Product Features

Genre: Consoles
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: March 25, 2011
Available Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo 3DS Handheld Console Cosmos Black

Summary
Reviews
Trailers
Price History

"Nintendo 3DS Console:What is the 3DS?The rumours had been round for ages, but that didn’t stop everyone’s jaws dropping the moment Nintendo officially unveiled the 3D follow-up to its DS handheld. Especially as it doesn’t require cumbersome 3D glasses to enjoy its startling effects, and even offers 3D picture-taking and movie-watching!Featuring the traditional dual-screen, the top 3.5-inch gaming display is designed to produced crisp 3D images, while the bottom 3D-less display works as the touch panel. The sleek little machine also promises improved graphics capabilities over previous DS models, as well as incorporating new motion-sensor controls, which Nintendo is confident will lead to “interesting new gaming ideas from developers".What else can it do?While...

Deanna Crook April 19, 2011 3DS

****

I got my 3DS a bit more than 3 weeks back, and I must say, I'm not dissapointed! Here are reviews on some of it's features!

The 3D Effect:
This is very, very impressive, you do not think it will work so well, then you get to the main menu switch on the 3D, and it really hits you! The pencils on the activity Log are my personal favourite! I also love the 3D video that is provided with the first 3DS update, that does show off it's 3D skills! Unfortunatly, on some games you do loose focus whilst playing, some games are worse than others! e.g In nintendogs, I hardly ever do lose focus, and often have the 3D effect on, though after playing for a while you get the occational loss of focus, now where as pilotwings resort, I constantly lose focus and end up turning the 3D off, though if you do set the 3D to a lower setting, that does often help!

Hardware:
The 3DS does come with some good Pre-installed hardware!, which includes:

FaceRaiders:
Great fun little game, will keep you entertained for a while, though hard to focus on the 3D as you are spinning around everywhere! But Ovarall Good!

AR Games:
Fantastic fun, and if you can print off a A4 size AR card off your computer, you'll have even more fun, me and my friends spend hours of time messing with this! Eventully you unlock a Little shop which you can buy things with coins (Look under "Other" below) and unlock other games & mini games!

3DS Camera:
Good fun, not as many features as the DSi camera, but it does the job nicely! The cameras quality is rather poor, but I have seen worse.

3DS Sound:
Great! You can now have your MP3's with you on your 3DS, Nintendo made a great choice there, and you can even have a little mess about with your MP3 songs, also you can record your own sounds, BUT for only 10 seconds, This could be Longer, as you can barely fit anything in 10 seconds! I do find this slightly annoying, but i dont use it much anyway, but I'm sure younger Kids will enjoy it!

Mii Maker:
Great new feature! I love making mii's! I have made loads of crazy mii charecters! The photo mii making doesnt work to well though, I always end up changing the features completely myself. Though it does help as it keeps the photo next to the mii, so you can study the photo carefully and make it close as possible your way! It even includes making your Mii's into codes, a picture code, and if you show that code to another 3DS camera, out pops your mii with no hesitation! It saves the code to your 3DS Camera Album, on your SD card and you can then plug it to your computer, and put your Code photo on an Email, a mobile phone Text, online forums etc. then send it to your mates who own a 3DS.

Mii Plaza & StreetPass:
Mii Plaza is for StreetPass, when you walk past another 3DS, you collect their mii, and use them to play Mini games, Puzzle Swap & StreetPass Quest, In Puzzle Swap, You collect one piece of puzzle from a mii, once a puzzle is complete, you unlock somthing (I wont spoil it). Street Pass Quest, in this, your mii have been taken prisoner, and you use the mii's you collected (you can only use each mii once) as brave warriors to get pass each bad guy. Unfortunatly, the process is long as there are not many 3DS' about, so you dont collect many mii's, though you can cheat these games by buying puzzle pieces and warriors for the games with coins (Look below). The StreetPass Itself is very exciting, A little green Light Flashes when you have passed another 3DS, that is handy, and it is another Fun feature on the 3DS.

The Activity Log:
This is a simple tool, that tells you what games you have played, & for how long, also how many steps, when, I do not use it much, but for some people, it may come in useful!

Other:

Pedometer & coins:
There is the pedometer, which counts your steps, and for evey 100 steps, you get 1 coin,
unfortunaly you can only have 10 coins a day, and a max of 300 all together, with the coins you can unlock some AR Games, Mii Plaza Games and apparently some things in other certain games, e.g Lego Star Wars 3.

Friends list:
As with the Wii, you can have friends by exchanging friend codes, but this time, you only need the one friend code, not one for the console, and seperate one for each game thankfully, Also a new feature, you can see your friends list, and it tells you what they are currently playing on, and if they are online etc! I dont Have any friends on my list yet unfortunaly.

Internet Browser & Eshop:
These are not yet Available, but shall be with the next upday at the end of may 2011!

The Outside Console:
Very Glossy, and pretty, but also very fingerprint magnet, but yeah, nice, just have a cleaner cloth handy. Quite light, has a comforatable grip to it, though does hurt if playing in the same place for a long period. There have been many complaints about wobbly hinges, I have not recived that myself, they are rather sturdy, and opens & closes nicely.

Circle Pad:
Great Addition, feels great to handle and use, very smooth, I have not used it in many DS games, but Some games it Works really well (Animal crossing, Viva Piana) other games, I have heard are not so comfortable to use (Mario Kart), but I think it is very comforatable and useful for 3DS games.

Buttons:
They're clicky like the DSi, which is more comfortable.

Games:
The graphics are fantastic for a handheld, Nintendogs is very realistic, and pilotwings looks just like wii sports resort, As for Games that are currently out, A couple of good games out, but nothing spectacular, but there is sure some good games coming out in the future.

Docking Station & Charger:
The Docking station is cool, the 3DS sits nicely in it, and looks good on a desk, by your bedside, etc, the charger lead goes into the Docking Station, and comes out so you can use it seperately, say if you want to take it on holiday. It is the same charger as the DS lite & DSi, so you should be able to use it for both and even theirs for the 3DS.

Stylus:
Very cool stylus, telescopic, metal, plastic tips, fits nicely into slot, though some complaints have been made that it does rattle about sometimes, but, I have not recived that problem myself. The sylus is now at the back, which I do find rather annoying, where as before it was on the side, ready for you to slip out if you needed it, now if you want it quickly, you have to search the back with your fingers and try and find it, and end up having to tilt your 3DS and look for it. It's not a major flaw, but if it could be changed, I would welcome it!

Well I think thats all, And I overall Give it 10/10 and reccomend it, just dont expect to much from it just yet as more great games are yet to be relesed, and future updates are yet to come which will help to improve it greatly!