The Nintendo 3DS
So, last week I ran down to Albany to pick up a 3DS [and also a pair of more spring-appropriate shoes]. I eagerly returned to the dorm, opened the shiny shiny box, took out the stylus, turned on the power, touched the screen, and....
nothing
happened
So I called Nintendo and spent Monday trying to figure out how to get it sent to a repair place [in...Washington? Really, THAT'S the closest place?] and then Tuesday trying to hack it into being fixed [and largely failing], and then Wednesday I figured Gamestop would just replace it without me needing to wait for it to get to Washington and back, and NOW I have a portable gaming system that's not defective or falling apart or anything! So here are my thoughts:
1. It is too large to fit in my girlpockets. This would have bothered me before I resigned myself to carrying a purse. Whatever, fuck you, I can carry cookies with me AT ANY TIME and you wouldn't even KNOW.
2. It is a shade of tealish-blue-ish and I feel like this color will quickly get kinda ugly and clashy, but for now I like it. And also it sparkles under the light. So shiny.
3. The WORKING replacement that I got is responsive with controls and such, which is nice. In addition to the + pad there's a 360 degree control-stick-kinda-buttony thing, which Pokemon B/W accepts as a substitute for the + pad, and that's lots of fun. But sometimes it doesn't know which way you mean if you're going diagonally, which I guess won't be a problem with games that are intended to use it.
4. I love nintendogs and fuck you this is the closest thing I can have to a real pet. I forsee a lot of the same issues with the previous Nintendogs [ie, pets have difficulty distinguishing their names, not a lot to do other than feed -> walk -> contests?] but hnnnnnngh.
This is my adorbs Shiba Inu. I don't have any cats yet. Oh, one thing that is sort of freaky is that they have the semi-realistic dogs, and they decided to portray the people walking them as Miis...which is quite down in there in the uncanny valley.
5. Did I mention? I didn't expect them to put Miis on the system, but they went and did. Realizing that my little sister would have absolutely no way to criticize me for making Miis on a personal handheld system, I went ahead and made...
Toshimii and Miillie. Durrhurr, shush, I am not a loser, this is the COOLEST way to spend your Friday night.
6. This picture was taken with the augmented reality functions that I actually didn't know were on the system. But it's some cool shit. Until it gets old, at least. There's a shooting game where you take a picture of someone's face, and then that face becomes...inexplicably evil and starts trying to break holes in reality. You shoot them. I don't know, it's a system minigame, it doesn't have to have a plot. But you sort of spin around with your DS and shoot things against whatever background you're in. There's also a cool kind of card-ready thing, which is what I used for this...you can take pictures of 3D objects in reality [well, as long as they're near that card], and there are also a couple more rudimentary augmented reality minigames. They're not PHENOMENAL, game-wise, but they're definitely the coolest augmented reality things I've yet to see. **IT'S THE FUTURE AND SHIT**
7. As for the 3D itself...it's okay. I'm not wowed by it. You have to keep your head in a certain position, and it's not exactly an immersing experience. But it looks PRETTY good. Honestly, I think Nintendo had yet to really master the potential of even using two screens. [except for TWEWY which was perfect]. And I feel like the 3D thing is not going to be worldchanging. The AR stuff is cooler.
8. Mads haet regionlocks, but...ehhhhh.
If I think of more later, I'll just say so.
nothing
happened
So I called Nintendo and spent Monday trying to figure out how to get it sent to a repair place [in...Washington? Really, THAT'S the closest place?] and then Tuesday trying to hack it into being fixed [and largely failing], and then Wednesday I figured Gamestop would just replace it without me needing to wait for it to get to Washington and back, and NOW I have a portable gaming system that's not defective or falling apart or anything! So here are my thoughts:
1. It is too large to fit in my girlpockets. This would have bothered me before I resigned myself to carrying a purse. Whatever, fuck you, I can carry cookies with me AT ANY TIME and you wouldn't even KNOW.
2. It is a shade of tealish-blue-ish and I feel like this color will quickly get kinda ugly and clashy, but for now I like it. And also it sparkles under the light. So shiny.
3. The WORKING replacement that I got is responsive with controls and such, which is nice. In addition to the + pad there's a 360 degree control-stick-kinda-buttony thing, which Pokemon B/W accepts as a substitute for the + pad, and that's lots of fun. But sometimes it doesn't know which way you mean if you're going diagonally, which I guess won't be a problem with games that are intended to use it.
4. I love nintendogs and fuck you this is the closest thing I can have to a real pet. I forsee a lot of the same issues with the previous Nintendogs [ie, pets have difficulty distinguishing their names, not a lot to do other than feed -> walk -> contests?] but hnnnnnngh.
This is my adorbs Shiba Inu. I don't have any cats yet. Oh, one thing that is sort of freaky is that they have the semi-realistic dogs, and they decided to portray the people walking them as Miis...which is quite down in there in the uncanny valley.
5. Did I mention? I didn't expect them to put Miis on the system, but they went and did. Realizing that my little sister would have absolutely no way to criticize me for making Miis on a personal handheld system, I went ahead and made...
Toshimii and Miillie. Durrhurr, shush, I am not a loser, this is the COOLEST way to spend your Friday night.
6. This picture was taken with the augmented reality functions that I actually didn't know were on the system. But it's some cool shit. Until it gets old, at least. There's a shooting game where you take a picture of someone's face, and then that face becomes...inexplicably evil and starts trying to break holes in reality. You shoot them. I don't know, it's a system minigame, it doesn't have to have a plot. But you sort of spin around with your DS and shoot things against whatever background you're in. There's also a cool kind of card-ready thing, which is what I used for this...you can take pictures of 3D objects in reality [well, as long as they're near that card], and there are also a couple more rudimentary augmented reality minigames. They're not PHENOMENAL, game-wise, but they're definitely the coolest augmented reality things I've yet to see. **IT'S THE FUTURE AND SHIT**
7. As for the 3D itself...it's okay. I'm not wowed by it. You have to keep your head in a certain position, and it's not exactly an immersing experience. But it looks PRETTY good. Honestly, I think Nintendo had yet to really master the potential of even using two screens. [except for TWEWY which was perfect]. And I feel like the 3D thing is not going to be worldchanging. The AR stuff is cooler.
8. Mads haet regionlocks, but...ehhhhh.
If I think of more later, I'll just say so.