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Nintendo 3DS XL Is Out Now
Busshy writes "A few months after the rather subdued release of the PSVita comes the release of the Larger screened 3DS XL, improvements are the obvious larger screens and much improved battery life, CVG report that the 3D effect has noticeably improved. As you'd expect with a larger display, the sweet spot in which you have to angle the device to consume your trio of dimensions is far easier to find on the XL. The console is shipping in 3 variations with sites such as Amazon offering different deals depending on where you live in Europe. Those wanting the Transparent version of the 3DS XL are out of luck at this time. Slashdotters in the USA will have to wait till Mid August for the new console."
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Not all of us live in Europe. Wish /. would remember that. Why so Euro-centric? You know there are OTHER countries in the world other than those in Europe?
That sound whiny to you? It does to us US slashdotters too when you do it.
Super Mario Land 3D is pretty awesome. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is also supposed to be good but isn't out till August. If you haven't played it the first time around on the PS2, Tales of the Abyss is excellent. Kid Icarus is also great. And of course Ocarina of Time is too, but chances are you've already played it to death on the N64/GameCube/Wii.
There's also Mario Kart 7 and Resident Evil: Revelations, but I haven't personally played either of them quite yet.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
There really aren't very many DS versions though and they are all functionally identical. More options are better. Want a small, pocket sized console or have small hands? Get a 3DS. Want a larger console for those with larger hands? Get a 3DS-XL. Both will play the exact same games and have the exact same functions, its just that an 8 year old and a 28 year old have different hand sizes. A 3DS will feel cramped for those with large hands, a larger version won't. On the other hand, a 3DS-XL will feel huge if you have tiny hands.
If you want to complain about different models, look at Sony where there are different models that are not functionally identical (for example, a 60 GB PS3 can play PS2 games, a 160 GB PS3 cannot, and they both look the exact same).
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Can't wait for the North American release. I've had a 3DS since launch day and despite the naysayers it's more fun than a barrel of Donkey Kongs.
The 3DS versions also play games written for the DS versions, so the libraries are extras on top of the regular DS library.
The 3D games/3D effect isn't a reason to buy a 3DS if you already have a DS. It's a reason maybe to spend a little more and buy the 3DS if you don't already own a console of this type at all, but the older non-3D consoles seem really cheap at the moment so now's a good time to get one for each of your kids if you have more than one child.
My son and also my nephew have a 3DS and they both turn off the 3D effect and never use it, because their eyes get sore after extended periods - as per the warning labels on the console box & games.
I don't have a good answer to your question because I haven't seen any apps on the DS consoles that I would call a killer app.
"They should learn from Apple"
Apple has released 5 iPhones in 5 years, usually with an accompanying iPod Touch model to go with it. Nintendo has released 6 "DS"-branded consoles in 8 years: the DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, and 3DS XL. I'd say they're doing something quite similar to what Apple is doing. Apple releases two versions of the same product depending on if you want the addition of the phone functionality or not; Nintendo releases two versions of the same product depending on if you have larger hands or not.
Now I'll concede that the DSi models don't really differentiate themselves from the original two DS models as much as they should have, but the 3DS is enough of a complete change that I would say it's a brand new machine.
Malibu Stacy has a new hat!
Everything is better with chainsaws.
First of all, the GB -> GBA SP was not 19 years, it was 16 years, and even then you're putting the Gameboy and the Advance into the same product lifecycle, when they were two distinct products that were merely part of the same branding line. You're also skipping products. It goes: Gameboy -> Gameboy Pocket -> Gameboy Light (JP only) -> Gameboy Color. Then the Advance cycle goes: Gameboy Advance -> Gameboy Advance: SP -> Gameboy Advance Micro.
The original Gameboy line went from 1989 until 1998 and had 4 products in those 9 years, the first 5 years remaining largely untouched, however after those 5 years, Nintendo had consistently released new revisions of their Gameboy in two year increments.
The Advance line went from 2001 until late 2005, releasing 3 products, and ever single one of them involved minor hardware tweaks, and one of them seemed to be a complete gimmick (the micro). You could have played every game on a first generation and had no issues with the latest and greatest games.
The DS line went from 2004 until 2009, releasing 4 products, and only one of them had any edge over the others (the DSi, which had software specific to it and was the only one you might feel you "needed" to buy). The others were just tweaks that were not necessary or even necessarily better (some cases worse, as the XL had worse battery life than the DSi).
My point is that as far as Nintendo handheld products go, this has been business as usual for Nintendo since the original Gameboy days. Every 2 or so years (with the exception of the XL series which is one year, and is mostly a choice and not considered an upgrade path)
This doesn't even just happen to Nintendo, either. Sony has released 5 different PSPs in 6 years.
This happens at the console level too. Look at Sony and Microsoft. They're constantly releasing new revisions of the same hardware, adding or removing features, and reducing production costs.
I do believe that this is not actually completely shown as currently being a proven fact
On one hand, and it is your privilege as the reader of my thesis to decide if it should be the left or the right one, there is some concern about essays overusing proven formulas like the beloved "intro-for-against-conclusion" artificialy lengthened by space eating expressions that will typically generate way too long and difficult to read sentences.
On the other hand, so far, and as far as this thread is presently being concerned, it has mostly been a concern for anonymous cowards which are at the moment known to not be currently a reliable source for now.
Therefore, I don't think we can conclude that college kids are the only ones filling their essays with space wasters at this time