How Nintendo’s 3DS stole E3.
By Joseph Tresca
Now don’t get me wrong, it certainly could have been the fact that Nintendo hired some beautiful women to show off their newest hand held phenom, and you might make the argument that this has some how skewed my perception of just how amazing it was to hold it in my hands, but I’d say that Nintendo’s 3DS was bar none the most impressive piece of kit at E3 this year.
I’m about as skeptical as they come, especially when it comes to Nintendo products. I’ve been burned before with the Game Cube and I was never impressed with the Wii. I respect that Nintendo has captured the casual market with motion controls and touch pads, but it always seemed gimmicky to me. So with a healthy dose of Nintendo prejudice, I reluctantly stepped onto the long line to have some hands on time with Nintendo’s newest bundle of joy.
During my wait which amounted to somewhat around 1.5 hours, Nintendo’s beauties gave a few people a small taste of what was in store for us once we entered the 3DS area which was cordoned off by security. They’d walk up and down the snaking lines with a 3DS tethered to them.
There wasn’t much in the way of actual games to play but the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and Resident Evil demonstrations really looked fantastic. At such a small resolution, I’d say that this puppy packs the power of the Wii into a hand held device. That’s pretty darn powerful.
Oh yeah and it’s in 3D. Not the kind of 3D that pops out of the screen at you but it could best be described as a window into a truly 3D dimensional world. The effect is absolutely mind blowing. Mario and company really appear to be living inside your 3DS instead of being pasted on a 2D plane. If this takes off like Nintendo thinks it will, ultimately support for the purchase of 3D televisions will also benefit Sony who is making a similar push with the PS3 and full size televisions. A release date and pricing has not yet been revealed but if Nintendo can keep this around the 200 dollar range, they’ll have a run away hit.
