Nintendo 3DS: First Impressions (Japanese Model)

Last Thursday, I traveled to Osaka in Japan with my wife to go on a brief holiday and I planned to do a few things including getting a ride on a bullet train and checking out the Nintendo 3DS. Unfortunately, due to the earthquakes and ongoing aftershocks, I wasn’t too keen on trying the bullet train especially after I learned that many people had been stuck on bullet trains without food and water for extended periods of time.

Anyway, I did manage to track down a department store close to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Osaka that was stocking and displaying the Nintendo 3DS, specifically Yodobashi in Umeda.

One of the Nintendo 3DS displays in Kodobashi

I visited on Friday morning which is a work day in Japan and several hours before the earthquake hit. The launch of the Nintendo 3DS in Japan had also occurred back on February 26th. As to whether or not you would expect people to be lining up on a weekday several weeks after launch is hard to assess in another country.

Some of the Nintendo 3DS launch titles

There is a fair number of games available at launch with notable inclusions being Winning Eleven Soccer and Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition.

Promotional video for the 3DS

Video units with promotional videos were also nestled in one of the displays however it was very much lost on me.

Nintendo 3DS

The display model was fairly sturdy when I played a couple of games for about ten minutes (Ridge Racer 3D and Super Street Fighter 4). The top screen contains the lenticular 3D screen which does not require special glasses to view images in 3D. The lower screen, like the original Nintendo DS and its various revisions, is a touch screen. The unit also comes with an adjustable stylus.

The circle pad above the digital pad looks a bit like the analogue stick that made its first appearance in the N64 controller but feels quite different. The circle itself sits flush against the top surface instead of being on top of a stick on the N64 control and slide around in the wider recess surround it. I actually found the placement and the feeling of the circle pad to be more comfortable and usable than the traditional digital pad but it does come down to personal preference.

Nintendo 3DS in its display cradle

For a first go, I didn’t mind it at all and I loved the fact that I could potentially have a device that can play the latest and greatest version of Street Fighter 4 in my pocket or my backpack and also has physical controls that are up to snuff (as pure touchscreen devices are terrible for the beat ’em up genre and other types of games). I still have my original Nintendo DS (the grey chunky one) which has held up well for the many years I have owned it. Of course, Nintendo makes good profit on its hardware and we will see later revisions in the coming years. Nonetheless, the 3DS will rely upon quality titles from developers making appropriate, creative and innovative use of the 3D screen instead of just making use of it as a gimmick which would damage the reputation of the platform.

Two things that held me back from buying one in Japan was the unknown direction for region locking for 3DS specific titles. If I had continued to brush up on my Japanese after I left school I might have gotten away with this and buying Japanese games but alas that fell by the wayside. The other factor was that the price in Japan wasn’t going to be significantly better priced than a unit bought in Australia (even when bought duty free). In the end, I figured I could wait and get one in Australia and avoid the whole dilemma.