3DS Color and Limited Edition News

Sine Mora

According to the PR Elfs over at Nintendo, the 3DS system will be available on 27 March in either Cosmo Black or Aqua Blue, and will have a suggested retail price of $249.99 US. Pricing outside the United States will be established by the local markets, but are supposed to offer similar consumer value, so just take the US price and convert it into whatever you use for money where you are to figure that out then, right?

The bigger news here is that Nintendo has started to introduce the 3DS as a portable entertainment device rather than as a hand-held game system – emphasizing that it is 3D without the need for special glasses.

Microsoft's Steve Balmer recently made a point of the fact that the XBox 360 is not a game console but an Entertainment Center when he gave an interview to the McNewspaper USA Today, and over here at Gaming Update we are seeing a trend developing.

It cannot be long before the Nintendo 3DS has streaming cell and web-based media, and you will be able to watch TV and movies in 3D without glasses, because hey, it is an Entertainment System mate! Well, we hope so anyway.

Limited Editions in the Works

The limit of two launch colors is not really an unusual choice for the Japanese game maker -- when they originally launched the Game Boy it came in only one color -- basic gray -- but following versions began to color-up our gaming world, and the two launch colors -- Cosmo Black and Aqua Blue -- will soon be joined by more traditional color options like Red, Yellow, Pink and Green.

More significant is the news that a Limited Edition version is already in the works!

The Limited Edition Nintendo 3DS celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the GBA is set to release later in the year in Japan -- no official word yet on whether North America or Europe will get in on this Limited Edition Love, but we can hope.

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Game Boy Advanced recognizes the unique changes to portable gaming that the device represented, but according to the Nintendo Spokesperson that is just the tip of the iceberg.

While they would not speak on the record about the rumor of an upcoming limited-number special release, we were able to verify independently that a branded limited-run edition of the device will be created as a special order for web search giant Google, opening up the possibility that Nintendo is softening its stance on custom casing for their hand-held game devices.


About that Nintendo 3DS Thingy

We actually got to briefly hold and play with one of the things when we were at the 2011 CES, and what Nintendo says about the 3DS is mostly true! If you are unfamiliar with the device, it is basically the DSi but you know, with bionic parts and AI built into it that can pick the winner in any horse race. OK, not really, but still, it is a lot like the DSi with some differences.

The 3DS includes two screens -- the bottom touch screen makes use of a telescoping stylus that is stored in the unit itself -- while the top screen displays 3D visuals to the naked eye. Looking at the screen is like peering through a window into a world where characters and objects have true depth, and the system also has a 3D Depth Slider that lets gamers select the level of 3D they enjoy the most.

The 3D effect can be ratcheted up to the highest level or scaled back to a more moderate setting, or even turned off completely, depending on the preference of the user. In addition to the familiar + Control Pad and button controls found on previous Nintendo hand-helds, the 3DS now includes a joystick-like Circle Pad, which provides a full 360 degrees of direction, giving it the freedom and precision needed to play games in 3D worlds. It brings the same degree of responsiveness that gamers enjoyed when Nintendo introduced an analog control stick to navigate Mario through Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 system if that obviously product-plugging example helps you to visualize it?

There is a lot more to this device -- and we will be bringing you all of the details when our review unit arrives -- so until then, be happy that March is rapidly approaching, and soon you too will be able to say "3DS, yeah, I 3DS!"