3DS Arrives at Nintendo Life

Awesome have fun with it.

we need your impressions very soon

Nice. Sucks that I'm not interested in those games to begin with. When will you have others?

I've pre-ordered Pilotwings Resort and Ridge Racer 3DS so I'm looking forward to the review! If Ridge Racer isn't as good as I hope then Ill change it to Asphalt, I was lucky enough to play it recently and it's a solid racer, though I think I'd prefer Ridge Racer!

Have fun, and really put it through its pacing!

Quick question - does the eShop feature in any form on the launch device, or is it coming later? If it's here already, what's on there and what are the prices like?

I've gotta get this system...

@DiggerDan Satoru Iwata said it will come with a UNIVERSAL update in late May. I'm pretty sure that means it's coming later, even in the Japanese device.

Yep, there's no eShop on this launch unit. Oh and I've got Super Monkey Ball 3D coming on Friday that I'll review soon as well.

Yay I cant wait for the reveiws!

to tell the truth though, im a bit jealous.

Are you going to re-review the game once you have the English version with English menu's and so forth?

I'm glad you guys got 2 of the games I was going to buy at launch I'll be obsessively refreshing your site over the next week or so until I get reviews
But, no Shadow Wars?
I'm always the most anxious for reviews on the games you hear nothing about

EDIT: I need to learn game titles.

Can you guys please review Sims 3? I'm hearing a lot of rumors about how bad it's going to be, and since I preordered it, I'm afraid I might be wasting my money.

No most of these games are mostly in English anyway and since we know what the menus are for, it would be kinda pointless to re-review them in English when we won't be getting anything more out of them. If we find them too difficult to navigate (and none of these three are) then we'll wait for the NA versions.

JEALOUS!

Do You Know when the reviews will be up?

....Sims....3?

Any defects on your 3DS? such as off-tinted screens, the two screens tints not matching on white backgrounds, loose wobbly hinges, sticky Circle Pad, dead pixels, etc.

Nope! It looks, sounds, and feels perfecto! And as for the reviews, well it will greatly depend on what else comes up between now and then.

1up have said that DS games don't look very good on the 3DS, but I think they were being a little pedantic.
Do you think you could check and tell us how DS games look on the 3DS? I'm thinking of trading in my XL to knock a bit off the 3DS price, but won't if I won't be able to play my DS library at the quality I'm used to.
Thanks!

Where is your Pikmen card?

As much as I love Monkey Ball, and as perfect as it would be for 3D, I don't have high expectations for this 3DS version. There's only three game modes, the standard play, Monkey Fight, and Monkey Race (which apparently involves carts now). Sounds like a rush job to me. I think I'd rather have a port of the original game, however many years ago that was. At least that had 6 fleshed-out minigames.

Yeah, I'm wondering about DS games too Corbs. If you can somehow pry yourself away from Monkeyball for 5 seconds (I understand if you can't), try throwing in a DS cart and let us know how that looks!

Corbie, you lucky dog.
I'm ready to hear all about the battery life, and how it changes depending on what you do with it.

Luckyyyyyyyy! Have fun, Corbs...

So Aqua Blue or Cosmos Black guys? Which one do you all like better?

I tried a DS game (Sonic Classics Collection) on a 3DS today and it looked absolutely fine. If you want to you can always launch it in standard resolution by holding Start + Select when it's loading!

Having the 3DS banner on the right side of the box instead of the left looks so weird.

@28 Yeah that was one of the first things I noticed, maybe it's only on the Japanese version?

@Mikau94 That's how they look in Europe too, so I'd expect them to be the same everywhere

I don't recall reading it in your 3DS FAQ, but, when the 3DS is in its charging cradle, do you hold the entire thing combined, allowing you to still play the 3DS, or is the cradle for charging while you're "not" playing it only?

I added the DS games on the 3DS info to the faq. Playing DS games stretched gives them a "fuzzy" look to them and takes a bit of their vibrancy away. I basically took my DSi and my 3DS and compared the exact same games side-by-side to see how they compared. I personally don't care for it stretched out, therefore I play the DS games at their original resolution. Of course the downside to this is that it makes them a bit small in size, but it's a small trade off for the added clarity.

@26 I preordered the black one. The colour blue they chose is really odd and I personally don't like it.

Woop woop!!! i played a 3DS at liverpool 3DS pre-launch this morning. I got play with face raiders, Augmented reality dragon card demo. Plus 3 other actual games - Dead or Alive Dimension, Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D and steel diver. and got shown how 3D camera on 3DS works:P

It was amazing sadly i had go work but there loads other games there like - zelda OT, rabbid rabbits, pes 2011, nintendog + cats, street fighter etc.

My favourite gams was Dead or Alive dimension it looked incredible!! its one my top games get now

lucky people i swear lol

Cool. Can't wait for the SSF review.

I HATE you now Corbie

@ 33 YES. Agreed.

How are the shoulder buttons? They're not like the DSi's, right? RIGHT?!

3DS is lumpyer. :3
Those are the two games im probably buying at launch, so can't wait for reviews to confirm my fisrt day buys!

Reviews soon heh? I guess you guys don't have your hands tied up on releasing reviews of these specific games early then huh? In any case please make a competition where a 3DS is up for grabs!

@WiiLovePease: Yeah! What he said!
Also, please, please don't tell me the 3DS shoulder buttons are like the DSi's. They don't work on my DSi anymore, even though I've only had it for about a year. That means that Mario and Luigi, Golden Sun: DD, and a few others are either trickier to play, or impossible to complete.

Echo STB as well as his avatar.

I'm curious as to how the AR cards work, hope to see the impressions soon.

Awesome, have fun you guys! If I could make a specific request, could one of you pop in Super Mario 64 DS and see how well the Circle Pad fixes the oft-so-mentioned control "problem"? I'm interested to see how well it works...

I hope my 3DS works when I get it (in June).
My DSi had lots of problems with it when I took it out of the box and I had to send it in to Nintendo.

@43
Send it back to Nintendo if the warranty is still active. I had the same problem with my DSi's shoulder buttons. I sent it to Nintendo, they fixed it, and it came back all clickity and new again!

I can't to pick up my 3DS!

IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyou
...
What are the AR cards like?
(Please ignore the initial line)

@48 Hey, I'm having the same problem. Except it's a refurbished system... so no warranty.
I'm wondering how much the repair would cost. Do you know?

@ 50
No idea. Mine was free because of the warranty.
Sorry.

And AR cards are normal cards you place on a flat surface and point your 3DS camera at. Then, depending on the card and program or game you're using, a statue of a character like Mario or Link can appear to be in the real world, or you can play a game like target shooting where you physically get up and move around a 3D target range and shoot stuff.

It seems we're playing musical reviews here at Nintendo Life this week as we've switched some things around. James will still be reviewing Pilotwings Resort near launch, but I'm now doing Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Super Monkey Ball with Damien taking Ridge Racer 3D.

Everybody got that?

* Please not this will likely change a few more times before tomorrow.

Arrghh!! I'm not buying any of those games! Useless, the lot of you!!

_{I jk}

/me stares at screenshots 'til eyes begin to bleed.

Is it just me, or does the 3DS seem to have a sparkly finish? It looks kinda like glitter... that does not appeal to me AT ALL.

Oh, and how did you guys get a DSi with a black top and white bottom? ? ?

It is very glittery, especially the inside part where the controls are. EXTREMELY glittery.

And as for the DSi, well.....ummm........

You butchered two DSi's together!

Awesome, and you guys got the two games I will be getting as well. SSF 4 and Riiiidge Raaaaceer!!!

Aww, that's a shame. While I still think the 3DS's capabilities will be amazing, you can color me unimpressed by Nintendo's choice in making it glittery. That just makes it seem cheap, imo. All the more reason to wait for a new iteration.

And all I can say about the butchered DSi is: NICE!

Are there any issues with the buttons? I heard they weren't as crisp as the DSi's. Does the system feel fragile?

Awesome!!

The buttons on the 3DS are far more clicky than those on the DSi. I find them extremely crisp and responsive. Probably the best d-pad and buttons on a Nintendo portable to date, IMO.

But do the L/R buttons look and feel different? Cause apparently on nintendo's past systems... (DSi/DS lite) they stop working. So I can't play half my games. =(

Ah, more good news in the 3DS forum. Glad to see it! heh. I'm eagerly awaiting the impressions of 3DS Sound, myself. That video that circulated around last week made it look more or less EXACTLY like DSi Sound, which would be bad... better playlist support was desperately needed there.

@3XDStar - I have to be honest, unlike the regular buttons and d-pad that feel stiffer and more clicky, the shoulder buttons feel and move exactly the same as the DSi.

Ooh, sexy

@ 63 They support MP3 songs now. That's a HUGE step in the right direction. And I hear the jet-zooming-through-a-tunnel effect you can play when you play songs is now in 3D, with real walls along the tunnel instead of polygons. Really cool.

1 question can you use the circle pad in a normal DS game such as Super Mario 64 DS.please reply.

i'll be interested to hear if y'all have the same issues that brian ashcroft at kotaku mentions: ie the having to refocus between the 2 screens constantly whilst in 3D mode.

my eyes don't 'play well together' and i have issues with depth perception in the real world. i have the feeling that when i can afford to get a 3DS i will probably play in 2D mode most of the time. i want it for the other things it has plus the fact that some games i really want that are due to be released down the road).

So Corbs can you read japanese

This makes me want to buy one... but then I see the price and walk away. I can't find a way to justify the pricing, its about the same price as a 360 or PS3 for gawd's sake... and I'm just not willing to shell it out for a handheld that I'll probably use over and over for a few months and then let it rot in my cabinet.

I don't get time to play handhelds anymore, if I did I would have kept my DSi, and since I can only play games at home now, the Wii works just fine for that so I'm content...

But other than that, it's a nice console and some good games... just too expensive for my likingz.

@ 67

There's a 3DS FAQ on the top of the home page. Check it out.

OMG I'm getting anxious...I don't think I can wait 3 weeks!!!!!

Are you guys going to be getting any other launch games to review?

My christmas=3DS

Really cool, that your doing a full review.

The 3DS has a 3D video player in the future for commercial movies. But does it support standard video playback for avi files, like the PSP? or is just like the DSi? the video player is one of the reasons I bring the PSP with me everyday (I am not playing much its games).