Gallery: Rating Nintendo 3DS' Baked-In Freebies
01nintendo-3ds-introduction
Nintendo 3DS arrives in the United States this Sunday bearing gifts. While the new glasses-free 3-D gaming platform doesn't include a packed-in game, the handheld does come with a variety of apps baked into its memory. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/tag/nintendo-3ds)"We spent a lot of time and energy on the pre-installed applications," Nintendo 3DS producer [Hideki Konno](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/03/nintendo-3ds-chat-hideki-konno/) told Wired.com earlier this month. Konno says the applications were designed to get other people watching and interacting with the 3DS, which is why many of them feature augmented reality, motion control and photography. We've already [reviewed the 3DS hardware](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/reviews/2011/03/nintendo-3ds/) elsewhere on Wired.com, but the volume of features, games and applications that come with the $250 gaming gadget is so great that we're taking a deeper dive into its capabilities. Read on for Game|Life's impressions of all the built-in 3DS software and hardware frills, so you'll know what to spend time with first when you finally get yours.
02face-raiders
Face Raiders ------------ [Face Raiders](http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/built-in-software#/5) might just be the secret killer app for 3DS. To begin this game, you take pictures of faces — yours, your friends, anyone's — using the system's integrated cameras. The game then transforms your photos into evil floating heads, which you shoot with colored balls. The game uses augmented reality, meaning it drops these face-enemies into a real-time image of the room where you're standing. You aim by moving your body around along with your 3DS, finding where the enemies are in the room and blasting them. This control method takes time to get used to, and it also makes it hard to see the screen's 3-D effect since you're constantly moving around. However, it is immensely fun to flail around like an idiot, desperately trying to shoot your own face as it darts around the room like an angry bee. I can't stop laughing when I play Face Raiders because of the game's little, colorful flourishes. For example, the enemy faces will often burrow into your surroundings, sending chunks of the room toward you. You can also load pictures of pretty much anything with a face into the game, including photos displayed on a PC monitor. Want to fling tennis balls at [Rebecca Black](http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/23/lady-gaga-rebecca-black/)'s face? Go ahead. (As for me, I will always cherish the time I spent shooting Chris Kohler's disembodied head.) *—John Mix Meyer* __WIRED__ Hilarious little touches; shooting friends in the face never gets old. __TIRED__ Controls require crazy levels of coordination; small amount of content. Rating: 
03mii-maker
Mii Maker --------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/gamelife/2011/03/HNI_0005.jpg)Nintendo has brought its caricature-making software from Wii to 3DS, with some major improvements. Now, instead of having to create a [Mii](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mii) by assembling parts, you can take a photo of your face and have the 3DS automatically generate a few different variations to use as a starting point. This worked slightly better than I thought it would — my automagically generated Mii captured the squintiness of my eyes and the bigness of my nose pretty well, but I had to sit there and tweak it until I was satisfied (also giving myself fancier hair). Having access to a wider array of hairstyles and facial accoutrements helped ease this process of self-discovery, but what was really great was that the software kept my photo on the 3DS screen while I did this, so I could see which bits best matched my mug.  Once you have your Mii in place, it'll be used by various software titles — you're the star of [Pilotwings Resort](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/03/pilotwings-resort-3ds-review/), for example. And you can send it to your friends, either through a local connection or by exporting it as a JPG image or QR code, which can be scanned by a 3DS to transfer the Mii character between systems. __WIRED__ Photos make Mii creation easier and more accurate; QR codes for transferring characters between consoles. *—Chris Kohler* __TIRED__ Clothing would be nice. Rating: 
04streetpass
StreetPass ---------- You may recall stories about hordes of Japanese gamers [clogging major electronics stores while trading Dragon Quest IX data](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2009/09/dragon-quest-ix-2/). That's Nintendo DS' StreetPass at work. On the 3DS, the feature is controlled by hardware rather than software: Instead of booting up a single game and carrying it with you all day, you need only set up [StreetPass](http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/hardware#/8) once per game and the 3DS will do the rest — for up to 12 games at once. Just leave your 3DS in sleep mode with the wireless turned on and it will link up and exchange data whenever it gets in range of someone else's unit. I've been playing Capcom's [Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition](http://www.streetfighter.com/us/ssfiv3d) since the Japanese version launched in February, and I almost enjoy the StreetPass mode more than the main game. In the game, you collect virtual figurines of famous Street Fighter characters like Ryu and Chun-Li, each of which boast unique stats: hit points, attack power, etc. You select a team of five figures to represent you, and when your 3DS gets in range of another player, it has your teams do battle automatically. When you open your 3DS again and pop in the game, you can see the results. Victory earns you Figure Points (FP) that you spend in a slot machine to collect more of the hundreds of different figures, and the loop continues. StreetPass is perfect for public-transit commuters like me. When I get on any train or bus I take a quick peek at the hardware's green indicator light to see if I've found a match. But not everyone will be able to enjoy it as I do. Outside pedestrian-heavy urban centers, you might not meet many other 3DS owners. Even I have limited success in the suburbs of Osaka, Japan: I get most of my hits when I go into the city on weekends. *—Daniel Feit* __WIRED__ Always on; shares data for a dozen different games at once; makes going out in public a game unto itself. __TIRED__ Entirely reliant on meeting other 3DS owners by chance. Rating: 
05streetpass-mii-plaza
StreetPass Mii Plaza -------------------- [*StreetPass Mii Plaza*](http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/built-in-software#/3) is your passport to meeting strangers without the nerve-wracking tension of actually talking to them. Simply choose a Mii, input a bit of personal info (your birthday, your hobbies, your dreams) and the StreetPass function will quietly transmit your likeness and profile to any other nearby 3DS systems. It's a consequence-free version of sending a friend request on Facebook, as there's no chance for rejection. As you introduce yourself, so shall other Miis beam into your 3DS and greet you. It's not just a dry "you have met X new people" message, either. Each Mii walks up to your Mii and introduces him or herself, sharing the name of their owner's most recently played piece of 3DS software. (You can skip all this, but it's half the fun.) But wait, there's more! StreetPass Mii Plaza includes two mini-games fueled by the Miis you meet. The first is a simple picture-panel game in which you collect pieces to assemble 3-D images of popular Nintendo characters. The second is a sort of role-playing game, in which all the Miis you have met embark on a quest to rescue your personal Mii from a castle. Each Mii can only perform one of two actions (attack or magic) before getting tired, so clearing this mode will take dozens of Mii meetings. For those unable or unwilling to StreetPass with other people, both games can be completed solo by using [Play Coins](http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Play_Coins) earned by walking with the 3DS in tow. The bummer is that you can't add the people you meet to your Friends List or contact them in any way. In an attempt to get around this, I've started including my Twitter handle in the personal greeting that my Mii passes out to others, although it barely fits in the space provided and the system makes a point of not letting us use the @ symbol. *—Daniel Feit* __WIRED__ Cute app that shows off what the 3DS StreetPass can do; playable even if no one's around. __TIRED__ Certain to exhaust its goodwill after a few months; no Friends List integration. Rating: 
06nintendo-3ds-sound
Nintendo 3DS Sound ------------------ Did anybody actually use their DSi as a music player? Just on the off chance you actually want to load your SD card up with MP3s (or AACs) and rock out to some tunes, the [Nintendo 3DS Sound app](http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25759) exists. Copy music files to the SD card and Nintendo 3DS Sound will find them automatically, organizing albums into folders. Then you can play them! You can close the 3DS and keep listening through headphones, or you can keep the system open and watch some very cool visualizers inspired by Nintendo games like [Excitebike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitebike) and Rhythm Heaven. You can also play around with the pitch and tempo of the sound in real time through some simple touch controls, or apply after effects. The most interesting of these are "karaoke" mode, which does a halfway decent job of stripping out vocals, and "8-bit," which does a somewhat worse job of rendering the track as NES bleeps. Sadly, you can't save these versions of the songs. Nintendo 3DS Sound is clever, but I doubt it will hold people's interest — there's only so many times you can play with the pitch or add filters to your MP3s before you get bored and wander off. It's a well-designed little time-waster, though. You can also use it to record brief voice memos. *—Chris Kohler* __WIRED__ Intuitive touch controls let you play around with sound in a fun way; pretty visual effects. __TIRED__You can't save the results. Also, nobody uses their DS to listen to music. Rating: 
07activity-log
Activity Log and Play Coins --------------------------- Similar to the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS tracks everything you do with it — how many times you play games, and for how long. Unlike the Wii, the 3DS presents this data in an eye-catching graph format and can group the data into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly charts. The built-in [Activity Log](http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/built-in-software/#/6) also ranks your software usage on a number of different criteria, from total time played to longest individual play session. It's very thorough, perhaps needlessly so: Apparently I've viewed the system's Health & Safety Warning screen three times now. More impressive is the 3DS' built-in pedometer that measures how many steps you take every day. This, too, is presented as a bar graph and offers a glimpse of your physical activity. Unfortunately, there is no way to compare walking data with gameplay data, as the pedometer does not time your movements. But it's interesting to see. The system does not record your steps while it is open, only while the 3DS is in sleep mode. As an incentive to keep the 3DS in your pocket every time you leave the house, the 3DS system rewards you with a currency called Play Coins, giving you one for every 100 steps you take. You can spend these in certain games to buy in-game items. On the hardware itself, you can buy new AR Games to play or recruit Miis to fight for you in *StreetPass Mii Plaza*. Gamifying exercise, even if it's only walking, is a commendable idea. It's driven me to take a stroll on days I would otherwise spend indoors. However, you can only earn 10 coins per day, and your bank account is capped at 300. So far, those numbers seem small yet adequate — games rarely charge more than two or three coins per bonus item. *—Daniel Feit* __WIRED__ Tons of data; multiple graphing options; pedometer and Play Coins motivate you to exercise. __TIRED__ 10 coins per day feels stingy. Rating: 
08ar-games
AR Games -------- Hearkening back to Nintendo's origins as a maker of card games, each 3DS comes with a pack of cards that enable the system to do augmented reality — projecting videogame characters into the world around you. This is similar to Face Raiders, but requires you to place the AR Card on a flat surface, then point the 3DS directly at it. Once the handheld picks up the location of the AR Card, moving the 3DS around will let you get better views on the action unfolding virtually in front of you. The basic AR Game is a target-shooting contest in which you have to aim the camera at bull's-eyes (and eventually a dragon) that pop out of the surface. Soon after, you unlock other simple games like fishing and *[AR Shot](http://www.cubed3.com/review/950)*, a sort of combination of miniature golf and billiards. My favorite, though, is *[Graffiti](http://www.megapirateninjas.com/2011/02/3ds-graffiti-ar-game-video.html)*: Draw a 2-D picture on the touchscreen and it will become a 3-D model on the top. You can then use the slide pad and A button to make your drawing walk and jump. I expect artists to turn out some elaborate work here. These are cool tech demos, just the sort of thing you want to show to other people when they ask what the 3DS can do. But the games are so simple I can't see them holding my attention for very long after the launch. That said, they're a great proof of concept — augmented reality is a nifty feature of 3DS and it will be great to see beefier games use it. Imagine an entire role-playing game played out on your coffee table. *—Chris Kohler* __WIRED__ Excellent proof of concept: Augmented reality is fun. __TIRED__ Once you're over the gimmick, the games themselves aren't that great. Rating: 
09nintendo-3ds-camera
Nintendo 3DS Camera ------------------- Within a year, millions of consumers will own stereoscopic cameras that also happen to be pretty decent handheld 3-D content viewers. I'd call this a Trojan horse if I believed Nintendo was going to do much of anything to take advantage of this. Either way, Nintendo 3DS is a 3-D camera, another function that early adopters will use to wow jealous onlookers. The images the camera produces aren't that high in quality, but the 3DS does save them in the industry-standard MPO format, which you can open and manipulate with several freeware applications (we used [StereoSplicer](http://web.me.com/ijunji/Challenge!_REAL_3D_and_Mac_E/StereoSplicer.html) on Mac and [StereoPhoto Maker](http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/index.html) on PC). You can also view existing stereoscopic photos in this format by copying them to your SD card, although unlike the Nintendo DS Sound application, the 3DS camera requires that the pictures be renamed to a certain esoteric string of numbers and letters before it will recognize them. *—Chris Kohler* __WIRED__ Owning a 3-D camera is cool. __TIRED__ Low picture quality; must manually rename files from other sources before you can view them. Rating: 
