Nintendo officially unveils 3DS, available March 27 for $250

By Aemon Malone January 19, 2011

At a press event in New York today, Nintendo announced details about its long awaited glasses-free 3D portable gaming system. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer, hosted the event and ran through a presentation on the 3DS.

Fils-Aime called the 3DS capable of “a different kind of 3D,” meaning it doesn’t require any special glasses to produce its effects — although glasses-free 3D isn’t exactly groundbreaking technology anymore.

Here’s a quick rundown on some basic facts we learned about the 3DS:

The 3DS will be released on March 27 in the U.S. with a MSRP of $249.99 (Japan will get it at the end of Feb.)
There are two screens: a touch-screen (the lower screen) and the 3D display screen.
There’s both an accelerometer and gyroscope — watch out Apple.
The 3DS will be available in two colors: Cosmo Black and Aqua Blue.
3D capabilities extends to video and photography — not just games.
It will ship with a 2GB SD card, which can be upgraded.
It will run on two 266MHz ARM processors.
There’ll be a charging-cradle — no adapter and cable.
Nintendo is planning an “e-shop” which will offer Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles.
a Web browser and broad support for social gaming.

Fils-Aime also promised both third-party and Nintendo game titles available within the 3DS’s “launch window.” Coming from Nintendo, there will be a new iteration of Nintendo’s classic flight simulator Pilotwings Resort; Nintendogs and Cats, a pet simulator; a submarine game called Steeldriver; a shooter called Kid Icarus: Uprising; and a 3D-ified version of the classic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Coming from third-party developers there will be at least two fighting games, Dead or Alive Dimensions and Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition; and at least two sports games, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D and Madden NFL. All told, Nintendo says there will be over 30 titles available for the 3DS by early June.

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