Have You Heard the Good News, Friends

[rynling]

I bought a New Nintendo 3DS XL, and it changed my life, holy fuck.

The thing is a marvel of technology. Although its screens are significantly larger than those of the original 3DS, it feels lighter, and its 3D capacity actually works the way it's supposed to without giving me a headache. While the system is in 3D mode, the graphics remains sharp, even to the extent that I can still read the text in Bravely Second.

In addition, Nintendo DS games look gorgeous on the New Nintendo 3DS XL. The touch screen responsivity is greatly improved, and even silly peripherals – like the mic feature, which many first-party DS games require – work much better than they did on previous systems.

My life has been a mess lately, and it's good to have access to this small window of happiness. I only wish that there were a reasonable way to abbreviate the name of the device. NN3DSXL doesn't really have the catchy je ne sais quoi one expects in Nintendo hardware appellations.

Comments

[renegadefolkhero]

Someone was talking me into a new DS (I still have a DS Lite) and I really wish the naming scheme was less confusing. I was considering the 2DS because I don't care about 3D, but the screen difference is huge. Also I didn't realize the 3DS was backwards compatible for some reason.

[rynling]

It's a neat little toy. The 3DS library isn't huge, but I've found that the high quality of presentation serves as a significant enhancement to the old DS games, and suddenly my backlog from 2007 looks new and sexy again. In addition, the virtual console for the New Nintendo 3DS is almost twice as large as that of the regular 3DS because it contains so many Super Nintendo and GBA titles.

At first I felt guilty about spending almost $200 on a handheld game console, but then I was like, "Oh wait, I'm an adult, I have credit cards."

Also I am now the most popular person at my friends' kids' birthday parties. It took me three decades to get to this point, but that in no way diminishes my sense of accomplishment.

[selenicdistance]

I made the mistake, around a year and a half back, of picking up a replacement 3DS XL rrrrrrrrrrrrrright before the New 3DS came out.

That said, the handheld I do have is still serving me well.