YUCK! It looks worse than I thought, basically Nintendo made the 3DS into xbox big duke controller. The color doesn't even match the 3DS, it's off. No way I'll buy this crap

Lovin the game gear aesthetic

I got a "no comment" about the future of the 3DS when I first heard about this and am wondering if there's going to be another version of the 3DS come'n out.  I kind of hope not... or at least they wait until later next year when they have a solid game base to stand on so they don't have to do another "punch yourself in the gut" price drop.  (Even though they are probably still making money off of it at $169 knowing Nintendo.)

Nice curves!

Another thought is the realization of what happened when Nintendo released the Wii Motion Plus and while it's cool, not many game devs utilized it and stuck with what came with the Wii to begin with.  Hopefully, this may actually spur devs to make games instead of them just making games and ignoring it.

In case it's not obvious, I'm in favour of this because it does silence some complaints about the 3DS I've heard from other people and it needing a 2nd joystick.  Oi, some people are never pleased.  I second the comment about it reminding me of the Game Gear.

It looks big and comfy. I wouldn't mind too much lugging one around if I want more inputs and a bigger grip for certain games.

Everyone seems to be complaining "Oh, now I'm gonna have to buy the next iteration that incorporates this frankenstein monster into a sleek form factor."  As a launch-day 3DS owner, I can definitely sympathesize with this sentiment. 

But I think I question no one is really asking is not "if they're going to do it," but instead "how in the world are they going to do it?"

Seriously.  The 2nd circle pad, that's easy.  It'll probably go right under the face buttons.  But I'm looking at my 3DS right now, and wondering where in the world would they fit those extra shoulder buttons?  Right under the current ones?  You can't fit it there, or you would be accidentally hitting both L1/R1 and L2/R2 together all the time.  That space is really tight because of the hinge.  Are Nintendo going to have a bit of plastic protrude, like little devil horns, in order to fit the extra buttons?  That'd be crazy.    Will they completely abandon the current clamshell formfactor all-together, or make it thicker just to accomodate the added triggers?

at first I hated this thing, but you know what? I really don't know why. It's just not that bad.

haha
Do you mean the background?

They could place them next to the current ones like the classic controller is laid out.

Looking at the ZL and ZR shoulder buttons, they make it look like they could be analog-based. Is this true, or are they just normal buttons?

From people who've held it, they say it's "feels great and is much better than expected, feels like a PS3/Xbox controller".


I just missed out on touching it, only saw it through glass.

I like the idea if it makes it all more comfortable to hold. Leave it home for playing games there, take it off so the system is still nice and portable when I go out.

That said, I worry that the buttons are hard to reach now. Any thoughts on that?