New Nintendo 3DS Family Review

A Parent’s View on the New Nintendo 3DS

As a parent I welcomed Nintendo’s 3DS into our home as it meant that the boys could continue their play wherever they were. This was great for long journeys, trips away, and generally needing to get out the house when they refuse to stop playing NEED to finish a level. They are great for getting children playing together, as their portability means that they can easily take them wherever they go – including a friend’s house, or keeping them quiet somewhere. This can also be useful when playing the Wii U as they can be used as additional controllers. I think that the new 3DS from Nintendo seems much easier to use, including the switch to turn the 3D on and off. I like the quality of the 3D too. I like how they easily customisable they are with the changing plates- especially good for the younger boys who grow out of favourite characters so quickly. This means children can personalise them more – and identify which is theirs quicker. They are straight forward to use and can be used from a young age. I do think they are good developmentally for hand-eye co-ordination and thinking skills. What I don’t particularly like is the additional cost the individual hand-held consoles bring, as each of my 4 children need to have the same game (if they all want to play at once and also because most have profiles so they need one each – or so they tell me anyway).

An 18 Year Old’s Thoughts on the New Nintendo 3DS

The 3DS carried on from the DS with its 2 screens and lower touch screen. The difference was they had made is so that the top screen is capable of displaying in 3D, which I thought was great. I found the 3D effect enjoyable and even helpful for some games. However, when using this feature, the console has to be kept at the right angle for it to work, and it can’t be used for long before it feels uncomfortable, so I usually don’t use it much. This is a shame, because besides improved hardware over the DS that allows you to play more recent titles, the 3D was a main feature to get a 3DS. I liked the New 3DS as it has a head-tracking feature that should automatically adjust the 3D display to allow the player to see it clearly, whenever the angle the user is looking from changes. When I got to use it for myself, I was surprised it was better at doing this than I had anticipated. On the original 3DS, looking at the 3D screen and then looking from an angle with the 3D on, meant you’d see a blurry mess that would most likely hurt your eyes. With the New 3DS I found that this effect only occurs for a brief moment before adjusting, so I felt I used the 3D feature much more. I liked it with many of the games I own on the 3DS, that also make good use of the console’s other features as well.

An 11 Year Old’s Review of the New Nintendo 3DS

The new 3DS is much better than the older version as there are lots of new features including: use of the Amiibo, colourful buttons and also you can take off and put new cover plates on so you can personalize your 3DS.

The Amiibo

Amiibo are figurines of characters featured in games on Nintendo consoles, that can be scanned in and can be interacted with in various WiiU and 3DS titles. There are any other games, that while they do not allow direct interaction with Amiibo, do grant bonus features and rewards for scanning them in. There are a number of games that currently have Amiibo compatibility on WiiU and 3DS titles, while in the future Amiibo features may be added to game via updates. For example, an update for Super Smash Bros for 3DS, means it can now have Amiibo functionality (currently only when playing on a New 3DS however), much like it is possible on the WiiU version of the game.

How do you use the Amiibo with Super Smash Bros for 3DS?

1. Firstly, you need to make sure your New 3DS has the Smash Bros update to include Amiibo compatibility. If you haven’t, then go to the e-Store app for the update: internet connection is required.
2. With that done, turn on Smash Bros and go onto the Smash gamemode.
3. On the character select screen, press ZR button (which is located next to the right shoulder button) to select the scan Amiibo option.
4. Place your Amiibo onto the touchscreen of the New 3DS to scan it in: for adding multiple Amiibo, repeat steps 3 and 4.
5. Now when you start a match, you can fight against your Amiibo, and can train them up to become stronger and level it up to a maximum of 50. Amiibo are much harder enemies when they have been trained well and can be quite a challenge to beat.
6. After you are done battling your Amiibo you will be prompted to save data to the Amiibo, such as any additional levels it has gained during battle. Ensure that when saving data to the Amiibo that you do not remove it before you are told to: failure to do so may corrupt data on the Amiibo, though the game will ask you if you wish to restore the data in case you accidentally do take it off early.

Amiibo can also be customised in Smash Bros, allowing you to give them a nickname and costume, which anyone who fights against them will see. You can choose to add equipment to the Amiibo, which can grant them bonuses in stats and other effects. If you are ever unsatisfied with youhow your Amiibo has been trained and wish to start afresh or the Amiibo has a new owned, you are also able to reset the Amiibo back to level one, give it a new nickname and repick its costume.

The Cover Plates

The New 3DS grants you a lot of customisation options. Nintendo recently added a feature to all models of 3DS, that allows you to change the theme of the 3DS home menu between different colour options, while also allowing you to purchase additional themes which vary from simple shapes and colours to themes that are based on games and come with music from those games. But in addition to this, the standard models of the New 3DS allow you to switch both the top and bottom cover plates of your console.

Currently offered cover plates include:

• Cover plates with patterns such as stars and circles,
• Ones that feature many off Nintendo’s iconic characters,
• Some that made up of a collage of characters or symbols from many game series,
• There are even cover plates that are made of felt, or are transparent.

…and all of these cover plates can be mixed together to your liking. Make your combination subtle or funky or from the two games you enjoy the most or do what ever it takes to make your New 3DS truly yours (though Peach with a mustache might be a little bit odd).

Other features

The coloured buttons, the bigger screens, the ZL and ZR buttons (shoulder buttons), the smoother movement on the D-pad are all little things that count as it might make the 3DS that much more special to your child.

The Games for it

A good game for the 3DS that you should get, if you haven’t already, is Luigi’s Mansion 2. It is where you’re Luigi, and Mario has been captured in a haunted mansion. You have to go round defeating ghosts with the Poltergust 5000 (a vacuum) so at the end you can go and save Mario.

Another one is Smash Bros (which is mentioned further up) which is a game were you pick one of many Nintendo characters and fight until someone wins by having the most KOs at the end of the time limit (set by you) or being the last man standing on stock when you have a set amount of lives (set by you).

 

We were sent a new 3DS with Luigi face plates and a copy of Luigi’s Mansion on loan for 2 weeks in order to produce this review. All words and opinions are honest and our own.