Nintendo 2DS review

[Administrator]

It's an indication of just how much the handheld gaming arena has changed in the past few years that Nintendo's shock announcement of the 2DS was greeted with such mirth and derision by the general public; once upon a time, the allure of new hardware from the Kyoto veteran would have been utterly irresistible to anyone who had experienced the joys of playing Tetris or Pokémon on their monochrome Game Boy, but these days Nintendo's dominance of the market it once ruled with an iron fist is under fire from all sides. The 3DS has more than proven its worth with some superb titles in 2013, but in terms of pure sales figures it's not the successor to the DS (still the world's best-selling handheld) the company would have wanted. Many gamers are ditching dedicated portable consoles in favour of convergent devices like smartphones and tablets, and the revenue generated by the likes of the App Store and Google Play market now eclipses sales of handheld software.
Given this background, it's perhaps unsurprising that many have balked at the very concept of the 2DS. By stripping away the one thing that made the 3DS unique in the face of its rivals - the glasses-free, auto-stereoscopic display - Nintendo has essentially admitted that the system was sold initially on a throwaway gimmick. In fact, it may well have dawned on the Japanese giant that the reliance on 3D could have been one of the reasons that the 3DS has struggled to emulate its illustrious forerunner, given the tabloid scare stories about the screen damaging the tender eyes of younger players. In hindsight, producing a console which appears to be off-limits to those under the age of seven wasn't the best marketing strategy ever, but Nintendo does at least appear to have acknowledged its mistakes - that's largely why the 2DS exists.
From a design perspective, the 2DS is a curious mixture of positives and negatives. On the white model we reviewed, the power and WiFi LEDs bleed through the casing in a disconcerting manner, reinforcing the view that this isn't a system that has been produced with pure looks in mind. The wedge-like shape has led the console to be compared unfavourably to a chunk of cheese, and the proliferation of plastic used in its construction makes it feel more akin to a child's plaything rather than a high-end, desirable device.
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