Nintendo 3DS

[Dezm0nd]

Super Monkey Ball was actually quite good. I'm a massive fan of the first game and its sheer difficulty but once again they seem to have played the safe/easy side of level design when I checked out World 7.

Having said that, it looked and played great even if the 3D effect of the bananas flying around got a little bit too much!

[theearl]

Went to the London event yesterday. The streetfighter/resi live stuff was probably not needed but was a bit of fun. Thought the 3D effect was really good but you had to be at the right viewing angle to see it properly. For example I tried using the tilt controls on monkeyball with the 3d on but tilting it meant you couldn't see the screen properly. SSFIV was great as was resident evil, thought the 3D effect worked really well for pro evo. Star Fox 3d demo looked great as well. Gutted I missed Zelda, never saw it!

[MarioMark]

Were there any other games there? I wouldn't mind hearing about Rayman 3D.

[theearl]

There was a side scrolling platformer called something like 'raving rabbids 3d'. There was only a couple of demo units of it but it played like a good old school platformer. The character seemed to have a sort of sonic spin attack. The 3d effect was good but the bit of the level I played didn't seem to make use of the 3d.

[gizmo1990]

It's great to hear some positive well reasoned opinions of the machine here.

Been reading some other forums and tbh it sounds like a bunch of pompous hardcore gamers setting out to just slate the machine any which way they can.

This all sounds like such a re-run of 2004 again it's unreal!

Anyway really looking forward to this, just can't decide which title to get on launch!

[teddymeow]

I've done a total 360 on this machine.

Played it at E3 last June and couldn't wait to own one.

Watched as Nintendo Europe once again try their hardest to screw everything up by setting a ridiculous RRP for the console and the software and provide one of the worst launch line-ups for any console ever.

Then, having been able to have more hands on time with it during the week and managing to secure a pre-order for that magical sub £200 price point I'm totally back to being thoroughly excited and unable to wait 6 weeks for the bloody thing!!

Blue machine with Pilotwings (we'v saying launch at work), SSFIV and then Ridge a few weeks after should keep me busy for a while.

[Kieran76]

Cheers for the impressions. It made me take the plunge, nipped down to Game to pre-order a Blue One. Didn't bother with games as they never sell out I want more info on them before buying.

[Shozuki]

Sounds like more people are liking the 3DS here then in other forums, which is pleasing. I was beginning to think its really nothing more then a tag-line for Nintendo.

Keep the impressions coming lads!

[lurch996]

So where does the 3DS sit in terms of graphics? From what I gather the machine itself is alot more powerful than the PSP but it has to run two screens plus the 3D effect which hampers the graphics somewhat.

[mingo]

So where does the 3DS sit in terms of graphics? From what I gather the machine itself is alot more powerful than the PSP but it has to run two screens plus the 3D effect which hampers the graphics somewhat.

compared to PSP its definatly a generation ahead, its much more vibrant and the detail is much more apparent and super smooth. The obvious comparison were Pro Evo, RR and MGS. The only game to "hamper" was Dead or Alive in 3D, i expect when developer get use to the sytem more that the 3D does not affect things like fps.

[Mayhem]

The 3D effect is good, although I needed the slider down quite a way; it'll vary from person to person where they find their sweet spot for it. It does add something to the games when playing, even if yet it isn't apparent that it directly makes them better games. Only thing I didn't totally like was the analog stick, but I guess it will be a case of getting used to it... felt it just a little too loose.

[Psyduck]

Anyone khow how the 3ds compares to GC/wii? I know it's been said to be around the GC, can we expect any ports? Mario Galaxy?

[Silvergun X]

I went to the London event today. Myself and a friend both managed to pull a sneaky and get two sessions worth of play time. I personally played Ridge Racer, Resident Evil Mercenaries, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Pilotwings, Street Fighter 4, Nintendogs and cats, and got to play around with the AR Cards thing. oh, and I got to play Super Monkey Ball too.

Mercenaries was my first experience. It took about 5 seconds for my eyes to actually get used to it but the 3D effect was absolutely surreal. It was clean and worked extremely well. Very, very nice effect when I knocked someone down, stepped over them to shoot at someone else only for the enemy to stand up behind me. He honestly looked like he'd just popped out of the screen, the smile on my face was ridiculous. The gameplay was fun as well, and I actually think they've got the analog slider perfect.

I then moved onto Dead or Alive dimensions, and I was equally as happy with the 3D effect on this. The game played like a dream, and I'm quite happy with the dynamic move list on the bottom screen.

One thing worth mentioning, is that even with the depth slider maxed out, I had absolutely no problems at all with adjusting to the 2D bottom screen and back again.

Ridge Racer 3D was next. It's ridge racer, it's the same gameplay and you know you love it. However, this was the only game I really was not comfortable with playing with the depth slider maxed out. It did not work, however the moment I halved the depth, the 3D clicked and I saw it perfectly.

I wasn't so impressed with pilotwings but I only had a quick go on that. I don't feel the 3D worked so well on this when compared to the other titles, and I wasn't awfully keen on the gameplay but we'll see about that one.

Nintendogs and cats was okay, but with no stylus for my demo unit I couldn't really play it properly.

Now those AR cards look awesome. Reminds me a lot of Eye of Judgement, and I was very very surprised with the way it picked up the card and started manipulating the table around it too.

Monkey ball was monkey ball. You either like it or you don't, didn't spend too long with this.

Street Fighter 4 was absolutely brilliant, I liked the move list on the bottom screen, but found that the moves it had shortcuts to were prett much useless and I didn't use them apart from the super and ultra combos. The 3D effect on this game was weird, in that if I maxed out the slider I couldn't focus on it properly until I pulled it closer to my eyes, then it was flawless.

Overall, I was thoroughly convinced, it definitely works, and it's a truly surreal experience when you get to see it. I didn't find a lot of problems that people have mentioned, and found it very easy to focus on the effect. I very rarely lost that effect, and only had issues when I was playing with the AR cards. The 3D viewing angle definitely isn't as narrow as I was expecting, and as far as playing it on the train is concerned I doubt there will be a serious issue.

[Dogg Thang]

Good to hear the reports are pretty positive. All sounding good. I really hope they put some effort into updated Animal Crossing. I'll get it regardless but it would be disappointing if it's the same again.

Would love to hear more about Ridge Racer as it's one that, for me, went from must buy to not a chance and it's edging back towards must buy again.

Oh, and any sign of that plane 3D thing in Mercenaries or does it look like actual 3D?

[abigsmurf]

Anyone khow how the 3ds compares to GC/wii? I know it's been said to be around the GC, can we expect any ports? Mario Galaxy?

It's slightly less powerful in terms of geometry but it's capable of more advanced graphical effects. It has extra ram too which should help improve things.

RE Mercenaries is certainly at least on par with RE4