A far as Mobile gaming goes, I mean. If you are sitting at home with your good old WiFi then it's all good. Though if you want to take your 3DS out on the road, pretty much what portable gaming is all about, then you are going to be hard pressed to get a decent on-line connection. Even with AT&T's 10,000 free hot-spots. That covers what, about 1% of the United States?
Japan is a small and densely populated country. I could see how it would work for them but for people in the United States that actually want portability SpotPass is a joke. How often are you really gaming at StarBucks or McDonalds? Probably not often. It would be nice to actually play games, surf the web, or stream movies while out and about and not have to worry about finding a certain spot that most likely isn't anywhere close to the average American.
There really should have offered a 3G version. There has to be a huge market of people that aren't just going use their 3DS on-line while at there house. It just puzzles me that while Nintendo pushes the boundary, like motion controls and 3D, they are always behind the times in other aspects, poor downloadable service and now this SpotPass.
[insert 25 Cents here to play]