First Anniversary of Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo is obsessed with 3D. This obsession has been commercial failures like the Virtual Boy and the current hits like 3DS. From the Famicom 3D System, which employed a rudimentary system of liquid crystal to provide the feeling of depth in Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (the first 3D game in the history of Nintendo), to the screen using a barrier system parallax to produce the effect in 3DS, Nintendo has come a long way of experimentation. Today, the successor of one of the most successful consoles of all time, Nintendo DS (and all its variants), a year after being released in our continent. Therefore, we dedicate this brief text to a console that looks to be historical.

If we analyze it from a purely commercial 3D has caused a few headaches in Nintendo. Falling prices triggered an alarm in 3DS many "analysts" who predicted the end of the age of laptops and the beginning of the reign of smartphones. But today, with about 15 million systems worldwide distributed, no one preaches to Nintendo or a dismal failure in the handheld market.


The first time I saw the 3DS memory that had been invited to Atomix special Pokémon Live. Pilotwings Resort and Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition were the two captive release. Later, back at Atomix, I bought my own 3DS Ocarina of Time. The drought suffered by the system software in the coming months undermined the trust of many buyers and Nintendo, due to this and other factors, he knew he would not achieve the sales goals figuratively. Then we heard about the price cut and the ambassador program. I'm not angry, was finally able to play several classic notebook I could not enjoy at the time. Nintendo made a good decision: the notebook sales skyrocketed enough to make over with the heavyweights who left at year end. Mario Kart Super Mario 3D 7 and Land cleared all doubts about the future of 3DS.

Today we are one year of its release. This week goes on sale one of the first titles were announced for the handheld system. Kid Icarus: Uprising has all the pedigree of Sakurai (Kirby and Smash Bros). No wonder: is the return of a franchise that had been missing for over twenty years. The 3DS has survived from a high introductory price until a wave of bad press, rumors, malicious software and drought.


Nintendo needed a solid base to launch its next home console. The aggressive decisions for the company history, were responses to avoid a crisis that could affect their welfare, especially for the vulnerability involving U Wii launch later this year. They succeeded: the 3DS broke the sales record of its big brother, the DS, before their first birthday and in several markets around the world is sold at a healthy pace.


The 3DS is the result of Nintendo's long history as kings of portable entertainment. Throughout its history the company has successfully passed many crises and, in one form or another, has remained in the game. For today can hold a 3DS in their hands, they had many things happen: the Game & Watch, that strange combination of hardware that was both the software, the Game Boy, which practically had a life of more than a decade , the Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy failure and Gumpei Yokoi, the hit DS, which seemed crazy when it was announced, among a host of other variables.

When they hold a 3DS think about the decades of history that have materialized in this small appliance. Talking about the magic of a product is almost always a ploy of marketing, but who has enjoyed the detailed 3D worlds of Mario Land lying in bed in the darkness of his room can not deny that, close and save the unit to go to sleep, suddenly there is less magic in the air.


Happy first year, 3DS. We want to see you meet many.