Fantastic Thank you so much for taking these.

Ryu and Ken were there and you didn't get me autographs!?

They've not looking too healthy these days though, lost a lot of weight.

I asked Ken and Ryu to fist bump for that posed shot. Ryu didn't seem to know what a fist bump was.

The RE Zombies I only saw once I looked at the photos - Jill was dragging me through a pitch black room while I was trying to take those pics - I aimed at the zombie moaning.

That's because Ryu is boring and has no friends.

I've added some write-up!

That was a brilliant read man - really good impressions!

It's Star Fox I absolutely cannot wait for, I'm completely sold on just being able to play that on such a sweet little machine - in 3D too!!

Lots of gets, very excited about Pilotwings and Star Fox! Thanks for those impressions

Good read, but it really is one of those things where I'll have to see it for myself before I jump in no matter what games they announce.

Well I had a slightly different, less unicorns and rainbows experience. In a Knowlsian style I'll break it down. If you want to skip the ramble, scroll to /RAMBLE.

First up, before going, not impressed with the PAL price, I thought it shouldn't break the £200 barrier, and shouldn't be anywhere near £189 before even considering a purchase. So I'm going in a little prickled. Fortunately as a PAL Club Nintendo member I got an invite early, and signed up to the first available slot as I had some uncle-ing to be doing over the weekend, and the potential nephew kudos of checking out the latest and greatest was too much to pass up, I was perfectly happy to wait to see one in Toys R Us for instance.

So I managed to stumble out of bed at 0730 ish on the Sat morning, a little worse for wear from taking part in the Anglo Saxon end of working week ritual the previous evening. Once I found my bearings checked the route, jumped on a train, walked from Moorgate tube and eventually found a lineup of what can best be described as nerd archetypes, I wasn't exactly not blending in.

Having joined the typically British orderly queue, formed in complete spontaneity, the guy in front of me was approached by a PR lady and asked several questions, I was massaging the micro golf ball hangover that has self generated on the journey down, staring at the crazy art projects in the adjacent car park minding my own business. Anyways, eventually I was spoken to by the PR lady, and invited to go on a marketing exercise, but I would be allowed into the event eventually. I figured it would make the trip more worth while, as the length of the event wasn't obvious, I thought it was going to be a lineup of booths and thats it.

I was asked several questions, gaming habit, if I was a competitor and so on, and I watched the super keen 3ds previewers rock on in, whilst I and this other chap were held back. After a good delay, the other fella was escorted away by headset toting PR ladies into the building, and I was left to make more and more elaborate small talk with the remain PR crew. Eventually I was then escorted in, through a poorly lit mugging zone up some stairs into, whilst being asked to stay quiet... a kind of dressing room.

I can't decide if I am still drunk at this stage.

Having had a typically thuggish mug shot taken of me, asked to cover up the logo'd T-shirt I had on and some make up applied I was escorted by more headsetted PR people through a large black curtain to a door mat. I was asked to rub my feet, I was wearing my dead Hiking boots, so I gave them a good rub... then I was asked if I would want to take my jacket off as it was "hot in there".

A nicely bemused me was then asked to enter a room, which was hot, and totally white, had three one way mirrors on the opposite wall, a white desk, two chairs and a closed 3DS on the table. I staggered up to the 3DS, then was asked by a female authoritarian voice to walk up to the table, which I did. Then I was asked to sit down and look at the device, a 3DS, which I did, immediately looked at the bottom as thats what Iwata asks us to do in the recent Iwata Asks. Asked to open the device, a 3DS, which I did.

So this is my first look at the 3DS, in a hot, entirely white room, with three mirrors and a disembodied voice, slighlty monged, and what do I get to play? PES.

Anyways, all I wanted to do was play with the 3D Slider and the Circle pad. So I was completely transfixed by the whole thing, the voice asked what the game was... I always call it Winning Eleven, but I remembered it was PES, so I was in classic gamer monotone, "PES". I was then asked to play it a bit, which was frankly baffling, the new taking advantage of the 3D depth was pointless and confusing... I was eventually asked what made it different, and all I could say was "Its 3D and stuff"....

Not being the most lyrical of mornings and not the most enthused I guess my time was up... so was asked to leave... and take the 3DS with me.

Needless to say, this was kinda interesting, an non locked down 3DS, in my hand, in a white room in London, with my boots on... it all ran through my head... anyways, valour gave way to discretion and I bumbled out of the room with the grace and presence of a hobo... there was meant to be another stage to my public humiliation, but I guess my Tennyson'esque soliloquy was too much for what ever cause I was being filmed for... and they got their 3DS back.

/RAMBLE

Hey ho, then I basically got the Papercut treatment, the slightly embarrassing UK version of something that would be better not happening at all, but more committed to by those in the USA. Everyone was slightly embarrassed, and more keen to play on the device than be brainwashed and entertained. The Ken Ryu fight was impressive, however. I've imagined them to be taller than 5 foot though. Chris Redfield was prime time.

The actual device, physically, as Paper suggests is great. Some of the more interesting design choices which are covered by Iwata Asks, I was fully briefed on all that. I was most curious about the Circle Pad and the 3D slider.

Circle pad is better than the PSP nub, but not as good as a real stick. It resists where you expect it to and has all the tactility you want. The 3D was a problem for me, a sort of game breaker.

In the cinema it takes me, my brain, or my eyes a whilst to settle into being happy about having two distinct images rearranged in whatever hocus pocus is happening. So every time I rocked up to a 3DS to play it, and this is similar to my 3D cinema experience, it feels like someone it tearing my right eye ball out. It gets there eventually, but it never really settles. In the case of 3D cinema I can take it or leave it, as far as I am concerned the brain flattens the image whilst its watching it, since its just a paralax illusion, then your brain recalls it in 3D anyways, as it does for 2D presentations.

So right off the bat there is a problem with my brain, eyes, or whatever. I am looking at the games, trying to see the point of the 3D... because its not 3D its an illusion, so its nothing that a 2D screen isn't showing you, or nothing at least your brain can't guess. I've been trained on games that are 3D or have 3 Dimensional graphics for decades... so I rarely have difficulty understanding depth and position within a 3 dimensional space... I can't quite, with the games I've seen, quite see the point. Playing with the 3D on or off made no mechanical difference to the game.

Alot of the games are just lazy ports. Or just ports. Pilotwings, say, I've played, the 3D itself held nothing for me, added nothing, and made no gameplay differences. One of the other aspects is that you can't, or I can't, flick between looking at the 3D screen and the touch screen, it requires a refocus and general effort. You are totally zoned in on the top screen, you totally forget there is a bottom one, and that you can interact with it... this is going to be an issue.

The AR games are basically completely incompatible with the "sweet spot" of the 3D and the games themselves, the 3d animations ontop of the AR card was impressive. There were also "camera" games that are nothing that camera enabled mobile phones have been able to do for years, although the 3DS versions were very very well executed... there isn't much gameplay potential in either.

To sum up, and if you have read any of this congratulations. The physical device is amazing. The game potential not very good. The use of 3D, at this stage, holds nothing for me. In terms of traditional user inputs the games we will see are going to be N64 games, i.e. analog control, 2 shoulder, a collection of face buttons. The gyro stuff could be cool, but it kinda counter to the 3D sweet spot.

I won't be rushing out to get one, and I'll wait till the shop appears in May to see if more interesting experimental titles are waiting in the wings.

The biggest impression I got was that somehow Nintendo manage to match expectations, its almost guaranteed to be as good as you think it should be. It really did match my expectations as a physical device and so on, the game, that part of the execution was a little bland.

You seem to have become more negative as the week has drawn on! I didn't have any of the problems with 3D you had, I wonder how people do with it generally. A gammy eye isn't going to help I guess, but I'd read elsewhere people with unbalanced sight having no trouble.

One more thing I remembered - I think it uses the same charger as the DSi, not sure if that was confirmed? It looked the same to me, so I guess that makes things easier for importers.

... if only they weren't £300 on import

Well, I've been thinking, as I have a commute at the moment. It distills down to this.

I can't think of any new games on offer at launch. Maybe Steel Diver, but no really new game types. Sure the DS had a clutch of N64 ports and game that would've worked on a PC, but super well executed Nintendozone type efforts.

And the 3D isn't offering anything "new" to games, that I can see at the moment. Just an enhancement, but only the same kind of enhancement from SD to ED to HD. I'm not sure how much the "depth" adds to games and a concept, just enhances the experience. The fact that you can turn it off, the fact that it is optional from Nintendo tells you how much it will be involved in games, or how much it can be involved in game.

So then it boils down to the input controls... and that gets you an N64 with a touch screen, as the DS was a SNES with a touch screen. And again, the fact that Nintendo literally releasing N64 ports tells you what's going on there.

I'm sure some good new games will appear eventually. At the moment its like a PlayStation launch, established franchises and a tiny glimmer of hope.

Yeah, I totally disagree with that.

Essentially my argument is - think of the difference it will make being able to properly judge depth in Pilotwings, and then consider the new options open to puzzle games, platform games, schmups, etc.

I agree there isn't enough of that at launch, and just Steel Diver isn't enough new stuff certainly, but its way more than a simple enhancement if used properly.

Sony have taken that approach - there are no 3D specific games at all, just a lot of tweaked stuff. I think, and hope, Nintendo have some stronger ideas with it.

Sure, I totally understand. I just think the depth isn't actually usable, since its not 3D, its just, as I've tried to wittyly articulate before but failed, extrudeD or Extrude-D or cheese-string-D.

Since you can't see the front of the object you are navigating through the 3 dimensional space, the perception of depth is merely a placebo. It doesn't do anything more than a well place shadow can achieved in a traditional display, since most brains work in a 3 dimensional universe at the best of times.

It also drastically limits game to "over the shoulder" games, like how they've tried to update Street Fighter IV with the forced but optional skewed camera angle.

I've not doubt something like Paper Mario will be good to look at, but the mechanics won't change, they can't.

I guess its like going from Gameboy to Gameboy Advance, Zelda didn't really change it just looked nicer.

I think you have this totally wrong.

The images are generated on the fly, you can see the front of an object if the game lets you. The window through which you view the game world is fixed, thats all.

It is true dynamically generated stereoscopic 3D, through a fixed viewing frame.

Think outside of the box man! But within the confines of that window.

I'm happy to be proved wrong. But nothing in the lineup, for a 3D console, that actually demonstrates the gameplay potential of 3D. I think they've snookered themselves by having the 3D slider, its optionality means it can't be used even if it did have any gameplay potential, which has yet to be proved.

I never played Pilotwing 64 and thought, I can't judge the distances, the design of the game was good enough to solve any issues there might have been, and playing Pilotwings Resort in 3D didn't seem any different.

Doesn't stop the 3DS from being a stellar device, I'm keeping an eye on the eShop and you can't say no to portable Ocarina and StarFox 64 forever.

Sorry catching up on all of this, but had to post this before I forgot.

Now that game would be really interesting! Sorry in a pedant mode today

It doesn't actually matter does it?! I think I understand how the tech works and I get where Jibber is coming from. The inability to see round an object by adjusting your viewing angle does limit the potential for new gameplay, but then I don't see this as the objective. What we're looking at here is a gameplay enhancement. With current 2D/3D your perception of depth comes from an understanding of an objects size or by positioning the object on a plane with a drop shadow. The 3DS effectively breaks those requirements. Think Space Giraffe without the web. Totally possible with real depth information.

Deal or Alive: Dimensions has a 3D photo mode.

With hermaphrodite or androgyny?

There has to be some Magic to be Felt.