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If picking up a 3DS, I highly recommend a "New" model. They include cameras that track your eyes, making the 3D effect much better. It's true the 3D effect is

by city41 6y ago

If picking up a 3DS, I highly recommend a "New" model. They include cameras that track your eyes, making the 3D effect much better. It's true the 3D effect is just a gimmick, but it's a very neat one. Games like Metroid Samus Returns are much better in 3D IMO. The game feels like an actual mini diorama is in front of you.

Tiktaalik 6y ago
Yeah some titles use the 3D much better than others. Some early launch windows titles kind of do it weirdly and poorly. Pilotwings for example feels too strong. Some of the best would be yeah Metroid and Luigi's Mansion 2. The 3D gives a real "diorama" feel.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  Pilotwings looks great in 3D if you actually make use of the 3D slider to adjust to your comfort level, instead of just pushing it all the way up. I think later games realized people weren’t actually going to do that, and effectively optimized their visuals for the highest setting.
hannob 6y ago
Admittedly I only played one game for a while on a borrowed 3DS (Super Mario 3D Land), but I quickly thought the best thing about the 3D effect is that you can turn it off.
- zapzupnz 6y ago
  If that was on an old 3DS, that was probably true. On the "New" 3DS, though, with the additional eye tracking to make sure the 3D effect is stable, it's superb.
  - echelon 6y ago
    Does the eye tracking work with older games, or is the 3D baked into the game engines?
    - mewse 6y ago
      Yes, the eye tracking works with old games just as well as with new ones; it seems to require no software support; it just does its thing, dynamically adjusting the parallax barrier so that the left and right frames provided by the game will be seen by the correct eyes, even if those eyes are off-center, moving, or etc.
  - nsxwolf 6y ago
    I played through the entirety of the Metroid 2 remake with 3D on on my New 3DS, and it was dazzling. No discomfort or headaches, just a constant sensation of disbelief that this can even work without some kind of glasses on.
- post_break 6y ago
  Just the way you worded this, leading me right up to the end of the comment, made me laugh pretty loud.
Fej 6y ago
The New 3DS/2DS enhancements don't stop at the camera & eye tracking - very few people, I think, ever understood the massive leap in specs. It's like the jump from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Color, except perhaps even bigger. - CPU got double the ARM11 cores (now 4, was 2) at triple the clock speed (exactly) - RAM doubled from 128 MB to 256 MB. - VRAM upped by 2/3 to 10 MB, was 6 MB (which sounds like not a lot, which is true, but the top screen is 800x240 with an effective resolution of 400x240 and the viewport rendered twice from slightly different perspectives when 3D is enabled. Lower screen is 320x240, so it's not a lot of VRAM but it doesn't really need that much) - Added an H.264 hardware decoder (yes, the original lacked one) - NFC added, not big but an external reader/writer puck was required for the old 3DS models and amiibo is huge among a subset of fans - ...Wi-Fi still maxes out at 802.11g (come on now) The hardware gap is great enough that the New 3DS got a Switch port (Fire Emblem Warriors) and a Wii port with the 3D enabled (Xenoblade 3D). It can also be used for Twitch/YouTube streaming, as it has enough horsepower (and apparently extra hardware, but I'm not sure which is required; maybe someone else can enlighten us in this respect) to just dump the display buffer over Wi-Fi to a PC. Even with the 802.11g deficiency. It's a great console with a huge library of games, especially with DS backwards compatibility, and with mods (all are vulnerable) it's also a capable and very portable emulation machine. Cheaper as well (although not necessarily significantly) than even the Switch Lite, and more moddable (unless you want to shell out for a Switch modchip). Nintendo could have sold many more but botched the name and the marketing, like the Wii U. But it's worth a look.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  > very few people, I think, ever understood the massive leap in specs. Because it was only ever used by a handful of games! When the New 3DS launched, I expected it to be something of a stealth new console generation. The trajectory would been like the Gameboy Color; at launch, games could still be played in Black & White on the original gameboy, but it didn’t take long for games to drop that support so they could truly make use of the GBC’s superior internals. But of course, this did not happen.
hackmiester 6y ago
For what it's worth, it isn't a gimmick to me. I have really terrible eyes, and it's actually the first time I've seen in 3D up close... ever. VR headsets don't work on me, and my eyes can only see 3D at a distance.

by city41 6y ago

Tiktaalik 6y ago

Yeah some titles use the 3D much better than others. Some early launch windows titles kind of do it weirdly and poorly. Pilotwings for example feels too strong. Some of the best would be yeah Metroid and Luigi's Mansion 2. The 3D gives a real "diorama" feel.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago
Pilotwings looks great in 3D if you actually make use of the 3D slider to adjust to your comfort level, instead of just pushing it all the way up. I think later games realized people weren’t actually going to do that, and effectively optimized their visuals for the highest setting.

hannob 6y ago

Admittedly I only played one game for a while on a borrowed 3DS (Super Mario 3D Land), but I quickly thought the best thing about the 3D effect is that you can turn it off.

zapzupnz 6y ago
If that was on an old 3DS, that was probably true. On the "New" 3DS, though, with the additional eye tracking to make sure the 3D effect is stable, it's superb.
- echelon 6y ago
  Does the eye tracking work with older games, or is the 3D baked into the game engines?
  - mewse 6y ago
    Yes, the eye tracking works with old games just as well as with new ones; it seems to require no software support; it just does its thing, dynamically adjusting the parallax barrier so that the left and right frames provided by the game will be seen by the correct eyes, even if those eyes are off-center, moving, or etc.
- nsxwolf 6y ago
  I played through the entirety of the Metroid 2 remake with 3D on on my New 3DS, and it was dazzling. No discomfort or headaches, just a constant sensation of disbelief that this can even work without some kind of glasses on.
post_break 6y ago
Just the way you worded this, leading me right up to the end of the comment, made me laugh pretty loud.

Fej 6y ago

The New 3DS/2DS enhancements don't stop at the camera & eye tracking - very few people, I think, ever understood the massive leap in specs. It's like the jump from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Color, except perhaps even bigger. - CPU got double the ARM11 cores (now 4, was 2) at triple the clock speed (exactly) - RAM doubled from 128 MB to 256 MB. - VRAM upped by 2/3 to 10 MB, was 6 MB (which sounds like not a lot, which is true, but the top screen is 800x240 with an effective resolution of 400x240 and the viewport rendered twice from slightly different perspectives when 3D is enabled. Lower screen is 320x240, so it's not a lot of VRAM but it doesn't really need that much) - Added an H.264 hardware decoder (yes, the original lacked one) - NFC added, not big but an external reader/writer puck was required for the old 3DS models and amiibo is huge among a subset of fans - ...Wi-Fi still maxes out at 802.11g (come on now) The hardware gap is great enough that the New 3DS got a Switch port (Fire Emblem Warriors) and a Wii port with the 3D enabled (Xenoblade 3D). It can also be used for Twitch/YouTube streaming, as it has enough horsepower (and apparently extra hardware, but I'm not sure which is required; maybe someone else can enlighten us in this respect) to just dump the display buffer over Wi-Fi to a PC. Even with the 802.11g deficiency. It's a great console with a huge library of games, especially with DS backwards compatibility, and with mods (all are vulnerable) it's also a capable and very portable emulation machine. Cheaper as well (although not necessarily significantly) than even the Switch Lite, and more moddable (unless you want to shell out for a Switch modchip). Nintendo could have sold many more but botched the name and the marketing, like the Wii U. But it's worth a look.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago
> very few people, I think, ever understood the massive leap in specs. Because it was only ever used by a handful of games! When the New 3DS launched, I expected it to be something of a stealth new console generation. The trajectory would been like the Gameboy Color; at launch, games could still be played in Black & White on the original gameboy, but it didn’t take long for games to drop that support so they could truly make use of the GBC’s superior internals. But of course, this did not happen.

hackmiester 6y ago

For what it's worth, it isn't a gimmick to me. I have really terrible eyes, and it's actually the first time I've seen in 3D up close... ever. VR headsets don't work on me, and my eyes can only see 3D at a distance.