The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin

Nintendo 3DS becomes official; no 3D glasses required

By | June 16, 2010, 1:46am PDT

Summary: After months of teases and rumors, Nintendo got official at E3 2010 with the company’s latest gaming handheld: the Nintendo 3DS.

After months of teases and rumors, Nintendo got official at E3 2010 with the company’s latest gaming handheld: the Nintendo 3DS.

Probably the best part about the 3DS handheld console is that it displays 3D graphics without the need for any 3D-enabled glasses. The device itself hosts dual screens, with the 3D widescreen up top and a 2D display on the bottom. If 3D isn’t your thing or it becomes distracting, there is a sliding mechanism to adjust it or turn it off. The final 3D element is a three-part 3D camera on the front to shoot 3D images.

Other features that make gameplay all the better are a a gyroscope, motion sensors, and a slide pad for 360-degree analog input.

[Image Gallery: Nintendo 3DS unveiling]

Both the lists of first- and third-party developed game titles already read like a dream. From Nintendo, we can expect Mario Kart, Starfox 64, and Kid Icarus, which pretty much hasn’t been seen since the old NES days. From other developers, we’ll get Resident Evil, The Sims and (my personal favorite) Kingdom Hearts.

This is far from the complete list. There are more titles listed on the E3/Nintendo 3DS product page, but they’re surely planning to launch more titles in the coming months.

The bad news is that there was no news about a price nor a release date for what looks to be a stellar personal gaming device.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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It will depend to what extent they are willing to lose on the hardware to make it up on the software, as well as whether or not you can play games from previous DS systems.

The 3d reminds me that I saw a lap top demo of a Japanese 3d screen a few years back at the San Diego
Comic con. It never seemed to catch on, but it was a
great demo.

Figure that if they can keep it under $175 or so it should
be fairly successful. It not quite as versatile as the PSP
is just yet, but perhaps they can extend the capacities a bit more to the DS and make it so.

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