A Midnight Escape And a Romantic Few Days With The 3DS

I hate money and sleep so what was the best thing to do? Attend the 3DS midnight launch of course!

When I arrived it was pretty quiet, with just one other guy around. Considering the store were holding a raffle to win the 3DS, I was praying it would stay like this. Sadly, it soon filled up, much to the dismay of my crying bank balance.

The store had recently come into the possession of a Virtual Boy. I’d always been intrigued by the Virtual Boy and what made such a failure for Nintendo. I decided to take the 3D plunge and have a go. I wanted to be counter-culture and like the Virtual Boy. Sadly, I could not. It was awkward to use and even after fumbling around for a good while, I couldn’t really see the 3D effect.

As the night moved on the excitement started building. Everyone was really friendly and the atmosphere was fantastic. There was also free Haribo, and free Haribo makes any night brilliant.

In a Haribo-induced confusion I started to wander about. Instead of risking the chance of hurting myself in my sugar-laden state, I decided I would ask a few people what they thought about their upcoming monetary sink.

Gareth Feeney

I’m most excited about the much improved online play as well as the interesting spot pass feature. I’m looking forward to the upcoming ability to access the internet on the system.

Janet Parker

The games I’m most looking forward to is the 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright and Metal Gear Solid 3DS.

Nick Lawley

Whilst the 3DS launch line up isn’t too strong, I’m a big enough of a nerd to buy it at launch!

Paul Watt

I’m buying it for the potential. Zelda is the one thing I’m most excited for. I’m also looking forward to the Starfox remake.

I also got around to talking to the manager who said the 3DS launch has only been eclipsed by the Wii in terms of pre-orders. He also mentioned the success of the midnight launch, with around a third of the people who pre-ordered turning up. In terms of software, the manager said that Pilot Wings and Street Fighter IV have been the most pre-ordered games.

After I was done being a real journalist (go me) it was time to be a giddy teenager again and buy this thing I’d been waiting for. I went for the cosmos black version, though I still think it’s a silly name. Things went really smoothly, and I soon had the dimension-defying beast in my hands.

I busted out the 3DS, and decided to create a mii with my very own face. I quickly found out I’m very ugly. I decided to convince another guy to try out the street pass features. Being in Manchester I doubt many people will carry there 3DS’s around through fear of being stabbed. Compared to the original DS it was an absolute breeze to do.

Despite the fact I’ve also bought Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, I’m more excited about being able to play Face Raiders whenever I want. Seriously. It’s awesome.

The 3DS itself looks fantastic and fits just about perfectly into my hands. It’s incredibly light, yet it feels sturdy enough to handle the odd drop on the floor that will inevitably happen. Personally, the black version looks a lot better than the blue version. The biggest problem I’ve had is that my 3DS looks like a crime scene from CSI with all the fingerprints its picked up.

The operating system for the 3DS is fast, responsive and easy to navigate. I also tried out the majority of the built in features and they are all thoroughly impressive if not all long-lasting.

The Augmented Reality is great, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time doing virtual fishing, because real fishing is just so 2D. As mentioned before Face Raiders is fantastic and is something I’m sure I’ll come back to, although I think the face recognition in the 3DS isn’t fantastic since it labelled me a baby girl. One thing I haven’t really messed about with is the 3D photo feature. I took a photo of myself, gave myself a beard of love hearts and then never touched it again.

I was glad for the entertaining built-in software as I found Samurai Warriors: Chronicles to be less than average. I enjoyed it for a little while but soon enough it became mind numbingly boring. The 3D works well though and the extra depth was impressive. I’ve since picked up Super Street Fighter IV 3D and Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.

Attention has been drawn to the 3DS’s backwards compatibility and what it does to the picture quality. I’ve been playing Pokemon White, Tepig is the shit, and the colours do appear to be washed-out compared to playing it on the original DS. Despite this, it hasn’t really bothered me that much and it still looks great.

One of the biggest concerns for people has been the battery life. I’ve had no issues power-wise so far. This is largely down to the charging cradle. The cradle allows you to easily and quickly get the 3DS charging with very little effort. I’ve conditioned myself to put the 3DS in the cradle whenever I’m not using it which seems to do the trick.

All in all, I love the 3DS, it’s so bad.

The Nintendo 3DS launched in Europe on March 25, and launched in America, March 27.