Make it Bigger!!

Last night at 11 pm Central Daylight Time all the Nintendos of the world (Nintendo of Japan, Nintendo of America, and Nintendo of Europe) had a simultaneous "Nintendo Direct" presentation. For the uninitiated, "Nintendo Direct" presentations are streaming video presenations created by Nintendo themselves and watchable on their websites (and in archived format on the Wii and 3DS). Nintendo uses these as opportunities to showcase software and hardware, and announce new software and hardware.

Usually this would be something I'd make sure and tune in for. But, whoo boy, I was sleepy last night. I fell asleep before 10! Wow!

And then my swisscheesed brain forgot all about the presentation until I was checking GoNintendo.com this afternoon. "Oh yeah, the Nintendo Direct," I thought to myself.

I won't take the time to recap the entire presentation here. There was a lot of good stuff in it, so check it out yourself if you're interested.

But I do want to point out one of the biggest reveals of the evening: the 3DS XL.

Many of you might be familiar with the DSi XL. It was the mammoth final iteration of the original DS. I have one (Liz got one for me for my birthday in 2010), and love it. In fact, I became so accustomed to its hugeness that when I recieved a 3DS this past Christmas it felt like I was playing the revolutionary glasses-free-3D handheld videogame system from Nintendo of Lilliput. Ok, I exaggerate a little, and the 3DS is an excellent system. But it is noticeably smaller than the DSi XL.

Enter the 3DS XL, a system roughly the same size as the DSi XL. (In fact, the entire form factor has a DSi XL feel.) In fact, the two screens are a whopping 90% larger than their original 3DS counterparts. Not only that, but the battery life has been extended a little bit also. To be clear, beyond this the 3DS XL is just a 3DS. No electronics or cpu specs have been altered. So this isn't like the change from DS Lite to DSi. This is a cosmetic upgrade almost exclusively. But that's fine with me.

Now here's the crazy part: It will be available starting August 19 of this year (the same day as New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS hits stores)! That's less than two months away. Talk about keeping info close to the vest (or, since this is Nintendo, should I say, "close to the overalls?"). It'll set you back 199.99 plus tax, but many retailers are already announcing "trade in your 3DS for a discount on a 3DS XL" deals. I just might take one of them up on that. (Liz is ok with it, since had a 3DS XL existed back in December that's what she would've gotten me.)

Major gaming and/or tech sites like IGN, GoNintendo, Nintendolife, Engadget, Gameinformer, etc. have all the details. So I'll just leave you with this comparison picture:

Now we're playing with power. (Bad, I know. But game systems don't have quotes.)

 - Nic


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