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Nintendo's Big-Screen 3DS XL Meets Lukewarm Reception
MojoKid writes "Nintendo took the wraps off its new, super-sized 3DS XL handheld on Friday, but reactions have been anything but enthusiastic. The new DS offers a larger set of screens (4.88 inches top / 4.18" bottom), better battery life, and will ship with a copy of New Super Marios 2 but it's launching into a very different market than what the original DS XL faced in 2009. The 3DS XL's battery improvements aren't just icing on the cake — they're seen as remedying a critical problem with the current handheld. It also won't support the second circle pad added by the Circle Pad Pro, which implies Nintendo is ready to kill that peripheral altogether. The other major problem is that a larger screen isn't really what the 3DS needed in order to be more successful."
As someone who does a lot of handheld gaming (need something to do on those long business trips...) I'm in complete agreement with TFA for once. They're spot on in summing up the 3DS's current shortfalls.
The 3DS really made two cardinal sins that are going to be difficult for Nintendo to correct for. The first was that Nintendo jumped on the 3D bandwagon at a great financial and technical cost. That autostereoscopic screen is really expensive to manufacture, and it's the single biggest power hog on the 3DS (it needs a very strong backlight). As a result it's also the primary reason for the 3DS's terribly unportable battery life of 3-5 hours.
The second sin was of course the control scheme. Actually, having one circle pad wasn't the problem; the problem was that Nintendo then went and designed their flagship 3DS title (Kid Icarus) around a convoluted control scheme that all but requires a stand in order to allow the user to use the one circle pad, the stylus, and the buttons at the same time. Consequently everyone who picks up Kid Icarus quickly comes to the same realization: this would be so much easier with two circle pads.
If Nintendo had gone in a different direction with Kid Icarus so that it worked well with the 3DS in your hands, no one would be the wiser. Instead by releasing a game with poor controls they've drawn attention to their own control deficiencies. Ultimately as a 2011 product they probably should have just done two circle pads in the first place, but really no one would have noticed or cared if their first party games had worked well with the one pad. Essentially they created the problem where there previously wasn't one.
Furthermore the 3DS XL can't really solve any of these problems, all it can do is exchange them for new ones. The larger battery improves the battery life for example, but now the console is oversized and unpocketable, and the pixel density becomes very poor. Nor does it do anything about the control problems, if not making them a bit worse since a Circle Pad Pro hasn't been announced for the XL. The only problem the 3DS XL really solves is the same problem the DSi XL solved: it allows Nintendo to go after the niche market of people who find the pocketable form factor too small to use (primarily the older generations with their poor eyesight and muscle control).
If Nintendo really wanted to fix the 3DS they could, but it would be painful and I can't blame them for not wanting to do it. They'd have to release a 2DS with a traditional (non-autostereoscopic) screen and a second circle pad. The former would solve the battery life issue, and the latter would solve the control issue. The problem with this being that besides the reputation hit they would take, it would also mean that current 3DS owners would be forced to buy the Circle Pad Pro, which would not go over well with what's effectively a budget market.
In the meantime the 3DS and 3DS XL are sitting on top of a dysfunctional mobile gaming market. Cell phone games suck because of control issues and the limited development resources that $0.99 can buy, the old DS is getting very long in the tooth, and the Vita - though the most traditional and sane of the current generation handhelds - is expensive and unpocketably large. No one seems to be capable of offering what the market has traditionally wanted: a cheap, pocketable device with good controls and the battery life to last through a transcontinental flight.