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I'm a fan of various Nintendo handheld games. I'm currently working on several guides for the Nintendo 3DS.

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My Favorite Games

Nintendo 3DS: An Ongoing History

Origins

Until 2010, when people mentioned Nintendo and 3D gaming together, they were either referring to the success of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, or the ill-fated Virtual Boy of 1995. The latter in particular is seen as one of the company's greatest failures But Nintendo's association with 3D Gaming in its current definition, referring to stereoscopic 3D, has a long history.

As early as 1988, Nintendo was releasing games that made use of 3D technology of the time. One of these games was Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, a Japanese Family Computer Disk System exclusive.

The Virtual Boy was the child of the now often-forgotten Gunpei Yokoi. Although now a relatively obscure character, Yokoi was a major player in Nintendo from 1974 through the mid-90's. Yokoi's most notable works included designing the Game & Watch series of handheld games and the original Game Boy.

By the time the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto came to work at Nintendo, developing the original Donkey Kong, Yokoi was a mentor figure, teaching the young Miyamoto the intricacies of game design. Many traits of the Mario series, including the early multiplayer of Mario Bros. and Mario's superhuman abilities, were originally suggested by Yokoi.

He also worked on the production of several classic games, including Kid Icarus and Metroid. The Virtual Boy was simply his last major project, along with the Game Boy Pocket, before leaving Nintendo. Tragically, Gunpei Yokoi died in a car crash in 1997, just long enough to see his final product fail.

Virtual Boy.jpg

With a pedigree like that, how did the Virtual Boy fail? Several reasons seem to up up. First, Nintendo's desire to keep costs down led to the use of low-cost Red LEDs rather than colored ones. This, along with several design other choices, made the Virtual Boy rather cheap and flimsy for its $180 price-tag. Second, the Virtual Boy was competing for resources with the Nintendo 64, which would be released about a year later. Third, and possibly most importantly, was the fact that the technology wasn't there yet. Battery technology wasn't ready for the intense drain, none of the design choices were without sacrifice, and the very system's cumbersome design suggested that its time had not yet come.

Despite the failure of the Virtual Boy, Nintendo still kept 3D gaming in mind. The GameCube was equipped with the hardware to play 3D games. One major game, Luigi's Mansion, was even designed to be played in 3D. However, the lack of 3D displays at the time killed the idea early.

A year or two later, Nintendo considered, for the first time, using the same basic technology that was ultimately used for the 3DS. The low resolution of the GameBoy Advance and DS, however, limited the usefulness of this technology. However, by the dawn of the 8th Generation of Video Gaming, the technology was finally in place.

Announcement

Starting in 2009, details about the next generation of Nintendo handhelds began trickling in. It would incorporate a motion sensor. It was in the hands of an elite group of developers. And on March 23, 2010, it got a name.

Nintendo 3DS

Details were scarce. The system would be able to display games in 3D without the need for glasses, and would be backwards compatible with the DS family. And apparently, it would be out within the next year. Would it be released that year in time for the holidays? Would the 3D just be a gimmick? And, most importantly, what games would there be?

Finally, June 15 came. And with it, a storm of information.

The top screen would be a widescreen 3D display, while the bottom one would remain a touchscreen like the DS family's. The 3D would be adjustable, there would be three cameras built into the machine, a new analog stick for playing games in 3D environments, and there would be games.

The first trailer of a 3DS game was for the then announced Kid Icarus: Uprising, the rebirth of the long dormant franchise. People mistook it for a Wii game before being corrected. Other Nintendo games in the works included a new Paper Mario, a new Animal Crossing, a new Mario Kart, Nintendogs + cats, PilotWings, Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time remakes, and a new IP called Steel Diver.

But strangely enough, some of the best news was from third party developers and publishers. Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, Assassin's Creed, Saints Row, Shin Megami Tensei, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Madden, Fifa, The Sims, Bomberman, Contra, Frogger, Pro Evolution Soccer, Professor Layton, A Boy and His Blob, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Pacman, Ridge Racer, Sonic, Monkey Ball, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Dead or Alive, Dynasty Warriors, Ninja Gaiden, Naruto, Tom Clancy, and Lego games were all announced.

It was grand, it was spectacular, and it was renowned. But in the hubbub, two things were never mention: the Price and the Release Date.

Waiting for Launch

As information about the 3DS continued to leak out, many began to wonder when it would launch and for how much. Early interviews after E3 2010 suggested that the 3DS would cost more than the DS did at launch. The thing was, nobody knew what that meant. Would it cost $170? $200? $250? Whatever the price was, Nintendo planned to profit from the hardware from Day 1. The price and release date in japan were finally announced September 29, and info for the rest of the world soon followed: $250, with a February launch in Japan and a March launch in the West.

There was some disappointment that the 3DS would miss the 2010 holiday season, but as we will see later, the system came out arguably too early anyway.

Meanwhile, the anticipation was growing, despite the late release and high price for a handheld. New games like Mega Man Legends 3, Monster Hunter, BlazBlue, and Castlevania were announced that would presumably join the already impressive lineup.

Then the bad news started hitting.

Kids under the age of seven were advised to keep the 3D off, for health reasons. The battery life would only be 3 to 5 hours for 3DS games. The Friend Code system would return. The eShop would not be in operation for the first few months. And finally, the launch lineup.

In retrospect, it wasn't bad. Big names like Street Fighter, Nintendogs, and Professor Layton were present in various territories. But Kid Icarus: Uprising? Mario Kart? Paper Mario? The Ocarina of Time remake? Animal Crossing? 3rd party behemoths like Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid? All absent.

Super Mario 3D.jpg

Between the Japanese and Western launches, one very interesting piece of news was released at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. Apparently, the team behind Super Mario Galaxy was making a new game for the 3DS. The first few screenshots of the game made it apparent that this would be a 3D game, but little else was revealed. Still, it was comforting to see Nintendo's mascot on the way.

Launch

On February 26, 2011, the 3DS was released in Japan with eight games, including some notable franchises. In total, over 370,000 units were sold the first week, along with slightly fewer games. Professor Layton topped the charts with over 100,000 copies sold launch day, but games like Nintendogs + cats, Samurai Warriors Chronicles, and Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition also did well. The only real disappointment from a sales perspective was Bust-A-Move Universe, a title seen by many as a cheap cash-in from Square Enix. Sales dropped to under 60,000 a week before the Western launch, but that was to be expected. Games like Layton and Nintendogs remained on the charts, and even a few minor releases came out. The 3DS remained on top.

The Western launch featured a wider variety of games: 13 in Europe and 16 in the United States. In its European week of debut, the 3DS sold over 330,000 units, with PilotWings Resort being the most game, followed up by Nintendogs + cats, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, Rayman 3D, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D. The next week, when it debuted in America, the 3DS sold another 350,000 units in the country. Many of the same titles, including Street Fighter, Pilotwings, LEGO Star Wars, and Nintendogs, appeared on the charts.

Critically speaking, the launch was mixed at best. Of the launch games, the most critically acclaimed by far was Street Fighter, a port of a console game, with scores of around 8.5 out of 10 from most reviewers. The other best received titles were Ridge Racer 3D, a fairly standard launch racing game, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, which may have started out as a DS game.

All three of the big Nintendo games of launch were considered, if not failures, at least disappointing. Pilotwings Resort and Steel Diver turned out to be anemic titles, which would contribute to their being some of the first 3DS games to receive official price cuts from Nintendo. Nintendogs + cats, although decently received, was considered disappointing due to the lack of improvement over its 2005 predecessor, not to mention a certain lack of cats.

Other launch games were considered average at best, and horrendous at worst. The 3DS has the shame of having four games that received a "Red" rating on Metacritic on day 1. As for the games and applications pre-installed onto the 3DS itself, they were barely covered by the gaming press, and what little coverage there was did little to convince people to buy the system.

Despite these launch woes, however, the 3DS was off to an alright start. By the end of March 2011, over 1.7 million units were in the wild, a number that would only grow.

The Dry Times

New games for the 3DS didn't come that long after launch. Japan received their first Gundam game for the 3DS before even the Western launch. In the West, April and brought the first round of shovelware titles in America, including a disappointing Splinter Cell port and a Rabbids 2D platformer. However, the 3DS would only receive one major game for a couple of months: Dead or Alive: Dimensions. And even that game failed to raise the bar much, with its merely decent reviews and adequate at best sales. By mid-May, the 3DS was selling under 100,000 units a week, less than the aging DS and PSP.

Meanwhile, the news was mixed. Ocarina of Time 3D got a June 19 release date in America, but it was revealed that Nintendo themselves did not make the remake. It was the work of some untested developer called Grezzo. And that was the only major release on the horizon, with the possible exception of Star Fox 64 3D. Publications such as The Sun created bogus stories of the 3DS causing eye injuries, which did little to improve the system's reputation. On the other hand, that new Super Mario title was supposed to be coming by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the eShop was delayed to launch the day before Nintendo's E3 press conference, and a series of 3D Classics was announced. The first one, ExciteBike, was be a free gift to everybody who got the firmware update for the eShop by a latter date. DSiWare games were be compatible and transferable to the 3DS, and the 3DS Virtual Console was be open Day 1.

E3 2011

As if on cue, Nintendo had their E3 press conference. The star of the show was the new upcoming Nintendo console, the Wii U, which still isn't out at the time of this writing. But a lot of attention was also paid to the 3DS. It started out small, with Link's Awakening DX's eShop debut being a part of a larger Zelda package. But five major 3DS games, four known and one new, were the core of this E3.

First, was Mario Kart, which would eventually be named Mario Kart 7. This game would bring new elements to the franchise, such as underwater racing and gliding through the air. Next, was Star Fox 64 3D, which disappointingly did not incorporate online multiplayer. Then was Super Mario, later titled Super Mario 3D Land, which was promised to be a 2011 release. Kid Icarus: Uprising came after that, with the addition of online multiplayer. Finally, a new Luigi's Mansion title was announced, arguably the biggest surprise from Nintendo at E3 that year. A new Super Smash Bros game was also confirmed, although the title had yet to start development.

Upcoming titles from 3rd parties also got a mention. A montage showed several games, including Mario & Sonic, Resident Evil, Cave Story, Ace Combat, Tekken, and Metal Gear Solid 3D. On the show floor, more information was revealed about various upcoming titles. Resident Evil: Revelations, already a much anticipated title, was a darling with members of the gaming press. Sonic Generations, the first Sonic game on the 3DS was first shown, and looked like a promising 2D platformer. Mutant Mudds would be an earlier eShop title, inspired by classic 2D action-platformers.

In short, it was a solid, if not mind-blowing, E3 for the 3DS. The system would continue to fight on, despite the slow start. Games were on the way.

Speaking of which...

Ocarina of Time 3D

There was a lot of pressure put on Ocarina of Time 3D. After all, even though it was a port, it was arguably the biggest project yet for the system, with earlier games being ports, anemic, simple, or otherwise bad. But despite the familiarity many had with the game, going into it was a mystery. After all, this wasn't a Nintendo-made product; it was outsourrced to some little studio called Grezzo. Would it still be a quality product.

Short answer, yes.

Ocarina 3D was a fairly conservative remake. The graphics were revamped, and now resembled a GameCube title, but used the original architecture of the N64 game. The inventory, menus, and various functions were moved to the touchscreen. Gyroscope camera controls, a boss mode, and some hint videos were also added. Otherwise, it was the same game as the original, plus the Master Quest version of the game as an unlockable. There was no added multiplayer, no Streetpass functionality. Just a relatively straight remake that made careful use of the new hardware.

It was a massive hit. Ocarina of Time 3D has a 94 on Metacritic, making it the highest rated handheld game since the Game Boy Advance era. The game sold half a million copies its first two weeks on the market worldwide, and would go on to be the first game to sell a million units to consumers, even though Nintendogs + cats and Street Fighter shipped a million a while before that. 3DS sales went back up to over 100,000 a week for a little while.

The Summer of our Discontent

After Ocarina of Time 3D, the next big game was Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Although Revelations was the more anticipated title, this had the potential to help Ocarina fill in for the summer. After all, the Mercenaries minigames for Resident Evils 4 and 5 were good fun, and this promised to expand upon the idea.

Unfortunately for everybody involved, Mercenaries 3D had a flaw that struck many with anger: the inability to clear data. In short, this greatly reduced the game's resale value and made it hard to grant the game as a gift. Furthermore, when the reviews cam out, they simply weren't very positive. It was anemic and it was full of recycled content, with little incentive for either newcomers or veterans of the series to play.

Although not a crippling blow in of itself, the poor reception of Mercenaries 3D, both on a critical and a sales level, was disheartening. It meant that between the February/March launch and Fall seasons, the only major title was Ocarina 3D, not even an original game.

Meanwhile, things were looking bad for the 3DS's future. The Saint's Row game announced in 2010 had been cancelled, along with Assassin's Creed and the much anticipated Mega Man Legends 3. Metal Gear Solid 3D was delayed to 2012. The eShop, starved for content, was reliant on re-releasing Game Boy titles and, on a special occasion, an iOS port.

Then, the bomb dropped.

AN $80 PRICE CUT

Announced July 28, it would go into effect on August 12. Apparently, this was Nintendo's reaction to both the 3DS's low sales, which were about 100,000 that week, and the surprisingly low price of the upcoming Vita, which would sell for as low as $250. For the first time, Nintendo would sell their hardware at a loss. Many early adopters were outraged at the early and dramatic price drop, and doubted the 20 free Virtual Console games they'd receive as compensation at a later date would suffice.

The week before the price drop, only 40,000 3DS's were sold.

Getting Better all the Time

The 3DS price drop had an immediate effect. Sales improved eight-fold week over week, the strongest it had been since launch. In Japan, where the drop coincided with the release of Pokemon Rumble Blast, sales increased twenty-fold. In total, over 300,000 were sold in a week, and numbers never dipped below 170,000 a week for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, the holidays were coming. Nintendo announced their lineup, which included Super Mario 3D Land in November and Mario Kart 7 in December. Meanwhile, Star Fox 64 3D provided players new and old with more content, admittedly aged, to play. It was not as well received as Ocarina 3D, but was a solid critical and sales success, albeit at a small scale.

Sources

  • Destructoid
  • Metacritic
  • VGChartz
  • Wikipedia
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