Ash Ketchum Deserves Three Dimensions
Yes, Nintendo makes games about red mushrooms and kidnapped princesses. That’s always been fine. That’s the whole point, actually. But the company’s own conference in late 2010 felt like something different—like they wanted to remind everyone that Kyoto still runs things and the handheld is still where the real obsession lives.
What they showed was the Nintendo 3DS: a device that looks like someone gave a DS a color-streaked identity crisis and then somehow coaxed the screen into three dimensions without requiring glasses. Everyone who held one reportedly lost their mind a little. I believe it completely. Three dimensions. In your pocket. On the train. On a long flight. That’s not a product announcement, that’s a magic trick performed in broad daylight.
The launch lineup reads like a nostalgia hit-list—Street Fighter IV, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart. Names that make the sixth-grader in you start vibrating at a frequency adults aren’t supposed to reach anymore. Old classics downloadable. Everything you loved, now with depth. The price sat around 250 euros, steep enough to make you hesitate and cheap enough that you’ll buy it anyway, probably the first week.
What I actually want is Ash Ketchum catching Pokémon in full 3D. I want to scream at my character when they walk off a ledge like an idiot. I want the little bastard to cry about it afterward. That’s the bar. Clear it.