Just when you thought that the 3D craze of the past few years would pass the console industry by, Nintendo take a huge stab at the market with their latest creation: The Nintendo 3DS due here in the UK, late March.

Now, of course the DS being a handheld console, you are probably thinking that you will have to walk around with those highly fashionable 3D glasses, but thankfully that is not the case as with a little thing called Autostereoscopy you will be able to take 3D gaming on the move.

Thankfully Nintendo learnt from their mistakes with the VirtualBoy!

So How will the System Work and How exactly will you Play Games in 3D without Glasses?

Well, all the games designed for the 3DS will be affected by what the designers have dubbed ‘3D Volume’. This is a sliding switch on the side, like a volume switch, hence the name. With this you can adjust just how 3D the images on your screen will be. This is the first time any such technology has been used (in gaming at least) and by doing this it means that you can adjust it to suit the stereoscopic vision of whoever happens to be playing the system at the time. How the games are affected by the 3D system will of course depend on the game and it’s still not clear as to whether things will be jumping out of the screen at you, but the main emphasis of the developers seems to be the immersive effect that 3D gives and with the boom of 3D in film and TV you can hardly blame Nintendo for climbing on the bandwagon.

For those technical minded people who need to know, the top screen is a 90mm 5:3 3D screen, resolution 800×240 Pixels able to produce an Autosteroscopic effect (In other words a 3D effect without the glasses).

NOTE: Though Nintendo have always targeted a younger market, it is being noted that Nintendo have been very public about the fact that the system should not be used by children under six with the following notice.

“WARNING: The use of the 3D feature by children aged six and under may cause vision damage. Therefore it is recommended that:
• Only children over six should use the system in 3D mode.
• If children aged six and under have access to the system, parents or legal guardians should restrict the display of 3D images using the Parental Controls feature.”

How Does the New Design Look?

As you can see from the above pictures they have once again tinkered with the controls with the addition of a new analogue controller or Circle Pad which I’m sure will come in handy for some of the more complex games. In demonstrations, its main function has been to show different angles on pictures similar to the analogue controller for the PSP.

The Power button has once again been shifted, this time to the right hand side and the Select, Start and new Home buttons are now situated at the bottom of the screen. In terms of the design, nothing has been done to radically change it and so the backwards compatibility with older DS games should not be affected in terms of game playing experience.

In terms of appearance, the main new features are The Cradle and the 3D cameras. The Cradle is almost like a docking station for your 3DS and will allow for quicker uploads/downloads and recharging of the system. With the new 3D camera, two cameras on the front of the 3DS,  you can take fully 3D pictures of your friends or whatever you choose. All three cameras are 640×480 Pixels or 0.3 Megapixels. Aswell as this, there is also a 2D camera positioned above the top screen to take 2D pictures and video.

Ok enough of the technical talk; let’s get to the good stuff.

So What else is New Under the Hood?

First up an interactive feature that they are calling StreetPass and SpotPass

What Are They?

Well, if you own a 3DS and someone with one too is passing you by or maybe sitting next to you on the bus, your system will seek out and exchange data with the other system using StreetPass. There’s no indication as to whether this will be a good thing or a way for some sneaky hacker to wipe all your progress on the latest Professor Layton, but I’m sure they will clarify that later. At the moment, it seems like a way to exchange content with strangers. When you have received new data the LED on the right of your 3DS will flash to tell you.

Why do I think of Invasion of the BodySnatchers looking at this?

SpotPass will seek out wireless hotspots and again obtain various types of date on the spot. This can include software, notification and 3D content.

The whole point of these two is to increase the interactivity of the system and to encourage more people to carry it around, which does seem to be a clever (if risky) idea. But we shall see!

As well as this you also get some neat Pre-Installed Software that you can tinker with.

The Mii Maker and StreetPass Mii Plaza

As you can guess with this handy feature you can create Miis who can then all gather and socialize within the Mii Plaza. You can import your previously created Miis from your Wii, however for some reason you can’t transfer your 3DS Mii. The reason given is the new character parts available on the 3DS.

Nintendo 3DS Sound and 3DS Camera

3DS Camera allows you to take photos of your friends and family in 3D. 3DS Sound allows you to edit and play with sounds.

Activity Log

This is essentially a fancy pedometer which tracks your walking activity during the day. It also allows you to check out your gaming history and stats so far. There is no word about whether this will be compatible with the Wii Fit.

Ok. So How Much and When can I get my Hands on it?

The launch date for the Nintendo 3DS is March 25^th 2011, so not too long a wait to go and though it is released in Japan on February 26^th, the European release is actually two days before the American release on March 27^th.

Price is currently being quoted as £229.99. Though some websites are promoting it with a price of £219.99.

But what will we all be playing on the new 3DS?

Stay tuned for Part 2 for all the updates and rumors on the titles to be released that we will all be playing in 3D come March.