August 8th to 14th

Section: 

I found myself in Costco the other day and noticed that they had already dropped the price on the 3DS to $169.99. Officially, the price drop from $250 won't take effect until August 12th, but that hasn't stopped some of the bigger chains from getting ahead of the curve. The sudden price drop and the additional lure of Nintendo's Ambassador program pushed me over the edge. I bought one along with a copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. My impulse purchase makes the 3DS price drop our thing of the week. There's nothing for games aside from Fruit Ninja for XBLA. Screw that!

Playing Ocarina of Time in 3D has been pretty cool so far. Amazing how familiar the places are to me while I completely forget solutions to the puzzles. Even cooler is seeing a lot of design ideas floated throughout the game that have taken a lot of prominence these days. Seeing Death Mountain off in the distance while on Hyrule field and paying off on the promise of visiting that place is similar to the Citadel in Half-Life 2. In the first two hours alone I've seen stealth elements, a music game and a world that runs on a day/night cycle. Some of these things have only been perfected in the last few years!

If you're tempted by the new price and want those 20 free games, you've got until 11:59PM EST on August 11th to buy your system and sign into the e-shop to mark yourself as an early adopter. If you can't find the system at the cheaper price, just make sure you buy it from a place with some kind of price guarantee.

Comments

Certis let me check out this wretched device the other day, and I swear to god, I could not stand the 3D no matter what position I put the slider at.

I have to admit I was curious about the thing once I heard about the Costco situation but 5 minutes with it in my hand has convinced me that I want nothing to do with it.

I'm not sure why but I have really enjoyed the 3D in Ocarina of Time. I think it uses the device to its best potential and the new version of OOT is absolutely fantastic. Was the debut of the 3DS botched? Sure... but I still think it will turn out in the future. Once really creative studios get a handle on it though I think we will start to see incredible pieces of art. Like the Kinect and its lesser cousin the Move (yes I know the Wii started THAT particular trend) we are only now starting to see what these are capable of. Of course, if you can't stand the 3D in any form than this will largely be lost on you. Luckily, OOT is still very good and pretty without the 3D....

3903-7607-3337 Friend me up on the 3DS Certis. Maybe we can do some Street Fightin if you borrow or buy a copy. Anyone else who is interested put your 3DS code in here and we can throw down.

I am one of the fortunate who has an easy time with the 3D, but even without it the handheld is a nice piece of kit. I get my phone through work. I can't load games on it. Being able to play Field Runners and Plants Vs. Zombies without needing to pay for boxed copies has been great.

Is that 11:59 EST today or 11:59 EST on the 11th?

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with a friend's 3DS and decided it really is not for me. The combination of poor battery life that renders sleep mode useless, a lack of new interesting games, and the headaches the 3D gave me half the time I played it made me want to just sit this out for now.

Why are people buying the 3DS besides it being the new hotness?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Is that 11:59 EST today or 11:59 EST on the 11th?

On the 11th. Updated the post!

SuperDave wrote:

Why are people buying the 3DS besides it being the new hotness?

3D was not the reason, I bought it because the eShop is much better built than Nintendo's previous efforts, Street and Spot Pass stuff is cool, and a mobile Netflix player. Again, I can't do these things on my phone I am allowed to make local personal calls, but nothing else it does not make sense to me to get an iPod touch when I still have DS games unfinished which will work in 3Ds, but still provide me donloadable titles.

My most anticipated title is called Heroes of Ruin due out next year which is an RPG which looks like it will use the Spot/StreetPass functionality in interesting ways.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/117/11746...

Do we have a definite list of what the ambassadors get for owning the system? All I've heard so far is Yoshi's Island, which makes me happy.

That ghost recon turn based game looks pretty awesome, but really my DesireHD has become my gaming handheld of choice.

Vrikk wrote:

Do we have a definite list of what the ambassadors get for owning the system? All I've heard so far is Yoshi's Island, which makes me happy.

I don't know them all, but Metroid Fusion is on there, as is NES Super Mario Bros and the Kirby GBA Game.

Stylez wrote:

That ghost recon turn based game looks pretty awesome, but really my DesireHD has become my gaming handheld of choice.

Yeah I want to pick that up, but I am on a purchasing blackout until I clear up my back log.

[blockquote=Vrikk]Do we have a definite list of what the ambassadors get for owning the system? All I've heard so far is Yoshi's Island, which makes me happy.[/blockquote=Vrikk]

With the Ambassador Program you get the following:

NES Games: Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, The Legend of Zelda, (5 still to be uncovered)

GBA Games (No plans for eventual sale to public): Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, WarioWare Inc. (5 still to be uncovered).

Not a bad haul if you ask me.

Has Nintendo changed their stance on downloadable apps not being transferable between devices? I don't relish the idea of losing purchases from my past DS systems for a new 3DS or not being able to transfer games to the inevitable successor to the 3DS.

Mobile gaming has really killed my desire to own a 3DS or Vita.

The way iOS gaming has been maturing over the past 12+ months, coupled with the insane impulse price/delivery system of the app store has made bringing a second gadget along with me totally unappealing.

I wouldn't have said that 2 or 3 years ago when having a DS or PSP along for the ride was essential for gaming on the go, but it seems like things have changed dramatically over the past year or so. A convergence device like iPhone 4 just meets all my needs on the go it seems.

I still can't bring myself to buy a 3DS. None of their early adopter games seem appealing because they are all games that I've previously played or I already own them.

Even with the price drop I can't get behind a system where the only games that interest me are re-releases of old games that I still own. I own two or three different copies of Ocarina of Time on various systems, I own two versions of MGS3 (and will likely own the HD collection to make it three,) and I have two Starfox 64 cartridges.

Even after looking through the upcoming games for the system I just don't have any interest. I guess I have franchise fatigue from most of what Nintendo is offering because the promise of a new Mario, Zelda, or Metroid game does absolutely nothing the persuade me.

Aaron D. wrote:

Mobile gaming has really killed my desire to own a 3DS or Vita.

I am sorely tempted by the 3DS. Intellectually I feel like we are in the twilight of portable console gaming, and I do game on my phone almost exclusively, but the price drop and "free" stuff keep commandeering my attention.

=P

grobstein wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Mobile gaming has really killed my desire to own a 3DS or Vita.

I am sorely tempted by the 3DS. Intellectually I feel like we are in the twilight of portable console gaming, and I do game on my phone almost exclusively, but the price drop and "free" stuff keep commandeering my attention.

=P

Mobile gaming is actually what drove me, just last night, to buy a 3DS. While I haven't played as many mobile games as some of the people on this site, I've sampled from a fairly broad range of games, and I've largely been left wanting. There are some decent games with a fair bit of depth, but I haven't found much of anything that's both consumed my attention and felt like a good fit for the platform.

What pushed me over the edge, actually, was reading that Penny Arcade comic that people are waving around as an argument against the 3DS. I read that and simply thought I'd have more fun with a $40 game like Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars or Paper Mario 3D than any combination of iPhone games I've played. Maybe that makes me shortsighted, or maybe I hate the fun all the cool kids are having, but there it is.

The price point on the 3DS dropping to where it's a reasonable purely hardware upgrade (control and processor) on the DS makes me want to actually get one... ...once they get that battery life issue sorted out.