As a person who recently purchased a 3DS, I am not at all upset by the announcement of the larger screened system. I'm actually pretty excited for it. Several people I talked to about the XL, were already calling it stupid for being a huge version of a portable system, but the way I look at it, is that it's like TransFARing. In that I can put Animal crossing in on my XL, but then put it in my smaller 3DS when I have to leave. That of course would be the ideal situation, but I never find myself in a situation where I need portable games to be portable. Especially on the 3DS. Usually when playing a "Portable" game, I'm just watching TV, or waiting for everyone I'm with to get ready to leave. I never actually end up playing any games when I'm out of the house. It's too much of a hassle to carry even the smallest systems.The idea of having a bigger screen, with the circle-pad being further away from the L-Button, sound amazing. Playing through Mario and Zelda on the regular 3DS was fine, but when sitting on my couch, it felt a little too small for me.

I'm probably going to get a 3DS XL along with New Super Mario Bros 2. And I plan on keeping my old 3DS, I'll probably let a cheap friend borrow it. But yeah, what do you think about the XL? Is it cool? Is it just a stupid thing that makes the Circle-pad pro useless? Or is it both?

One of the reasons I thought Vita is better because it has bigger screen. Even PSP has a bigger screen than 3DS, making it better. The 3DS XL (with 90 percent larger screens) is very, very nice in my book. It also makes it better for games/apps that use touchscreen.

However, hopefully the top screen doesn't make the system harder to hold, and doesn't wobble too much when you move it. I haven't used DSi XL, but with my DSi, the game made me mash the button as fast as I could at one part, during which the top half of the DSi actually snapped to a different position because of the shaking. I thought that was kind of a "fail" moment.

3DS XL? FML.

I have no issue with my 3DS. The battery life is a little annoying at times, but I have no reason to not like it apart from the lack of games. Wont be getting a XL, they haven't added anything super vital to it so am good for now...

I want it because it looks huge and that is appealing to me. I'm not one to put handhelds in my pockets as I put them in cases instead, so the portability factor is a non-issue for me. As long as the game's don't look crap and the touch screen remains usable even while the XL keeps the same 3DS resolution, I'll get it.

@FluxWaveZ: Yeah, I've found that if I ever take my handheld with me, it's in a backpack or bag of some sort. I did read that the resolution looks kind of weird, but is overall not a huge issue. And that the 3D apparently works better for some people, since it's just bigger, and the shaders or whatever are farther apart. I don't know, that might just be someone talking out of their ass, but since I know absolutely nothing about how 3D really works, it sounds legit to me.

Being used to the normal DS XL I could never go back to small screen such as the original 3DS screen but this XL model looks really really neat.

I went from a DSi XL to a normal 3DS with no major problems - I get a headache from the 3D if I play for too long so having that on a larger screen would probably just be a nightmare.

I'll be sticking to my Zelda 3DS - it's just too shiny to give up.

Well, you apparently have the money to by two 3DS's. Some of us don't. Granted, I don't have a 3DS at all, so I don't have much of an issue with this, but I imagine that someone who went out and bought a 3DS a week ago after saving up for a few months for it is kind of annoyed right now. I might feel sorry for those people if this wasn't without precedent, but it was about time for the big N to do a handheld hardware revision anyway.

The only real thing I find odd with this is that Nintendo did not include a second circle pad with this. Now that would have been good cause to get pissed. EDIT: Speaking of circle pads, are they going to roll out a new Circle Pad Pro or are they just going to pretend like it was never something that some games need?

EDIT 2: Also, if I were to get a 3DS it would probably be the XL.

5 intch 3d screen with better bettery life sounds good. I pretty much never play my 3ds tho to many console games i rather get for the money. 40$ it just to much for a hand held game imo.

@banishedsoul1: I very much agree. I felt $30 was the perfect price. Though with consoles games being $10 more than they used to, it only makes sense that these would cost $10 more.

Question

Wouldn't a larger screen just mean that games designed for the 3DS would be less clear when played on the XL?

Anyway, still haven't bought a 3DS due to lack of funds. Will probably still go for the original anyway, unless they release one with two thumb-sticks. I think the look of the original is sleeker than that of the XL.

@SlapHappyJesus: They'll probably look a little jaggier, unless they do some minor up-scaling. Which is definitely possible, but I haven't been able to find any evidence either way. The fact that we're not seeing any live gameplay with it, kind of gives me a PSP Go vibe, where they don't tell you something big about the system, like inability to import UMDs or games looking like absolute shit, until the last moment possible, so all the kids who pre-ordered will be set in their minds that they're buying it. Hopefully even without up-scaling, games don't look god-awful, but that's within reasonable suspicion.

Fucking circle pad pro compatibility.

@SlapHappyJesus: @Aarownd: From what I understand the resolution is the same, it's just the screen is larger. That is to say, larger pixels. Let me know if I've got that all upside down, but I'm pretty sure that's how it is. So that means no up-scalling, because there's no extra pixels to push the image out to. I guess this means DS games with their low resolution will look pretty bad now, unless you do the 1:1 thing on load up, which will leave you with borders that are technically the same size in pixel numbers, but in reality will appear larger.

I might actually get a 3DSXL, mainly due to the larger screen size, improved battery life, and refined design. In my opinion the XL has fixed most of the design flaws inherent in the 3DS: Matte surface, rounded edges, better placement of the headphone jack, better placement of the stylus, etc. I'm sure the bigger screen size will be really nice too!

Seeing as how developers won't go out of their way to develop for a bigger screen, I say no thank you.

Anyone who owns a DSi XL: what is your opinion on the larger screen? Does it make the games look shittier, or is it still a decent experience?

I'm still waiting for a system selling game. I almost bought a 3DS a month ago, but I just couldn't find a game I wanted to play with it. If I eventually do find a game, I'll be glad there's a larger screen out there. Too bad there's not a second analog pad though.

A lot of positive opinions on the 3DS XL.

@FluxWaveZ: Yeah, I saw those earlier today. Put to rest all of my worries about it. Definitely trading in my old 3DS.