After the news that the troubled handheld is getting a new analog in the form of an ugly accessory and according to Kotaku, it also brings new L2, R2 buttons for the device. This wouldn’t be such a predicament if this was a similar situation with the original PlayStation which eventually got two analogs, but the 3DS has been out for a while now and going to such measures is just going to piss early adopters off.
The 3DS Expansion Slide Pad covers the cartridge slot rendering the device to a similar design to Nokia’s N-Gage which will be irritating to remove the slide pad every time you wish to change games. This apparently also covers the wireless switch allowing your handheld to die quicker providing you don’t turn off the console’s selling point via the 3D Slider. Thankfully, if you decide to purchase this ugly accessory, it doesn’t cover the headphone port for those considerate on public transport or the battery port because you can’t deny the 3DS of its much-needed juice.
This announcement has put me off the 3DS even more and got me leaning towards a Vita instead. The price drop was nice, better in some retailers making it cheaper than the DSi XL. The 3DS was released way too early with little content, software which at the time had very little interest to me and with smartphones providing essential necessities via their hardware specs and with their more established online infrastructure such as App Store, Android Market and Windows Marketplace, it becomes difficult to justify parting with the money for the 3DS . Super Street Fighter IV 3D providing a much better Street Fighter experience than the iOS version was tempting but months after the 3DS launch, the console counterparts got the Arcade Edition DLC which thankfully saved me £200.
I am hoping from this announcement that eventually Nintendo announce a 3DS revision for the platform because right now, I am not sold on how the 3DS has turned out. It now looks ridiculous with the Expansion Slide Pad and its online infrastructure is lagging behind the competition.
