Zach's prediction:
Being the cynic that I am, I'm betting on walking away from Wednesday's Big Reveal disappointed and unimpressed. While I doubt that Nintendo would stoop to Sony levels of pricing, I wouldn't be shocked to see the 3DS launch at $250 without any sort of bundle. The system will probably launch with two color options. We will hear the game pricing, and I suspect that games will hop from $30-35 to $40 minimum. The Virtual Handheld will get narry a mention, but will be hinted at with bigger things to come at E3. The American launch library will be shockingly pitiful. Ocarina of Time, a 12-year-old game, will be shown off and playable, but will not be a launch title. We'll get Nintendogs + Cats, and that game, plus maybe Pilotwings Resort, will drive the casual market.
The true believers will have to wait until the summer to start getting good games, however. I see no "surprise" announcements at the New York show. If it wasn't at the Japanese show, it won't be on our shores, either. Reggie will spend a good amount of time hawking the system's supposedly-better online functionality, but we'll all do a collective *facepalm* as he announces a valiant return to Friend Codes. His reasoning? Portable online gaming is even more dangerous for kids than normal household gaming. Predators, people. They lie in wait.
And while Nintendo will not announce a 3DS Lite, the design of the 3DS, and its horrifying battery life, will surely warrant a future redesign. We may well hear about it at E3. All the incredible games - like Resident Evil Revelations, Kid Icarus, and Professor Layton - may be pushed into the fall or holiday schedule.
Pedro's thoughts:
Unlike my friend Zach, I am actually cautiously optimistic about the 3DS' launch, although I admit the worrying factor in all of this is the price of the handheld and its games. As great as the system looks, I might have to wait until the system drops in price before I invest in it. That is, of course, if the system gets a lot of games I want to play.
So far it looks like that might be the case. The recently unveiled games look really good. I am a big fan of fighting games, and the 3DS already has three I want to play: Blaz Blu, Super Street Fighter IV 3D, and Dead or Alive Dimensions. Yes, I openly admit to being a fan of Dead of Alive, and even if it does have that rumored breast jiggle feature I will enjoy the fighting greatly, if it delivers.
The Nintendo games are also looking quite hot, even if half of them are just sequels and remakes of pre-existing franchises. Despite owning four cats and two dogs, I really want to check out Nintendogs + Cats. That is really insane, I know, but I was a big fan of the original Nintendogs and I really want to see what they've added to this new version. Plus, ANYTHING is better with cats
Both Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time were some of my favorite games of the N64 era, so of course I am excited to see them reborn with updated visuals. I understand that the idea of N64 remakes for a new system is kind of silly, but it's that familiarity that makes me want to check them out even more.
Finally, I recently jumped back onto the Kingdom Hearts bandwagon, and the 3DS will have a brand new game, one that isn't a re-interpretation or a prequel to the other games in the series: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Drop Dream Distance. The newest trailer looks beautiful and hints a lot at fast-paced, addicting gameplay.
So, even if Nintendo decides to do many things I disagree with when it comes to the launch of the 3DS, I am already looking forward to the games that will come out for it. The DS never had this kind of promise at launch, so it is great to see such a major improvement on the 3DS.
