[Moogs]

Ocarina of Time looks nice in 3D.

It's kinda nice moving the camera and aiming the bow via the motion controls in the 3DS, too.

Anyone who's played with a 3DS should know those two features don't mix well. I really like the depth effect the 3D gives, but shit, it's almost always better to just keep it turned off.

[SuperWes]

[BenoitRen]

Smartphones have nothing to do with Nintendo's problem.

Nintendo didn't properly advertise the 3DS. Only in Europe did they try. Combine that with the high price and the poor game library, and it's no wonder that the system is selling even worse than the PSP did when it came out.

The recent announcements by third parties to cancel all 3DS support had Nintendo shit their pants, and this price drop is how they're reacting.
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Kinto]

So Nintendo dropped the price of the original DS after only 6 months, right before the holiday season, to undercut PSP.

That's kind of interesting.
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[Lick Meth]

[Kinto]

Yeah, the odds of a company doing something that worked once before are virtually nil.

EDIT: Oh, hey, apparently after 21 weeks the original DS had sold 4.6 million, compared to 3DS's 3.3 after 21 weeks.

The DS was launched in the holiday season in Japan and the US, wheras 3DS was launched in all territories in February/March.

Definitely putting this anti-hype down to gamefan pants-shitting until I see how the figures are by March next year.

[allensmithee]

In a way, I wonder if 3DS may be a new sort of Sega Dreamcast.

Granted, it'll never have Sega's off the wall Blue Skies fun. Heck, there's not even an Outrun of any type on the 3DS.
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[SuperWes]

[Loki Laufeyson]

the 3ds has good games! just that they're all old.
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http://lunaticobscurity.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Snezhaja Koroleva (Arcade)
http://lunargarbagehell.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Batman: Digital Justice

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Steel Diver is the only remaining 3DS game that has my interest, and it's not much more than a dinky curiosity better suited to the DS.

[Kinto]

All I want is Metal Gear and Monster Hunter and there's literally no reason for me to get a Vita.
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[SuperWes]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

As unplayably bad as Peace Walker?

[Bennett]

[Kinto]

I found Peace Walker's controls easier than MGS3's on PS2.

That's what made me want the 3DS version in the first place.

Maybe the people playing at E3 are just idiots?

[negativedge]

[SuperWes]

[death parade]

[death parade]

[Mr Mustache]

Now that they are incredibly inexpensive, one of you should buy a 3DS and give me your old DS Lite, as I have lost mine.
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The people are like wool to me

[Lick Meth]

[sarsamis]

[Bennett]

I guess the GBA SP had pretty nice battery life. And the DS Lite has pretty nice battery life. The gameboy had crazy battery life. But the DS Phat, the 3DS, the PSP-1000, Game Gear, the Lynx and all had worse battery life than my current phone (iphone 4).

Anyhow, the reason I lumped battery life and size/weight together is that I think they combine to make a device portable or not. If a device must be tethered to the wall, it's not portable. And if it's as big and heavy as a OG Gameboy it's not portable either, by my current phone's standards, even if the battery lasts for 40 hours.

I would consider my phone a lot more portable than my PSP, even if the PSP had a 100 hour battery. But whether you agree with that or not, it's clear that the handheld consoles are no longer the clear leaders in terms of portability, as they were until around 2007 (we could argue about the exact year this happened, but it did happen). In this sense, phones have changed people's perceptions of what a portable device is like.

I don't think the Vita and 3DS are portable by current standards. I could see myself buying either one, but I would mostly use them in bed or on the couch. I see them as PS3/Xbox/Wii U competitors, not as competitors for the space in my pocket.

[Kinto]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I'd never suggest that Peace Walker's controls are better than MGS3's, but they're a very intelligent and efficient use of the PSP's limited buttons. I might have had trouble in that area if it was, say, an FPS; but thankfully, even the boss fights are slow and methodical.

[Kinto]

I was one of those people that would constantly fuck up in MGS3 because of the sheer amount of options crammed into a single button press. CQC in particular was way more complicated than it ever really needed to be.
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[Broco]

Today's Penny Arcade perfectly summarized the situation: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/8/1/

[negativedge]

[Bennett]

They do a paragraph of text to go alongside.

[Broco]

Eh, nobody's gonna claim it utilizes the full potential of the medium, but it's a dialogue that wouldn't quite fit in an essay-style format. And the imagery establishes that context better than screenplay formatting would.

One of my favorite Penny Arcades is similarly text-heavy.

[This Machine Kills Fascis]

I was thinking earlier today that if I had a big heap of cash, I might buy a 3DS and a few games for it.

So there's that.
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"Godzilla could be anyone."

[Rud31]

[Talbain]

Unfortunately if you go too deeply down that road you begin to start questioning the crazy monetary system we've embroiled ourselves in. Doubt most people even know how to think outside of it at this point.
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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not sure that the dominance of $1-5 games over $20-60 ones will yield positive long-term results in most of the areas we desire growth in games.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I don't think anyone here is directly arguing against that, DAIS.

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I'll take you all on. >:[

[Donk]

[Bennett]

I for one agree with you DAIS. I think what I'd like to see is a proliferation of games on a full spectrum from $1-$100, sort of like what we have now but in perpetuity. The worry is that what we have now is just a transitional state on the way to $1-$5 games becoming dominant, as you say.

I'm not sad about the fact that you can no longer sell a falling-block game (or similar) for $60 though (nothing against falling-block games, but they do not take $60 worth of effort to make, nor are they targeting a small enough market to justify it as a niche price)

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Duckzero]

Well what's happening is that companies like EA are seeing the most growth in mobile(iOS). That's a problem. I've spent a lot of time playing Need For Speed Shift on my phone for 99 cents. All of the Zenonia games with over 60 hours for a grand total of 3 dollars. Evac HD gave me a good amount of time for 3 ish dollars.

That's less than 10 dollars on Android. Not even iOS where there's a much better selection.

I love handheld systems by the way, I personally just wait until the prices on the games drop to something that I find reasonable. I believe this is in part due to mobile gaming.
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Keepin' it real like Oatmeal

[negativedge]