The love is over - my sort of review of the 3DS and why (I think) it's a failure

I didn't get a 3DS at launch. I was skeptical at first, but after playing demos of SFIV and Dynasty Warriors, I decided I had to have one.

So was it worth it? Could the 3DS be the next best portable?

In a word: no.

For people wondering, I decided to wait to write up a review of the 3DS until after the web browser and other main features (like the online download store) were all up and in place, and the machine had a little time to mature.

OK first of all, I'd like to address the machine itself. It's a nice looking slab of plastic with a decent sized top screen, and an oddly smaller bottom screen that feels undersized and strange, but I think that is more of a relic of the low resolution for the touch screen than it's actual size. Button placement is good, and controls are excellent. I have to say I haven't had this easy of a time controlling games on a portable system since the Gameboy Advance SP.

Gaming on the machine is fun, especially games that use a button-heavy mechanic, like Dead or Alive Dimensions or Dynasty Warriors, but games that require precise directional input (Street Fighter) suffer a little from the control pad.

Going online with the machine is also decent. The web browser works, mostly. Shopping in the store is also relatively painless (tho slow). Using the other features of the 3DS - the camera, donloaded TV shows, and other little tidbits and mini-games you get by using AR cards - are all OK at best tho gimmicky at times. For example, the AR games that use the camera to play mini-games that interact with the real world are fun once or twice, but IMO work better as a way to show off the 3DS to friends than to actually do for fun.

But after a day or so of use, you start to notice the 4 main flaws of the system, things that IMO spelled doom right from the start.

1: Battery life. This has been talked at all over online, but I think it's not just the terrible battery of the system that's a problem. It's the charging time. My 3DS gets 3ish hours on a charge, then takes a bit more than that, around 3 1/2 to 4 hours to charge. This is because the charger they use isn't matched to the power of the battery, and is a horrible mistake IMO. Hell, my iPad, which I get days of use out of, takes around the same time to charge.

2: Software support. There just aren't enough games. This has been a problem in the past for some Nintendo systems, and the trend seems to be repeating itself, with many major games even being cancelled. How can you get people to buy (and keep) a machine when you don't give them new games?

3: The size. The 3DS, at 230g, feels heavy. Not uber heavy, but heavy enough to be noticeable. This isn't a big burden, but with the horrendous battery life it doesn't feel justified, especially when compared to newer smartphones that weigh a lot less, or even the PSP which comes in at only 189g.

4: The half-assed feel. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but the 3DS feels kind of like a piece of crap. And this is the one that weirds me out the most, because in the past, Nintendo handhelds all felt sturdy, rugged and durable. The 3DS, however... doesn't. Maybe it's the tri-tone plastic casing, or the thinness in the (unnecessarily large) area around the top screen; the 3Ds just doesn't feel like a high quality product.

And this cheap feel is further exaggerated by some of the half-assed feeling aspects of the system, whether it be the browser (which feels like something you'd find on a PDA from 10 years ago), the store (slow to navigate around and even slower to download from), or the system itself, which always has a long-feeling pause when you start, end, or navigate between games. And I know the cause - the 3DS is using a very slow processor with low memory, compared to the super quick cores being put into new phones.

Maybe the 3DS's recently announced price cut will help sell more units. It also may be a signal that a new, souped up 3DS Lite is in the works. But none of these things changes the machine I have now, and seldom carry with me anymore. Which is too bad, since I really like playing games on it. It's just the battery life and weight make me tend to leave it at home.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'll end this post. Let's just say I really hope Nintendo has something up its sleeve (like say, a firmware update that improves battery life, please!!) that helps out.