At around Midday yesterday, Nintendo released a video of their President, Satoru Iwata, announcing a load of new features for the 3DS at a pre-recorded conference. Sounds confusing enough? Well, all that really matters is a whole host of exciting new features were announced for their latest handheld, all of which will be added free of charge in an upcoming system update. Excited? Read on to find what lies in store...
Nintendo promise more uses for these this November!
The first announcement was that of some new StreetPass levels, which will be added to StreetPass Quest and the Puzzle Swap mode in the Mii Plaza. We finished StreetPass Quest and the Puzzle Swap mode many months ago - at least partially thanks to the various games-related events we attend, where there's a high concentration of other journalists, all with a 3DS - and some of you may find yourselves in a similar position now, having racked up the last few Mii hats from StreetPass Quest, and successfully tracked down the last few elusive Puzzle Swap pieces. Until now, there was very little you could do after you'd finished the built in games, despite your Mii StreetPass Plaza's growing numbers - but, thankfully, at least one of the features coming in the next update is some more StreetPass stuff. Nintendo are adding a new dungeon for your acquired Miis to explore, as well as some new puzzles for you to start swapping with the people you meet - hooray!
Taking advantage of the console's dual cameras, the new update will also allow you to record video in 3D, letting you take up to ten minutes of three-dimensional footage, and even "enable[s] people to create their own 3D stop-motion animation videos" - which should mean something to those of you who grew up in the late eighties, early nineties and even earlier, seeing as every kids' TV show seemed to be stop-motion at the time. Thanks to the 3DS, you can now recreate your favourite episodes of Pingu, Postman Pat and Charlie Chalk in 3D. Stop-motion clay animation was also used in the Wallace and Gromit episodes and the Chicken Run film - which brings us nicely to the next point.
While we're on the subject of 90s kids TV shows, am I really the only person who remembers the Fiddley Foodle Bim Bam Boodle Ooo Tiddley Doodle Oodle Bird?
Early next year, your 3DS, through the Nintendo Video application, will see a set of hilarious and exclusive 3D Shaun the Sheep shorts from Aardman beamed straight to your 3DS via SpotPass. That might seem like a bit of a wait, so you'll be pleased to hear that in the mean time, there's also a series of unique 3D video clips from Red Bull (please not those annoying 'Red Bull gives you wings' fat angel adverts...), as well as a WATTS sports videos from Eurosport, which their blog assures me is "the good, the bad, the ugly and the oh-so-funny of sport".
And last, but certainly not least, is the news that the update will also include a Nintendo Letter Box application, which allows you to send text, alongside 3D photo and video to your friends, via either SpotPass or StreetPass, hopefully adding some much needed use to the built in Friends List.
There's no fixed date for the update as of yet - all we know is it's due sometimes before the end of November. Hopefully, all will be clearer in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more 3DS updating goodness.
