Wishbone: Be aware that most people go "ooh" and "ahh" at the 3D effect for about half an hour, then switch it off and never turn it on again, because it's bloody annoying. So as central platform features go, it's not something most people feel happy they paid for.

AacRrc: The battery life is only lousy if you play it with max 3D and brightness and sound blasting, I can get a good 6 hours off of mine without much and it works just fine with1 analog nub.

Wishbone: It's not that 3D in itself is annoying. It's the specific 3D effect implemented in the 3DS that's annoying.

And what I described has been the reaction of pretty much everyone I know who's bought a 3DS. Also, I don't think it's a complete coincidence that they suddenly dropped the price of the 3DS a lot.

SirPrimalform: What's annoying about the specific effect?

Wishbone: 1. The way it's made means that you have to hold the console at a specific distance and angle from your eyes. This strains your arms, hands and wrists, because you can't really change position. One could argue that this goes against the whole point of a handheld.

Wishbone: 2. It's a small screen which doesn't take up a lot of your field of view. This means that the edges of the screen (where the 3D effect breaks down, because of the way the two images overlap) is in the part of your FOV which is "in focus", so to speak. For some people, this puts a strain on their eyes and gives them a headache after a while.

SirPrimalform: But the 3D "breaking down" at the edges is only unnatural with pop-out 3D. As long as it's pop-in (which every game I have played so far is) then the effect you get is the same as looking through a window (providing you have two working eyes).

When you look through a window, your right eye can see slightly further to the left and your left eye can see slightly further to the right. This is exactly what you get at the edge of the 3DS screen so I'm not sure how it's in any way unnatural. I guess for those people, looking at a small window would also make their eyes hurt (fair enough again).

SimonG: I've just ordered it. 150€ for a new console, you really can't complain about that price.

Together with OoT and the Ghost Recon Game (which only cost 30€ and 20€).

Thanks for the input everyone!

Fifeldor: I wanted to get a 3DS simply to enjoy Pokemon, Mario and Zelda games but orcishgamer talked me out of it and proposed a DS Lite, simply because Pokemon games play in a DS Lite as well, and it also has backwards compatibility. I ordered it on Saturday along with Pokemon Platinum and Chrono Trigger. :-D

SimonG: So, my 3DS has arrived and I've given it a few runs with Zelda and Ghost Recon (and the assorted demos).

I must say, I'm impressed. I've never used or seen 3d technology before and the 3DS is pulling it of flawlessly. My biggest surprise however was the "motion control". Holy crap, that is awesome. You actually aim in Zelda by pointing the console, and so far I'm not yet tired of it.

Zelda is as great as it ever was, and it looks a lot more beautiful now. It isn't just a simple port, they redid a lot of the characters and textures. It looks even more impressive in 3d. But, apart from the cutscenes or low intensity gameplay, I switched it off because I kept my DS moving to much and it interfered with the screen.

Ghost recon is a nice little tactic game. Surprising amount of content, to say the least. It is fun and because of the tactic focus I can play it in full 3d.

But what really took my socks of was the MGS 3 demo. Holy crap, that game uses 3d in perfection. I'll try the Resident Evil demo later, I wonder how that will be.

My biggest gripe so far are my big hands. The console is a tad to small for my tastes. But I've already ordered the circle pad pro, which hopefully helps with this.

All in all I'm happy with the purchase, not only because I will finally be able to play Zelda OoT and MGS 3 without the help of emulator, but the (3)DS is truly a unique console and I'm looking forward on prolonged hours on the couch with it :-).

Oh, and what is the point of that "docking station"?

SimonG: Oh, and what is the point of that "docking station"?