My Nintendo 3DS Review etc.

Nintendo means "In Heaven's Hands." I always thought that was a powerful title for a company. I've been a Nintendo fan since the very early 90's. I was originally born into a Sega household, and had the MasterSystem as a child. I first played Nintendo at friends' houses and then got my own Gameboy in 92' or 93'. I loved playing Mario and the Fifa series. Back then, all the way until today, Nintendo had one thing cornered, and that was the handheld market. I didn't mind. I was a fanboy, and I believed they deserved the throne, because they were the best. But then something  changed.

 As the years went by, it became more apparent to fans that Nintendo was content with lagging the technology for their systems in general. It wasn't all at once. When it came to home consoles, Nintendo was actually leading the pack up until a few generations ago. The Super NES is still a marvel, that had so many upgrades and features that it was making impressive games all the way up until the turn of the century. The Nintendo 64 was actually groundbreaking for its generation and had several innovations that made it amazing such as 4 player games and 64 bit graphics run from a cartridge that needed no loading. The Gamecube is still beyond amazing, and does things graphically that current gen Nintendo systems still can't do. Imagine that. However, with handhelds, Nintendo was technically weak for a long time. The reason we didn't notice, was because everyone else did such a horrible job of supporting their consoles, and making ones that stuck. After a while, because of the weakness of Nintendo handhelds, me and several fans began to fantasize about getting more. The Gamegear, the Lynx Atari, the GameCom, the Nokia NGage, and the Neo Geo Pocket among several other handhelds, all fell before the insane power of the Nintendo Gameboy.

  I watched in awe, as I was a Nintendo fanboy all those years. I had every Gameboy there ever was. Then in 2005, Sony showed something amazing in the PSP. Nintendo recited their usual crappy act, but that time, I couldn't buy in. I was tired of being robbed of high quality experience on the go, and Sony was pushing to deliver that. I was moments away from getting a DS after deliberating for literally years, when I decided at the last minute in Gamestop to get a PSP. I still remember seeing a Puerto Rican dude with his baby in the stroller talking to the counter about what he was doing with his PSP that he just bought. I looked at the pictures he stored on it, and I just had to get the PSP. But, then over the years, the DS, even with its crappy games, still began to take back over. People are mindless drones. Once they get into a routine, they stick to it. It was years before they realized Nintendo was cheating them with another crap handheld. I officially moved over to Sony after that. I still got a DS years later to add to my collection, and it did have some great games that I liked, but felt underwhelmed. I traded it in for something important that I can't remember. Then when the 3DS came out along with the Vita, I hesitated to get either for a long time. I loved my PSP. I got a 3DS first, with Samurai Warriors (which I'm a huge fan of), and Super Street Fighter 4. The games were good, but it bothered me my PSP had graphics that were almost on par. My coworker bugged me to sell it to his kid, and after resisting for a while, I acquiesced and sold it to him. I sort of regretted it, but then moved on. After debating for a long time, I finally got a Vita. The price and compatibility were my main questions with it. Once I found that it's a PSP on steroids, I was all in. Of course, I love it to this day, and it is still my favorite console.

  But when they announced the New Nintendo 3DS I was interested. It had improved processing, extra buttons, a C-stick, and most importantly, it heralded the release of Smash Brothers. I said for years that if they put a Smash Brothers on the 3DS, that would warrant a purchase. Once that was affirmed, I was very interested, but I still hesitated, because it seemed the 3DS and the Vita clashed a bit too much and release a lot of similar titles. When I saw more of the library, I was intrigued by Mario 3D Land and Xenoblade. Those were original titles that the Vita didn't quite have. I decided slowly to get a 3DS.

  I got it, and was very disappointed in how kidified the system is on the menu. Apparently, some pedophile caused the Japanese to do away with the messaging system. There is no way to contact friends. I do love the system itself though. I don't like the C-stick much. Nintendo is so much against making a second analog that they made it a nub that tries to be one. I would have rathered they made it like the original c-stick on the Gamecube. This one is pressure sensitive and doesn't move at all. It senses which way you're pressing and how hard. I downloaded a shooter that was developed to use that feature, and it was a mind-numbing experience playing through the demo level. Super Smash Bros. is exactly what it always is- a single game reason to own a console. Since the game first came out, it has been that for each of its systems. You could own only that game and be content with a system. They neutered some of the controls that made Melee amazing such using evasion to set up attacks, but the game is amazing. Mario 3D land is also stunning. I love it.

  My issue with the system is the company itself. Nintendo seems to be straddling the fence with the old 3DS market. If you release a new console, move forward with it. Don't hinder the potential of the new system to cater to compatibility with the old one. I say that instead of wasting money, Nintendo needs to kill the old 3DS and kill the stupid Wii U, instead of forcing it down our throats. They need to focus on the Wii U as a console more than a gimmick with a 20 pound tablet if they're going to keep it going. But they need to focus on making progressive games with the New Nintendo 3DS hardware.