge that Nintendo has come out and said that they want to expand on it as a gameplay feature.
//uk.wii.ign.com/articles/109/1099733p1.html
And I think anything that creates greater immersion is more than a "gimmick" even if it doesn't affect gameplay. For instance: texture maps. = )
I have the first dsi.
3DS seems awesome. They finally upped the power for it to be on par with the PSP I believe and that's pretty much all I need in terms of power on a handheld.
Not sure how much the 3D effect will be in terms of gaming and eye strain ( those small screen tire me after 2 hours tops usually).
I don't even own a current DS ( opted for psp) but I'm pretty sure this is backwards compatible so I'll probably pick it up on day one!
my skincare site: www.rosaceaskincareinfo.com
The only nentendo thing i own or have ever owned a wii, no ds or anything. I'm 10, and almost everyone i know has a ds. I think an iPod touch is way better. The ds was ok, the Dsi was crap, and if this one isn't better, mark my words nentendo is gonna make a completely redesigned hand-hand platform. When apple makes a gaming platform, People are gonna go crazy over it just because of their good reputation. I wonder what its going to be like though........
Those who think sony or microseft has beter game systems then nintendo Is a M rated hater they ovbvosly like shoters more the RPGS, adventures, sims, stratagys and fighters.Also those who say the psp is beter than the ds oibvaously missed this stat: Nintendo has 70% of the handheld market. and the 3DS will probly put it at 80+%.
3DS should sell pretty well if the 3D effect doesn't give users a headache. The fact you can adjust the "depth" of the effect should reduce the instances of this though.
www.gamingbee.com
Beecher Bowers
I have a good advancement for the DS. a tracking device so you can find it when it gets stuffed in between the couch cusions. i have a DS Lite and like, the battery suks. i have to turn the screen down to minimum brightnesss to get 4 hours out of it. so heck with 3-D.
to all you ninnies who think a new game system or other device is ensue with this device well I say nay this is a simple enhancement of th previous DS(I) I say to you who think they are coming out with too many nay nay i say this is technological advancement for each new system they make many people will go buy it the first week (very rarely a whole month) will swarm and buy millions of systems therefor allowing the company to do more research and further enhance a project or create a new project. A new hand held console on the other hand would likely consist of 3 or 4 screens, allowing for info to be displayed maybe you could search for walkthroughs on another and use the other 2 to play a game