Support gay marriage

This popped into my head today. Is it right to kill those who oppose gay marriage? Nope - and it isn't right to kill gay marriage either.

My Nintendo 3DS first impressions

Today I finally got my excited little hands on a real Nintendo 3DS demo unit! For you local Los Angelinos, head over to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica - there is a Nintendo 3DS demo booth near Armani Exchange (1100 block). The demo booth will be there every day until April 3rd! Event details

Those who are in the know (me), are aware that the Nintendo 3DS launches this March 27th. A successor to the Nintendo DS, the 3DS has several technical and design improvements including gyroscopic (tilt) controls, larger display, better graphics, and of course 3D without the need for special glasses.

The demo booth had 10 units, each displaying a demo of a game or mini-game/feature. I tried them all briefly, and the following are my impressions.

3D effect:

Wow! I've read about it, I've heard about it, but seeing it in person really was believing. It felt odd to experience seeing a screen in 3D without glasses for the first time, but it also felt slightly natural. The use of 3D will of course vary with each game, but most noticeably it gives games more depth. Think of it less like things popping out of the screen, and more like looking through a window into a 3D world (though I'm sure it does both).

System appearance:

Very nice looking system with a glossy/shiny/almost-sparkly finish. They had both colors - Cosmic Black and Aqua Blue. I personally preferred and have pre-ordered the black, though the blue is very nice and eye-catching. You can adjust the 3D effect from 0% (2D) to 100% (full 3D) with a sliding scale button on the right side.

System functionality:

I didn't have the 3DS in my hands long enough to see much beyond the game demos, and the units were not set up to show the system's user interface outside the games. However, the addition of a circle slide-pad to the controls feels like a great addition.

Street Fighter 4:

Only played a little bit because my Street Fighter skills are rusty and I was getting beat up. This is the first game I played and one of the only two games I have preordered. Looks like classic Street Fighter in 3D! You can also assign special moves to the touch screen instead of trying to remember crazy button combinations like down, down-right, right. Hadouken!

AR Game (Augmented Reality):

I was already expecting to be impressed by this because of what I've read of others' impressions - but it really surpassed my expectations! The AR game they were demonstrating was called Archery. Talking about it won't really do it the justice that playing it does. You basically place a special card on a table, and then aim the 3D camera of the 3DS at the card. The card before your eyes transforms into a target practice game and you need to move around in the real world to shoot at the structure that has grown out of the card. Sounds weird? It is! And awesome!

Asphalt 3D:

A racing game, nicely demonstrated the improved graphics of the 3DS, good 3D racing visuals. I'll wait for Mario Kart 3D though.

Face Raiders (built-in game):

Another cool AR game. Take a picture of a friend - the 3DS transforms this picture into an army of floating heads for you to shoot. The heads attack you from all sides, so enjoy looking like an idiot spinning around shooting holes all over your living room - a grinning, happy idiot.

Pilotwings Resort:

Fly a little plane around Wuhu Island (from Wii Sports Resort) chasing targets. Cute, nice 3D, but I'll wait for Star Fox 3D, thank you.

3D camera:

I wish I had gotten to use this a bit more, but there was a lot of sunlight in this part of the booth which unfortunately made parts of the demo booth a little too bright to really see the screen at it's best. I was only taking 3D pictures of my hand, which is not that interesting, because I felt weird about taking 3D pictures of strangers. I can imagine some funny, and probably weird/gross uses for this!

Steel Diver:

A submarine game. Yawn. I'm sorry, submarines are boring and make me sleepy. Moving on.

Madden NFL Football:

I know nothing about sports. Extra nothing about football. I thought I'd check it out anyway, just to see. The 3D on this game seemed very cool to me, seeing all the football players in 3D on the field. However, I had no idea how to move them around or what the point was due to my lack of interest in sports.

Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars:

I've played the Lego games before on Xbox 360, so nothing really new except for the 3D. This kind of game is more catered to the casual/family player. For me, it is kind of easy and gets old after a bit.

Those were my first impressions! I'm excited for this thing to come out - I will be going to a midnight launch of course, and I have ordered Street Fighter 4 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (a strategy game like Advance Wars).

I encourage anyone interested who can go to a demo event, to go!  Right now, they are only in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.