Innovating in video games once again, Nintendo will roll out a portable gaming device with full 3-D features — and without the need for special glasses — on March 27. The Nintendo 3DS will sell for $250 in Cosmo Black or Aqua Blue.
Nintendo 3DS includes two screens. The bottom touchscreen uses a telescoping stylus stored within the unit. The top screen displays 3-D visuals to the naked eye. Nintendo compared looking at the screen to peering through a window into a world where characters and objects have true depth.
The system also has a 3D Depth Slider that lets players select the level of 3-D they enjoy the most. The 3-D effect can be ratcheted up to the highest level, scaled back to a more moderate setting, or even turned off completely, depending on the user’s preference.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime is understandably bullish on the innovation, especially since his company is the first to market with a 3-D handheld gaming device. “Nintendo 3DS is a category of one — the experience simply doesn’t exist anywhere else,” he said. “You have to see Nintendo 3DS to believe it. And it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
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The Nintendo 3DS offers the same familiar control pad and buttons found in previous models, but adds what Nintendo calls a Circle Pad. The Circle Pad offers a full 360 degrees of direction designed for greater precision in a 3-D gaming world. Nintendo likened the addition to the control stick it introduced to navigate Mario on the Nintendo 64 gaming system.
Nintendo said a built-in motion sensor and gyro sensor can react to the motion and tilt of the system, so whether players are twisting their systems side to side or moving them up and down, motion-compatible Nintendo 3DS games respond in near…