Here are the high resolution images that Nintendo has released of the upcoming 3DS XL system. Interesting things to note include that the stylus is once again one solid piece and no longer telescopic, and that the annoying green “3D” light from the original 3DS seems to have (hopefully) been done away with. Remember that you can right-click any of the images in the gallery below and select “Open Link in New Tab” to see the images in their full huge resolution:
Well, Nintendo surprised everyone with their Nintendo Direct conference today. A new version of the 3DS called the 3DS XL was announced and while I would rather have had it announced at E3 (where I could have played it), it still looks pretty decent. So here’s the big news that we got from the Nintendo Direct today:
Also, here’s a better picture of the 3DS XL from Nintendo of America’s Twitter feed:
I’m not sure what to think about Namco Bandai primarily developing the new Smash Bros. games, but I’ll wait on passing judgement on the game until there’s actually something to see. The 3DS XL will hurt my wallet, but I’m not actually as upset about it as some other people may be. The DSi XL is far and away the best way to play DS games, so I’m sure the new 3DS will perform admirably as well. The only thing I’m really kind of peeved about regarding the 3DS XL is that I’ll probably have to buy a larger version of the Circle Pad Pro to play games like Resident Evil Revelations on it, and that sucks. Considering everything Nintendo’s learned about needing two control sticks, you’d think they would have been smart and included the second circle pad in this redesign too. Oh well, I’m getting my Professor Layton this fall, so I’m satiated for the time being. We’ll continue to keep you informed on the rest of Nintendo’s random announcements in future weeks as they come, so stay tuned to Game Usagi.
[UPDATE: North America is getting a Nintendo Direct presentation too also starting at 10:00PM CST. The Nintendo Direct page says that it will be regarding the Wii, DS, and 3DS (again, no Wii U). You can check out the North American Nintendo Direct page here, and we’ll have a combined summary of both of the Nintendo Direct presentation go up tonight after they have aired.]
Nintendo is broadcasting another Nintendo Direct presentation starting today at 10:00PM CST. Apparently it will focus primarily on the Wii (not the Wii U) and the 3DS, so no one knows quite what to expect accept for perhaps a few more details on the Kirby 20th Anniversary disc for the Wii and Animal Crossing on the 3DS. It’s not the heavily anticipated announcement of Wii U release details, but we’ll be getting some kind of news from Nintendo tomorrow and we’ll have a summary of the salient points up as per usual shortly after it’s broadcast. Bear in mind also that this is a Japanese Nintendo Direct and it may not have too much information that applies directly to the rest of the world. Check in with us later tonight to find out what Nintendo has to say.
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With our press-exclusive VIP stickers on our media badges at the Square Enix booth we were ready to… wait in line behind other people with stickers. There were, however, several games of a more line-free persuasion and one of them was the upcoming Kingdom Hearts title for the 3DS, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (KH3D). We were going to record a nice gameplay video, but were stopped by one of the booth employees after only getting around 30 seconds of footage of the demo’s opening cutscene.
For a game that has been out in Japan since March, I was actually a little disappointed with what was on show for KH3D at E3. While my previous experience with Kingdom Hearts has been fairly limited, I always appreciate it when companies go the action RPG route as opposed to the (in almost every case) archaic and out-dated turn-based route. What I played of KH3D didn’t seem to stray too far from the classic Kingdom Hearts formula, but during the battle I did encounter something of concern. The graphics were naturally quite superb and crisp, but even with only a mild amount of action happening on screen there was a noticeable drop in frame-rate. Any lag of any description in a game on a system as capable as the 3DS is unacceptable, especially in games from respected publishers like Square Enix. Normally, I would say that there was still hope for the game to be streamlined and mended before its release date, but seeing as how it’s basically only being localized before its July 31st North American release that would be wishful thinking indeed. If you’re an avid follower of the Kingdom Hearts series, I’m sure you’ll still have a great time with this portable entry, but for people new to the series, I have a slight feeling that KH3D may end up being a less-than-superb introduction to the series if the lag I experienced is more than just a freak occurrence. The good thing is that we only have around a month to wait to see just how good (or otherwise) the localized KH3D will be, and whether or not its warm reception in Japan translates into success across the pond.
Here is a gallery of 57 of the best pictures we took during Nintendo’s E3 2012 press conference. It was really something to see Mr. Miyamoto and Reggie in person and see what the Wii U’s graphics looks like first-hand. See the rest of the pictures after the jump!
The Nintendo conference is over, but you can still check after the jump for a replay of our liveblogging coverage of what went down during the presentation. We’ll have a gallery of photos from the conference up tonight too.
Nintendo announced their conference time a little while ago, but much like with the Sony conference we didn’t want to comment on it until we were sure of whether or not we are attending. Well, our invitations arrived today, so we can tell you for sure that we will be present and liveblogging at Nintendo’s E3 conference this year!
Aside from being a lifelong dream come true for us, this also means that you will be getting the best up-to-the-millisecond coverage of all the wonderful announcements Nintendo surely has in store regarding the launch of the Wii U and the expansion of the 3DS’ software lineup. The presentation takes place on Tuesday, June 5th at 10:00 AM CST. We’ll have a liveblog set-up a little before then and will be providing you with pictures as well as words telling you how much your mind is to be blown.
As E3 draws ever nearer we’ll make placeholder pages for our E3 conference liveblogs so that you know exactly where to go when the fun begins in less than two weeks.