Nintendo ha dado un paso en firme con su nueva consola, la Nintendo 3DS, tratando de ofrecer unos juegos más enfocados a los jugadores de toda la vida que el que tuvo su predecesora. Falta poco más de un mes para su salida, pero ya la hemos probado gracias al autobús que está fletando Nintendo para probar la consola antes de su salida.
Next, Nyutu and I are going to analyze the games and some of the most notable features of the console, but above all focusing on what is supposed to truly make the difference with respect to the competition: a 3D effect without the need for glasses. Each of us has not read what the other has written so that the opinions are as independent as possible.
3D effect
The-Rocker: No soy una persona a la que le cueste ver en 3 dimensiones, pero con la Nintendo 3DS me ha resultado difícil apreciar el efecto 3D, al menos inicialmente. Una de sus mayores virtudes puede convertirse en su mayor carencia, y es que hay que mantener quieta la 3DS para no perder el enfoque y ver borrosa la pantalla, lo que se convierte en una tarea difícil si estamos machacando botones en un juego de lucha como Street Fighter. Una portátil no es para tenerla fija en una superficie, y es por ello que lo más probable es que la mayoría de la gente le desactivará el modo 3D cuando la utilice de portátil porque resulta imposible (o muy difícil) mantenerla en un ángulo perpendicular a nuestra visión. Debido a que el efecto 3D solo se puede apreciar si tienes la visión en el centro de la pantalla, los que estén a tu alrededor no verán nada, solo una imagen borrosa. También me dio la impresión de que después de llevar una hora jugando, la vista estaba algo fatigada, y eso puede resultar preocupante si tenemos en cuenta que íbamos cambiando de juego cada 5 minutos y no nos concentrábamos todo el tiempo en un punto fijo (no sé yo cómo se soportarán las viciadas de dos horas seguidas).
That said, the 3D effect is quite notable in some games, such as in Ocarina of Time, but in others it gives too much of an impression of being in front of one of those books that when you open them have relief: the layers in which each element is found on the screen are very noticeable and it is a bit forced.
One of the main problems that I thought the console has is that in bright environments the screen is excessively bright and that affects the 3D effect, generating quite a few reflections and being annoying.
Nyutu: In my opinion the 3D effect is very successful. In some games it is very similar to the experience of going to a 3D movie theater, although, yes, with a big but. The moment your gaze is not completely straight on the screen, the effect is quickly lost. Unlike The-Rocker who had a hard time noticing the effect, I noticed it from the first moment. I don’t know if it has something to do with the fact that I don’t wear glasses (I wear contact lenses) or with some vision problem, but for me the effect was noticeable at all times.
Blur also occurs if the focus point suddenly changes position on the screen. Another very bad moment is when someone wants to see what you are playing, from, for example, your back or your side, it is almost impossible for that person to be able to focus on the screen correctly, and a very marked effect of black bands will appear all over the screen.
Para explicar exactamente lo que es el punto “perfecto” de visión os adjunto esta imagen que describe la mejor posición posible para visualizar el efecto 3D. Esto quedó demostrado totalmente por la propia Nintendo ya que tenía 3DS de exposición con el Mario Kart y el Paper Mario y estaban colocadas exactamente en esa posición. Esto puede llegar a ser muy molesto, ya que en muchos juegos la propia inercia al usar los controles hace que muevas un poco la pantalla y se te pierda el enfoque durante unos segundos.
What I also noticed was that the longer I played the game, the faster it regained focus after a blur, so with habit, you might barely notice that problem. It also depends on the game, in some the effect is much more pronounced than in others.
Another interesting detail is that the intensity of 3D helps stabilize focus. In some cases, by lowering the 3D effect a little, there was hardly any loss in the quality of the effect, but it was noticeable in the comfort of the eyes. Also specify that I noticed very little difference between the 3D mode activated at minimum and activated at maximum power, and a big change was only noticeable when it was turned off completely and we returned to 2D.
Regarding the view, 3D tired me. We were playing for about 30 minutes in total, but changing consoles, so they were not continuous moments of play lasting more than 5 minutes. When I got off the bus, in my case my eyes felt tired. So perhaps the 10 minutes of rest for every 30 minutes played are not the typical silly warning and the effect could be excessively tiring to the eyes. I would like to see if it is possible to play with 3D mode activated for 2 hours without a break like on other platforms.
Ocarina of Time
Nyutu: ** Sin duda **mi juego favorito de todos los expuestos, fue una pena que no dejaran probarlo en algún lugar distinto de bosque, como en el castillo por ejemplo. El efecto 3D está muy logrado, y es de los que más rápido se recuperan al perder el desenfoque. El modo de apuntar con el tirachinas no lo veo nada acertado. Respecto a los gráficos, muy por encima de los de la versión el port de Gamecube.
The-Rocker: This game has a remarkable 3D effect in which it is not difficult to focus on the character and the environment, as well as improved graphics compared to the Nintendo 64. The game is still the same gem as before, so it will surely be the option that more people choose when purchasing the console.
Kid Icarus
Nyutu: The great disappointment of the tests. I hope it was a fairly old technical demo and has nothing to do with the final version. The graphics looked like they were taken from a machine between N64 and Gamecube, and the control of the character on the ground was terrible in my opinion. The second Joystiq was greatly missed here since to control the camera you had to move your finger across the touch screen, which was not comfortable at all. The 3D effect was achieved but it was less impressive than others.
The-Rocker: As I mentioned before, the 3D of this game has the layered look of embossed books. Additionally, the polygons that form the enemies are the size of train cars. The control seemed disastrous to me since a second joystick was missing to aim at the enemies.
Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D
Nyutu: ** El juego que menos probé de todos, ya que tenía unos **tiempos de carga demasiado largos para mi gusto. Se me asemejaba mucho al modo mercenarios del RE5 que no me gustó nada. En este no se echa de menos el segundo joystiq al no poder moverse el jugador mientras dispara, pero se hace algo más complicado apuntar con la mano izquierda.
The-Rocker: If the control of Kid Icarus seemed disastrous to me, the control of this game seemed lousy and totally unplayable. Once again it is clear that a touch screen cannot replace a joystick and that when a console focuses on 3D games, adapting 3D games from other platforms, you will need two joysticks. However, its graphics are possibly the best in the catalog that we tested. We must not forget that this is the Resident Evil 5 minigame “The Expendables”, so I am not sure if the game will do more than a simple technical demo.
Street Fighter 4
Nyutu: ** El SF4 fue uno de los juegos que me gusto. Unos gráficos bastante buenos con unos **efectos 3D muy buenos en el modo dinámico, aunque no me gusto dicho modo más que como curiosidad. En el modo tradicional de vista horizontal el efecto 3D era algo más débil, pero era bueno. El juego iba súper fluido y cargaba relativamente rápido.
Being a fighting game, the constant movements of the crosshair + buttons caused you to lose focus quite a bit, although it was undoubtedly the game in which the eye recovered and refocused the fastest.
Control was good with both the D-pad and the Joystick. What I didn’t like at all was that the game had shortcuts on the bottom screen to do all the character’s attacks, it seems like a super crappy way to make the game easier for people.
The-Rocker: This game has pretty good graphics and its 3D isn’t bad either. In fact, it has two viewing modes: static, which keeps the camera fixed in a two-dimensional fighting game position, and dynamic, which places the camera behind our character and serves to better appreciate the 3D effect. On the other hand, something I didn’t like is that by tapping the screen below, special attacks were automatically made.
Pro Evolution Soccer
Nyutu: The truth is that the 3D effect was very successful, but it continually lost focus while playing, perhaps it was the one where the blur effect was most noticeable. The control was simple but quite simple.
The-Rocker: I played this game very little, but I got the impression that the 3D effect was quite successful in terms of depth of field. It has graphics close to those of PS2.
Metal Gear 3 video
Nyutu: ** Para empezar diré, que no es muy acertado poner de video de demostración la pelea final del juego, era un spoiler como una catedral. No suelo fiarme de los videos así que simplemente diré que parecía que el efecto estaba muy logrado y que **probablemente era el juego con mejores gráficos de todos, pero habrá que verlo en movimiento. Había un momento en dicho video en el que la pantalla se llenaba de hojas y se continuamente el enfoque molestando bastante a la vista.
The-Rocker: If the graphics in this video (a spoiler for the fight with Big Boss, by the way) are what the game will finally look like, they will be the best seen so far on a laptop. The 3D effect was quite deceptive when flowers appeared floating in the air with different degrees of depth, making it practically impossible to have a clear view of the scene.
Mario Kart and Paper Mario videos
Nyutu: I didn’t pay much attention to these videos, Paper Mario seemed to have a successful 3D effect and Mario Kart somewhat less so. As I said before, I don’t usually trust videos, so we’ll have to see them in motion.
The-Rocker: I thought the 3D effect in Paper Mario was pretty good, more so than Mario Kart. However, both games gave me the feeling that Nintendo releases the same games over and over again.
Miis, menu and minigames
Nyutu: ** Los Miis son exactamente igual que los de Wii, aunque **la herramienta de creación basándose en foto necesita muchísima depuración. Los menús de la consola son cómodos y permiten moverse rápidamente entre distintas opciones fácilmente. Los minijuegos de realidad aumentada son simplemente eso minijuegos para probar las capacidades 3D de la máquina y no pasan de ser la típica cosa que abres un par de veces y ya.
One thing I didn’t like was how tasks stayed in the background; I like that it allows it, but the way it is done would have to be changed. Let me explain, in my case I was playing with the camera and it had a fairly intense light behind it so almost everything looked black in the image, I closed the application in the background and then the last image from the camera stayed in the background of the console making it difficult for me to see the menu options. I don’t know if it would be a bug or if it’s going to be like that, but it just seemed curious to me.
The-Rocker: What I liked the most was an augmented reality game in which a card with a Mario block was placed and targets were generated around it that had to be shot. At the very least, a game in which helicopters with people’s faces attack you: I will never get a helicopter with AerospaceAmoeba’s face giving me a kiss out of my mind… I have to learn to live with it.
Conclusions
Nyutu: In general a good experience, although somewhat short since I would have liked to have one for longer to try various things, I hope the 3D effect is improved in future games to remain more stable even if the console moves a bit. Since, for example, in Street Fighter, the recovery was almost immediate. I was very disappointed with Kid Icarus, which I had high hopes for as it was a new game and not a simple port or remake. I didn’t like its controls and its graphics left a lot to be desired. If I have to choose one, I’ll go with the OoT, as always great and in 3D it’s amazing, and it’s also very successful.
The-Rocker: They can now improve the viewing angle for the 3D effect because otherwise no one will use it in situations where there is a minimum of movement. It has good graphics in general and the joytick is much (much) more comfortable than that of the PSP. I was left wondering whether focusing on the 3D effect will be more a matter of practice than anything else. It’s more or less what I expected after watching some videos on the Internet. As I said before, in the end it will be the games that make the difference and we will see if they are able to take advantage of the console beyond multiple versions of “Imagine being” in three dimensions.