One hour. That was the least you had to wait in the line for a chance to see it. After all, everyone that was at the Nintendo Press Conference said how wonderful it was, how amazing it was to see it working, how promising the lineup is. I was one of the lucky people to have the chance to see it first-hand at the conference, but there were no playable demos or trailers of the new games there. No, to see what it's all about, you had to wait in the line.

 

3DS. Such a simple acronym, it explains exactly what it is: a DS that has a 3D screen. Was it worth waiting one hour to finally see what it is capable of? Totally.

 

 

The first thing you'll notice when holding a 3DS is that it's about the size of a DSi. There's a widescreen on the top, a camera on top of it, two cameras on the back, and a new button layout, including an analog stick over the D-pad, the addition of a Home button and the new positioning for the Start/Select buttons. Surprisingly, the analog is comfortable and responds well. We can't forget the most important thing about the 3DS, though: a slide pad next to the top screen that allows you to turn the 3D effect on and off on the fly.

 

But you're not here to read what you can see through a promotional picture, right? So let's get to the point: software.

 

The most surprising part about the software is how early so many developers have announced games for it, and how big those games are: Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Kingdom Hearts just to name 3. All of the ones mentioned were available at Nintendo's booth, in the form of a trailer. Sadly, my impressions with them weren't positive. I'm not sure if the kit I was watching Kingdom Hearts on was broken or Square-Enix had not implemented 3D on the trailer, but I couldn't change the game to 3D. Resident Evil looks gorgeous, topping even many Wii games (of course it's not a gameplay video, but it's still impressive), but the 3D wasn't well calibrated, making it hard to watch the trailer properly, which made me turn it off to watch it. As for Metal Gear Solid, there was a huge line and we only had 20 minutes at the "minibooth", so I wasn't able to see it.

 

 

Other trailers seen include Kid Icarus Uprising, which worked really well and seems really fun, mixing two similar games (Starfox and Sin & Punishment) while adding new features of its own, and Mario Kart, which looks absolutely gorgeous in 3 dimensions. The feeling you have is that you're seeing a diorama move around inside the 3DS, and it has really surprised me.

 

And what games did I actually play? I started with Samurai Warriors 3D, which works just like the other games from the franchise: slash as many enemies as possible, use special attacks to slash even more. The 3D was as good as in Mario Kart, but the graphics weren't as impressive, mostly because of the difference in the art direction of both games. I then tried a virtual reality game. Basically, I'd point both screens to a specific part of the table (it had one of those "?" blocks from Mario games) and things would happen around it, namely, targets would appear and I'd have to move the 3DS to aim and fire. While it felt more like a tech demo than anything, it helped showing the accuracy of the 3D cameras, and the effects such as pitfalls opening on the table, but especially the dragon boss at the end, were actually really good.

 

 

Last but not least, I took a picture in 3D, one of the features that had drawn most of my attention since it was announced. And I'm glad to say it works surprisingly well. Not only did the camera quality improve since the DSi, but he pictures are really taken in 3D. The guy presenting the camera was kind enough to reach his arm in my direction while I took the picture, so I could see the effects more clearly.

 

Graphics-wise, the 3DS has evolved from the DS, and it looks better than a PSP even when 3D is turned off. I haven't seen, though, a game that looks as good as, say, Shadow of the Colossus (PS2), so I'm not entirely sure of what is the 3DS' full potential.

 

Unfortunately for everyone, Nintendo has yet to announce a release date than "we'll have it out everywhere before April 2011". Until then, you can count on Meodia.com to bring you every little new detail about it.