Any Nintendo loving endurer like me knows the many hardships of playing and enjoying a Nintendo title online. Theres just too many downs to bring the experience up. We’ve been faced with lengthy, title based 12-digit codes that must be shared to play with the people you know. Even after sharing a number longer than a phone number, communication still isn’t available. 9 out of 10 times the games that DO feature online in some way completely miss their mark in what could be done. For example, while a game may feature a bare-bones matchmaking service, it most likely won’t feature anything beyond that like leaderboards, competitions, and friend based challenges. These are all things to be expected out of an online title in 2011, heck even back in 2006 these things were common place for Xbox Live titles. But Nintendo never seemed like they cared, online was just a bullet point on the box to them, nothing they needed to flesh out. There success was capital either way, they didn’t see the need for a robust or streamlined experience. The Wii missed its mark in a lot of ways with its online componet, but it seems the 3DS is here to fix everything we thought we knew about Nintendo and online.
First off, a major, MAJOR advancement to Nintendo’s online infrastructure: Universal Friend Codes. Yes, the 12-digit codes are still here, but please agree with me that they seem painless now that they only have to be entered once. Nintendo can still have there asses covered because you’re going to have to know the person some what in order to exchange a 12-digit code. Point is, if you’re exchanging them, you know you’re doing it, no ‘accidents’ here. But what also came announced with this is the fact you will now be able to see who is online and what they are doing at any given time. You can be in a game, app, etc. and still check whos on and what there doing, and easily be able to connect with them. Theres also a special LED light that alerts you when a friend has signed on. Another thing that goes hand in hand with this announcement is communication. You may know a friend is on, but how can you let them know your ready to play? Nintendo once again has you covered, and even though they haven’t announced anything specific yet, they have said that there will be some form of messaging your friends. Good job Nintendo, you’re learning.
Secondly, they’re handeling online content in a much smarter and modern way. Gone is the days of guessing points and judging downloadable games from tiny screenshots and lousy developer descriptions. With Nintendo’s new eShop, we are able to purchase content with currency, no longer is content pricing hidden behind a ‘points’ based system. And with the games not only comes full-screenshots and videos, but also demos. Even for retail games, screenshots, videos, and demoes are available. This is a first for Nintendo, and by far a step in the right direction.
Last but not least, the Nintendo 3DS is Nintendo’s very first system ever to launch with an online compatible game. Thats right, the 3DS is launching alongside Super Street Fighter 4 3DS, which is so far its only launch online title, but again its a first for Nintendo and definitely a step in the right direction. This only means that the functionality is there, and the only excuse for online not being in games is laziness on the developers part. So with this news, we will (hopefully) be seeing tons and tons of more games with online features. Online is a very exciting part of gaming, and having it implemented smartly with a console makes things ten times better. Now that it seems Nintendo is finally getting its feet wet with the online market I am ten times more excited for the system. Launch day is March 27th here in the US, and at $249.99 I will be there day one waiting for my awesome new piece of tech. The more the merrior, as for launch day I will be excited to exchange friend codes with the many of you out there.
