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Nintendo Announces 3D Successor of Nintendo DS
An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo has posted a press release (PDF) titled 'Launch of New Portable Game Machine,' promoting a new, upcoming handheld game console temporarily named the 'Nintendo 3DS,' which will feature 3D graphics without the need for any sort of special glasses. It will be backward-compatible with DS and DSi games."
An article at Kotaku speculates on how the 3D tech will work. The launch window is vague — sometime between April 2010 and March 2011. More details will be revealed at E3 in June.
From the Kotaku post that describes a Japan-only 3D title for the DSi, it appears that this new device (if using similar technology) is not 3D in the "Avatar" sense, but 3D in the "Johnny Lee Head Tracking on Wii" sense.
The image itself is still flat, but the system updates the image to present different angles based on the way you hold it (using the camera with head tracking). So you can turn the 3DS to look around objects. I think that would be a very effective (and useful) use of 3D than simply making things look like they're coming out of the screen.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
I look forward to the successor of the Nintendo 3DS: the Nintendo 3DS Max.
That's easy. The user closes the left and right eye rapidly in an alternating fashion and in sync with the stereo signal switching.
I hope this 3D fad is over soon. It's just another excuse to distract people with eye-candy instead of creating something more compelling.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
I was hoping 3D would kind of peter out in a couple years but it's getting ridiculous. :(
As a man-child who hates change, the Nintendo handhelds have been the last bastion of sprite-based gaming for me. As a cyclops who doesn't see in 3D anyway, I have no interest in the gimmick. Don't you do this to me Nintendo!
--- Do you believe in the day?
Don't make another gimmicky console overflowing with copious amounts of shovelware.
Nintendo doesn't release shovelware, except possibly the WarioWare franchise which is a well-executed satire of shovelware. As for third-party shovelware, the developer criteria are already significantly more restrictive than those for iPhone. If Nintendo does anything to rein in third parties' shovelware, it will draw criticism that its platform is too closed and that there is no way for a third party to make money from the platform.
And no, first-party shouldn't be the sole source of quality games.
You can't have it both ways.
Virtual Boy anyone? I thought they did this before :P
The VirtualBoy should never have left the prototype stage. To play it you had to sit in an awkward position and the "3D" was pretty much just a gimmick. E.g. in Wario the blocks swing in and out of the screen instead of up and down like in Mario games. I recall wondering what Nintendo was thinking when they released a product even the ardent Ninentdo fanboys back then had trouble praising.
That's more than likely a function of your age, not the intrinsic fun of the game. Many people seem to have an age where video game enjoyment is at a peak. Afterwards we're nostalgic for the fun we had at the time. There seems to be similar effects with some genres of movie (especially sci-fi) and music.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
But unlike the other companies in the industry, when it rehashes titles, Nintendo usually creates games you haven't played before.
Actually, they're sort of the exception to the rule that game companies abuse their trademarks to basically do nothing of any value. Nintendo uses their trademarks to make good games sell even better.
I thought the GameCube would be Nintendo's last console, but they survived through the worst sales they ever had with a console.
I thought the DS' twin screen gimmick would never stand against the PSP, but the DS went on to become the best selling portable of all time.
I thought the Revolution controller was a gimmick, but it touched a nerve with gamers when it was publicly playable at E3.
I thought the name of the Wii would prevent it from ever being taken seriously, but people got over it.
I thought the inferior graphical capabilities of the Wii would sink it, but the sales numbers showed the market didn't care.
I thought the Wii was just a fad when it first came out, but the sales stayed high and continued to break records three years later.
I thought Wii Fit wouldn't take off, but then it went on to exceed the PS3's entire fanbase.
I thought the 3D graphics of the 3DS would add nothing substantial to games, but by then, I learned to stop betting against Nintendo.
You should try Super Mario Brothers Wii.
They go back to the side-scroller style with a new game - different suits, new mechanics, and new worlds in which to chase down Bowser and Princess Toadstool. It's the same type of game as the old SMB games, but it is definitely not re-hashed anything except the premise.
Probably the funnest part about it is the co-op play. The mechanics are such that you really do need to strategize and cooperate with your partner in order to succed in co-op mode. My roommate and her boyfriend are so bad together, it's hilarious. ^^
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller