20,000 steps, 70 hits, one weekend.
My first weekend with the Nintendo 3DS was an exciting event. I travelled to a pop culture convention called Supanova in Queensland, Australia. I had received my 3DS the Thursday before, and had spent the Friday messing around with all the different functions like the AR games. I was looking forward to trying to get some StreetPass experience while I was away, thinking a convention is probably the best way to get some hits. I was not disappointed.
Arriving at the airport, I turned on my wireless connection and hoped that I would soon be "hit." I kept checking it every fifteen minutes or so, but didn’t run into any at the airport. While on the plane I did take the opportunity to take a 3D picture of the wing, which I thought was pretty nifty.
Download for your 3DSWhen I finally got to the convention and after walking the length of the hall, I had at least eight StreetPass hits. Quite happy with the little time it took to gain so many hits, I went into the plaza and reaped my rewards. I soon had a bunch of new puzzle pieces and had gone up a level or so in the quest. I expected there to be other 3DS units present, but I was surprised at how many I ran into so quickly.
Over the next couple of hours I managed to rack up over thirty hits. It helped me complete more puzzles and move along in the quest mode. I was initially excited at seeing that some other people had added some music to their music StreetPass. Unfortunately StreetPassing music is not how I had imagined it. I was under the impression that when you StreetPass someone it would add their list of five songs to a list for you to see, and maybe help to introduce you to new artists and music. While it does save the data for you, there is no way to actually see what the other people had in their list. You have to wait until you hit multiple people with the same song, and it is then added to your hit parade. Over the weekend I ran into two people that had a Nickelback song, so that was shown on my list. It also shows you your musical compatibility with others. I was pretty let down with the music StreetPass, and find it to be almost useless despite being an interesting concept.
Download for your 3DSThe other feature I found myself using a lot were the 3D cameras. I never used the camera on my DSi, but have taken loads of them with my 3DS . Being able to take and view 3D pictures is a huge novelty, and its fun to mess around with the camera and see what kind of images you can take. I also discovered that while viewing pictures you can use the circle pad to adjust the depth of your images. If you move it to the right everything will be pushed back further into the screen, while if you move it more to the left, certain foreground images will appear to pop out more.
The next day it was discovered that in the StreetPass quest game, it is only possible to level up your character to seven. My girlfriend and I had been leveling up with each other since we had received the 3DS, currently the hits between us are over 15 with the character levels staying put.
Shameless plugBy the time we were leaving for the airport to return home, my 3DS had over seventy unique StreetPass hits. While I did run into a few people from the previous day, there were at least seventy different people with 3DS’s over the weekend.
The last feature I’ll mention is the pedometer. I hardly ever carried my DS or DSi in my pocket, but with the inclusion of the pedometer and StreetPass, I want to have my 3DS on me a lot more. Even when I know it was unlikely to get a hit, I keep it in my pocket to rack up more steps. Over the weekend I had racked up about 20,000 steps (and 30 coins)!
Download for your 3DSThese built-in features are quite addictive, and it's awesome to pull it out of your pocket and see the little green notification light. My first weekend with the 3DS was a great one, and I can’t wait to do it again.
