Nintendo may not have had an official presence at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, but one of the two new iterations of their handheld system made a sneaky appearance in the impressive Monster Hunter booth. Naturally, we jumped at the chance to check them out.
The New Nintendo 3DS LL — which will most likely be rebranded as New Nintendo 3DS XL outside Japan — feels and looks very similar to the current Nintendo 3DS LL. It is slightly lighter and thinner than the current models but not dramatically so. The 3D effect itself has also been improved and now feels much more solid and boasts a wider view range. That said, this won’t convert anyone who has been turning that 3D slider down for the past several years.
The biggest improvement made to the system is the re-imagining of its buttons, with two new triggers added next to the existing L and R ones, a new C-stick above the old X, Y, B and A buttons and a relocation of the Start and Select buttons from the bottom of the device to the right side of the system. The button placement of Start and Select makes them a lot more functional than they were previously.
A lot of attention has been given to the new right-side control stick of the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL, with many commenting on their similarity to old laptop mouse sticks. Other still can’t help but speculate on the bizarre choice not to simply add another slide pad identical to the one on the left. In reality, though, the new C-stick works remarkably well and is sensitive enough to function with the slightest pressure applied by the player’s thumb even though the stick itself is locked in place.
Despite all of these external improvements, the most important change that should drive sales is inside the device itself. Its new, more powerful CPU has been a long time coming with Pokemon X and Y and Super Smash Bros. being perfect examples of games that had been affected by the current 3DS’ somewhat dated processing power. The latter of which restricts online functionality while playing and even requires a reboot of the entire system after quitting the game on current 3DSes.
Unfortunately, due to the limited nature of the Tokyo Game Show demo, it was impossible to test for any speed in system navigation or overall processing power. More information on the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL — or XL — is likely to be revealed closer to their launch in Japan in just a few weeks.
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