3D, We Barely Knew Ye

So. I know the debate still wages around these parts as to whether the 3DS is dead, or just mostly dead, but I don't think there can be much debate that Nintendo are well and truly done with the 3D gimmick. They're constantly pushing new models of the 2DS machine, and lots of their more recent games haven't even featured 3D functionality.

I know most of us switched the 3D off after the first five minutes of a game, and barely noticed it if it was switched on, but let's take a moment to discuss the 3D sights that did work. I'll kick us off with my favourite one that comes to mind:



Propeller Rats
Shovel Knight
These little fellas were a minor enemy in SK who would float in and make a nuisance of themselves. What was brilliant about them was that if you killed them, their little propellers would float off the screen towards the player. It was such a nice, in-my-face effect in a game that was otherwise fairly subtle in its application of 3D that to me it felt like I could see them fly right off my 3DS into my face.

Drunkalilly wrote:

They're constantly pushing new models of the 2DS machine

They only sell the 2DS and New 2DS now that you can sort understand why new games for the 3DS family don't have 3D but I think some of you said it was good for Metroid but then I see that as a hardcore Nintendo fan title, who likely have a 3DS and not a 2DS as they would been using a 3DS for a long time (if that makes sense) and if they've not then I guess why we got a New 3DS XL Special Edition of the game for those hardcore fans.

Personally, I've barely used the 3D part from the 5mins to see what it's like here and there. A time it impressed me was when the 3DS was new and GAME had demo systems that I played Street Fighter IV on and I was amazed by it as I was someone that wasn't bothered about the 3DS as I didn't care much about the DS.

I do find it funny as someone that bought a 3DTV and looking for my 4KTV wanted one with 3D on and yet I've barely used it on the TV's and a system with a great use of it I've also not used it.

I do think the 3DS family now with the 2DS and how 3D has been used it's more of a DS2 as in better graphics, more power etc if you look at something like Pokemon Black to Pokemon Sun and when we look back the 3DS family legacy it will just be about the library of quality games and the 3D won't matter at all.

The depth of Super Mario 3D Land

Not only was it brilliant peering into a diorama version of the Mushroom Kingdom but it actually enhanced the gameplay in that you could judge the distance of the jumps much easier.

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EDIT:

I used the 3d a lot actually but it usually went on a game by game basis mostly, but the first few years the 3ds was out I never had it off and it's kind of sad to see the way Nintendo are pushing it now.

I'm going right back to the start for my favourite 3DS 3D effects. Fair enough, they weren't the best games ever made, but Ridge Racer 3D, Nintendogs & Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Super Monkey Ball 3D, PES 2011 and Super Street Fighter IV 3D all looked the business with the 3D cranked up. Great showcases for the new hardware, I thought. Of that lot, I'd say Ridge Racer 3Ds is the best - using the 3D to judge depth so to best perform around corners and control your drift is great, and not doable in the same way on PSP, Vita, on console, or anywhere else.

A Link Between Worlds was a cracker for the 3D effects. There was one dungeon in particular - a tower, if I remember rightly - that really impressed me with how the 3D operated catapulting Link between floors of the dungeon. I typically have the 3D off, but it was a must have for large parts of ALBW.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I know most of us switched the 3D off after the first five minutes of a game...

Lies.  Filthy dirty lies.  Jas has this one bang to rights.  I loved the 3D effect.  It was something I'd never seen before, and I basically can't think of many games at all that weren't improved by it (the Pokégames do spring to mind, their frame rates went horrendous when you tried to switch the 3D on).

SM3DL's use was class, but for me, the real winner was ALBW.  A 2D Zelda in style, its dungeons felt much more vertical due to the 3D effect.  Top effort.

Edit: BUGGER IT JAYSEPH Not thinking of another one, I spent three minutes doing that and in that time my point was stolen from me.

Ha, you even alluded to the verticality of the dungeons too. Flattered, Balla.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I'm going right back to the start for my favourite 3DS 3D effects. Fair enough, they weren't the best games ever made, but Ridge Racer 3D, Nintendogs & Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Super Monkey Ball 3D, PES 2011 and Super Street Fighter IV 3D all looked the business with the 3D cranked up. Great showcases for the new hardware, I  thought. Of that lot, I'd say Ridge Racer 3Ds is the best - using the 3D to judge depth so to best perform around corners and control your drift is great,  and not doable in the same way on PSP, Vita, on console, or anywhere else.

Aye Ridge Racer 3D is another top choice, I really feel like booting some of these up and playing through them again.

Hnnnnnnnnngggghhhh... sorry, I'm the Monoplod here. I had it switched on for a bit of Super Mario 3D Land (the Escher-y bonus rooms); the rest of the time it was either a distraction or unnoticeable. I've ignored the point of the thread here, haven't I? Sorry.

A Link Between Worlds is a really good shout. I liked that one a lot.
Super Mario 3D Land was a good'n, particularly in the bits Jimminy Jim Jim alludes to. Pullblox and Fallblox deserve shouting out for similar reasons.

Another one from me:

LASERS
Kid Icarus: Uprising

KI:U was a visual powerhouse, in 2D or 3D, but when enemy laser beams started coming out of the screen right into my eyeballs, I remember it knocking my socks off. Top stuff. It's a shame I never really got this from Starfox 64 3D, where the decision to stay faithful to N64 era pop-in on the meteors made the 3D feel really disorienting.

I thought about KIU, which (as you say) was gorgeous regardless, yet I couldn't remember any top 3D bits. I'm sure there were others, too.  There's one level where you're chasing a parasitic bug through essentially a mini-asteroid belt: I imagine that must have been belting in 3D.

Oh also, cheap trick it may have been, but:

Having scrolled through the list of 3DS games I own and used to own on Backloggery, I've got two examples that y'all haven't mentioned so far. I liked elements of Luigi's Mansion 2 - the ghosts popping around in 3D was neat. I also remember thinking that it enhanced Ghost Recon but I can't for the life of me remember why.