The Nintendo 3DS has finally got a launch date, and it’s only going to be next year – February 26th in Japan. Europe and the United States will only get it by March. It will be priced at ¥25,000 (approximately $300), and will launch in aqua blue and cosmo black colours. The 3DS will come along with a charging dock, 2GB SD card, stylus, and 6 paper cards that we’ll get back to later.
[RELATED_ARTICLE]At the launch announcement Nintendo gave some more details about the 3DS’ hardware, games, and software. On the hardware front, Nintendo announced the 3DS will feature backlit buttons, including a Home button that will call up the in-game menu, settings, web browser, and Wi-Fi options without ending the game. Wireless tag mode was also introduced, allowing for innovative player vs player ranking methods and gameplay between 3DS consoles – an example of this is seen below in the Super Street Fighter IV video, where collectable action figures loaded on one 3DS fight against the action figures loaded on a rival and nearby 3DS, and neither consoles even need to be turned on. Wireless tag mode will also allow users to pick up Mii avatars from passerby 3DS consoles. Nintendo also released images of the final hardware, seen above.
On the software front, there’s plenty of embedded software, including: Nintendo 3DS cameras, Nintendo 3DS sound, Chance Encounter Mii Plaza, AR Games and Book, and Mii Studio, lets you create 3D Mii avatars using the 3DS’ dual cameras. Merging two photos is also possible. Embedded games will also include some that will use the paper cards we talked about earlier, allowing you to interact with them in augmented reality. Multitasking ability was also shown on Nintendo’s 3DS microsite.
Another feature that was unveiled is bound to be a popular draw to the console, that is, the ability to play Game Boy/GBA games on it, which can be bought of a Game Boy Virtual Console store. Some of these games will be converted to 3D. Nintendo also announced that the 3DS also supports another much requested feature, which is the transfer of downloaded software between a DSi and DSi XL, as also from 3DS to 3DS. Certain software won’t be movable, and there will be a limit to the number of times one software can be transferred.
Nintendo later featured the upcoming 3D games lineup for the 3DS which you can see below. Read on to see more announcements of games for the DSi and Wii on the next page, as well as a special Super Mario edition of the DSi LL, and the new Wii Remote Plus…
3DS games lineup
DS games lineup
Wii games lineup