The Nintendo 3DS: When is it coming?

For those of you that have lived under a rock for the past couple of months, Nintendo announced their next generation of portable hardware known of the Nintendo 3DS.  Like every Nintendo portable that came out before this, these consoles are usually one generation behind the current generation of home consoles.  The 3DS is really no exception, since it is more or less a portable Gamecube.  The irony behind this is that the Wii decided to go with the generation lag (as I call it) and the 3DS is probably nearly as powerful as the Wii. That aside, let's talk about the Nintendo 3DS.

First and foremost, the Nintendo 3DS is obviously a 3D gaming console.  But wait, consoles aren't just 3D anymore, they are also 3D.  This means it not only has 3D graphics, but also 3D effects that make the image appear that it's popping out of the screen.  I'm sure you're all familiar of the recent craze (or gimmick) of movies being 3D.  It's just as stupid as the movies that were popular two decades ago when people thought the old red & blue glasses were cool.  The biggest gimmick about the 3DS this time around is the new 3D screen.  It does not require glasses, which is a overall plus because watching Avatar in 3D for two hours gave me a headache.  If the 3D image still bothers you, Nintendo added a 3D slider so that you adjust it's... um.. 3D-ness.  You can even play a game with no 3D at all if you please.

The 3DS's design is almost the same as the current Nintendo DSi with some tweaks here and there.  The most obvious addition is the top screen is now a 16x9 wide screen, which is also the screen that will be generating the 3D images.  The 2nd biggest addition is the joy stick, or as Nintendo calls it: "The Slider".  A lot of people are already generating negative comments about this because the Playstation Portable (PSP) had the same "slider" or as Sony called it, the analog nub, because there is only one stick as opposed to the usual two sticks that people have grown so used to with home consoles.  Lastly, the 3rd addition is the new "3D" cameras on the back (as opposed to the former one camera) that will be able to take 3D pictures.

The design out of the way, the current list of games to be released sound pretty promising.  Remakes of Starfox 64 & Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time are expected to be out at or around launch, along with the long awaited return of Kid Icarus, plus a new Mario Kart is expected to come for the system soon as well  3rd party games have also been shown to the public such as Metal Gear Solid 3 & Dead or Alive.  Nintendo also claims that even older games will be re-released with 3D effects, but will be not be updated graphically like Starfox & Zelda will be.

So the release date?  Nobody knows yet!  This is actually what made me revive my old blog here is because Nintendo is being really tight lipped about the release of the 3DS in not only America, but also in Japan & Europe.  At the beginning of the month, Nintendo of America (or NOA) recently made a universal price drop on both the Nintendo DSi & Nintendo DSi XL systems.  A few sources are claiming the release date will be from November of this year to the Spring of 2011. 

In 2004, Nintendo released the first Nintendo DS in America in November, and then released it worldwide two weeks later.  Let's just hope that we can all get out hands on this exciting new console before 2011 and I'll be a happy man. Nintendo will be having a press conference on Wednesday which will finally put all of these rumors to rest, so until Wednesday, have a good one!