More pics of the 3DS Slide Pad Accessory

4gamer.net posted some new pics of the 3DS Slide Pad accessory. I have to say, the more I see of it, the better it looks. While I wouldn't say it's exactly stylish, it's not as bad as the first picture made it look.



I'm surprised after seeing these angle shots how curved & ergonomic it is. It's shaped like a console controller. Actually, it kind of reminds me of the accessories for the DS/PSP that tried to replicate the console controller feel-- like the PSP one I reviewed awhile back.



It also looks like it takes slight cues from the Wii U controller. But it's cool that it's curved & meant to fit in the hands at least a little, unlike the rectangular DS Lite design, which is more about looks than practicality.

And the shoulder buttons look robust! The bottom L + R buttons are big.

If anything, now that I've seen the controller from a couple angles, I'm less convinced that a 3DS redesign would come from it. This looks like an accessory-- not a direction that the actual handheld would take in design. I can't imagine Nintendo releasing a 3DS followup that would look like a console controller. Still, what do I know? Anything could happen, I guess...

I really hope that this accessory makes it out of Japan. For $19.99, and Resident Evil: Revelations, Monster Hunter 3G, Ace Combat: Cross Rumble supporting it (which I also hope makes it in the localized versions of the games)... and of course I'm hoping that a Star Wars Battlefront game gets announced someday, and other games support it too.... if these things come to pass, I'll honestly be first in line for this thing. I hope it comes in blue.

What's disturbing is that Nintendo didn't seem to even mention the accessory during their entire conference. Remember how Nintendo said that it was the enthusiastic positive initial response by gaming news journalists/bloggers when they revealed the 3DS which helped set the "premium" price for it? Maybe Nintendo pays more attention to the interwebz than we think.... so the huge negative backlash that initially came from that one picture of the accessory might have scared Nintendo. I hope it doesn't cause them to change course rashly--again....



later
don