As I type, it’s 1:00am Central Time, and Nintendo is hosting a conference in Japan. The main topic of discussion: The 3DS.
Most of us were impressed with the device’s showing at E3, but now I’m even more excited for the handheld. Some bulletpoint announcements:
- February 26, 2011 launch for Japan, March 2011 for North America and Europe.
- Launching for 25,000 yen, which is around $300 USD, but no US price has been announced (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to $250).
- 3DS Virtual Console, FINALLY bringing us Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games in a downloadable format.
- Tag Mode, a popular feature of many DS games, is now purely hardware based. What this means is that you do NOT have to have a game in sleep mode in order to exchange data with other users. Simple have your DS on – asleep or awake, it sounds like – and you can collect data from a variety of games and a variety of users. HUGE improvement over the old system.
- This tag mode can be used to exchange leaderboard info, download ghost data, etc.
- You can create Miis for use on the 3DS, and it sounds like you can take pictures with the system’s camera and have it auto-generate a Mii for you.
- Nintendo is experimenting with providing 3D TV on the device, at least in Japan.
- This is old news, but a ton of big hitting companies are behind the device, such as Square Enix, Konami, Capcom, Level-5, Kojima Productions, and more.
- Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D was announced. Apparently different than “Revelations,” which was announced at E3.
- Launch colors (in Japan at least) are Aqua Blue and Cosmos Black.
- Tetsuya Nomura (Square-Enix, of the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy fame) re-iterates that they want to release a number of 3DS titles, starting with Kingdom Hearts.
- Kotaku stumbled on a random (but really large) list of upcoming 3DS games online. To quote them, these games are: Samurai Warriors Chronicle, Resident Evil Revelations, Super Street Fighter IV, Dynasty Warriors Musou, Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Chocobo Racing 3D, Super Black Bass 3D, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic, Licca-chan 3DS, Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus: Uprising, StarFox 64 3D, Steel Diver, nintendogs + cats, Mario Kart, Pilot Wings Resort, Paper Mario, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Marble Mania, Deca Sporta, Bomberman, Gundam, Super Robot, Dragonball, Pac-Man & Galaga, Ridge Racer, Harvest Moon, Professor Layton and the Mask of the Miracle, Crash-City GP, VS-robo, Class of Heroes 3D x 3D, Combat of Giants Dinosaur 3D, Ghost Recon Tactics, Splinter Cell 3D, and Driver 3D.
- Somehow lost in the shuffle: Capcom is making Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS. This is pretty huge news for a lot of people.
So… What do you guys think?
The price may be a tad bit high, and I’m bummed that I have to wait until March, but this thing seems AWESOME. I’m particularly excited about the Virtual Console announcement (fans have been clamoring for that for awhile), and this new tag mode actually sounds extremely fun and useful, unlike its inclusion in some of my favorite DS games.
So yeah, I’m extremely excited. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My blog is in the very same area of interest as yours and my users would genuinely benefit from some of the information you present here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Many thanks!