Nintendo 3DS

[importaku]

Played the demos of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Rhythm Thief, both are loads of fun. Quite suprised at the control system for final fantasy the stylus moves are pretty complex as the difficulty ramps up. It's an interesting control system for a music game just depends on the music selection now.

[Shozuki]

was the Biohazard demo a new one? As much as I think the 3DS is a lovely paperweight im looking forward to it. So much so im preparing my hands for severe cramp, as I get this after about 5 minutes of using the machine!

[sj33]

It's a completely new demo, and it's quite excellent. Well worth grabbing.

Has anyone made a 3DS case that accomodates the Circle Pad Pro?

[hudson]

Is the EU store ever gonna home some demos? Frickin guff buckets

[BaronSqwelch]

sat and played my 3DS for 5 straight hours yesterday for the first time ever (now have gnarled claws for hands).

the culprit? Free GBA rom Metroid Fusion!! kinda depressing really seeing as I am just off to rid my house of the scourge that is Mario Kart 7 before the DS goes out the window.

[Grapple Convoy]

kinda depressing really seeing as I am just off to rid my house of the scourge that is Mario Kart 7 before the DS goes out the window.

The new Mario Kart isn't that bad, is it?

[Guts]

The new Mario Kart isn't that bad, is it?

Quite the contrary, it's very good and precisely what you'd expect Mario Kart to be.

[sj33]

It would appear that the demos on the 3DS store are limited to 30 goes. Oh Nintendo

[BaronSqwelch]

personally I hated Mario Kart...the endless "cheating" by the cpu got to me big time. Why cant they just make the other racers a.i better instead of just hitting you with lightening by every drop I dont know.

also...would anyone really play a demo more than 30 times?? Isn't usually a once or twice thing??

have preordered Resident Evil along with the ridiculous slide pad as Zavvi are good and cheap. Tho it may be a pain to cart it round it might make the 3DS more comfortable to play for me, not since a 36 hour COD session years ago have my hands hurt so much from gaming!

[Shozuki]

yeah man the 3DS is possibly the worst machine ever made in history. But despite that Mario 3D and even Kart are still fun games, even if they arent worth full price.

EDIT: @Loftgroover, your right about the ridiculous mechanics in Mario Kart that make it extremely unfair and infuriating.

[dataDave]

To be perfectly fair this has always been the case with Mario Kart.

Unless you want the competition in arcade/novelty racers to act like a simulation in that they race perfectly fair they would turn out following the best race-line relative to the course in single-file. Arcade racers (all of them, from F-Zero to Ridge) use rubber-banding* cheat methods, novelty racers rely on random power-ups with the random number generator being ramped in their favour with each progression in difficulty (Wipeout is also guilty of this).

Do remember there are 7(?) other racers all picking up power-ups at different rates and intervals, and many may be stocking those bolts for prime moments. How exponential is the CPU bias for each progression in difficulty? Who's to know? How many power-ups are there? The chance of getting hit by lightning is pretty high, considering you are one in eight(?). It only takes two or three opponents to stock a bolt for the final lap in which case that's pretty good AI as that's how I'd play myself, this may give the impression the AI is cheating and treating you unfairly... That's not to say there aren't work-arounds as I'm sure there are a lot of MK pros out there, I don't know what they are though as I never buy into the series so I can complain afterwards.

It's nothing new, and it's why I've forever hated the Mario Kart series. The only one I had time for was MK64 because of the random fun to be had in 4-player mode.

Sure, in vs. competition you have some good MK players, but at the higher levels it all depends on the luck of the draw when sealing that final lap.

* I prefer the rubber-banding as I find 75% of the fun in blocking the opponent who is behind me using either the rear-view mirror or the marker. Ridge is built around this as is F-Zero on the GBA, which is why it's my favourite 2D F-Zero.

---

Anyway, speaking of the 3DS, my mum is sending me out Zelda, Starfox, and Mario - with Kid Icarus to follow once it launches. These will be the first games for me since launch. Having to import PAL titles sucks balls.

[sj33]

On the subject of importing, the 3DS has been a real blast to the past in that respect. I've just had to pay over ?40 to import a Japanese version of Sonic Generations simply because domestic releases will not work on my Japanese console. It's a lose-lose situation basically - I have to wait a week for my game to arrive, and Nintendo Europe don't get my money. I've become so used to buying domestic releases for the last few years thanks to my hardware being able to play them. Seems like ages ago when things were this hard.

[dataDave]

I miss the days of importing. And personally, if I had my way, I'd region lock everything with lengthy delays to boot.

Importing separated the players from the messers (more often than not).

[Neon Ignition]

yeah man the 3DS is possibly the worst machine ever made in history

Quoted for pure farcical nature of the comment.

Tried all the demo's out now and:

-Rythme Thief R: Really like the styling of the game but it feels a bit basic. It's looking pretty likely to get an eventual PAL release so is probably worth picking up on the cheap then rather than importing

-Theatrythm Final Fantasy: Despite having this preordered I was somehow expecting to be let down by this but it turned out to be quite good. The 3D effect is completely lost on it due to the 2D layered visuals but the detection from the touch screen works well enough even when things pick up.

-Resident Evil Revelations: Bar the expected Vita games that naturally look better, this is possibly one of the best looking handheld titles to date. Stunning to look at and surprisingly the controls work well enough to get around a second analogue being an issue. It will work with the slide pad but I honestly don't think it would add much. Very impressed.

-Metal Gear Solid 3D: Frame rate is choppy though there's a frill to be had in having it on a handheld. It looks decent enough though not stunning and the HD collection pretty much makes this pointless. Unlike Resi, this would benefit hugely from having slide pad support with too many of the standard controls dedicated to camera control.

[sj33]

I was actually trying to work out what the Circle Pad Pro would actually add to Resident Evil. As you say, it plays perfectly fine without it. I can't even remember if the right analogue stick ever did anything in past games. Maybe it just uses the additional triggers?