The Nintendo 3DS

The 3DS was the next major upgrade to the DS line of handhelds. In a lot of ways, it is accurate to describe it as an upgraded DSi, but it added a lot of features – most notably the ability to view games in 3D with no additional hardware necessary. It used an autostereoscopic lenticular display that sends a slightly different picture to each eye, but only when viewed from the proper distance and angle. The top half of the 3DS included a slider to adjust the depth of the 3D effect or turn it off entirely. The viewable area of the upper screen is also slightly wider than the bottom screen.

There were several changes from DSi to 3DS, and several changes back to older designs. The microphone was moved back to its original position below the touch screen, and a switch for the Wi-Fi was added where the power button was on a DS Lite. The volume control was changed back to a slider, and the stylus holder was reverted to the back of the system and changed to a telescoping stylus to give the 3DS motherboard a little more room. It uses the same power jack as the DSi, and the headphone jack was moved to the center of the front of the system. The internal camera was moved from the hinge to above the upper screen, and the external camera had a second one added to enable 3D pictures.

Besides the D-pad, the 3DS featured a circle pad that allowed the same kind of control from an analogue stick from a console, but was slim enough to fit inside a handheld. Some games let the user choose the manner of control, while others used the circle pad as the main input and the D-pad as additional buttons (like the GameCube controller).

New features on the 3DS included things like a notification LED that blinked green for a Streetpass Tag, blue for something from the internet (aka SpotPass), red for low power, and orange for friend related content. It also has a pedometer to count steps taken by the owner while in sleep mode to motivate players to take the 3DS with them wherever they go. For every 100 steps taken, the player is rewarded with 3DS Play Coins that can be used to play certain games or unlock content. Besides getting play coins, the other incentive to carry the unit around is to get Streetpass tags from other 3DS owners.

Like the Wii, the 3DS has a Home button to exit to a home menu screen. While it can only run one game at a time, there are several applications that can be used while a game is temporarily paused in the background. These include some of the home screen settings (like screen brightness), checking on friends, using the internet browser, writing game notes, reading notifications, and later the MiiVerse.

The notifications let the user know how many Streetpass tags there are for each game, updates, and announcements from Nintendo. Game Notes lets players keep little digital notes during game play. Each 3DS is given a unique friend code that can be exchanged so that friends can see when and what each other are playing or play online together. The later addition of the Miiverse was basically a Nintendo-sanctioned version of Twitter.

Unlike the DSi menu, the 3DS menu can be arranged in a single line or an array. A system update further gave the user the ability to create folders to organize games and applications. Later system updates would allow background themes, badges for decoration, and additional free applications like Nintendo Video, SwapNote, and Netflix.

Like the DSi, the 3DS comes pre-loaded with a Camera app and a Sound/Music app. However, the pictures are taken in 3D and the Sound app can play MP3s. When a 3DS takes a 3D picture, it actually just takes 2 pictures simultaneously. It stores one as a regular jpeg, but saves the other as a proprietary format not readable by computers. So 3D pictures can be seen in 3D, but only on the actual 3DS itself. The sound application lets the user record sounds but they are now saved to the SD card and are now transferrable to a computer. Users can also load the SD card with MP3s and use the 3DS as an MP3 player. Both applications let the user temporarily alter the media – such as adding color filters to pictures or speeding up and changing the pitch of music playing.

The 3DS does have some internal memory, but it is mostly used for legacy DSi applications. Any 3DS software downloaded is usually stored on the SD card, which can be easily upgraded to a bigger card (up to 32 GB).

Also included in the default applications are Download Play (for both DS and 3DS games), an app that keeps a record of playing time and frequency of use, a dedicated health/safety information app, a Mii Maker (like the Wii), and of course, settings/options. Besides some apps, the 3DS comes with a couple of pre-loaded games. One is Face Raiders, an AR (Augmented Reality) game that uses pictures of friends’ faces as in-game enemies imposed on a real background obtained from the cameras. Another was the AR Card games, which use the AR cards included with the system to interact uniquely with the real environment.

One major game/app that the 3DS’s connectivity was built around is the Streetpass Mii Plaza. When a 3DS StreetPasses (or tags) another 3DS, a copy of each 3DS’s Mii is traded along with a greeting and some pleasantries-type info. The Mii Plaza has Streetpass sub games (Find Mii and Puzzle Swap) that use the various Miis to enable play in these games. Later the plaza would get an upgrade to include more games and features. Rewards from these games were hats and costumes to decorate and accessorize Miis.

It is backwards compatible with all DS game cards and DSi Ware. The eShop is a much upgraded version of the DSi Store that includes not only 3DS games, but DSi Ware and Virtual Console games for the NES, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color. When running a DS game, the system uses a separate "DS-on-a-chip" processor, so some of the 3DS system features aren’t available. 3DS games were white in color (instead of black) and had an additional tab on them preventing them from being inserted into an older DS system.

After the system had been out for a while and not selling as well as Nintendo had hoped, they dropped the price by about $100. Many early adopters were a little miffed about paying a higher price for their system, so Nintendo compensated them by letting them have 20 free Virtual Console games. The systems that were bought before the price drop were known as Ambassador systems.

Later the 3DS XL would debut. Like the DSi XL, it was only really a size upgrade with a few slight cosmetic changes. The next version would be called a 2DS, and was meant as a more kid-friendly system. The hinge had always been the weak point of the DS/SP family, so it was removed and turned into a flat system, and the 3D function removed. 

Because it couldn’t be closed, the sleep function was replaced with a slider button. Also, the wireless slider button was removed and the option to turn the Wi-Fi on or off was added to the home menu screen. While it was more durable without the hinge, it sacrificed the convenience of size and keeping the screens from being scratched.

The “New” Nintendo 3DS (NN3DS) was a slightly upgraded version of the 3DS. It had 2 additional buttons (ZL and ZR) as well as a little nub that acted as a second stick for the right thumb. The internal camera used facial tracking software to adjust the angle of the 3D effect so that it always displayed at the correct perspective. It also had a slightly upgraded processor and internet browser (making SNES VC games possible). Some hardware changes included getting rid of the Wi-Fi slider switch in favor of controlling it from the menu like the 2DS, and the location of the game card slot was moved to the front. But one addition is the NFC sensor for amiibo. As before, it came in regular and XL sizes, but the XL is far, far more common. It also uses only MicroSD cards, and the slot was moved to the center of the back panel, requiring taking the back off to access it, making it far less convenient.

The last addition to the 3DS family was the "New" Nintendo 2DS XL (NN2DSXL), which is basically a NN3DSXL that can’t do 3D display, but retains everything else about the NN3DSXL. It's an interesting move, in that it reverted to the hinged design, as that was the selling point for durability.