The next big thing in portable gaming is almost here, with Nintendo announcing a March release in America and Europe for the Nintendo 3DS.
Nintendo’s 3DS evolves the DSi platform considerably by taking the same popular dual-screen platform and making the top screen sans-glasses 3D. You’ll still get the touchscreen on the bottom, but now when you play games, you’ll get a combination of stylus-based interactivity and three-dimensional gaming.
And while the current DSi and DSi XL both have cameras, the Nintendo 3DS will get an upgrade to two cameras on the one console to give you the opportunity to take small images in 3D.
The Nintendo 3DS features 2 small cameras on the front designed to let you take small 3D images.
Nintendo has made mention that much like the Wii, the 3DS will use the Mii avatar system. Unlike the Wii, however, the 3DS will be able to take a picture of you and automatically convert your face into a Mii.
The bad news is that this release window is that you won’t be able to nab one in time for Christmas. With a late February date in Japan, you can’t even adopt early and import ahead of everyone else.
We’re waiting on a confirmation of timeframe for Australia, but we would imagine that much like Europe and America, we’ll see it in March too. The only price on the cards right now is in Japanese Yen and translates to a little over $300 locally.
UPDATE: Nintendo Australia has confirmed to us that the European date of “March” will be reflected in Australia. So there you have it… March. Now we just need a price.