Peripheral Vision

Hey, have you ever heard for the Nintendo 3DS? No, me neither, but stick with me, because I’ve got some important things to say regarding how companies adapt to consumer demand. Now I don’t own a Nintendo 3DS, and I don’t really have the urge to buy one. Maybe if I had more disposable income (ie an income) I could be persuaded, but until that time I’m afraid my opinions are going to be one of a guy with no hands-on experience. Deal with it.

The Nintendo 3DS was released in early 2011 as the successor to the Nintendo DSi, advancements included greater screen resolution, 32-bit colour, two extra cameras, RAM and processor upgrades and a screen capable of displaying games in 3D without glasses. It also included a built in analogue stick, dubbed the “Circle Pad.” Now as you’re all probably aware, analogue sticks are a big deal, so much so that the first Playstation ended up re-releasing their controller, with two analogue sticks attached, in order to better play the games being developed for the system, which were now taking place in three dimensions. Nintendo also hedged their bets with the N64, including both an analogue stick and traditional direction buttons in order to successfully straddle the jump between two dimensional platformers and three dimensional adventure games. These little devices mean a character is not limited to 8 directional inputs, but can roam around in all that 360 degree goodness. Yummy yummy goodness.

Analogue sticks, therefore, have been a part of home console gaming, and to a degree PC gaming (I’ll give you half points since a mouse is indeed an analogue input), and since handheld consoles are now reaching the power needed to make the jump into the third dimension, the virtues of having a Circle Pad on the 3DS are all very clear. This, however, is where logic and reason end in the world of business, since the PS Vita, the main rival of the 3DS, has two circle pads. Yeah you read it, two. That’s like... 720 degree goodness. Yummy yummy goodness.It makes sense in a way, if you’re used to using two analogue sticks, one for movement and one for looking around, then jumping to using an analogue stick... and a touch screen, is just a bit cumbersome and quite frankly a bit uncomfortable after a while. I owned one of the very first versions of the DS back in the day, and I know they’ve come a long way, but playing an FPS with the touch screen was just far too difficult to be enjoyable.

So what did Nintendo do about this? Did they pull a Sony, panic, and release a new version of the DS like with the original Playstation? Nope, they panicked, and did what seems to be a growing trend in mobile gaming, they released a peripheral. The Circle Pad Pro was born!

Mummy?

Now, here’s a quick lesson in mobile gaming. When I’m on the go, I want to be carrying as little as possible, (It’s why handheld consoles are losing out to mobile phones) and when I’m at home, I don’t want to play a fucking handheld console. There is absolutely no time or play I would even need or want to use this thing! It’s bulky, it lop-sided, and it looks about as uncomfortable as the problem it’s trying to solve. However, all credit to Nintendo, they saw a problem, and they responded to their consumer-base with a solution that wouldn’t cost them a whole new system. This should have been where the story ends.

So when Nintendo announced a redesign of the 3DS, called the 3DS XL, they made sure the second Circle Pad was built into the system, right? Wrong! The 3DS XL released with the same single Circle Pad. The worst part, since they changed the form factor of the 3DS XL, the original Circle Pad Pro wasn’t compatible! You had to buy an even bigger peripheral called, you guessed it, the Circle Pad Pro XL. Where... do I even begin to explain how fucking stupid this is! How difficult, really would it have been to include a second circle pad into the 3DS XL, I mean you’re making the whole thing bigger for fucks sake, surely you’ve got some extra space up in there! Paying a bit extra for a fix or an upgrade, yeah that’s fair, but then having to do the same for the supposed redesign, there’s a line somewhere that’s been crossed I feel.

You gotta be kidding me...

Now don’t get me wrong, I like peripherals, a steering wheel, or a plastic guitar can enhance a game, but with mobile gaming, the whole point is streamlined, on the go, and as bare-bones as possible. This, I’m afraid is none of those things. If you want to have two analogue sticks, just put them on the fucking console! Like I said, peripherals can enhance a game, but when you’re mucking people around, you’re sacrificing the core experience and very purpose of your own system. If you want my advice Nintendo, just make the DS Phone already... and put two fucking circle pads on it so we don’t have to go through all this!

Jamie out xoxoxo