New Nintendo 3DS

 

So I got myself the New Nintendo 3DS, how could I say no? Well, mostly I got it due to my original 3DS lacking memory and I thought that upgrading was a decent solution. A bit pricey, but what the hell! Got the regular size black version since I prefer my portable system to fit in my pocket. It even fitted into the old 3DS protective case (even though it might need a little added force behind it). The old model I gave away to my dad with my copy of Ocarina of Time 3D to keep him busy... sadly it appears it's me that are busy trying to teach him the controls. Anyway, back to the new one. I didn't get any face plates, because I like the black one. A good thing is that it isn't... shiny? Whatever the word it doesn't collect my fingerprints all over the surface like the old model or even the Wii U. Already a plus. 

Then the changes to the layout on the console. First of the console itself is a bit bigger with a larger screen. Start and select moved to the side of the screen below the buttons and given real buttons compared to the old model where I hardly got feedback by pressing it making pausing some games rather hard. The home button has been redesigned and the volume slide has been moved to the top screen. Both the volume and 3D slide have been given a stop setting so if you want to mute or turn the 3D of just slide it to the bottom and you hear a click and that's it. The old version could be a bit fickle when it comes to the 3D as I had to push it down to turn it off even at the bottom since it didn't quite now if it was off or slightly on. The ABXY buttons are color coded as the SNES controller and you got extra L and R buttons on the back. They also introduced the C-stick... or rather C-bump. At first it feels rather incomprehensible since it actually don't move or give any feedback, but while playing games it work rather well, surprised me. Things they taken away are the wifi-slider and you access it through the menu instead. Probably better so you don't turn it of by accident in a multiplayer match. The only thing I think they made worse is the stylus. I liked the metal retractable pen, but instead we are back to plastic which is smaller, but take more space on the console itself since it can't retract. Also the cartridge slot has been moved from the top to the bottom. Feels rather weird, but I haven't pushed out a game by accident yet so it works. Presumably it was to put ZR and ZL on top instead. The on/off button have been moved as well and at the same time making it harder to randomly push it, but at the same time needs a longer push to start up.

The interior then. It starts up faster, the wifi is stronger and you have a 3D tracking camera that follows you around while moving the console during gameplay. Works rather fine, but I noticed that you need to keep the game at the right distance from your face otherwise it doesn't quite get how to adjust your 3D experience for you. The transfer seemed to be a hassle since they recommended a PC-transfer, but I opted for the wireless and it worked fine (of course I removed most of the games on my 2GB SD card so it would go faster and had to re-download everything again). Also, I switched out the 4GB Micro SD card with a 32 GB since I feel the extra memory would work better (hopefully they don't change from Micro SD to another sort of memory card for the next 1-2 generations so I don't have to transfer everything again like this). All in all it took around 6 hours to complete the transfer and re-download all games (it might have gone faster if I let it transfer everything from the system, but I wasn't sure if it was locally transferred or over the net and the net is rather unstable around here so, and the answer is it does it locally so that was totally unnecessary, but hey, better safe than sorry. I haven't played it all that much, but the Ambassador GBA games seems to work better than in the old 3DS since it hasn't shut down or turned it self of during intense play. A bit annoying especially if you didn't quit the game from time to time since a shut down erased everything until the previous point you started it up, but as I said, I haven't played those games to long on the New 3DS.

Sadly, there will probably be an announcement in 1-2 years of a brand new Nintendo portable console, but until then it will work rather fine. A warning first though, if you are gonna transfer from an old 3DS, 2DS or 3DS XL don't write in your NNID until you do the transfer. Lastly, the console doesn't come with a charger so you either have to have one or buy a new one, which is rather stingy on Nintendo's side, but if they want to keep the cost down that is one way to do it. Also, the name. At least it works in Sweden and all non-English speaking countries and I get that it works well with the Japanese, but really, couldn't the English name have been Super Nintendo 3DS? Really, it would have been an easy sell with the button color scheme and such. Makes me wonder what they will call the next system? Maybe that will be the Super N3DS? Anyway, beyond that there isn't much to say, it play DS and 3DS games. I might update this (probably not) when they release exclusive games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (at the moment the only known game that must have the New 3DS to play) to see if the hardware handles it well, Then again, since I'm not the technical wizard my parents believe me to be I will not know if it was necessary or not to release that game on this updated console.