Saturday, September 17, 2011

What's the difference between Virtual Boy and the Nintendo 3DS?

There were no Zelda games released for the Virtual Boy, luckily.



Imagine Nintendo made a Zelda game for the Virtual Boy, it really would be a lost piece of adventure, even more than the BS Zelda games, which luckily got restored by fans.

I usually buy Nintendo hardware for Zelda games. There were only two Nintendo systems, which I didn't buy in order to play a certain Zelda game. The first one is the original GameBoy, because at that time I wasn't a Zelda fan yet. It was the system that would lead me to Link's Awakening, my first big love in gaming. And the other system was the Nintendo Wii. I didn't buy it for Zelda, because I played Twilight Princess on the GameCube. But the Wii has an impressive library even without any exclusive Zelda games, I bought it to play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption mainly, but also for Wii Sports and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the latter would be released two months after I bought my Wii. Link's Crossbow Training and the Wii version of Twilight Princess were merely a bonus.

Right now I'm struggling whether I should buy a Nintendo 3DS or not. I was resisting until now, because I fear that Nintendo might release a better model at any time in the future. At first I thought they may release a special golden Zelda Anniversary 3DS, which they won't, but now you have to consider that they will release some revised model next year, one that comes with better 3D screen (there have been quite some developments in glasses free 3D since the 3DS was released, saw it all at the IFA), longer battery life and a second circle pad plus two more shoulder buttons attached to it. It's completely reasonable to expect this, especially after how many revisions the original DS got, as well as the GameBoys.

Now, what's changing my mind? The Four Swords Anniversay Edition is. It might sound completely crazy to buy new hardware to play a FREE game, but while it's a free game, it will only be available for five months. So, renting/borrowing a DSi or 3DS is not an option, if you want to keep this game for the future. You need your own DSi or 3DS now. I have neither, so I have to buy one of these until February. Buying only a DSi would be an option, but the 3DS and the DSi are in the same price class, in our stores the 3DS is even cheaper than a DSiXL! So, it would be stupid to buy a DSi instead of a 3DS, especially considering that a DSi won't be able to play my copy of Ocarina of Time 3D, which I already bought in June and which I also want to play, though maybe not as badly as Four Swords AE. You can say what you want, but the price cut made the 3DS look very effortable and there's no point in buying a DSi instead of a 3DS.

Also, I don't believe that Nintendo will release a better 3DS model until February, otherwise they would have announced it at this week's conference instead of new colors for the current 3DS. They are even denying that a new model is planned and they also denied any future price cuts. I don't believe the former, but I also don't think that the new model will appear in the next five months. So, there's no point in waiting until February.

And I really want to play Four Swords AE right now, this is something I always wanted since I got the original version on the GBA eight years ago. I was able to ignore Ocarina of Time 3D, because it didn't have any real new content. Four Swords AE, however, is stuffed with cool new content and I want to play this on day one. If I hadn't beaten the original version in multiplayer just recently for the first time (it's ironic that Nintendo announced a singleplayer for FS right after I finally got to play the game), I probably would be totally overhyped about this right now and there wouldn't be any question about buying new hardware at all.

So, I might be buying a 3DS next week, unless some big insight is going to stop me.

Overall it was a smart business move to make Four Swords AE free, but only available for a limited time. Everyone, who wants the game, but doesn't have a DSi or a 3DS yet, now has a problem. It might be that they will bring it back later and sell it "because of popular demand", but I'm not taking that risk. This is not something, that I want to miss.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I finally caved in and pre-ordered the red 3DS the other night (which is released a week on Friday).

Much like you I've been putting it off for a while for various reasons. I also have OoT 3D sitting at home waiting to be played, and can't resist the temptation of Four Swords either.

My only regret, I suppose, is that I'm not eligible for the ambassador program, and that I'll probably have to wait a few months before I can download Zelda 1/2 and The Minish Cap on the eStore.

Anyway. Be sure to give us your 3DS friend code when you get yours!

TourianTourist said...

@jsf123:
Good to see that I'm not the only one who's tempted by FSAE.

And the red one, huh? Yeah, we get it next Friday as well... maybe I'll wait until then to compare the colors.

I'll post my friend code as soon as I got my 3DS.

TourianTourist said...

@jsf123:
About the ambassador program... right now they only got NES games and I already got many different copies of Zelda 1/2 and Metroid... I don't need them on my 3DS. The GBA games might be more interesting, especially if TMC is among them, but for the 80€, which you saved, you can buy many downloadable games.