Did You Board the Nintendo 3DS Hype Train?

Bean 1, since he can't use a 3DS, volunteered to drive the hype train.

Coffee Beans
When Game Stop started taking pre-orders for the 3DS back in December, I made a quick trip down to the store closest to my house on December 27, and put $50 down to reserve it.

Just today, I went back by that store and canceled my Nintendo 3DS pre-order.

Reserve receipt on left, 12/27/10; cancel receipt on right, 3/29/11...same associate both times.

Now, why did I cancel my 3DS pre-order?  Well, there are few reasons, and here they are:

     1)  Not super interested in any of the release titles.
     2)  School is now registering for Summer/Fall classes...which means MORE money for school.
     3)  The reports of the annoying 3DS black screen of death that are going around.
     4)  No Netflix or online shop channel, or web browser...yet.

Filtered Thoughts
While I have stated before I wasn't really interested in any of the release titles, the AR cards/games are still what I want to check out the most.

Saturday night, technically Sunday morning, I was chatting with Keith from RespawnAction.com, and he had just picked up a 3DS from a midnight release at GameStop.  It was between the time that he picked it up, and later when he was talking about it, that I saw the first reports about the 3DS' black screen of "death".  While I know the issue isn't "killing" the systems, I do think it's really odd for it to be happening, and it appears to be annoying for some new 3DS owners.

On Monday(yesterday), my college started doing early registration for Summer/Fall classes, and it looks like I'm going to be piling on the hours during at least the Fall semester.  More hours = more money.

The lack of Netflix isn't a big issue, but more of a feature that I'm looking forward to the system getting.  The lack of an online shop channel and web browser though, is really kind of a bummer right now, because once a browser is functional, hopefully I won't need to carry around my iPod Touch anymore...though I think it's going to be interesting to see how functional the 3DS browser really is.

I'm hoping in the next few weeks, that Nintendo figures out what exactly is causing the "black screen of death", and they can fix it with a firmware update quickly.  I'll be watching for any news on it, as that may be a determining factor for me moving forward.

Anyway, here are a few links to 3DS impressions, from people that purchased the system, and didn't have it "gifted" to them by Nintendo...at least that I know of:
     Keith - Nintendo 3DS Unboxing, First Impressions, SSFIV 3D Quick Look
     Tony - My First Day With the 3DS
     Gaz - Day One in the Life of a 3DS Owner
     The Dread Pirate Guy - 3DS Impressions - Day 1

Questions
If you didn't get to demo the 3DS before it released, and you purchased it, what are your impressions of it?  Is it worth the $250 ticket price to get on board?


Did you board the 3DS hype train?customer surveys


If you're interested in the Nintendo 3DS, but haven't purchased it yet, you can see prices for it on Amazon.com linked below: