I'm still not quite sure what came over me, but yes, I purchased a 3DS. I was considering getting a DSi XL, because I actually just wanted a DS with a larger screen. Thing is, I realized that I'd essentially be buying an outdated piece of hardware, and there *are* a few 3DS games that I really wanted to play. Besides, how could I resist the Game Gear games in the eShop?

Anyway, I purchased the 3DS, a messenger bag and two games (Mario Kart 7 and Shinobi). Each item shipped from a separate distribution center, however, and everything arrived over the course of three days. The day after I placed my order, I received the 3DS and the messenger bag. I tried to resist the temptation of unboxing the 3DS prior to receiving at least one of the games, but I simply couldn't wait. I love messing around with new electronics. Alas, I was thoroughly disappointed with the experience, and I'd actually go so far as to say that I'm very underwhelmed by the hardware in a lot of ways.

Rather than be a complete bastard about every aspect of the hardware, however, I'll at least start off by telling you what I *do* like about 3DS. The d-pad, face buttons and triggers on 3DS are all vastly improved over their DS Lite counterparts. I kinda wish that they had a different finish from that of the system itself, though, because the existing finish doesn't lend itself well to allowing your thumbs to slide easily across them. Also, the face buttons tend to hurt my thumb with extended use, although that could be due to the fact that I press buttons too hard in particularly tense situations.

Okay, now, onto the bad stuff...

The Select, Home and Start buttons are fucking terrible. Whose bright idea was it to make all three buttons part of a single bar? Furthermore, why is the Power button closer in proximity to the action buttons than the button you use to pause most games? I'm sure that I'll get used to the position of these buttons over time, but I still feel that they should've been closer to the A, B, X and Y buttons than the fucking Power button.

Despite the improvements in the other input methods, the touch screen on 3DS is still a fucking piece of shit. Yes, I know: "Use the stylus." I don't want to use a fucking stylus. Let's forget for a moment that Nintendo somehow managed to make the stylus even less convenient to get to on 3DS than on DS Lite. (Amusingly, I was messing around with my Tiger Game.com recently, and I can't help but love the position of the stylus. It's on the front, right where it should be.) I still don't see how Nintendo expects players to use the face buttons and a touch screen when a stylus is pretty much required to get consistent feedback out of the screen.

I try to drag icons and inadvertently open apps. I try to scroll through menus and inadvertently make selections. Sure, I could use a stylus and gradually scratch the fuck out of my screen over time, but I honestly feel that the stylus is just a pain in the ass to retrieve from the top of the left side of the system's backside to make that an attractive option. Really, what was wrong with positioning it on the right side of the system's backside like on DS Lite?

Oh, and before I move on from the touch screen, what's the deal with the border surrounding it? Nice way to make the edges of the screen a complete bitch to use, Nintendo. Again, yeah, I'm using my fingers, but DS Lite didn't have a border this fucking high.

Moving on, it took me a while to get my fucking 3DS connected to the Internet (More on that in a moment.), so I figured that I'd kill some time with the pre-installed apps. Besides, I didn't have my games yet, so what else was I to do? Holy shit...these pre-installed apps are fucking garbage. No, I haven't used the AR cards yet, but that's because Face Raiders ran like shit to the point where I wasn't too keen on wasting my time with something similar that just added cards to the equation.

Most of the other pre-installed apps consist of garbage that you'd find on a Palm Pilot, and they're about as functional as something from that era of consumer electronics. To make things more annoying, 3DS insists on giving you notifications as you use apps, and it announces damn-near everything that you do with a title screen. Holy shit, Nintendo...I don't need to know when I've accessed the settings by having a title bar appear. Just show me the fucking settings.

The best part about all of these pre-installed apps is that you can't hide the icons from the main screen. Sure, you can move them all the way to the right side and zoom in so you can't see them, but really...why am I required to keep an icon for health warnings on my fucking home screen?

Anyway, after jumping through hoops to get 3DS connected to my wireless network (Really, I've only ever had issues with wireless networking when using Nintendo devices.), I decided to check out the eShop. The interface is clunky as fuck, and Nintendo's download speeds are, apparently, still shitty enough that the company saw fit to incorporate cute little animations that I couldn't give two shits about to somehow make people forgive the company's poor implementation of digital distribution. Anyway, Nintendo seems to think that it should take as many taps as possible to download one fucking item, so it doesn't surprise me that the company has the audacity to make you "unwrap" each download on your home screen before you can use it. Really, fuck you, Nintendo.

It disgusts me that Nintendo's attempts to breath life and personality into a user interface gets in the way of usability. Sure, it's not difficult to use, but there are so many extra steps to such simple processes. The system treats you like a fucking two-year-old. You can have a nice, quick interface with plenty of personality that doesn't prolong even the simplest of tasks. I really hope that Nintendo patches the living shit out of this thing to remedy some of my gripes, but I doubt that it'll ever happen.

Now, regarding getting this pile of shit connected to the Internet, my God...Nintendo really needs to get its shit together from a networking perspective. Thankfully, it supports several means of setting up a connection, but I feel sorry for anyone whose router doesn't support some of the automated setup methods, because this thing fucking blows when you're doing manual setup.

During my networking troubleshooting, I noticed that DS games don't support WPA security, so you need to use WEP or no security at all if you want to play DS games online on 3DS. Nice work, Nintendo.

Anyway, thankfully, 3DS is much easier to tolerate when you're playing a game and aren't dealing with the system's shitty UI. Unfortunately, the system's janky 3D negatively impacts the games. For starters, that 3D depth slider is fucking irritating. It's too easy to accidentally move while picking up the system. I'd disable it in Parental Controls to save myself that trouble, but I can't, because doing so would put me at a disadvantage in certain games. Why? Well, allow me to explain.

Prior to owning 3DS, I read people's comments about how the 3D legitimately makes it easier to judge distances within games. This is certainly true, but it's true for the wrong reasons. Mario Kart 7 and Shinobi both make good use of 3D, but the camera angles suffer for it. In Mario Kart 7, the camera shortens your view in certain areas of some tracks, making it very difficult to see certain obstacles (such as the boulders rolling toward you on one of the tracks). In Shinobi, certain background and foreground elements look no different from elements that're on the same plane as your character. Take flames, for example. Without 3D on, it can be impossible to tell whether flames are right in front of your character (making them an actual hazard, whether you can bypass it by jumping over it or by jumping up or down a level) or are on a different plane (and can simply be walked past). This is bad game design. There should be alternate camera settings for people who aren't using 3D.

Now, with all of that said, I must say that I'm really enjoying Mario Kart 7. I haven't played it online yet, but that's because I'm trying to get three-star ratings on every single cup in every single speed setting. I realize that it's not necessary in order to unlock everything, but holy shit...Nintendo really needs to rework this flawed ratings system. The game was more enjoyable for me when I wasn't trying to get three three-star ratings in 150cc. While Mario Kart 7 isn't as bad as Mario Kart Wii in terms of cheap items, I'd say that Mario Kart 7 can get unnecessarily frustrating in 150cc. I wouldn't mind so much if the speed setting was legitimately just a speed setting, but it's like the increase in speed also makes your opponents cheap assholes.

I still think that the game is very enjoyable, and it's not difficult to place first in races pretty consistently. It's just that it's so damn difficult to stay in first place long enough in any given race to get those three-star ratings.

Also, Shinobi's quite a cool game, but it doesn't compare to Mario Kart 7. I'll revisit it at some point, but I confess that I was basically only playing it to give me something to play while waiting for Mario Kart 7 to arrive. XD

Really quite surprised you bought a 3DS for yourself, kevinski. Bloody awful piece of kit for all the reasons you've stated plus other reasons too. 3DS is the only cartridge-based Ninty handheld (Pokémon mini, excepted) that I don't own and such is my low opinion of it I most likely never will.

The thing's selling well in much of the world now but if I were in the market for one I'd be hanging on for the first hardware revision which surely can't be far off now.

Shinobi (why couldn't they be sensible and give a name that clearly differentiated it ) started out as a DS game iirc so that probably goes some way to explaining why it turned out a little rough. *

Mildly surprised you're enjoying Mario Kart 7 without having ragged on it for being a little slow as that's a common criticism I've seen of the game.

EDIT:
* I see that in Japan the game was more sensibly titled Shinobi 3D.

What's funny is that rumors of a 3DS XL started circulating shortly after I placed my order online. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed about the possibility of a hardware revision taking place so close after my purchase. I was pleased that Nintendo announced nothing of the sort at E3. I will say, however, that I'll probably just get rid of my 3DS and get the 3DS XL if it ever comes along, though. I don't really expect a revision to address the most of my issues, however.

Anyway, I purchased it because there are certain games that I'll only be able to play on 3DS. As an example, it's been stated that Castlevania: Lords of Shadows - Mirror of Fate (Holy fucking long title, Batman!) is exclusive to 3DS.




I don't really have any issues with how the game looks. It's just that the camera angle is wrong, and I doubt that it would've been a problem on DS, because Sega would've had to find a different means of ensuring that you could tell foreground and background elements from elements that're on the same plane as your character. Also, it's possible that I just haven't gotten far enough yet, but I haven't seen any areas of the game that look nearly as bad as any of the screenshots I saw online prior to the game's release.




I don't really have any issues with the game's speed. Plus, Mario Kart is one of the few Nintendo series that I'd consider buying systems for. There's actually a good chance that I'll get Wii U, but that's for the same reasons that I purchased 3DS. Plus, I have a feeling that the 3DS and Wii U Castlevania games will work together in some fashion, and I assume that Wii U will have access to everything on Wii's Virtual Console, which means that I can get a ton of Castlevania games on one system. I hope that the DS Castlevania games are re-released on Wii U, by the way. That might actually get me to care about that tablet controller.




I haven't really been paying much attention to the storyline, personally, but I think that it would've been nice for the game to have some sort of subtitle in general. I hate companies' tendencies to just tack certain letter/number combinations onto the beginning/end of game titles in order to associate them with certain systems (e.g. 3D, 64, Super).

I bought one at launch. I'm a HUGE fan of the Virtual Boy and couldn't wait to play a full color version! I was a little disappointed at first, but now that some better games have been released I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. If you haven't bought one yet, you might want to wait for the inevitable redesign, though.

3D

The 3D looks pretty good, the only real problem is that the field of view is fairly narrow which causes issues if you are in the habit of moving your hands while playing.

Graphics

Huge step up from the DS, Metal Gear looks just like it did on the PS2!

Touchscreen

The problem is that they decided to go with a resistive touchscreen instead of capacitive like most smartphones have.

Home, Start, and Select Buttons

Horrid. If you haven't seen a 3DS, some idiot designer decided to make them flush with the case which makes them almost impossible to press when you want to. Trying to save in Link's Awakening is a nightmare (see what I did there? ).

3D Slider Bar

I actually like the 3D slider bar and wish the Virtual Boy had had one. Being able to adjust the 3D on the fly really helps avoid eye strain. The Virtual Boy's 3D could actually be adjusted programmatically via software, but only a couple of games took advantage of it.

Circle Pad Pro

A necessity for any game that supports it. My single biggest complaint about the Circle Pad Pro is that it ISN'T wide enough. The right thumbstick is right next to the edge which causes thumb cramps. Other than that, it works great with Metal Gear and the contoured back feels great.

Games

Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 3D Land, and Metal Gear Solid are fantastic! Kid Icarus is just AWFUL, don't believe all the online fanboy reviews giving it a 10 out of 10.

Brian

The problem with this is that you have to move the system in some games, depending on which control scheme you're using. It makes for a pretty poor experience, in my opinion.




I was really surprised at how good Resident Evil: Revelations looks.




I don't want to buy a Circle Pad Pro, so I just won't buy any game that suffers without it. Resident Evil: Revelations is a great-looking game, and it seems like it could be really enjoyable. Problem is, the controls absolutely blow. The only thing that keeps me from liking control scheme C is the fact that your sub-weapons are mapped to Down on the d-pad.

I just started playing Mirror Mode in Mario Kart 7. I'm not sure if this is the laziest implementation of Mirror Mode in a game ever or if it's usually done this way, but I noticed that the game literally just mirrors the graphics (aside from the HUD). Lakitu's sign is backwards, as is the word "Mii" on your back if you're racing as your Mii. Lazy.

I recall reading several reviews where it was suggested the various 'rough around the edges' issues evident in Mario Kart 7 were likely due to Ninty's desperation to rush the game out the door ASAP in time for Christmas to try help reviving the console's then abominable sales.

Nice to see that Nintendo is taking the release-it-asap-and-patch-it-later approach.

Man, makes me sad to see you are so disappointed with the machine. I dunno', personally I didn't think it was all that bad. Seems to me that download speeds were much slower on the PSP. Then again, I could be just imagining things. I hope you find more stuff on the system so you at least feel the purchase was justified. I can recommend the latest Resident Evil romp. It really is a cool little game. As for Kid Icarus, I can't say I agree with the above post in that it doesn't suck, however, I will agree that it isn't as good as some people are making it out to be. A fun little game, but nowhere as cool as the original games in the series were. I do like the 3D Classic version of the original game though. Makes for some serious fun if you liked the first game and the original Gameboy titles. Hopefully Castlevania releases and it's as good as it looks like it's going to be.

It's hard for me to accept 3DS for what it is when its UI is so terrible. Perhaps I'm spoiled by Windows Phone (and Android before it), but I really just feel that there's a lot that Nintendo could do to streamline certain processes.




Not sure. I suppose that I'm not as annoyed by Sony's approach to downloads, because it doesn't attempt to compensate for it by adding some sort of cute animation. Also, Nintendo really needs to let players disable the background music in the system menu, as well as in other apps.




Well, I'm looking forward to the new Fire Emblem game. And Castlevania. Outside of that, though, I just hope to God that Sega releases plenty of Game Gear games on Virtual Console. Oh, and Konami needs to release some Castlevania games on Virtual Console.




I couldn't get used to the controls, and I'm not buying a Circle Pad Pro for one game. As such, I'll probably pass on it. It's an incredible-looking game, though. It's just a shame that Capcom couldn't get the controls to not be complete shit without a Circle Pad Pro.




I'm not really interested in the new game, especially since it includes a stand (which more or less means that its control scheme is complete ass and requires some form of compensation). I didn't care for the NES original, either.




I'm not expecting to really enjoy it. It looks like a 2.5D LoS. To me, there should be a point in any given Metroidvania game in which you're completely raping just about every normal enemy you encounter, and it looks as though LoS:MoF is trying to turn what should be very simple battles into epics. I didn't like it in LoS, and I doubt that I'll enjoy it in LoS:MoF. I'll probably buy it because it's Castlevania, but I expect to be pretty disappointed in it.

I was about to browse the eShop and make some purchases. Won't connect. Big surprise. Stupid fucking Nintendo.

I would expect they actually did that on purpose. It would actually take additional code to flip the textures, eh? It the geometry that needs to be flipped for a mirror mode. Someone was being silly and they decided to keep it.

They should've just applied text (or logos in general) as separate layers (assuming that they didn't already) and just provide flipped versions of them. Assuming that you could just alter texture paths using variables, doing this could be as simple as adding a string to the texture path to reference the flipped textures.

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying, unless you're still saying you don't want them flipped. There's no need to provide additional bitmap resources when the hardware can flip them -- and even if they did, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Ah, good point. I suppose that they could just flip certain textures in Mirror Mode. But yeah, I'd still prefer them to be flipped properly. It really just strikes me as lazy in its current form.

On a side note, Luigi's Mansion 2 looks really good. I loved the first game on the cube, so should be interesting.

I'm not really interested in the Luigi's Mansion games, to be honest. The audio in the original is too damn repetitive, and the game play style really doesn't strike me as something that'd keep me engaged. I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX and The GG Shinobi on 3DS, however, so it's not as though I haven't been playing my 3DS a lot.

I must say that Link's Awakening makes me hate the Select and Start buttons on 3DS even more than I hated them before. Whose bright idea was it to not only make you press A, B, Select and Start at the same time in order to save, but also to not map the Select and Start buttons within the Game Boy emulator to the face buttons (or at least let you remap them)?

Kudos to Sega for allowing you to fully remap the controls in its Game Gear games, however.

Also, regarding Link's Awakening, why do you use powder to light torches? That's fucking stupid. It would've made more sense for Nintendo to just include the lantern from the original LoZ.

God dammit. - Link

So it took less than a fortnight then!

(Albeit that we're looking at an 'XL' variant, not a hardware revision per see, to be fair)



Still no second circle pad. Oh dear, oh dear!

Not surprising, although I do find it amusing that yet another Circle Pad Pro will need to be released if XL users aren't to be stuck with shitty controls for certain games.

3DS have dropped to $149 on target.com... XL version will push this price down even more.

Tempted now...

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I'm gonna just trade my 3DS in and get a Vita.

For starters, there are two pretty decent bundles coming up. (No, the Madden bundle doesn't count.) I could get the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation bundle in October or the Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified bundle in December. (I'll probably opt for the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation bundle.) Both of them will cost as much as the non-3G Vita, but both of these bundles include the 3G model. I don't plan on using the 3G, but it'll be nice to have the option if I ever decide to use it. Also, I'm not sure if this is true of the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation bundle, but the Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified bundle includes a 4GB memory card. Not bad.

Now, while I'm all for saving money, the value of these bundles has nothing to do with my reasoning for purchasing them. There just aren't any Vita games that I want right now. Come October or December, however, there will be.

- LittleBigPlanet (September)
- Persona 4 Golden (November)
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (December)
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (November, and why the fuck did Sega removed "Sega" from the title for the sequel?)

I'll probably even pick up Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (which is already available), because I never really bothered to play MGS2 or MGS3. I might even pick up Mortal Kombat (which is also already available).

I realize that this is odd coming from me, but Vita's really just better hardware. I know that now, since I recently had some hands-on time with it. 3DS fucking blows in comparison. With Sonic & [Sega] All-Stars Racing Transformed coming out in November, the fact that 3DS has Mario Kart doesn't fucking matter to me anymore. With Mario Kart no longer being significant, what does 3DS have to offer me? A fucking Castlevania game that I'll probably hate.

Honestly, I may just trade in my 3DS for a DSi XL. I'll still probably get a Vita, either way.

I have both right now and to be honest I spend more time with my 3DS then my Vita. That has a lot to do with the games available right now though and as you mentioned there is a lot of good games coming up for the Vita. Also like you said the Vita hardware is way better. I just saw the other day that they are finally adding PS1 classic support to the Vita starting next week. Once that happens I think my 3DS will probably take a back seat as those old games look really good on the Vita and of course I haven't played all of them so a lot of them are new to me. If it came down to it and I had to choose just one I think I would pick the Vita just for what's coming up and because of the better hardware.

Man, I could've sworn that the ACIII and CoD bundles included with 3G models, but it would seem that they're WiFi-only. I'm pretty sure that Sony made changes to the bundles, because - according to other people - the ACIII bundle originally included a memory card, but now doesn't.

I want to play LM2, but I doubt I'll buy the 3ds just to play it.