Nintendo: the 3DS is the outsider art of gaming consoles. It’s completely bizarre! It hardly makes logical sense! It’s too large to put in a pocket, it has several contradictory and possibly superfluous features. It still has two screens. I love it. Glasses free 3D can be headache inducing, and it’s a little difficult to pull off while in motion, but it’s unquestionably innovative. We’ve been struggling with the lack of accurate depth perception in 3D games ever since there were 3D games. Mario 64 taught us how a 3D platformer should play, and now depth perception has a chance of teaching us (at last!) exactly how far we should jump.
But the display might not even be the best part. Those cameras are augmented reality savants. Sure, you can do a bit of augmented reality with a phone, but what sort of stuffy phone user is gonna juke and jive around a virtual dragon while wailing on the fire button? They won’t even be able to see the dragon with their thumbs splayed all over that poor, solitary touchscreen. Those cameras on the 3DS are a gift to the world, a gift to our collective childhoods. A love letter.
Sony: the NGP is the space mission to Mars of gaming consoles. It’s way too ambitious, and bureaucratic pressures will threaten to destroy it before its (inevitably late) launch. But what a beautiful dream! That screen, that rear touchpad, those dual analog sticks! It’s more powerful than a $500 tablet computer from Apple. You’re bringing the current generation of home console gaming to your handheld, and yet so much more.
If you can deliver on even half your promise, every single red blooded male that ever touches that device will know, within his heart of hearts, that his phone is a pale imitation of a true handheld gaming computer. I think the rear touchpad alone should win you some sort of Nobel Peace Prize. You are a bold explorer, Sony. A conquistador of functionality.
