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The 'New' Nintendo 3DS is great... and also the worst electronic product I've bought in years

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
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There's a lot of great things about Nintendo's latest hardware update... but it's underlined by a series of terrible choices that continue to pull Nintendo backwards into the digital dark ages.
The 'New' Nintendo 3DS hits shelves across America and Europe this Friday, alongside a long awaited remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and a seriously pretty exclusive Majora's Mask themed bundle (pictured above). While the refresh of the 3DS line brings with it some very welcome improvements, it also carries the baggage of a company that, in 2015, struggles to achieve a level of customer experience that your mobile telephone has managed for years.

First, let's get the positives out of the way:
  • Comparing the New 3DS XL with the old 3DS XL is extremely favourable. The system is only very slightly larger than it's predecessor, but it feels much more comfortable in your hands. The corners are more rounded, the back of the device is much smoother (though a combination of that and the removal of the rubber 'feet' on the bottom of the 3DS also makes the system much more slippery to either hold or set down on top of things) and the device is very slightly lighter as a whole - but doesn't feel unsubstantial.
  • The screens are very similar on the XLs (the smaller New 3DS - which won't be available in America - does feature a larger set of screens than its predecessor), but the New 3DS seems to handle colours a bit better.
  • The adaptive lighting on the new models, a feature that's been common place on most mobile devices for quite some time, works very well to keep the brightness of the screens at a suitable level for the lighting around you. The choice - whether automatic or manual - in brightness settings remains a set choice of 5 options, however, so it's not a very smooth cut to the different settings.
  • The extra power in the system - which eventually promises to provide new, exclusive games for the system to exploit it - results in much quicker load times, especially for Smash Bros. If you were hoping that it might help the Gen VI Pokemon games' framerates on 3D mode, however, you'll be disappointed - it's as effective as an electric attack on a ground type. Ultimately, that extra power will only really be seen when exclusive games using it come along - like the Xenoblade Chronicles remake.
  • The 'smart 3D' mode, which uses eye tracking to ensure that the 3D effect is always 'pointed the right way' to work actually does, in fact, work. It uses a combination of hardware features - one of which is the camera on the front - so while it may not work very well in low lighting conditions, it does tend to work 99% of the time. There'll be no moving around to find the 'sweet spot' any more, and lots more actual moving around as it makes the gyroscope actually work with 3D mode on at last.
  • The Majora's Mask edition, at the very least, is seriously pretty. The top of the system has the same glossy feel as the bottom and it gives the deep, golden colour of the Majora's Mask edition a premium shine without looking gaudy.
  • It's still fully compatible with all DS, 3DS and DSi titles, which means there's a fantastic library of games that already work on it, and a promising future of new, exclusive-to-or-enhanced-by-this-New-3DS games. It doesn't make any sense to get one of the older models instead of this model. Just save up a little while longer if you have to.
  • It has a second analog 'nub'. It's a lot like those little analog nubs you used to get on old laptops, and it's about as fiddly to get used to as well. I've yet to put it through enough rigorous work in Smash Bros or Majora's Mask to say if it adds as much value as a second full sized analog input would, but anything is better than nothing in this regard. The original 3DS should never have launched without a second analog input.
Which is all great. Really. It's an improvement on the existing models in more than enough ways that I can sincerely say that you should avoid buying those models instead of this one at all costs.

Unfortunately, if you're part of the nearly 50 million people that already OWN a 3DS, the New 3DS is a £200 upgrade that, as of right now - with no exclusive games for it available - is almost unjustifiable. A large part of that is the upgrade process itself. After all, there's no doubt that there is exclusive content coming, so it's an obvious investment to have the hardware when it does. So long as you're fine with paying the absolute most anyone will pay for this system for the least amount of immediate return and the maximum amount of aggravation, of course.

The biggest issue here is one that keeps coming back against Nintendo time, and time again. Even though we finally have a central Nintendo Network account - which keeps tracks of our purchases enough to automatically log them in our Club Nintendo accounts (for as long as there remains such a thing) - we don't have the sensible approach to digital content ownership that follows such a central account system on literally every other platform today. If I buy a new Android phone, I can set up my Google Account on it, put in my WiFi password, and have all my settings, wallpapers and apps downloaded and back on my phone in moments with literally no further input on my part. If I buy a PS Vita tomorrow (and join the heady ranks of the dozens of other owners), I can log into my PSN account and download any of the compatible content I already own without any need to connect it to a PSP I once owned or turning on my PS3.

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You have to wipe all the data from your old 3DS to transfer it to the new one... but you also have to wipe all the data - including preinstalled games - on your New 3DS too...

Today, in the year two-thousand-fifteen, more than ten years after Nintendo launched their first device with an actual online platform (the DS) and about as much time as everyone else got this system nailed down, I have to go through this process to get the content I have bought from Nintendo onto my new Nintendo product:

1) Update both my New 3DS and my old 3DS XL (which seems a bit pointless for systems that are about to wipe themselves)
2) Set up my New 3DS to receive a transfer from my old 3DS
3) Set up my old 3DS to transfer to my New 3DS
4) Watch as my old 3DS painfully takes its time to copy across what amounted to only a few hundred megabytes of data to my New 3DS - failing during this process three times, the last of which never even reported any error on the end of the New 3DS, leaving me with a wiped 3DS XL and a New 3DS with an incomplete transfer process and who knows what valid data left on it.

The end of which leaves me with a completely blank 3DS XL and, after a few restarts, eventually, a New 3DS XL that at least knows I'm me and I own the content I do... but with none of it on the system itself. Even if the transfer hadn't failed, I would still have had to re-download it anyway.

Nintendo forces you to go through this entire process, even though - at the end of it all - you still have to sign into your Nintendo account and go and download all your content again anyway, because they refuse to let you have any way you could keep your owned content on more than one system at a time.

You might argue that's a fair enough proposition - even though it's not a problem for your iOS/Android/Windows apps or your Xbox or Playstation content; or that you're royally screwed by this system if your console is broken, lost or stolen. However, they do this while also insisting that, as 50 million of you already own a 3DS, you don't need a charger packaged with the system so as to save costs and electronic waste. In the very same breath as they insist that you surely already have a 3DS that you won't be getting rid of - and by making you go through a process that can only be completed by continuing to own an old 3DS - they also insist that there's absolutely no reason why you would ever actually have more than one 3DS... It's an insane contradiction.

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You're going to need to open up your new toy to replace the paltry 4GB card inside it

Another particularly terrible choice is the move from SD Card to Micro SD card. It's not necessarily that Micro SD card is inherently worse (though it is exponentially more expensive and if you want to get a card larger than 32GB to work on the 3DS, you'll need to jump through some ridiculous hoops first), but the change to Micro SD suddenly makes the SD card in your 3DS completely incompatible - which certainly makes the original 3DS transfer method of (eventually) swapping the cards a completely ridiculous exercise) and also brings with it the absolutely awful way you have to open up the back of the New 3DS to be able to change the card. Especially since it requires a specific kind of screwdriver size that almost no-one is going to have just lying around as well as a concerning amount of force to separate the backplate that's pretty terrifying to be doing to your new £200 toy.

And if you got a New 3DS with preloaded software like the Majora's Mask bundle, you will have to do the transfer first, so you can apply the game to your eShop account, before changing the SD card to a larger one. And then download the game again. All this means that if, like me, you purchased the New 3DS with bundled software, and already owned a 3DS with digital content you needed to move over to it, you are hours away from playing that game from the moment you first turn on the system due to the amount of pure faff this upgrade system requires from you.

These aren't problems that any digital entertainment company should be having in 2015. They're problems that were solved years ago and Nintendo is languishing so far behind the basic user experience standards expected of a digital consumer device today that the New 3DS could genuinely have come out 5 years ago in 2010 and still looked out of date.

It's the last piece of generously long rope that Nintendo can be afforded for "being Nintendo". It's simply not an acceptable standard for a consumer product today and completely untenable with any future release of any hardware. This has to be the last time these complaints can be levelled against a new piece of Nintendo hardware, because it's the last time it can even remotely be excused. If I were still able to levy these complaints in a review of their next hardware, I absolutely would be finishing up by telling you to avoid it at all costs.

As it is, I'm not. Not quite, anyway. Ultimately, despite being a terrible user experience in terms of upgrading from an older 3DS, it is still a solid improvement for the 3DS platform, and the 3DS platform is one of the richest game libraries out there right now - with a promise to be only better in the coming years, in part directly because of this hardware upgrade. You should buy one, but if you're upgrading, I would genuinely caution you against it right now. That aggravation will be easier to swallow when the price is lower and the exclusive content is richer.

(Some images taken from this guide on transferring your data - one that's worth a look if you are upgrading anyway.)

Update: A note on the failed transfer: While my purchases are in-tact, my save files for my digital games are not. All content on Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, Y, Smash Bros. and a Link Between Worlds is gone. Including the in-progress living Pokedex I had 'checked out' from Bank into Sapphire...

On almost every other modern gaming platform today, cloud saves would have eradicated this issue. At the very least, a system that
didn't erase all your data when it fails to transfer over correctly would have been nice, Nintendo...
 
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I find it ironic how yesterday when I went to shovel with my cousin, we talked just how bad it is, and other things(but mainly the fact he bought one and they excluded a lot of things that would let it run correctly).
 
I'm not quite sure exactly how exactly to personally feel about the New 3DS after reading this. Sure, all of the pros -can- outweigh the cons, but at the same time, it can be a heart-breaking vise versa.

Myself, I am most definitely upgrading to the "New" 3DS, which by far is the most half-assed name I've ever heard of for a console, if you asked me. Which begs the question, is it truly worth transferring your data with risks of your data unsuccessfully being installed to the next system. The fact that Nintendo "refuses to let you have any way you could keep your owned content on more than one system at a time" is yet another trait that fails to surprise me, with all of the shit that I've seen Nintendo pull in the past, and is still pulling to date.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining... well... not TOO much. I've seen and read the pros an cons myself, not just here alone, but via multiple different sources, and I believe that it will be worth it for me to allow myself to persuade my financial decision-makings into buying this new product.

Seriously though, why "The New" 3DS? I can't let that go just yet. XD
 
I'm not quite sure exactly how exactly to personally feel about the New 3DS after reading this. Sure, all of the pros -can- outweigh the cons, but at the same time, it can be a heart-breaking vise versa.

Myself, I am most definitely upgrading to the "New" 3DS, which by far is the most half-assed name I've ever heard of for a console, if you asked me. Which begs the question, is it truly worth transferring your data with risks of your data unsuccessfully being installed to the next system. The fact that Nintendo "refuses to let you have any way you could keep your owned content on more than one system at a time" is yet another trait that fails to surprise me, with all of the shit that I've seen Nintendo pull in the past, and is still pulling to date.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining... well... not TOO much. I've seen and read the pros an cons myself, not just here alone, but via multiple different sources, and I believe that it will be worth it for me to allow myself to persuade my financial decision-makings into buying this new product.

Seriously though, why "The New" 3DS? I can't let that go just yet. XD


Its called the New 3DS, because it describes it perfectly. Name 1 other name that fits it as well
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Its called the New 3DS, because it describes it perfectly. Name 1 other name that fits it as well
The 3DSi. Or the 3DS Plus. Those two examples aren't even the best in the world, but they're not nearly as confusing. Picture a punter who wants to get a 3DS for their child or whatever. They walk into a GAME store, or an equivalent retailer.

The poor sales assistant now has to discern whether they want a new New 3DS, a used New 3DS, a new standard 3DS, or a used standard 3DS - and that forgets the 2DS or XL variations even exist. Worse, next year there will inevitably be a New 2DS and the confusion will start anew :p Give it a couple of years and that exchange could be lifted verbatim into a Monty Python sketch.

Calling a product "The New X" doesn't work. Even Apple, as stubborn as they are, gave up on it and started calling "The new iPad" the iPad 3 like everyone else. It's just confusing for the consumers - and 10 years down the line, buying a New 3DS down a yard sale is going to feel weird. :p

Also: @Doctor Oak: You have awful luck keeping hold of your Pokémon... Definitely sorry to hear about your data loss. Although @Demelza didn't have the transfer issue, so she didn't lose any data or have to redownload all her digital content,

I do agree with basically every other point in the article - smartphones are making handhelds look increasingly archaic in every way these days, and it's sad to see that Nintendo (and Sony with the Vita!) can't keep up with even smartphones released at the time of their original release.

@Kyubeon If that happens...
Yeah, it will. Game Freak have always tended to be the flag bearers of new Ninty technology - and the fact we're already having noticeable framerate issues with the existing Gen 6 games means New 3DS enhancement is almost certain (it's been proven pretty easy to implement), and exclusivity is no doubt on the way down the line.
 
I was never going to get one of these 'New 3ds's', I'm perfectly happy with my Limited Edition Pokemon XY 3dsXL. I'm hoping that the nextPokemon game is not exclusive to this 3ds. If it is, well, I guess I'll have to pass it unfortunately :/ (unless there is at least 10 exclusive
games I want) I ain't spending $200+ on a new 3ds that is
almost the same as the old one (with a few small upgrades).
Anyways I don't think Nintendo would be that cruel..........
Would they?...........


Also I'm really sorry for your loss. I know how it feels, I almost lost all my 3ds data once (because I dropped it). Luckily a good friend of
mine new how to fix it. Thank God he was there, I would have lost
everything...... Including my precious Fliker (my Pyroar)............
 
i got the new 3ds for a week ago, and i really like it, so far i have pokemon omega ruby, hatsune miku prosject mirai 2 and dragon ball heroes 2, and i see diffrent on the colors from my old 3DS XL to the New one :)
 

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Demelza

Eevee Tamer
Staff member
Moderator
Interesting article Alex. I agree with a decent amount of what you've said but not so much others. I definitely agree that the auto brightness is a welcome addition even if it's something I don't personally use. I prefer having my system at the highest brightness and I found the auto adjusting too jarring at the best of times.

The extra power in the system is simply wonderful. My old XL was really starting to slow down (although I think that's mostly due to my then SD card being almost full). Smash is actually playable on the system rather than being really slow to get going, which was never a huge issue to me but it's still nice to see the difference.

The smart 3D has made a /lot/ of difference to me playing games with it on. It's really nice and while I always tended to play games with the 3D on anyway, I do think it looks better with the new consoles. Booted up Bravely Default yesterday and found it really pretty whereas previously when playing the game I couldn't quite hit the sweet spot for perfect 3D viewing.

I also agree that taking off the back of the New 3DS' to access the SD card should never have been a thing, especially in the XL when it's the only reason we'll ever be taking the backplate off. I definitely had a scary moment of hoping nothing was going to break when taking it off, not helped by how fragile the backplate feels...I do think they should have included a screwdriver to get the screws out as well as, like you said yourself, the chances of everyone having one laying around is slim.

I'm sorry to hear about what happened with your data as, like Petey said earlier in the thread, I managed to transfer with no problems whatsoever beyond it taking forever, and have only heard one other report of an issue like yours happening. So it really was a case of really crap luck there xp

Honestly I agree with a lot of your article, but I don't think it was fair to complain about the Nintendo Network when Nintendo never set out to improve it with the console. The truth is the console is only being pushed for its extra power, stable 3D and the odd push for Amiibo, but they never promised us anything more - and we won't get anything more until the next generation of home console/handhelds. It's not really fair to compare your 3DS to your phone or the Vita/PS3 either considering Sony have been doing the whole 'having everything in the cloud and able to redownload easily' far longer than Nintendo will ever be and have probably gone through quite a few mistakes to get where they are. I'm not saying that Nintendo's way of doing things is right, because it really isn't, but the transfer option they give us is an okay alternative until the next systems come along and they do it better because the New 3DS was never going to be the console which fixed the problems.

All in all it is a suitable upgrade, even if it's not for everyone until some more exclusive games come along or at least those that better benefit from the C-Stick thing.
 

FalChromiforme

Formerly Aurora Beam
I just bought the 2DS two months ago; I'm not spending a shitton of money on another game system unless I absolutely have to (and by "have to" I mean "when a Pokemon game is new 3DS-exclusive")
Yeah, see, that's my thing. I'm saving my money for a worthwhile upgraded system instead of buying every. new. thing. that comes out. Also, I doubt any "new-3ds exclusive" games will exist, because these reviews exists everywhere too . . . .So Nintendo would lose at least a third of their sales if they released a new 3ds-exclusive game. . .
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Yeah, see, that's my thing. I'm saving my money for a worthwhile upgraded system instead of buying every. new. thing. that comes out. Also, I doubt any "new-3ds exclusive" games will exist, because these reviews exists everywhere too . . . .So Nintendo would lose at least a third of their sales if they released a new 3ds-exclusive game. . .
They have a whole lineup of N3DS-exclusive games in the works - only one has been announced so far (Xenoblade Chronicles), but just wait for E3...

Basically, the New 3DS is supposed to succeed the standard model in every way - they intend for all players to upgrade at some point eventually.
 
I'm not surprised with this at all, Nintendo is just trying to get the most money out of the products they sell so of course they're going to cut corners
 

Demelza

Eevee Tamer
Staff member
Moderator
I'm not surprised with this at all, Nintendo is just trying to get the most money out of the products they sell so of course they're going to cut corners

Thing is they have not cut corners at all. The console does everything they said it would and does it well, the stable 3D, the extra power, the C-Stick, Amiibo support.

The Nintendo Network thing is a problem in general but it's not something the New 3DS set out to do and thus Nintendo have not been cutting corners.
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
The Nintendo Network thing is a problem in general but it's not something the New 3DS set out to do and thus Nintendo have not been cutting corners.
I think that's part of the issue, though - once you've used any of the major smartphone OSes, or a modern console (the PS4/Xbox One, for example), the Nintendo ecosystem feels very lacking in response. It's not that it was advertised as an improvement with the New 3DS, it's that it desperately needs improving.

If I broke my phone tomorrow, I could get a replacement and have everything exactly as it was - including all purchased content - within an hour, simply by putting my details in. With a 3DS, there is nothing even resembling that level of user-friendliness, unfortunately.

The fact that games are tied to your console rather than your account is absolutely silly, as are many of the other restrictions that are placed upon the Nintendo Network - and given that no other ecosystem owner has felt the need to do the same, it seems very redundant and needlessly restrictive.. I think that's the point @Doctor Oak was trying to make in the article to begin with.

As for them cutting corners: Not including a charger is cutting corners whichever way you slice it. :p
 
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Demelza

Eevee Tamer
Staff member
Moderator
I think that's part of the issue, though - once you've used any of the major smartphone OSes, or a modern console (the PS4/Xbox One, for example), the Nintendo ecosystem feels very lacking in response. It's not that it was advertised as an improvement with the New 3DS, it's that it desperately needs improving.

The fact that games are tied to your console rather than your account is absolutely silly, as are many of the other restrictions that are placed upon the Nintendo Network - and given that no other ecosystem owner has felt the need to do the same, it seems very redundant and needlessly restrictive.. I think that's the point @Doctor Oak was trying to make in the article to begin with.

As for them cutting corners: Not including a charger is cutting corners whichever way you slice it. :p

Yeah and I'd never say it wasn't a problem, but again it's one that won't be solved until we hit new hardware. It's just not something I feel fits within a review of the New 3DS is all as it's a pre-existing problem and not one we ever thought was going away with this console. :p

Also the charger was cutting corners since the XL, so it's not really a problem with the New console either.
 
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Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Honestly I agree with a lot of your article, but I don't think it was fair to complain about the Nintendo Network when Nintendo never set out to improve it with the console.

That's an absolutely fair complaint, because there's literally no reason why this console should have been released without this system being improved. Its entire existence hinges on the fact people will have to upgrade from it. The 50 million 3DS figure is a point that's relatively close to market saturation and releasing an updated piece of hardware is directly aimed at getting a hefty amount of those 50 million to buy yet another one.

It's unacceptable to release a product focused so keenly on targeting existing owners and to make the customer experience for those existing owners so absolutely terrible. It's an act of terrible ignorance, arrogance and excessive hubris all at once, and Nintendo shouldn't be excused for it just because they're Nintendo.

and we won't get anything more until the next generation of home console/handhelds.
...
Nintendo's way of doing things [isn't] right, but the transfer option they give us is an okay alternative until the next systems come along and they do it better because the New 3DS was never going to be the console which fixed the problems.

There's absolutely zero technical reason why a centralised account system - one that exists on every other digital content platform today - cannot be introduced at any time Nintendo feels like. Mid-product-cycle or at the launch of a new product, such as this one. It's the same difference either way as all the work for it is completely separate to the hardware. Whether or not Nintendo was ever going to bother fixing this with this hardware release is irrelevant - it's something they should have done years ago and it directly affects this new hardware in such a manner that it's completely wrong of them to have released it without fixing this system. As such, it's definitely an entirely relevant complaint for this hardware's release.

It's not really fair to compare your 3DS to your phone or the Vita/PS3 either considering Sony have been doing the whole 'having everything in the cloud and able to redownload easily' far longer than Nintendo will ever be and have probably gone through quite a few mistakes to get where they are.

It's completely fair to compare the 3DS to any other consumer electronic product that expects you to buy digital content online in the same manner. Nintendo not bothering to do the very basics in allowing its customers to manage their accounts and digital purchases in the space of the many years that every other similar service has done so really doesn't excuse them from criticism for it. If anything, it highlights it even more than ever and makes Nintendo's continued negligence almost literally criminal.

All in all it is a suitable upgrade, even if it's not for everyone until some more exclusive games come along or at least those that better benefit from the C-Stick thing.

The new 3DS succeeds very well at being a new 3DS. That's good. Great, even. That big list of positives in my review should absolutely sell it as a product for anyone who doesn't already have a 3DS. For those of us who do, however, the upgrade is - at the moment - mostly superficial and while the better 3D, adaptive lighting and second analog input are all welcome improvements over the existing models - not one of them amounts to being worth £200 to play the exact same games on with almost no difference. For those of us with a 3DS - until content like Xenoblade Chronicles arrives - buying this console is all about the upgrade and moving on to the new thing to be ready for the future and thanks to Nintendo's continued failure to manage its customers increasing libraries of digital content to the level that everyone else has managed since the earliest days of the DS's lifespan makes that upgrade process an archaic nightmare of user unfriendliness the likes of which are simply not seen in any other consumer electronic product like it today. For that reason, there's no escaping the fact that this is not a consumer electronic product that should have been released in this manner in 2015 from a billion-dollar-valued digital entertainment company.

If any of Nintendo's competitors, extending out to both Apple and Google, were to release a device that treated its users this way today, they'd be rightly derided and the product would be a failure (and, in fact, the PSP GO - which relied exclusively on digital content with an, at that point, weak digital library management set up on the PSN, was widely derided and was a complete failure). On no other platform would we accept the deal of purchasing digital content that would disappear the instant we no longer had access to the hardware it was on - or that we would have to go through an insane, destructive, transfer process to not lose the content we have purchased from them after continuing to support their platform by buying their latest hardware. It's simply no longer an excuse that Nintendo can get away with this because they're Nintendo. It's long since past time that they got their shit together and got with the world of today.

The alternative, simply, is that it's impossible to recommend future hardware because they'll have simply taken this release - what amounts to the last straw being pulled and shown to the world for what a frayed mess it really is - and continued to ignore the problem. A company that is so negligent of its customers like that is not one that I could ever continue to recommend buying from.
 
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i see nintendo as the old wise guy saying were making our stuff the old way and not how modern game consoles programming is today because nintendo is likely to fix the issue but then have another issue on top of that issue. am i going to purchase it? yes. but i will wait til like the summer because knowing nintendo when something doesn't sell well they drop the price
 
i really do not get why they have to make another stupid upgraded console when they could just put out a big system update and advertise a circle pad pro because i'm not gonna blow $300 just on a system that would only give the 3ds a couple more years and i would wait until they actually make a new system worth the money
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
i really do not get why they have to make another stupid upgraded console when they could just put out a big system update and advertise a circle pad pro because i'm not gonna blow $300 just on a system that would only give the 3ds a couple more years and i would wait until they actually make a new system worth the money
I'm not sure you understand how processor upgrades work :p The upgrades are due to the new hardware, system upgrades can't take the console much further than it is already.

If you don't think it's worth the money, don't buy it - but given the increased power will cause a selection of games - including, eventually, Pokémon - to be exclusive to it, I think there's more value than you think. You can't fix insufficient hardware with a quick software patch.
 
Yeah, see, that's my thing. I'm saving my money for a worthwhile upgraded system instead of buying every. new. thing. that comes out. Also, I doubt any "new-3ds exclusive" games will exist, because these reviews exists everywhere too . . . .So Nintendo would lose at least a third of their sales if they released a new 3ds-exclusive game. . .
i agree so just think if pokemon black and white were dsi exclusive and where they no but Nintendo advertises the NN 3ds like it's the game of the year
 

Shiny Motley

2016 Singles Football
I think you guys are mistaken; there already ARE new 3DS exclusive games announced. Well, one. And it's been mentioned over and over my Doctor Oak here: Xenoblade Chronicles. I remember reading elsewhere that they will be making new 3DS-exclusive games as well, though I don't remember my source. Either way, that should eliminate any doubt from your minds that there will definitely be new 3DS exclusives, and I have almost no doubt that Pokemon will eventually become one as well. Whether that happens within this Gen or the next one is to be seen (I'm more willing to bet my money that it'll be next gen, though)
 
The new 3ds is dumb my friend who is in my class is getting it but I still feel happy for him and I will only get the new 3ds if they decide to make pokemon games for it right now I'm saving up I only have 40 Canadian dollars
 
The loss of data scares me a bit. I've spent hundreds of hours on my Pokemon games, and to have all of my hard-caught and bred Pokemon just disappear is very disappointing.
 
I do like Nintendo, but they are making stupid decision after stupid decision, Starting with The New 3ds, the name is stupid, just imagine this conversation taking place in a gamestop which is likely considering the American economy is like a toilet bowl full of diahrea in an old abandoned subway and moving at a snail's pace. "Hello I would like a used New 3ds." Said a mother as she walked into gamestop. "Okay, A used 3ds". The Store Clerk said. "No, a used New 3ds" Said The mother. "There are no used new 3ds's, thats why they are used". "Okay just give me the used 3ds." Said the mother as she paid the stupidly high cost for the system. At her son's birthday the boy opened the gift and was dissapointed. Damn it Nintendo, what made uou think putting a "New" In front of a system was a good idea?! Why not call it The Nintendo Super 3ds? And with the whole Sd card being removable only by screwdriver makes the system cumbersum since it will only take the small micro sd cards that don't hold anything worth the cost, and kids arn't patient since they will likely need adult help with this, and they will just go ahead and rip the New 3ds apart and ruin it. Yah, Nintendo smart move,, real smart move. and yet you wonder why it is that you are struggling. The whole account system is flawed too.
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
And with the whole Sd card being removable only by screwdriver makes the system cumbersum since it will only take the small micro sd cards that don't hold anything worth the cost, and kids arn't patient since they will likely need adult help with this, and they will just go ahead and rip the New 3ds apart and ruin it.
While I more or less agree with a lot of your post (given you basically just said exactly what I did earlier :p), I have to point out that MicroSD cards are absolutely not expensive for the storage they offer - not compared to other technologies.

For example, I can see with a quick look on Amazon UK that you can get a 32GB MicroSD card for exactly the same price as a regular SD card - about £10. Given a 32GB Vita memory stick is £52... yeah. You see my point, I'm sure.

As for the kids ripping the backplates off the New 3DS in some sort of technolust-driven fury, I'm pretty sure those screws and the plastic are strong enough to resist. If they're likely to pay so little attention to the New 3DS as to literally snap the backplate off, maybe they're too young to have the system? Especially given the regular 3DS XL would also be broken with that sort of treatment.

Also, Nintendo aren't exactly struggling. That's half the problem, they keep doing whatever they want because they still have massive amounts of capital to burn. :p
 
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FalChromiforme

Formerly Aurora Beam
While I more or less agree with a lot of your post (given you basically just said exactly what I did earlier :p), I have to point out that MicroSD cards are absolutely not expensive for the storage they offer - not compared to other technologies.

For example, I can see with a quick look on Amazon UK that you can get a 32GB MicroSD card for exactly the same price as a regular SD card - about £10. Given a 32GB Vita memory stick is £52... yeah. You see my point, I'm sure.

As for the kids ripping the backplates off the New 3DS in some sort of technolust-driven fury, I'm pretty sure those screws and the plastic are strong enough to look. If they're likely to pay so little attention to the New 3DS as to literally snap the backplate off, maybe they're too young to have the system? Especially given the regular 3DS XL would also be broken with that sort of treatment.

Also, Nintendo aren't exactly struggling. That's half the problem, they keep doing whatever they want because they still have massive amounts of capital to burn. :p
Data's main point: CAPITALISM!!!!!!!!!!8) <--is about taking risks with your capital to gain more capital. (not really, but for the purposes here, YES REALLY) and anyways, the new 3ds' redeeming qualities do seem to number higher than the negatives. Because there's really only ONE HUGE NEGATIVE-(although it is a rather big one) and that's the memory transfer. :angel:
 
While I more or less agree with a lot of your post (given you basically just said exactly what I did earlier :p), I have to point out that MicroSD cards are absolutely not expensive for the storage they offer - not compared to other technologies.

For example, I can see with a quick look on Amazon UK that you can get a 32GB MicroSD card for exactly the same price as a regular SD card - about £10. Given a 32GB Vita memory stick is £52... yeah. You see my point, I'm sure.

As for the kids ripping the backplates off the New 3DS in some sort of technolust-driven fury, I'm pretty sure those screws and the plastic are strong enough to resist. If they're likely to pay so little attention to the New 3DS as to literally snap the backplate off, maybe they're too young to have the system? Especially given the regular 3DS XL would also be broken with that sort of treatment.

Also, Nintendo aren't exactly struggling. That's half the problem, they keep doing whatever they want because they still have massive amounts of capital to burn. :p
Wow, I never saw it that way, I was just fristrated with things like how to get the system memory from one 3ds to the New 3ds, and that the Majora's Mask New 3ds doesn't even come with a copy of the game.
 
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