Hace unos días, Nintendo reveló n una rueda de prensa el precio y la fecha en la que estará disponible su próxima consola portátil: la Nintendo 3DS, una consola con unos gráficos bastante impresionantes que además permitirá ver los juegos en 3D sin necesiadad de gafas.
The console will be available on March 25 and its price will be around 250 euros, although that figure has not been completely confirmed. Initially the price may seem expensive taking into account the current prices of desktop consoles: Xbox 360 costs 250 euros in its most expensive version and PS3 270 euros. Is it worth paying the same for a portable console as for its older sisters? Surely there will be people who think yes and others who say no depending on their tastes and needs. For example, Kinect costs 150 euros and an iPhone almost double that: close to 500, but each of these gadgets is focused on a different sector.
Of course, one of the most important factors (if not the most) when buying a console are its games, and it must be recognized that at the outset, the Nintendo 3DS looks pretty good, offering a fairly complete and varied catalog of games, mixing some that seem like they are going to be good and others that look like garbage.
A hot spot in the console’s catalog seems to be the Nintendo 64 ports, with Ocarina of Time and Starfox at the helm. However, I don’t know to what extent it can be beneficial for the launch of a console that two of its star games are ports/remakes, even if it also has others to exploit the graphical power like Metal Gear or promising to offer something new like Kid Icarus. I have not named Resident Evil because I predict a game with a good appearance and little content, as in the latest versions. It’s good to demonstrate one of the features of the 3DS such as its game store, but… Was there really nothing better to offer? Surely this will satisfy users who buy the same game over and over again for their new consoles, but for most of us it is enough to have them once to delight our wallets. What I’m trying to get at is that you won’t be able to live forever on the income and successes of the past: a completely new Mario Galaxy for 3DS would have been impressive, especially if its three-dimensional effects are worth it.
Not being able to see games in 3D on Internet video game pages or in specialized magazines can be one of Nintendo’s great handicaps when it comes to selling the virtues of its console. That said, it seems like a mistake to maintain the current design of the Nintendo DSi by including a joystick in the position where the digital pad was previously, placing the latter in an apparently uncomfortable access position (like that of the PSP Go!).
Be that as it may, there is less and less left until the console is on sale and many of these doubts will be resolved. Personally, I want to try the console to see if it meets my expectations.