Console Review : Nintendo 2DS

Image from Kotaku

The 2DS, all I wanted it to be.

Whats keeping you from buying a current Generation Nintendo console? Irrational fear of 3D? Price point? Well good news! The 2DS shines in these two areas, and these two alone.

For 99 USD you can play your 3DS games in stunning 2D! NO WAY! Right!? I mean..who would want to buy a downgraded version of a product? *Cough Cough Watch Dogs Cough* Well, I did, 3 times because the 2DS for me was a means of playing the latest and greatest Pokemon titles and that's it. And for a means of playing Pokemon, the 2DS did a great job...but as a hardcore gaming console it failed, in fact as a "child friendly console" for me it is a failure.

The 2DS was marketed as a kid safe, Nokia like handheld that was going to withstand the test of  the modern child. Nope. Nope. Nope. Lies. I have gone through three 2DS' and two of which were broken by means that the ad displayed the console to be resistant too. The first one bit the dust after I stepped on it, and for me thats fine. I am a large 6"2 male. No handheld can support that amount of force. The second 2DS bit the dust after falling roughly 5 and a half feet from my kitchen counter to the floor. That fall seems like a pretty standard kid fall to me but maybe you need more convincing, my third (and final) 2DS fell when I spilled half a cup of lemonade on the screen. See the problem? Two of three 2DS were broken by common kid problems. This to me makes it seem that these were not at kid friendly as one might think.

*Note, All 2DS' I have owned were first hand taken right out of the box*

For the hardcore handheld gamer (oh wait, its just me? oh ok..), the D-Pad (mind you a Nintendo Invention!) is really really really really shit. Really really really shit. I was practicing speed running Mario Land on virtual console (for the convenience, lay off) and after an hour of play, I noticed a great discomfort in my thumb. That and honestly, I feel that the buttons are really unresponsive. There is an input delay, and that is strange considering Nintendo's standard of excellence.

My last complaint is the display.

The 3DS games look fantastic no problem, but the console is backwards compatible and the DS games look like poop. I wish there was more to say but no, there isn't. DS games look like poop and I don't like it.

All in all, its 100 USD. Is it worth it? In retrospect, no. But hey, if you feel like being a dick to your kid? Go for it!