Thanks to my tax return I was able to afford the new Nintendo 3DS. Since I took a bunch of time off to lie around and play it I figured I would go ahead and give the review. For those of you who are too lazy to read through the rest of this review, here is the summary. The summary is that this is an average system. It is smaller than the DSI XL, has crappy titles for now, it also has a short battery life. The good side, the 3D is very well done, The Augmented Reality technology is solid, it has automated communications, and it has some kind of pedometer reward system. The system is full of potential. However, it feels like all the development work was put into the 3D display. I guess we will have to see what comes out for it in the future. Granted the short battery life will make it hard to judge for sure.

Yes, the short battery life. Granted I read about this in advance so I have not experienced it myself. The one time I ever tried to drain the battery the 3DS crashed on me. If you are near a power source the system is pretty nice actually. Even if I can only tolerate the 3D effects for about 3 hours a day.

I have to say that Nintendo did a wonderful job with the main selling point of this system. 3D without the hassle and annoyance of 3D glasses. The problem is that it is rather intense to look at for extended periods of time. I guess that is to be expected. After all, "3-D" technology is just a trick you play on your brain. It also depends on how the developers design the 3D.

In one game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars the 3-D ads a nice polish to the game. In fact it really makes the game easier to play. By adding depth you can see ledges and cliffs and do not have to rely on the games extra controls to tell you as much. Then you have my other game Samurai Warrior:Chronicles.. I think that is the title... anyway. That game tries to do what so many poorly made 3D movies try to do and throw stuff at you. Which just adds to my mental strain. Not to mention there is no point to it. After all as the object gets bigger the fact that it is not coming at me becomes painfully obvious. I guess that makes the size ok.

Yes I am going to complain about the size.. granted it seems kind of pointless since this is a portable system. Anyway, it just feels too small. I know that larger screens are a power drain... however, it just kind of sucks. They could have made it a little bigger. All the photos I saw made it look pretty big. Then again... maybe I should have actually read the dimensions. Granted the size makes it easier to use the AR technology.

I really hope Nintendo works with publishers to make this AR technology work. The system is awesome in my opinion. It is much more stable than the PS3's clunky attempt at it. I can even move the camera around a bit. as long as the majority of the card is visible the AR works wonderfully. I just hope that this is not some poor attempt to sell me lots of cards... over priced cards... I wonder how the communications feature will work.

To be honest, this system feels like it still needs polish. I think one more iteration of the DS will bring a lot of advancements. However, allowing the systems to automatically communicate with each other. That is a nice feature the DS wanted to have. However, with the DS you just had to turn on download play and hope that someone wanted to play your game. What they really need is a method of telling you that there are other players around you. Like during the games have notices pop up. They could also make a notice pop up after you open up your 3DS. I am interested to see what kidnapping Miis and making them fight for me will do. I hope I can pick some up tomorrow.

So all in all, this is an average system. It is backwards compatible so if anything you can pick one up to play your DS games on. However, there is just too much gimmick to it for me to tell the common people to take an interest. Gamers should take an interest it has a lot of potential that only gamers can appreciate. However, normal people cannot really appreciate it. Well for the price anyway. Nintendo is taking a big gamble on the DS name. Lets hope that this does not sink their portable systems for good... then again Sony is still alive after the PSP... so I think Nintendo will be ok.