NintendoEverything 3DS Hardware Review
In addition to the built in games, the 3DS also has a slew of other things built into it to keep you busy. Firstly, it allows you to listen to music via the 2GB SD card it comes with, making it possible for your 3DS to replace your iPod. The only problem is that you need to make artist folders yourself if you want any sort of organization to the music, whereas the iPod will automatically organize your music. However, it does allow for on-the-fly music editing, including layering effects on songs and playing with the speed/pitch, but ultimately this isn’t anything more than a silly novelty that’s fun every once in a while.
The 3DS also comes equipped with an internal camera (one that points at you) and two external cameras (ones that point away from you), and while the resolution isn’t all that great, the fact that there are two cameras on the outside means you can take 3D photos, and in the future, 3D video, though this latter functionality hasn’t been included yet. There are a slew of image editing filters such as black/white, negative, sepia, and more, as well as various things you can do to the images after you have taken them, such as draw all over them.
Similar to the Wii, the 3DS has a Mii-creation feature, which is the ability to make a little character of your likeness to be used in games/activities all across the console. While it remains essentially the same as the Wii version, there is one distinct difference in that you can take a picture of your face and then have the system make a Mii for you based off of that image. It’s a very cool little piece of tech that works relatively well, despite the fact that you still need to choose your own gender, hair color, hairstyle, and eye color.
One of the less prominent features of the 3DS is the fact that, also like the Wii, it has what it refers to as the activity log that keeps track of how much you’ve played specific games, when you played them, how many steps you’ve taken throughout the day (via the built in pedometer) and when you took those steps. This feature is not a mindblowing piece of technology, but overall it really just shows how much depth the system itself has without even needing to buy software. It will keep you busy for hours just in and of itself.
The last really cool feature the 3DS has in store (as if this wasn’t already enough) is the new online functionality of the system. When the Wii came out, people complained because of the complicated “friend codes” that each game had. This meant that every single game required you to memorize a twelve-digit code if you wanted to play online with your friends, and now it seems that Nintendo has realized how obnoxious that was, and they’ve fixed it. With the 3DS, you have ONE twelve-digit code to remember, and once you’re connected to someone with this code, you’re connected for every game you’ll ever want to play. In addition, putting in these codes gives you a “Friends List” which displays all your friends, whether or not they’re online, what they’re playing, what their favorite game is, and when they were last online. It’s a massive step up from the Wii’s online functionality, and essentially covers all the bases for what we need in online play.
