Some folks who know me consider me to be a Nintendo fanboi. I will accept that title as I have grown up and owned pretty much every Nintendo system in existence (minus the failure that was Virtual Boy). Being a fanboi makes my opinion seem biased, however, I’m sure you know that being a fan of something also makes you super critical of that something as well. With that, let’s begin on our trip through the world of 3D gaming without glasses…
I got to PAXEast before opening and waited patiently before making a run for the Nintendo booth eagerly ready to give the new technology a test drive. At PAXEast there were 3 main sections that had 3DS stations setup to demo. I had the lucky break of being able to navigate the expo floor and demo 4 games which are, in order: Resident Evil: Mercenaries, AR Game: “? Block” card, Steel Diver, and Super Street Fighter IV. I walked over and grabbed the 3DS and started playing Resident Evil: Mercenaries and was blown away by the 3D effect. It was not overly powerful and nor was it a strain for my eyes to play the game for the 5-10 minute time I had been allotted. The game played exactly like a challenge mode of Resident Evil 4, but with a level of visual depth that enhanced the gaming experience. While I was looking over the main character’s shoulder in the foreground, I could see advancing zombies slowly dragging their dead bodies closer to me. It truly was an amazing sight and with the enhanced graphics that Nintendo is NOT known for, the game really looked dazzling. The game used the slider pad, which is not like an analog stick at all, and took a little getting used to before I was able to aim semi-accurately. As the name implies, your thumb slides around in a circle, but the pad doesn’t stick out of the system like a typical analog stick like on a Wii’s nunchuck. It was different and will definitely take some getting used to but it does slide smoothly and allows for full 360 degrees of movement.
Next up was the AR Game Demo which involved a ? Block card that you put on the table and aim the 3DS at it (a “sweet spot” of about 14 inches.). I gave the game a shot and to be honest, wasn’t completely blown away. Granted the game is a free pack-in, but the graphics were pretty poor based on my experience with RE: Mercenaries and the game also glitched on me when I was told to shoot the front of a box, which I shot about 20x, and the game didn’t move onto the next challenge. The 3DS attendant had to grab the 3DS and moved it around a little and was able to pull off the shot… not sure what was wrong but it was strange to say the least. The game progressed and was a decent tech demo of what the 3DS was capable of in relation to the gyroscope and navigating the 3D space (which apparently I did poorly based on my box shooting skills). Also, the Nintendo attendant stated that if the card is lost or damaged, Nintendo would replace the cards for free… which kind of alleviated some fears of trying to keep the cards that come with the system safe and sound for all eternity.
Next up was Steel Diver, which Reggie states will be the game to own despite Zelda and Mario not being available at launch time. The game was lackluster at best and maybe it was only just a demo of a section of the game but all you did was spin in circles (in real life mind you to simulate looking through a periscope) and shoot torpedoes at boats that, if they hit you back, would force you to tap the DS screen to plug up the holes from the damage. Sounds neat on paper, and the game looked decent enough, but the demo was just plain boring. Hopefully the entire package comes together to make something fun and exciting, but at this point, it isn’t looking to be the hit that Nintendo is expecting.
The last game on the list was Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition. To sum this game up, it is Super Street Fighter IV, on the DS… with some “decent” 3D. The 3D basically brings your health bar and your combo bar to the front of the screen and has the fighters duke it out in the background. Looks pretty, plays fine and is what you would expect Street Fighter on a portable system to be. Nothing overly amazing, but still a great port of a great game.
So there you go. I tried to make this as concise as possible but being a hands-on wanted to make sure I was thorough enough to give you the overall experience. To sum it up, promising and surprisingly portable hardware from the folks at Nintendo but the future software line-up has me more excited than the current software. Heck I have the thing pre-ordered and I can’t even find a game I want to buy yet! RE: Mercenaries was definitely the best out of all of them, but is just a mini game adaptation, AR Games come with the system, Steel Diver was boring, and Super Street Fighter IV doesn’t interest me. Regardless, I am excited for the future of the system with titles like Paper Mario, Mario Kart, Ocarina of Time, and other select titles waiting in the pipe line.
Editor’s Comment: Please note I didn’t have a chance to get over to Ocarina of Time or other some other games to demo them, but I did see a lot of folks playing Ocarina of Time nearby and the game looks much prettier than its N64 counterpart. If you have any questions, feel free leave a comment and I will answer them for you!
