![]() ![]() And the labels for the face buttons have switched from white to colors reminiscent of the old international Super Famicom controller, making the system look a little more toy-like, for good or for ill. The power button has been relocated to a nice, out-of-the-way spot along the bottom edge of the system, while the home button below the bottom screen has been reduced from an obnoxious rectangle to a small, cute oval. This is a much better use of the space right below the main face buttons, and it means you no longer need to stretch across the bottom screen to pause a game. On the front of the system, the area taken up by the power button has been replaced with new, smaller start and select buttons. And the wireless switch that used to sit on the right side of the system has been removed in favor of a system menu option, removing the risk of accidentally disconnecting in the middle of an online match. The volume slider has also been moved from the bottom half of the system to the top, eliminating the significant risk annoyance of accidentally changing the volume with your palm (something that happened to me frequently). That stylus now slides out of the bottom of the system, rather than the side, meaning it's harder to bump accidentally while playing. ![]() The included stylus is slightly shorter and thicker than the one in the old 3DS, which felt better in hand. Though the size and shape of the new 3DS matches almost perfectly with the old 3DS XL (the new system is almost imperceptibly wider across), there are some slight changes for the better in the casing design. These snags would usually go away in less than a second, or they'd disappear with a quick shake to startle the head-tracking back into compliance. Even with a solid gaze, there were moments where I noticed some ghostly after-images hovering around characters, like I was seeing 3D angles meant for other head positions. If you look away from the system for a second-to talk to someone or look at the TV, for instance-the screen often looks blurry momentarily when you look back. ![]() There's even a built-in infrared light that turns on to allow for head-tracking in low light environments. The super-stable 3D can fail if you tilt your face outside of the camera's range, but you have to really try to reach the limits of that range during normal play. The tracking generally worked surprisingly well, following my position and adjusting the image with no discernible lag or blurriness no matter how fast I moved my head or tilted the system. ![]() Super-stable 3D works by using the new 3DS' front-facing camera to track the position of your head in relation to the screen, adjusting the display's 3D output to show correctly at that particular angle. What Nintendo calls its new "super-stable 3D" feature is easily the hardware refresh's best selling point it reclaims the promise of that first 3DS launch. So the best thing about the exhaustingly named "New Nintendo 3DS XL" (simply new 3DS from here on) is that it brings back the magic of those first 3DS moments in a way that's comfortable and usable for long periods of time. If you tilt the system ever so slightly in any direction, it's the same result.įor years now, I've played my 3DS predominantly with the 3D feature turned off to avoid the inevitable headache-inducing blurriness when I leave the 3D's magic "safe zone." I'm not alone either an informal poll of my twitter followers found that around half of those responding leave the 3D off for similar reasons. That's the upper limit for how long it takes most players to realize that the magic is broken if your head moves out of a very small window directly in front of the system. Further Reading A beautiful screen, a weak battery, a door to the future: Ars reviews the Nintendo 3DSEverybody who tried the Nintendo 3DS probably remembers the first time they saw the flat image on the screen extend into three dimensions, receding into the apparent depths of the system without using any special glasses. ![]()
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