Should you upgrade to a New Nintendo 3DS this Holiday season?
Many gamers this holiday season may be wondering if the New Nintendo 3DS is a worthy upgrade from the older 3DS models and if the new model will be a good item to throw on your Christmas wishlist. Now that the smaller New 3DS that was once exclusive to Japan and Europe has hit the North American market in the form of the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle, gamers may be more interested than ever in ditching their older 3DS model and jumping on the new one. After almost a year of experience with a New 3DS XL and owning several different models of the 3DS handheld overall, I am here to help gamers with that decision.
Nintendo have always been notorious for releasing different variations of the same handheld hardware each generation and gamers tend to eat them up each and every time. The original Gameboy received the slimmer Gameboy Pocket, then the Gameboy Color. The Gameboy Advance was upgraded to the Gameboy Advance SP, the first Nintendo handheld to include a backlit screen and clamshell design. Afterwards, the GBA received another variant in a tiny, pocket form known as the Gameboy Advance Micro which became a fan-favorite. Nintendo DS saw two hardware refreshers as the Nintendo DSi and DSi XL that added dual digital cameras and online shopping capabilities.
Gamers definitely saw it coming when the Nintendo 3DS received an upgrade in the form of the 3DS XL; however, the Leap Frog styled Nintendo 2DS, which cut the clamshell design and the glasses-free 3D capabilities, threw gamers for a loop when Nintendo released it alongside Pokemon X & Y. Now that three different 3DS models exist on the market, Nintendo decided to throw two more into the mix with the poorly titled but beefy New Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL.
The New Nintendo 3DS includes a rather sweet swappable faceplate feature that can add some personality to each gamer’s handheld. Unfortunately for the XL model, faceplates are not supported but it does include a significantly larger screen. While other territories get both of these new 3DS models, North America only carried the XL variant for the majority of the year, which was a huge shame. Nintendo claims that the XL model makes more sense for the North American market and avoids consumer confusion… although there are already a grand total of 5 different 3DS models released that already accomplished that for them. Thankfully, the standard New Nintendo 3DS is now available in the U.S. in the form of the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle, but this is the ONLY way you can obtain that model for the time being. All in all, is it worth purchasing a New Nintendo 3DS if you already own a previous model? Let’s take a look.
Since I live in the United States, I will be discussing the XL variant that I’ve owned for a bit over seven months now. First, you may be wondering what is so different about the New Nintendo 3DS XL. Well this time Nintendo actually altered the hardware quite a bit instead of simply resorting to only changing the handheld’s form factor like with previous Nintendo handhelds. The biggest addition is the faster processor Nintendo added in along with doubling the system RAM. These two upgrades make the 3DS operating system significantly faster at loading applications and games. Thanks to the hardware upgrade, the 3DS menus are much more responsive, less laggy and cut down on the waiting quite a bit, making it the most welcome addition to the handheld.
I noticed that the Miiverse is now much snappier and faster than it was before, making the experience match the quality of the Wii U’s Miiverse. The bump in hardware specs also allows developers to utilize the hardware to improve games running on the New 3DS, including a higher texture resolution in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The upcoming portable version of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D will utilize the new hardware so much that it is required in order to play, making the game the first exclusive title to the New Nintendo 3DS.
As far as the form factor is concerned, the New Nintendo 3DS XL has not changed much. The size and weight are roughly the same and the screens measure up to the size of the previous XL. Although if your region was lucky enough to get the standard New Nintendo 3DS, the screen size bumped up a bit from the original 3DS model. Button placement has changed a bit with the start and select buttons moving below the face buttons and the home button resting alone at the bottom of the lower screen similar to the 2DS. The handheld now comes in a glossy finish instead of matte as before, which I find much more attractive looking but more prone to fingerprints. The biggest changes are the replacement of several components on the handheld, including the cartridge slot, stylus holder and power button moving to the bottom while the volume control moved to the left side of the top screen. The new location of the power button is a small problem since it can be bumped rather easily on a table or desk.
No longer will the New 3DS XL support SD Cards as well, which has been changed to a MicroSD card slot. The MicroSD seat has been added behind the plate on the back of the handheld that houses the battery, making the SD card challenging to swap in and out and now requires a screwdriver to access. For anyone who enjoyed popping their SD card out to upload screenshots to their computers, you’re going to find yourself hating the inconvenient new location of the MicroSD slot.
The next big enhancement is the facial tracking camera added to the top screen on the New Nintendo 3DS. Prior to this addition, the 3D effect on the older 3DS models would distort and blur if the user didn’t hold the handheld in the perfect spot, causing most gamers to simply turn it off (including myself). Thanks to the new facial tracking camera, the 3D effect will adjust on-the-fly depending on where your face is located in conjunction with the handheld, preventing the 3D from being thrown off track. Nintendo made a great decision to add this facial camera due to the huge improvement it makes while playing games in 3D. Honestly, the facial tracking should have been implemented from the start when the first 3DS iteration was released in 2012. I find myself actually keeping the 3D effect turned on now while playing.
Sony answered the cries of handheld gamers with the Playstation Vita by adding a second analog stick to the handheld for more precise controls. While Nintendo has released bulky add-ons in the past that does add a second circle pad to the 3DS, the attachment absolutely kills the portability of the handheld and requires batteries. Nintendo finally wised up and added a second analog stick to the New Nintendo 3DS, but it may not be quite what you would expect. Instead, Nintendo added a C-Stick, or what is commonly called a “C-nub”, that is similar to an old IBM trackpoint stick found on laptops. Two new shoulder buttons were added at the top of the handheld too in the form of ZL and ZR.
The c-nub is a stiff, pressure sensitive stick that emulates an analog stick when pressed in a certain direction. The stick works well for camera control in platformers but is quite bad for aiming in a first or third person shooter. In order words, the c-stick is great for moving the camera in Majora’s Mask 3D but terrible for aiming in Resident Evil: Revelations. Since the c-stick doesn’t actually move, it makes aiming very inaccurate and difficult to pull off. While the addition of the c-stick is a welcomed one and great for some games, it isn’t quite the second analog stick that most gamers were hoping for. Any game that supports the circle pad pro attachment is compatible with the new c-stick, but the results may not be quite as effective as before.
Amiibo fans can get excited about the New Nintendo 3DS since the bottom screen now includes NFC (Near Field Communication) support that will allow games to interact with Amiibo figures, similar to the Skylanders games. Placing a figure on the bottom screen while playing a supported title will scan the information stored in the figure and will unlock special features. Nintendo has recently released a patch for Super Smash bros. 3DS that includes the same Amiibo functionality as its Wii U counterpart, adding some value to that title.
Other than Smash Bros., the only other games that currently support Amiibos are Codename: S.T.E.A.M, which only supports the extremely rare Fire Emblem Amiibos, and Namco’s Ace Combat Assult: Horizon Legacy. The NFC feature is nice, but not the most exciting feature at the moment unless you happen to be a hardcore Smash player. NFC support ultimately feels more like a feature made solely for Super Smash Bros. at the moment, which is a shame but will hopefully change soon.
Two kinds of gamers will be interested in the New Nintendo 3DS; gamers who do not own a 3DS and gamers who are interested in upgrading their current 3DS. If you happen to be a gamer who has never owned a 3DS handheld, the New Nintendo 3DS is definitely the model you want to choose. The hardware is faster, more attractive looking and includes more options for gamers in the form of extra buttons and functionality. The big decision for gamers with older 3DS hardware is whether or not they want to spend the cash to upgrade to the New Nintendo 3DS and if that upgrade is really worth it.
The New Nintendo 3DS XL retails at $199 and includes a 4GB MicroSD card, but does not include a charger. Removing the charger was a pretty dumb move since it’s a required accessory for standard functionality, but Nintendo has practiced this tactic in Europe and Japan already so it was only a matter of time before they gouged us Americans as well. Expect to shell out an extra $10 for a charger if you don’t already own one. The standard New Nintendo 3DS included in the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle retails at $219.99, which is $50 more than the price of a standalone N3DS in Europe. Although, the Happy Home Designer bundle does come with multiple faceplates, an Animal Crossing Amiibo and a copy of the Happy Home Designer game.
While I personally feel like none of the 3DS models are really worth the suggested retail price due to how old the tech included in the hardware actually is, I do recommend that hardcore 3DS fans trade their current handheld in for the new variant due to the RAM upgrade, faster processor and 3D facial tracking alone. Nintendo has easily crafted the best version of the 3DS hardware with the New Nintendo 3DS and it will deliver the best experience possible. Whether or not that is worth shelling out more cash for is up to the consumer.
Overall, the New Nintendo 3DS XL and standard New Nintendo 3DS are very slick, yet slightly overpriced handhelds that deliver the best 3DS experience to date. While some of the new features are fantastic, like the facial tracking and boost in hardware power, others slightly hinder the experience including the irritating MicroSD slot location, the lack of a charger and the under-utilized NFC support. Still, I would easily consider the New Nintendo 3DS the best of the 3DS family and recommend that hardcore gamers sell those old handhelds to help fund the new one. The lack of exclusive titles for the New 3DS hurts the appeal of adopting the new hardware though, so if the extra bells and whistles do not interest you then the New Nintendo 3DS is an easy pass.
