Eyes-On With 3DS At PAX East
This is what I've been waiting for the most at PAX East: getting my hands on Nintendo's latest handheld system. The 3DS is due within the next couple of weeks in America, and the lines to try this baby out are ridiculously long. The last two days I managed to try out three titles on the 3DS system: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and Face Raiders.
Taking Resident Evil to a handheld device hasn't pulled off many good results yet, but with its higher graphics card and better aiming system The Mercenaries 3D is definitely one of the better titles from the Capcom franchise to come out on a portable system. In the demo players have the choice of playing as one of four characters: Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, HUNK, and Jack Krauser. For this try I chose Chris, seeing as he's one of the original characters. You then have the option to choose which weapons you wanted to use. Once that's done the two-minute demo began, in which you blast or slash away those that have been infected. At first it was a little bit tough trying to aim, but after a couple seconds I was going all-out on the "undead" and raising hell. The 3D in this game was more in-depth than eye-popping, however, but it managed to showcase the sort of power that the 3DS is capable of.
The next game I got to try out was Face Raiders, which comes free with the 3DS. Here you take a picture of yourself (or someone you don't like), and then your face becomes a target that tries to kill you at every turn. To fend them off you literally have to look around the room with the other camera set up on the 3DS, and fire whenever they get in range. The 3D I saw with this game shot out right at me, and the zaniness of this game had me in stitches. I just can't help but picture someone on a train playing this game, how silly it will look with them spinning around to try and find his/her targets. Still Face Raiders has a lot of crazy fun to behold those who buy the 3DS at the end of the month.
Finally it was time to play Kid Icarus: Uprising. Since being announced at E3 this year I have been so excited to see Pit's return in his own game. The demo had two abridged levels to try out, both with flying and ground sections, and the 3D imagery was beyond what I was looking for in a Kid Icarus game. I found that aiming while flying was fairly easy, especially when those flying cyclops creatures are coming right at you, and flying itself was a breeze while trying to avoid hinderances. However these are the only two parts of the control scheme that I found likable.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the weapon button right above the control stick should seek employment elsewhere. After two minutes of shooting and running with the same hand my thumb and index finger began to cramp up like crazy. Plus doing all that while using the stylus to aim was a major pain. Did the developers think about how someone will be able hold the 3DS while using both hands for these various tasks? There's no easy way to do it! As this game is not set to be released until later this year I really suggest that the folks at Project Sora rework the control system to make it easier to move, shoot and aim while holding the 3DS in your hands. Otherwise there will be a lot of disappointed gamers, not to mention critics.
After finally getting hands-on with the 3DS I can somewhat see why people are going crazy for the new system, and while the 3D is more in-depth than in your face it's clear that Nintendo made sure that no corners were cut in order to create it. From what I saw you can expect many gamers and newcomers to really jump onto the 3DS bandwagon, and when March 27 arrives you can count on high sale numbers and many happy players gaming out to Nintendo's latest innovation.
