A little over a year ago on February 13, 2015, Nintendo released the New 3DS. It was met with choruses of excitement, anger and confusion. I was chuckling to myself about the confused parents trying to get a 3DS for their kid only to play a game of “who’s on first” with the employee. The anger that people expressed over the fact that only the new XL model was coming to North America was a little much. Can’t you see Nintendo of America is only looking out for us? They know our fat American hands and poor eye sight would be improper to manipulate the smaller sized New 3DS. I joke of course, but they’ve since released the smaller version due to the backlash. Or for more money. Either way we got both now.
However, like many people I was skeptical on an upgrade being necessary, so I was fairly set on not getting the system day one. I said to myself “I’ll get one when a Zelda edition comes out”, and any one paying attention would know that they launched with the Majora’s Mask edition New Nintendo 3DS in North America (NA). So I got it…day one…well played Nintendo. I was one of the lucky people that was able to snag the limited edition from a store and not a flipper on EBay. The other question I asked myself was whether games for the regular 3DS hardware would suffer because developers focused on the New 3DS specs and released the game expecting it to run on either system well. The only exception so far is Hyrule Warriors Legends. A pile of trash on the old 3DS, but runs as it should on the New 3DS. I still feel that game will eventually become the rule, not the exception.
While I did enjoy the faster load times on the device, I still felt it to be unnecessary. The only game available for it was Xenoblade Chronicles. While a great game, the better version of the game already existed on the Wii. I thought it was a smart decision to have that game in particular release for the New 3DS. Nintendo figured their most hardcore fans would be the first to pick up the system and also would be the same people that would pick up a game like Xenoblade Chronicles. Then there is also the release fiasco of the original physical copy of Xenoblade for Wii in North America although Nintendo’s habit of creating artificial demand is nothing new to Amiibo collectors. Even with that, the New 3DS was still seen as nothing more than a waste of time and money.
While still only having one exclusive title to its name (I would argue two with the aforementioned Hyrule Warriors Legends). Why now do I think the New 3DS is finally worth getting? It’s when Nintendo announced that the SNES Virtual Console is here, and exclusive to the New 3DS (for handhelds); to quote Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained, “you had my curiosity, now you have my attention.”
This may not be a big deal for many of you out there, but this is something I’ve been waiting for for a while. SNES games were no longer relegated to my Wii U. I could finally take SNES games on the go on a 3DS. Why this wasn’t already a feature for the Old 3DS, I’ll never know, I’m not an engineer. It seemed more than capable, but whatever. Nintendo being Nintendo, of course there is no cross buy. I am a little salty over the fact I have to pay for Earthbound again; not even a discount Nintendo?
Before you say who cares, let’s look at the current SNES releases:
March 3, 2016 (NA)
F-Zero, Pilotwings, Super Mario World
(That’s a start)
March 24, 2016 (NA)
Donkey Kong Country, Earthbound, Super Mario Kart
(Keep going…)
April 14, 2016 (NA)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid
(Take my money)
Classics. The whole lot of them, except maybe Pilotwings, don’t care for it, but the rest: Classics. Hell a few of them are considered by many to be the best of their respective series. Hopefully Nintendo can keep up the pace with good titles coming out for the SNES Virtual Console for the New 3DS, AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE THEM CROSS-BUY WITH THE WII U/NX. EVERYONE IS TIRED OF IT. DO IT ALREADY…but those are my thoughts. What do you all think? Are you excited to play SNES games on the go? Still think the New 3DS is useless? Could care less about the SNES Virtual Console and waiting for a worthy New 3DS exclusive? Let me know in the comments below.
