The DS gazes also into you
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:35 pm
Despite having ended reservations less than two days after they began, there is apparently no shortage of 3DS's because to my amazement, I was able to stroll into Geo yesterday afternoon and buy one right off the shelf.
The design is kind of strange. It's like three thin bricks, each a different width, thickness, and hue, stacked on top of each other. It looks and feels very blocky and metallic like I've covered my system with some wholly unnecessary third-party shell accessory. I guess I'll have to wait for next year's model for something sleeker. The touch pen is very short compared to the DS and the holster is up on the top like the original model DS's - very inconvenient compared to the latter model DS's which had the holster on the right side. You can't just slip it in and out without looking now, you actually have to turn the system over to see where you're poking around at.
Anyway, dubious industrial design aside, I'd never seen this technology before, so I was eager to see how the 3D looked. It is completely convincing. Things don't really pop out of the screen so much as they recede in. It looks like you're gazing through a flat window into a small box. Obviously the illusion is broken if you're not viewing it from straight ahead, but unless you like to dance while playing, it's not an issue. Of course, only the top screen is 3D (and it's also a bit larger), which will kind of make it difficult to utilize for games in which the action flows between screens such as Sonic Rush or Space Invaders Extreme (granted, I don't know how many such games exist).
I didn't get any games to go with it because, well, I refuse to play Nintendogs, but it does come with a couple of things preloaded. I actually had fun just messing with the camera. Anything in view comes up on the screen as a 3D image, so it was kind of cool just looking at a miniature 3D version of my apartment inside my 3DS. It's got a game called "Kao Shooting" (Face Shooting) where you take pictures of yourself or your friends, then their faces are automatically texture-mapped into 3D disembodied heads that fly out the screen and try to attack you with smooches. It utilizes the camera, so the background for the game is actually whatever room you're in. You physically move the unit around to aim at the faces and try to shoot them with paintballs.
You can use your Mii's now - I assume it's possible to transfer directly from the Wii, but I didn't try. You can actually take a picture of yourself with the camera and the system comes up with some suggested Mii's based on your profile - again, some amazing technology in that! There's a new thing called "Surechigai Mii Hiroba", (crossing paths Mii plaza) with a couple of minigames involving collecting puzzle pieces or something. I didn't really understand the explanation, but I think if you carry your system with you and keep it in sleep mode, it will read any nearby powered on units, collect the user's Mii data, and earn you "Game Coins" which are used to unlock new features. It's impossible to progress in the minigames otherwise. (I imagine Tokyo is the only place this works in practice.)
The unit also comes with 6 "augmented reality" game cards. This is not new technology, but again, it was the first time I'd ever seen it, so I was wholly impressed. There's a simple shooting game similar to Kao Shooting, a kind of pool game where you have to knock a ball around a simple 3D course built from the backdrop of whatever the card is sitting on, a fishing game, and a doodle program. There are some additional minigames that require the aformentioned "Game Coins" to unlock. I assume they eventually plan to sell more of these cards.
So yeah, the technology is cool, the design sucks, the price is about $80 too high, and as of this moment, there is no software that any fiscally responsible adult should want to play. I keep reading about all this eyestrain nonsense, but I played for about two hours with no issues. Granted, I've spent so much of my life gazing at screens and monitors my eyes gave up the will to live years ago. They are numb to any further abuse.
The design is kind of strange. It's like three thin bricks, each a different width, thickness, and hue, stacked on top of each other. It looks and feels very blocky and metallic like I've covered my system with some wholly unnecessary third-party shell accessory. I guess I'll have to wait for next year's model for something sleeker. The touch pen is very short compared to the DS and the holster is up on the top like the original model DS's - very inconvenient compared to the latter model DS's which had the holster on the right side. You can't just slip it in and out without looking now, you actually have to turn the system over to see where you're poking around at.
Anyway, dubious industrial design aside, I'd never seen this technology before, so I was eager to see how the 3D looked. It is completely convincing. Things don't really pop out of the screen so much as they recede in. It looks like you're gazing through a flat window into a small box. Obviously the illusion is broken if you're not viewing it from straight ahead, but unless you like to dance while playing, it's not an issue. Of course, only the top screen is 3D (and it's also a bit larger), which will kind of make it difficult to utilize for games in which the action flows between screens such as Sonic Rush or Space Invaders Extreme (granted, I don't know how many such games exist).
I didn't get any games to go with it because, well, I refuse to play Nintendogs, but it does come with a couple of things preloaded. I actually had fun just messing with the camera. Anything in view comes up on the screen as a 3D image, so it was kind of cool just looking at a miniature 3D version of my apartment inside my 3DS. It's got a game called "Kao Shooting" (Face Shooting) where you take pictures of yourself or your friends, then their faces are automatically texture-mapped into 3D disembodied heads that fly out the screen and try to attack you with smooches. It utilizes the camera, so the background for the game is actually whatever room you're in. You physically move the unit around to aim at the faces and try to shoot them with paintballs.
You can use your Mii's now - I assume it's possible to transfer directly from the Wii, but I didn't try. You can actually take a picture of yourself with the camera and the system comes up with some suggested Mii's based on your profile - again, some amazing technology in that! There's a new thing called "Surechigai Mii Hiroba", (crossing paths Mii plaza) with a couple of minigames involving collecting puzzle pieces or something. I didn't really understand the explanation, but I think if you carry your system with you and keep it in sleep mode, it will read any nearby powered on units, collect the user's Mii data, and earn you "Game Coins" which are used to unlock new features. It's impossible to progress in the minigames otherwise. (I imagine Tokyo is the only place this works in practice.)
The unit also comes with 6 "augmented reality" game cards. This is not new technology, but again, it was the first time I'd ever seen it, so I was wholly impressed. There's a simple shooting game similar to Kao Shooting, a kind of pool game where you have to knock a ball around a simple 3D course built from the backdrop of whatever the card is sitting on, a fishing game, and a doodle program. There are some additional minigames that require the aformentioned "Game Coins" to unlock. I assume they eventually plan to sell more of these cards.
So yeah, the technology is cool, the design sucks, the price is about $80 too high, and as of this moment, there is no software that any fiscally responsible adult should want to play. I keep reading about all this eyestrain nonsense, but I played for about two hours with no issues. Granted, I've spent so much of my life gazing at screens and monitors my eyes gave up the will to live years ago. They are numb to any further abuse.
