Reasons to Upgrade to a 3DS XL

I was recently lent a 3DS XL to get a some hands-on time with the hardware. Although I was trying to keep an open mind, I could not help being slightly skeptical. I almost do not want to like the 3DS XL. I do not want to spend the money necessary for the upgrade and feel a bit annoyed at the prospect of having to do that so soon after being a loyal early adopter. That said, I have to say that I came out impressed overall and will now have a very hard time resisting the upgrade. I must point out that I have been a fairly big supporter of the 3DS from day one. I purchased a console at launch and the combination of Street Fighter IV and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars were a potent opening combo for me. The one-two punch of both being high quality examples of two of my favourite genres — namely a fighting game and a turn-based strategy game — were enough to help me quickly justify my purchase. While the 3D was not integral to gameplay of either game, both felt better for the inclusion, to the point where they were soon sorely missed if the 3D slider was ever turned down.

It is the 3D slider where I will start my comparison with the newer XL hardware. Mainly as it is one of only two areas that appears to have taken a small step backward. The quality of the slider itself does not seem as high and there is now a complete absence of the small green light that notifies you that the 3D is currently active. It could of course be argued that it should be even more overtly obvious that 91% bigger screen is displaying 3D images and the non-cynical could easily argue that it was removed, as it may have been a distraction, but I cannot help but think that this might be more of a cost cutting measure. Hard to think that Nintendo will not go to any length to do so when they have removed such a vital component as the main charger (in the UK at least), but most retailers were including this as a pack in deal when the 3DS XL launched last week.

The only other potential problem I noticed was with the sound. Most 3DS owners I have spoken to were hoping for a slight boost in sound quality in regard to the speakers and the volume available through headphones. I could not tell any difference with headphones plugged in, but there does seem to be a problem with the 3DS XL’s speakers. At louder volume settings, something seems to vibrate or reverberate, causing a very slight but noticeable rattling effect. It was not terrible, but enough that I found it necessary to turn the volume down from its maximum setting.

Other than those fairly minor issues, everything else about the hardware has been improved. Any misgivings about the increase in the size of the screen, appear (at least to my eyes) to be misnomers. The higher quality of the screen, added to the extra size made every one of the games I own look more impressive. Street Fighter packed more of a visual punch. Star Fox 64 looked more foxy. Heroes of Ruin was not ruined. Mario Kart 7…looked more karty? OK, I’m skating on thin ice here, but one-by-one as I went through my games collection, every game looked better for being on the 3DS XL screen. Even the DS titles looked better, possibly just by the virtue of the black lines not looking as out of place as they do on the original 3DS screen. The increased size of the lower touchscreen is also an improvement, meaning that I do not have to reach for the stylus as often, and it is no longer a prerequisite for typing as my fat-man fingers can type more comfortably with the on-screen keyboard. Although if I did have to reach for the stylus, it was located on the side rather than the top, making it a much more convenient place to reach for mid-game.

The buttons below the touchscreen have been improved and feel much more responsive. Given that most people have to ask where the home button is when playing my 3DS for the first time, I suspect that it was probably a very deliberate decision to make the Home, Start and Select buttons on the 3DS XL feel and look much more like actual buttons than the slightly covert buttons of the 3DS.

I had been concerned about how Kid Icarus: Uprising would play on the bigger screen. Given that you need to drag the stylus across the touchscreen to aim, I was anxious that this might slow down response time — but this does not seem to be the case. It did make me wonder if developers of 3DS titles had any warning regarding the upcoming release of the 3DS XL. Even if this was not the case with most third-party developers, it may have been more likely with Project Sora, as the developers worked very closely with Nintendo on the production of Kid Icarus. It may even be possible that the production of the game was held up to make adjustments based on playing the game on an early prototype of the XL.

What I can tell you for sure is that every game I own looks nicer on the new bigger screen of the 3DS XL. It may not be as drastic an improvement in hardware from the original DS to the iterations such as the DS Lite and is more akin to the changes made from the DSi to the DSi XL — perhaps enough of a comparison to have influenced the naming of the 3DS XL. Going back to the smaller screen of the original 3DS is certainly going to be more difficult than I imagined, and I think I will have to find a way to upgrade much sooner than I had planned. If it were as easy to find gold coins lying around as it is Mario’s land, I would be picking one up tomorrow.

Tags: 3DS, 3DS XL, Nintendo, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL