Noct

@clarke0 said:

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                I'm going to wait until the second design is released to buy a 3DS. That is if I decide to get one.On a positive note though, the DS looked about as promising until a year after release, and it ended up being my favorite platform of this generation.
            "

Probably a wise move. I'd wager that a redesign won't happen for a while, but when it does, I'm sure they will iron a lot of these quirks out. And I couldn't agree more about DS. I had zero interest in them until was given a DSL last year, and it has taken over my life.

@LooseChange

said:

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                I finally played with one at my Best Buy and for me, holy crap it totally works. Too bad for me personally it hurts my fucking eyes after only maybe 2 minutes playing Pilot Wings which is too bad cause I'd really like to have one =( my eyes suck.
            "

I'm sure this varies from person to person, but it truly became totally unnoticable to me after a day or two. The first few hours my eyes were very strained; not painful, but very tired. It felt like I'd been awake for too long or something. I don't feel it at all now though.

 @InertiaticESP said:

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                Nice writeup, those are def. things that the average consumer would NOT consider prior to making such a purchase.

@BlueDuck Just because something is a known flaw doesn't make it not a flaw. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who considers one screen scratching another a "design choice".

I'm glad I read this, I was pretty interested in picking up a 3DS with my leftover tax return money, but after reading this, it's pretty clear that early adopters are yet again getting screwed, and that I should wait for the inevitable redesign. I mean 3 hours battery life? That's crap. That's not worth 3D gaming. 3D Gaming doesn't even let you see any more than you would playing regular games, and I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of developers continue to develop for the original DS.

Not that I own an original DS, but I really thought I would join N's camp with the 3DS. Guess not. I totally get what you mean when you compare it to the Wii. The Wii is a cool idea and I enjoy a lot of games on the system, however most of the games I enjoy most would be best played with a traditional controller.

 

            "

Well, this was just my experienece with it, and I've read a lot of stories from other people who haven't had any trouble at all... I don't doubt for one minute that the original (used) one I bought wasnt treated very well by its previous owner, but even still, how long could they possibly have owned it? Maybe 3 weeks? That seems like an awful short time-frame for that much of the hardware to already be failing. Especially since N is trying to sell this thing as a unit you should always be carrying around with you in sleep mode. They show commercials with people tossing them ina backpack and getting on the subway. I wouldn't recommend that in the least bit...

As far as the 3D goes, it doesn't "add" anything to the games really, but it is very cool tech, there is no doubt about that. I still get a kick out of the 3D, and once somebody makes some decent software for the thing, it will probably be very damn cool.

Could not agree more with you about the Wii though. I just sat here trying to come up with a game that I thought benefitted from the motion controls, and the only one I could think of was WiiSports. I enjoy using it for shooters (with the WiiZapper), but pretty much every other use of it I've seen was just more trouble then it was worth.

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                Spot on, i totally agree with those points as a 3DS owner, the 3d slider moving down and up is a concern of mine, it seems like the grip may give out and not stay where its set to
also as you say SSF4 3D is a great game, but its SSF4...and i also have played the crap out of it

that being said i have high hopes for the system and look forward to new releases (my main reasoning behind the purchase was to play a backlog of many DS games which i never played)

            "

Oh absolutely man, while the hardware design does worry me, the upcoming releases for it are looking really, really good. I'm personally looking most forward to Resident Evil and DOA at the moment. Once N gets its stuff in there I think people are really going to start buying these things. MarioKart, Super Mario Bros, Kid Icarus, Zelda... So much great stuff on the way.

Couldn't agree more about SSF4 either. Other then showing it to some buddies, I have not turned that game on once since last week. I've been playing a little 3D Lego Star Wars here and there, but most of my time spent playing the 3DS has been playing the built in stuff and old DS games.

 @Vegsen said:

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                Finally got to test one out at a GameStop a few days ago. The 3D effect work very well it really does but the screen felt very small to me. Hope they've come up with a way to make a XL version 'cause I'd totally buy that. As for the current 3DS...mjeh I'll wait. They haven't released THAT many games yet(games that make the console worth buying that is).
            "

That's interesting; I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I take it you have or have played a DSXL? Cuz prior to this I was playing on DSLite, and this screen definately does not feel small to me...

I just have to chime in to agree with you 100%. It's hands down the single best story mode in any fighting game, ever. I just can't say enough good things about the game. I honestly dont remember the last time I smiled this much playing something. The way they tied all the bizarre MK mythos into a cohesive story was brilliant, and getting to see the characters origins outside of a text field was worth the price of admission alone. I don't want to give anything away to anyone, so I'll be vague, but I can't even count how many times a guy would walk on screen that looked wierdly familiar to me, and then I'd realize he was X, they just hadn't set him on fire or ripped off his arms yet, etc.. Heh, and then they'd show that...

They just did such an outstanding job on the story, this is true fan service at its best. I bow to Boon.

I primarily play fighting games SP; you're not alone out there. I've had some stints with playing online, but I get so frusterated with the disconnections and constant verbal abuse that I just tire of it.

I have friends who will play a match or two with me on occasion locally, but as they don't own the games themselves typically, they get frusterated pretty fast and we move on to something else.

Anyways, point being, I buy every fighting game out there, I'm a fanatical fan, and this one will be holding my interest for al ong time to come, I can promise you that. I loved MvsC3, but I've already stopped playing it, I bought a 3DS just to play SSF4 in 3D, and that started to bore me after about one night, but I've put in about 20 hours on MK in the past two days, and I'm watching the clock at work so I can go home and bow to it some more.

Simply put, if you like fighters, and have any interest in MK, it's a definate purchase in my humble opinion. It's exploding at the seams with content, and has so many different variations on how to play that it will take you a long, long time to get bored. I don't want to give anything away, but there are modes uch as Test your luck that toss a bunch of random Kombat Kodes and such at you and the results are hyterical and a blast to play, AI or not.

I say buy it, you will not be sorry. it's easily in the top 5 fighting games ever made from my perspective, and I'm calling it GOTY as far as I'm concerned. (At least, so far.)

Anyone who could complain about the story mode is either off thier rocker or just not that big of an MK fan... I'm not trying to be dramatic by saying this, but this is hands down the single best story mode in any fighting game, ever.

And ineedaname is absolutely right about the arcade mode; if the reviewer didn't want to watch cut-scenes, why the heck play through the Story? I mean, I realize a reviewer "has to", but your everyday joe certainly doesn't, so they should make that clear in the review.

The way they tied together all the story lines, let you see the origins of the characters, and make dozens of little inside jokes and nods to previous games was just brilliant. I simply do not remember the last time I smiled so much playing a game.

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                   it does get easier with each retry apparently
                    

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Ah Ha! Are you sure of this? Like, have you read it confirmed somewhere? Because I had a sneaking suspician that was what was going on. The first few times I fought Kintaro in Story mode he pummled the living crap out of me, then all of the sudden I was getting near flawless victories against him, and it's not like I really varied my play style that much...

Heh as far as the OP goes, too funny... I personally like it precisely because it reminds me of endurance matches and makes me vary up my play style a bit, but my wife was sitting on the couch half-watching me and when one of those fights came up she was like, "What kind of crap is this? They get too health bars and you only get one?" Heh, it made me laugh.

The best way I found to deal with the particularly hard ones is to just eat the first round toying around with them and filling up my special bar so I can unleash powered attacks or Xray moves at the beginning of round two.

I think there is definately an ebb and flow to it, especially as you get into college and beyond, meet your spouse, get into your career, etc...

 I was a die-hard 8+ hour-a-day gamer for most of my teen age years, had spurts of unemployed early twenties where I would play for 16-20 hours at a time, and fell back off to maybe an hour or two a day during my later twenties as I went out drinking and such. 

 During college I would have little bursts of game time with other dudes I met there (lan-partys and such), but I was so busy with working, internships and school-work that I didn't have much free time for it.

 But I can happily say now that I'm fully settled down, married, have a job in my field, etc, that I'm a totally obsessive gamer again. I probably put in 3 or 4 hours a day on most weekdays now unless we've got something going on, and that number will go up exponentially when something really exciting (to me) comes out. Case in point, the new Mortal Kombat, which has kept me from getting more then 5 hours of sleep since sunday night.

 You passion for it will probably come back, it's just one of those things that needs to fit into your life.

" Other than battery life (which is indeed a problem, but not one that can't be worked around IMO) I haven't experienced the problems you've mentioned, like the grooves on the top screen (smudges, yes. The edge of the touch screen seems to collect fingerprints and then transfer that muck to the top screen when closed) or a loose 3D slider... I've probably spent 50+ hours with the system (mostly reviewing sub-par launch titles, but also greatly enjoying Ghost Recon). I wonder if the owner of the pre-owned system before you just treated theirs crappily. "

"Both of those things were common knowledge weeks before launch and you say yourself you were aware of them yet you still went out and bought one. My point is that you knew about these problems and still rushed to buy one so your complaints come out as hallow because they clearly didn't effect your decision. You do the same sort of thing when you say that SSF4 was the reason you bought your 3DS but then later you criticize it by saying you already played this game to death.   "

Hah, dang you guys are caustic... I didn't expect to be so harshly critiqued on posting my thoughts about the purchase... I'm a software developer, not a professional writer/reviewer. =P

@GunslingerPanda said:

"Erm... Turn the fucking thing down before your eyes start crawling out of your head. God I hope you're not playing Pilotwings - your eyes are gonna be fucked.

Decent write up. 5/10, would have scored higher if you hadn't made complaints against the system that were your own fault for buying a used one.

            "

Well, I (dumbly I guess) assumed that GameStop wouldn't take damaged hardware in and resell it... I don't know why I continue to give that place the benefit of the doubt... Especially since they only discounted the thing $20 or so. To be honest, the only reason I even bought it used was that they had just sent me a coupon for my birfday for a discount on used merch.