So yeah, the 3DS is pretty cool. 3D without glasses is a gimmick that actually works pretty well, at least by gimmick standards. It's just a shame for that part of the population who get nausea or headaches or other symptoms from it.
So the first thing I noticed was that the higher the 3D slider is, the more tetchy the 3DS seems to be about you looking at it from exactly the right angle. At first this meant I had to leave it on about half-3D, but I soon grew accustomed to the habit of getting the right viewing angle, and can already (I've only been playing it for about a day and a half) generally go straight into full 3D without much trouble.
That said, I do sometimes lose the viewing angle almost at random, and it can occasionally be a little tricky to get it back. There's a pretty simple solution, though: I just turn the 3D down to about half to get the less demanding angle precision, find the angle, and then not-too-quickly turn the 3D back up. Sorted. Another thing that sometimes happens is that I don't lose the 3D view as such, but I do kind of get double images of things as if I had. It usually seems to happen when the image on the screen darkens, e.g. when driving into a cave on Mario Kart. There's probably a reason for it, by which I mean a scientific eyes/brain kind of reason rather than something to do with the 3DS itself; at any rate, since it doesn't cause me to lose the 3D view completely, it's not a big deal, and it generally "fixes" itself after a short while, and even failing that, it doesn't generally persist once the screen brightens back up again.
One of my main complaints with the 3DS, really, is muscle memory from the DS. The power button is where Start used to be, and the place I keep going to push the power slider is actually now the wifi switch. Kind of annoying; I really don't know why they felt the need to change these. Start and select are now either side of the Home button. Okay, they aren't used as much as other buttons, but that's still a relatively inconvenient place for them to be, accessibility-wise.
So, Mario Kart 7. I like it. Some good new tracks, a nice selection of retro tracks (Waluigi Pinball from Mario Kart DS? Hell yes), and some interesting features, not least of which is the customisation of the karts. There are also the glider and propeller for air and water travel respectively, and I must say, steering the glider can be great fun once you get the hang of it. There's also a cool first-person driving mode, accessed by pressing up on the d-pad, which is actually surprisingly effective, although I still prefer normal third-person driving. What's cool about it is the fact that in first-person mode, you steer by tilting the 3DS, kind of like the Wii wheel, except far more sensible and responsive because it's not having to track a remote.
Mario Kart 7 uses the 3D to what I would call a moderate extent, which means it does enhance the experience to have 3D, but it's not a big deal. You don't necessarly notice the 3D all the time, but when you do, it looks pretty good. Some tracks are awesome in 3D, such as Waluigi Pinball, where you can see all the way down the length of the track to the bottom of the pinball table. And then there's...
Rainbow Road.
Oh my god, Rainbow Road.
There are not words for how much I love the 3DS Rainbow Road.
Best. Rainbow Road. Ever. AND IT'S IN 3D.
I might do a followup post at a later date with more thoughts on the 3DS. Don't count on it, though ; )
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