5 Reasons Why Nintendo Lacks Depth - The 3DS

Gadget Review - Nintendo recently showed off the 3DS to press in New York, revealing almost everything there is to know about the latest handheld from the world leader in mobile gaming. Now, however, they are making a huge mistake with the 3DS, and the company is doomed to failure for five very important reasons...(click to read full story)

[iamnsuperman]

3D is a gimmick and glasses less 3D is even more of a gimmick so people by it because it is 3D gaming but without glasses.

[darthv72]

but that doesnt stop people from enjoying it. People are all going to see things their own way but it doesnt mean it is right or wrong, good or bad. That is why it personal opinion, just like this article.

[firefoxprime]

Actually...no. You need to get your head our your arse.

I'm buying the 3DS for (4) reasons. graphical improvement, huge 3rd party support, barkwards compatability, and the slide pad. I could care less about the 3D. Its the upgrade to the DS that is long overdue. Here's my pov. Its a lil long but will reach your hearts if your on the same page as me.

[I look at the 3DS as my next gen console. A handheld yes, but the money i'm preparing to invest into this device is definetly console worthy. I've been sitting on the side lines for 5 years, barely touch next-gen games. My ps2 is rarely played. The ds is filled with shovelware crap. I thought the ds was gonna be a gba upgrade. Same type of games(platformers, side scrollers, action games, puzzles), but all those great gems are like a needle in a haystack. Gba was all about rpg's, platforming, and action. The ds decreased the latter to make way for casual. With the ds becoming mainstream, so did the titles on the system. It sucked sharing a system with an 8 year-old demographic.

Its time for transition. This is what I want. Huge third party support. Great fighting games. Action RPG's galore. Updated graphics engine. Although the psp game library is definetly up my ally, it lacks something. The psp just lacks the zanesh that Nintendo holds. There is a very clear reason why the ds won the handheld wars. I don't need to have a console experience on my handheld. Meaning 2 analog sticks, with rotating camera. Also I can barely grip the slide stick for the psp. No longer will I be embarressed when walking into a local gamestop. Walk over to the DS section, and continue to be dissapointed by the shovelware garbage. No more having to play some downgraded "all new game style" multiplat games etc:spiderman WebofShadows. Even the psp version was a side scroller due to lack of software space. Don't even get me started on the Assasin's Creed ds ports >:I When the big titles come on 360/ps3, i'll finally be able to eat my slice of that pie. So now with Jan 19 come and gone, majority of speculation will be put to rest. We can finally get our lives back. And finally stop spamming the refresh button on our fav 3DS news websites(hehe). I'm ready for some change. How about you?]

[Trroy]

Harsh criticisms of the 3DS. Some people will hate this article for its honesty.

The 3-5 hour battery, for example -- harsh criticism, sure, but... lets face it, the PSP, which is darn near as powerful as the 3DS (hence the battery drain), has had the same problem for years, and people got over it.

The iPhone battery lasts about 1 hour while playing a high-end game.

Battery tech.. just doesn't improve along with the chip tech.

[GodsHand]

I say fault lies with the developer. Produce a more efficent code, so it's less taxing on the hardware, which in turn wont have to draw so much power trying to proccess something. I bet if developers started doing efficent coding, you would not need such beefy systems, and you would not have to worry about disc space as much.

[Trroy]

You realize that the games industry is the last bastion of performance coding, right?

Most of the programmers of the world have only a vague idea of what a cache miss even means. Although they're certainly not "commonplace", you'll find FAR more performance-oriented engineers working on games than any other industry.

It's not that way because "devs are lazy", either -- it's that way because educational systems keep kids away from low level programming, and performance concepts -- some engineers graduate from college without knowing anything but Java (some places don't even teach C++, let alone assembly, or bad and good C++ practices), with maybe a little Python and Lua mixed in.

In any case, beefy systems aren't "needed" -- they are provided. Games hardware companies thrive on "bigger is better". Did you notice how the number of bits available in a console's registers was used as a marketing performance gimmick, back when the 16-bit SNES and Genesis were on the market, along with the 32-bit PlayStation, NeoGeo, the "64 bit" Jaguar, N64, etc.? I guarantee the programmers weren't begging "oh please add more bits to this machine's registers and bus, so you can market it with a bigger number" when that was going on.

[jamezrp]

I would only say that the 3DS with 3-5 hours of battery life will not be like the PSP. The PSP came out in 2005 and offered the best graphics on any mobile device to date. The 3DS will not. It will offer, possibly, graphics on-par or slightly better than the PSP, maybe as good as some Wii games, but it won't be revolutionary. Only the 3D aspect will be "revolutionary", and in that, you have to want to play in 3D. I don't know many who do.

[DarkBlood]

what are you smoking buddy, i might of agreed with you if you were talking about a psp2 but psp being better then the 3DS?????

[metsgaming]

3d is the main reason to get the 3ds, with out that its just another ds, the graphics wont be anything amazing.

[jamezrp]

@Darkblood I mean graphically speaking. The PSP was a huge step up from previous handheld gaming consoles, and was (and is) way above the DS. If the 3DS is not vastly better, graphically (and I don't mean including the whole 3D aspect), than the PSP, then I'd say it failed on some level by not being more powerful than a five-year-old game console. The DSi is essentially the same as the original, now six-year-old DS, and not having a serious jump in graphics when even iPhone games are prettier than most PSP games would be tragic on so many levels.

[Jio]

I really dont care what some website Ive never heard of thinks of a gadget that isnt even released yet. This isnt changing my mind

[mrgoodstuff]

It's a tiny ass screen that can produce a semi-3d experience. I had a hands with it at last year's E3 and while it's definitely cool and revolutionary, it's pretty much gimmick, as is 3D. But it's now 3D this, 3D that and it is far better than what it was 10 years ago.

[jamezrp]

I wasn't impressed with it at E3 last year either. Even in the poor lighting, my eyes were bothering me after a few minutes and I didn't see any reason to need 3D for the games. And heck, I've had the NVidia 3D Vision glasses before they released, and I still don't get why 3D is so special.

[Urahara]

Finally someone keeping it real instead of kissing Nin's ass.

[silkrevolver]

But it’s a FANTASTIC ass to kiss, is it not?

[Stealth20k]

A troll article move along

The battery thing is a non issue,nintendo said 3-5 hours was on max settings (this idiot article writer doesnt even research)

and are pc's overtaking consoles, they do more than consoles right, you can email? no

And smartphones are basically irrelevant in gaming when dedicated handhelds sell more than consoles do have way deeper and better games in every genre

And fyi the 3ds is more or less sold out on preorders. Its sold out in japan and almost sold out in the states.

Why was this trash approved?

[Jio]

Agree. Just another anti-nintendo rant

[jamezrp]

According to Nintendo's listed specifications, available on the Japanese version of Nintendo.com, it's 3-5 hours of gameplay playing a 3DS game, and 5-8 hours playing a DS game.

[xXRukasuXx]

Many of the reasons why I won't be getting a 3DS.

[etowntwo]

Sure some games look great like Resident Evil.

But I'm skipping on 3DS and going with this PSP2.
I'm sure Sony is going to release a friggin technical juggernaut that is going to sh1t all over the graphics of the 3DS .... and with 3G, dual analog, and PSN. It's just a win win...... unless of course Sony gets cocky and puts the price tag at 350 or 400.

Then I'll just continue gaming on my iTouch for now.

[Masterchef2007]

I am probably going to wait for an improved version of the 3DS. One that will have better batterylife. I am almost positive that nintendo will do this cause they do it with all their handhelds.

[ozstar]

This may be the funniest comment i have ever read.

"HOPEFULLY, EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS WRONG BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THE NINTENDO 3DS WILL BE A REALLY GOOD SELLER. WE ARE TALKING OF NINTENDO YOU STUPID A*****E ....THE ONE YOU GREW UP WITH, JUST ADMIT IT EVEN IF YOU BECAME A STUPID PLAYSTATION LOVER. YOU REALLY SUCK AT WRITING ARTICLES SO JUST GO MAKE YOURSELF A BOTTLE OF CHICKEN SOUP AND DISAPEAR !"

[jamezrp]

Oh there are some good ones. A Nintendo fanboy site got ahold of the article and they've been plaguing us ever since. Good times.