The Nintendo 3DS was released in Japan over last weekend, and only 26 days until its release in the states. I have had mine preordered since Nintendo announced the price and release date, and I am super excited. Not necessarily because of the 3D capabilties, nor any of the games, but mostly as a replacement for my Nintendo DS Lite.
My Nintendo DS was part of the second release wave of the Nintendo DS Lite in Japan, almost 5 years ago. I wasn't initially into the DS, mostly because of the aesentics. It looked like a frampy piece of tech designed around the chipset inside. There really weren't that many games for it either.
When they unveiled the sleak and sexy design of the DS Lite, it completely turned around my opinion. By that time, there were games that were actually worth my time. Tetris DS, Phoenix Wright, Electroplankton and Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow were the first games I owned for the handheld, and still remain as some of the best game offered for the platform.
Over the past 5 years, I have played my Nintendo DS so much that the touch screen can no longer be correctly configured. Games like Trauma Center and Ouendan are unplayable. It's time for an upgrade.
Last year, I planned on replacing my DS with one of those DSi XLs. Unfortunately, Nintendo made an incredibly stupid PR move. One week before the DSi XL were to be released in the states, they announced the Nintendo 3DS. The successor to the DS platform. I was all set to replace my DS with a $190 DSi XL, and they lost my money. Upgrading to the new platform is a much more lucrative prospect.
And now we're just 26 days away! While there really aren't any launch titles that interest me, there are several on the horizon I care about: Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, Professor Layton v. Phoenix Wright, Megaman Legends 3 and the newly announced Super Mario title. There's also plenty of DSi Ware games that I haven't had a chance to play having never owned a DSi.
But! What really interests me are the built games and features of the 3DS. You can capture 3D photos and film. There are augmented reality games to play. There's a built in pedometer that unlock rewards. And there's a thing called Street Pass.
The Street Pass is a communication sensor that will connect to any other 3DSs you may pass by throughout your day. It will transfer your Mii to them, and their Mii to you. Besides building a social gaming web of your daily life, you can use these Miis with two built-in games: a Puzzle game and a Quest game. For the puzzle game, Each Mii you meet you can exchange jigsaw puzzle pieces, and form some random Nintendo images. In the Quest game, each Mii will take on monsters in a dungeon until they're scared off.
Here's a video showing off the Street Pass stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caf9XH2r1HQ.
I would expect conventions and other massive nerd gatherings to be invaluable towards building a huge list of stranger's Miis. PAX West this year should be fantastic. ^_^
Anyway, I'm excited. Though, I'll mostly use the 3DS to play DS titles. Namely Pokemon. Now that I'll have two DSs, I can trade Pokemon back and forth between my games willy nilly, and not need to borrow a friend's.