3DS at PAX Prime 2011

Nintendo had their part of the show

floor littered with the 3DS, so attendees could pick up a system and play some of the titles set to come out later this year. I was able to checkout Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Star Fox 64 3D. Each game looked good in 3D, there aren’t any questions on how these games will look, my concern was how well will these games keep me entertained.

First I played the latest Mario title set to come out for the 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land. I was able to play an underground level that was a classic reinvention from the NES version. The environment was really cool to run around in, the game uses 3D environments and merges them with the style of a 2D side scroller. This was fun because I was actually able to shoot fireballs at the screen and watch them ricochet back into the environment. While this did have classic Mario features, it featured mechanics you will recognize from some of his newer titles such as triple jumping and wall jumping, and since the environments are 3D you can use your abilities to better explore the stage.

From there I jumped over to Mario Kart 7, the first in the series to take a jump over to the 3DS, this game was the most fun of all the 3DS titles available, in my opinion. It was classic kart action, with red and green turtle shells and some mushrooms for boosting your speed. Again the 3D looked pretty good, but I wish the course that was playable showed off a little bit more of the 3D environments, other than that everything looked good.

Finally I had a chance to play Star Fox 64 3D which felt pretty cool, but if you’ve already played this game there was nothing new. Not like you would expect something new from this game since it is a remake from the N64 original. This game did look good compared to the N64 version, it looked a lot cleaner and shooting asteroids looks great in 3D. Everything from the original game looks to be here, from barrel rolls, lasers, and annoying frogs once again telling you what to do. Also, it still looks like no friendly fire.

It was fun getting a chance to spend some time with the 3DS and some of the new titles being put out by Nintendo. I did have one issue with what was available, there wasn’t any major third party titles being shown for the 3DS. This is a shame because there is so much potential on this device and it would be interesting to see what can be done with the 3DS.