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Here's how Sonic Generations' 3DS-specific features will work
When Sonic Generations arrives on Nintendo's 3DS this November, it's going to let you show off to the world how totally into Sonic you are. That is, if you walk by spindash past other folks with a 3DS copy of the game somewhere out there in the real world. Sega revealed the game's 3DS-specific Spot Pass features this week, which it detailed as bi-functional -- trade missions with friends and exchange "profile cards." Apparently, Sonic Generations comes with 100 extra missions that can be unlocked via Spot Pass, though the extra missions consist of the game's main levels, albeit modified with specific objectives (kill a specific type of enemy, time trials, etc.) As for the profile cards, 3DS gamers will be able to show off their percentage completion of Generations, as well as sharing various other info (messages like, "Eggman is #1!," for instance). Might we suggest adding your killer Sonic fanfic into that messaging area?
Switched On: When gadgets talk in their sleep
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The Nintendo 3DS stands to democratize stereoscopy in a way society hasn't experienced since the View-Master craze, by offering 3D hardware more affordable than the current crop of televisions and PCs, and without requiring special glasses to see images pop out of the handheld's screen. But when it comes to innovation, the 3DS could represent a two-way street, for even as its 3D screen is focused on enhancing the handheld gaming experience, its "Pass" network technologies -- SpotPass and particularly StreetPass -- could have broader implications for the way we discover the world around us.
Shocker! Nintendo 3DS will have shorter battery life than DS
Who'd have thought that adding extra grunt under the hood, a glasses-free 3D display up top, a wireless "tag mode," and automatic wireless updates to the 3DS would serve to degrade battery life? Certainly not our naive souls. The same Q&A that informed us about Nintendo's Spot Pass plans for the 3DS has been found to also contain some commentary on battery endurance from Satoru Iwata himself. The company chief says "it is inevitable that Nintendo 3DS will be a device which requires more frequent recharging than Nintendo DS" and notes that as a major reason why a charging cradle will be bundled into the new console's retail package. With tongue firmly wedged in cheek, Iwata suggests that perhaps Nintendo ought to advise users to deposit the 3DS into its cradle as soon as they get home, but the overall point is as clear as it is obvious: your more powerful handheld will require more power.
