"New 3DS" and "New 3DS XL" - Why (or Why Not) Will You Get One?

[Nz17]

More info in this article: Is the New 3DS More Game Boy Color or Game Boy Micro? - Editorial - Nintendo World Report

Basically the "New 3DS" and "New 3DS XL" will have two more shoulder buttons, a secondary analog "Circle Pad" nub for dual-stick software, screens with improved 3D viewing angles, camera-based head-tracking to keep the 3D screen parallel to your face as it moves to keep the 3D in focus, a microSD port instead of SD, an improved CPU, a better GPU, improved Web browsing, and a greater amount of RAM. Plus the regular-sized "New 3DS" will allow for the use of $10 face plates for the outside front and outside back of the console. The New 3DS's should retail for about $150 and $180 when they launch in North America.

Will you get one? Which one? Why or why not?

[Greg2600]

They're still pushing the "3D" I thought they'd given up on that aspect? Having games only work on a newer version is unwise.

[Tupin]

Will likely pick one up, addresses issues that I had with the XL. Only real downer to me is that it still has a resistive touch screen. That was fine in 2004, but the target audience of the system (and even the 2DS) grew up with a touchscreen that doesn't need a stylus. Could have been a problem that they fixed.

Again, I hope Xenoblade being a killer app causes other devs to use the power of the system. Maybe dual compatibility modes for both original and new systems? Hope it has more than just ports; rumor has it the long hoped for Majora's Mask remake as well as a port of Super Mario Sunshine are New 3DS exclusives.

[Tanooki]

Greg: They kind of did give up on it, but I think they really didn't want to. As the original systems have shown if you angle it more than like 10 degrees off center view, it goes blurry double vision and that'll get your wrecked playing a game. Most people ended up just turning it off, as most people aren't robots who can hold a system rigidly like a demo kiosk while playing. The 'NEW' 3DS uses the camera on the front for some head tracking thing and a newer screen I guess communicates with it so now it doesn't blur anymore unless you view it at a pretty sharp angle which no one would do playing. Probably someone from the side watching over your shoulder or next to you in a car may see blur, but it'll finally get stable for players in front of thing which is huge.

Also having games that only work on it is genius from a marketing angle, and it's NOTHING new either. For all the pomp and puff about it, the Gameboy itself was also the Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light, and Gameboy COLOR. GB Color has 4x the memory to use and 2X the CPU speed. The New 3DS appears to be the same thing going into it. What Nintendo does to cut costs, when they make a system they find a set of parts you can get cheaper by limiting their capabilities, kind of like intel and their crappy Celeron chips with 1/4 of the cache and less speed for a budget box. The 3DS itself locked the ARM11 CPU in there at 50% of its actual speed, and the memory they limited too, it can work with a lot more (just like GB was 4mhz, and the GBC was the same z80 at 8mhz.) It's just Nintendo up to its old games again like in the 90s with GBC and the DS/Lite to DSi in the 00s (which also 4x the ram and 2x the cpu it used to the max.) GBC was far from a failure with a lot of both hybrid (black cart) and GBC only (see through) carts. The New 3DS is going to do the same, hybrid and N3DS only games.


As for my choice, if it's not obvious with what I wrote. I'm buying it. I have a 3DSXL right now, but I find it restrictive. I love the 3D, it doesn't give me a headache or whatever, but I never can keep it from losing focus so that thing is huge. I also was big on the GBC and its exclusives, so to see the N3Ds doing this again I'm all in, and with the Wii being a pos I never got Xenoblade so I will buy that so that pleases me too. It's great they finally added a second stick, and all hands on stuff with it so far from random show goers and media says it's small but very effective for camera/aiming intents. I love they added a full modern console set of buttons with the added L and R up top too, and with the meat of the system being where it is, this thing could easily get handed some spectacular new games but also solid ports of existing stuff from the last generation or two (PS2 and lower tier PS3 era stuff) scaled to fit the thing if developers choose to. Odds are likely they will, it's not a Wii, and Nintendo handhelds have always been good profit for the console game makers so I can't wait to see what pops up. The only thing I'm not sure on, standard or XL. I dont' care really about faceplates, almost not a fan considering how easy they are to scratch and break on the GB micro I have and dust gets inside around them badly too which blows. Yet the standard unit has a larger screen than the 3DS does so the size isn't that huge of a gap with the N3DSXL so I'm not sure if I want to pay the extra for like 1 inch instead of 2.

[Leo_A]

Unless someone regularly utilizes 3D and feels like this enhancement would be a worthwhile justification or just can't go without a portable Xenoblade Chronicles, I think it makes more sense to wait.

With only Xenoblade Chronicles announced (Which doesn't interest me), no Circle Pad Pro games that interest me (And requiring patching they may or may not get to recognize the New 3DS hardware even if they did), a lazy eye that keeps me limited to 2D, and Super Smash Brothers (If I were even interested) and likely some other otherwise regular 3DS games using it for non-essential things like simultaneous Miiverse functionality, I can live without it.

Things like lighter weight and longer battery life are nice, but it's going to need a major game I can't do without or numerous lesser projects that interest me, if I'm going to ever upgrade to it.

And that's something it might never get since this appears to be more like a short-term life-extension (And a cheap way to get folks to buy yet another revision) rather than something more serious like the Game Boy Color was to the Game Boy that will stick around for 3 or 4 years.

With this announced game, it's already better than the DSi line of exclusive software was. But I bet it doesn't amount to more than 4 or 5 releases of significance. Unless there's an exclusive Zelda, Metroid, or Mario platformer in there or something like a classic arcade compilation that has a great lineup, I'll go without.

Plus, there's always the chance the real next gen successor, whatever form it may take, might be backwards compatible (A bit cloudy what, if anything, will be BC with all the hybrid console/handheld talk). If I'm patient, I might just get New 3DS functionality without paying extra to get it.

Worked out last time with the DSi (And the time before that, with the GBC).

[Tanooki]

Oh I can understand the waiting. The same argument was made on the GBC and the DSi, wish I hadn't got the second, but to do without the first would have been a super shame. I think it will come down to enjoyment of the 3D finally working as advertised (like how the Wii didn't until motion plus), Xenoblade, and the other promised stuff which little is known so far. Circle Pad Pro games WON'T work with it. It doesn't detect the same from what I think I saw so far in a response on some site I read. The GBC exactly was what this is, a life extender. The GBC came out in 1998, was undone 3 years later in 2001. I see the same on this thing unless due to tablet heat they let it run longer to milk it.

[Jorpho]

The 3DS itself locked the ARM11 CPU in there at 50% of its actual speed

Didn't the PSP do something similar with its CPU? I thought it was a power consumption thing. (They did unlock it in a later firmware revision, though.)

[Tanooki]

Jorpho, not quiet. The PSP was open ended out of the box, it didn't get capped exactly. You could run it from a range of speeds up to the max, and obviously the faster it went the faster the battery went too. I think most games ran around the middle, but a few used it a lot and would run it dry quicker.


Leo I'm sure you didn't. But going into it pretty quickly it started to get stuff I knew I'd put a good many hours into and news was out there for it in advance so I dove in. Id hate to think I missed out on Mario Golf, Warlocked, Metal Gear, Dragon's Lair, 1942, Street Figher Alpha and others I once I had. I think Nintendo has a solid plan in place, and i think they've had it there for awhile. I think they also planned the DSi enough in advance too which is why both systems had processors scaled back to abuse later to drag out more time. They knew it worked on GBC so they did it again. It fits well not supporting the circle pad as planned, it drives more people to buy the N3DS because snapping up a 20 dollar strap on stick/buttons is not being given as a choice so it forces the buyers hand. I had one for a time, got it for $10 so I wasn't too upset when I ended up having 2 games that genuinely used it, then I sold it.

The thing is they're not releasing it with a single release, they're just not spacing it out. You get the unit or the XL model up front, instead of waiting a year and pissing people off again who have griped about those tactics even NOA has mentioned in their chit chat with the media types online. Sure there are too many 3DS's out there, but like with the DS and Gameboy there were a ton of DS/DSLite and GB/GBP units before them. They did it anyway twice before. I think it'll stick around probably 3 years maybe 4 into the life of a real replacement and in that time you'll get a mix of hybrid and unique games. I for one hope you're right about the hybrid hardware, I've said it before on here enough and elsewhere that they can't compete on consoles but stubbornly won't let it go. They need a non-compete all in one box, structured like the Neo Geo X was where you can dock and go at it with the TV and undock and have a screen good enough to still keep the quality there for the user. Given technology and what people in general expect from a portable it could be done in the $300 range I bet which would be consumer acceptable.