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3DS First Impressions
So I got my 3DS today a day early. I pre-ordered it as I'm a gadget fan and was curious about the new features the 3DS brings to the portable gaming market. Not just the 3D screen, but other funky features such as the Streetpass which just seems like a fantastic idea. How it'll work in real life, I'll find out when I get some games which support it (though I imagine the Mii sharing will happen regardless).
Anyway, I got the console with Pilotwings Resort and Super Monkeyball 3D. Out of the launch lineup, they were the ones which held the most interest for me, and also would make good use of the 3D screen. I was tempted to get Street Fighter IV 3D for it's Streetpass features, but I'm done with fighting games for the time being. They're OK but I never get good enough to want to keep at it.
Monkeyball's been done to death but I loved it on Gamecube and haven't played it in ages. I figured it'd look good in 3D too. In playing it, it's certainly the Monkeyball I remember. You can either tilt the console or use the analogue pad to control the game, the latter is probably easier but the former is a bit more immersive. Just like with it's predecessors, it's not content with just being Monkey Ball and so it's got 2 other game modes, Monkey Race and Monkey Fight. Monkey Race is a direct rip off of Mario Kart, to such a degree, I'm surprised Nintendo didn't intervene. However they possibly didn't because it's nowhere near as fun to play as Mario Kart. I've not played Monkey Fight but that's because I didn't get a Monkeyball game to have a beat-em-up :P I've not had time to play the game exhaustively but it's certainly everything I expected from a Monkeyball game but in 3D. No real innovations here and was slightly disappointed the mode where you launch, glide and land monkeys from one of the Gamecube games wasn't in it but I guess that's covered by Pilotwings.
I fondly remember seeing Pilotwings on Games World back in the 90's where they had to land a parachutist on a target but I had never played a Pilotwings game before so I didn't know about the rest of the game. I've only played the game for an hour or so but it looks like that mode I recall isn't in the game. Instead it seems you can fly, shoot stuff and land a plane, pilot your Mii around in a jetpack and land him and finally control and land a glider. Despite that rather simple description, it's a lot of fun to play and the 3D effect is superb. As I've said, I've not played it much and it seems as the game progresses, the modes become more complex but I do wonder about the long term appeal.
Elsewhere, the console has 2 built in games to show off what the unit can do. The first is "AR Games" which is the augmented reality games. Basically you put a card the system recognises on a table and the console rather impressively substitutes this with targets to shoot and other stuff. You also get character cards but these serve little purpose other than showing 3D characters on a table in the photo mode. Certainly an impressive display of the technology but it's just a tech demo. I imagine they may do more with this in the future. The other built in game is "Face Raiders" which allows you to take a photo of yourself and other people and the game maps the face onto 3D objects and allows you to shoot them by moving the console to find the objects in 3D space. Again, amusing to show off to others who haven't seen it before but it's not much more than that.
There's also some games in the Streetpass Mii Plaza but these rely on you collecting other Miis from being out and about so I can't say much about them. There's a "game" where you collect pieces of a picture and eventually build up a whole picture and the other is seemingly an RPG of sorts but can't do anything with it yet. I think there's supposed to be some kind of marketplace and web browser too but seems they're not in the current firmware (there was already an update to download after turning on for the first time today).
In summary however, I'm very surprised as to how well the 3D effect works and the social functions are pretty neat. I imagine there'll be plenty people at Confuzzled to share Miis with :) The games I've got certainly aren't killer games for the platform but are decent enough launch titles. I'm sure there'll be plenty of innovation and interesting games to come once the developers get stuck into the full potential of the console. However despite being an early adopter, I'm happy with my purchase so far, though I've yet to see how poor the battery life is due to not being close to a power socket.
Anyway, I got the console with Pilotwings Resort and Super Monkeyball 3D. Out of the launch lineup, they were the ones which held the most interest for me, and also would make good use of the 3D screen. I was tempted to get Street Fighter IV 3D for it's Streetpass features, but I'm done with fighting games for the time being. They're OK but I never get good enough to want to keep at it.
Monkeyball's been done to death but I loved it on Gamecube and haven't played it in ages. I figured it'd look good in 3D too. In playing it, it's certainly the Monkeyball I remember. You can either tilt the console or use the analogue pad to control the game, the latter is probably easier but the former is a bit more immersive. Just like with it's predecessors, it's not content with just being Monkey Ball and so it's got 2 other game modes, Monkey Race and Monkey Fight. Monkey Race is a direct rip off of Mario Kart, to such a degree, I'm surprised Nintendo didn't intervene. However they possibly didn't because it's nowhere near as fun to play as Mario Kart. I've not played Monkey Fight but that's because I didn't get a Monkeyball game to have a beat-em-up :P I've not had time to play the game exhaustively but it's certainly everything I expected from a Monkeyball game but in 3D. No real innovations here and was slightly disappointed the mode where you launch, glide and land monkeys from one of the Gamecube games wasn't in it but I guess that's covered by Pilotwings.
I fondly remember seeing Pilotwings on Games World back in the 90's where they had to land a parachutist on a target but I had never played a Pilotwings game before so I didn't know about the rest of the game. I've only played the game for an hour or so but it looks like that mode I recall isn't in the game. Instead it seems you can fly, shoot stuff and land a plane, pilot your Mii around in a jetpack and land him and finally control and land a glider. Despite that rather simple description, it's a lot of fun to play and the 3D effect is superb. As I've said, I've not played it much and it seems as the game progresses, the modes become more complex but I do wonder about the long term appeal.
Elsewhere, the console has 2 built in games to show off what the unit can do. The first is "AR Games" which is the augmented reality games. Basically you put a card the system recognises on a table and the console rather impressively substitutes this with targets to shoot and other stuff. You also get character cards but these serve little purpose other than showing 3D characters on a table in the photo mode. Certainly an impressive display of the technology but it's just a tech demo. I imagine they may do more with this in the future. The other built in game is "Face Raiders" which allows you to take a photo of yourself and other people and the game maps the face onto 3D objects and allows you to shoot them by moving the console to find the objects in 3D space. Again, amusing to show off to others who haven't seen it before but it's not much more than that.
There's also some games in the Streetpass Mii Plaza but these rely on you collecting other Miis from being out and about so I can't say much about them. There's a "game" where you collect pieces of a picture and eventually build up a whole picture and the other is seemingly an RPG of sorts but can't do anything with it yet. I think there's supposed to be some kind of marketplace and web browser too but seems they're not in the current firmware (there was already an update to download after turning on for the first time today).
In summary however, I'm very surprised as to how well the 3D effect works and the social functions are pretty neat. I imagine there'll be plenty people at Confuzzled to share Miis with :) The games I've got certainly aren't killer games for the platform but are decent enough launch titles. I'm sure there'll be plenty of innovation and interesting games to come once the developers get stuck into the full potential of the console. However despite being an early adopter, I'm happy with my purchase so far, though I've yet to see how poor the battery life is due to not being close to a power socket.