So, around last august I made a thread asking for advice regarding the purchase of either an XL or a Vita. I went the Vita route despite being a little bit doubtful of the hardware at the time. Eventually I stopped using my 3DS almost completely and got rid of it. I had the intention of waiting a bit, hopping on a XL sale at some point and letting more games I was interested in be released.
So flash forward to the present with Soul Hackers coming out I figured this would be the time to strike especially with that Target sale. I think I've made a mistake. I sat on it for a while, figuring I'd open it when SMT came out, but something nagged at the back of my head to check it for defects before it may be too late to return. So tonight I cracked open the box and dug into it, rather excited, and my initial impressions are complete and utter disappointment.
What happened here? I was impressed by how light the unit is, but not in a necessarily pleasant way. It feels incredibly flimsy and cheap, rather than sturdy it feels like it could snap if I torque on it with relative ease. This was made worse when I opened the clamshell for the first time and realized how off balance the unit is. Somehow it feels like all the weight is in the top of the screen, it feels awkward and thin. Every button on the machine is mushy and squishy, there's absolutely no responsiveness to any of the inputs. Compare this to the incredible tactile sensation of the Vita's face buttons or even the original 3DS and something is gravely amiss here. I can't even tell when I've registered a press on the power button. The clamshell design doesn't even fully close. There's no lip to the outer rim of the top screen so there's a visible gap between the top and bottom screens when closed. Sliding the slide pad around feels like it's gliding on low grade paper. The stylus is a major downgrade from the 3DS as well. What used to be a slick metal telescoping stylus has become a cheap piece of badly molded plastic.
The screen? The screen is probably the worst part of this thing. I'll be the first to throw stones at the Vita's grainy, vertical line ridden, mura plagued, burn in inducing oled but this thing? This is ridiculous. There's this persistent shimmer that glitters across the screen. At first I thought this was just the 3D effect being at a bad angle, but no, this effect persists in 2D mode as well.
What in the hell happened here? I know I'm probably being overly critical here, and this whole post is incredibly reactionary but this is honestly one of the worst pieces of hardware I've ever purchased. This is definitely not the norm in my experience of buying many, many Nintendo handhelds.
I'm not sure what to do here. I'm tempted to return this for another regular 3DS but after getting used to the larger screen sizes on my other devices, that size just isn't adequate or enjoyable to play on.
Was the XL just some grand cost cutting maneuver or something? The existence of this thing has me scratching my head.
So flash forward to the present with Soul Hackers coming out I figured this would be the time to strike especially with that Target sale. I think I've made a mistake. I sat on it for a while, figuring I'd open it when SMT came out, but something nagged at the back of my head to check it for defects before it may be too late to return. So tonight I cracked open the box and dug into it, rather excited, and my initial impressions are complete and utter disappointment.
What happened here? I was impressed by how light the unit is, but not in a necessarily pleasant way. It feels incredibly flimsy and cheap, rather than sturdy it feels like it could snap if I torque on it with relative ease. This was made worse when I opened the clamshell for the first time and realized how off balance the unit is. Somehow it feels like all the weight is in the top of the screen, it feels awkward and thin. Every button on the machine is mushy and squishy, there's absolutely no responsiveness to any of the inputs. Compare this to the incredible tactile sensation of the Vita's face buttons or even the original 3DS and something is gravely amiss here. I can't even tell when I've registered a press on the power button. The clamshell design doesn't even fully close. There's no lip to the outer rim of the top screen so there's a visible gap between the top and bottom screens when closed. Sliding the slide pad around feels like it's gliding on low grade paper. The stylus is a major downgrade from the 3DS as well. What used to be a slick metal telescoping stylus has become a cheap piece of badly molded plastic.
The screen? The screen is probably the worst part of this thing. I'll be the first to throw stones at the Vita's grainy, vertical line ridden, mura plagued, burn in inducing oled but this thing? This is ridiculous. There's this persistent shimmer that glitters across the screen. At first I thought this was just the 3D effect being at a bad angle, but no, this effect persists in 2D mode as well.
What in the hell happened here? I know I'm probably being overly critical here, and this whole post is incredibly reactionary but this is honestly one of the worst pieces of hardware I've ever purchased. This is definitely not the norm in my experience of buying many, many Nintendo handhelds.
I'm not sure what to do here. I'm tempted to return this for another regular 3DS but after getting used to the larger screen sizes on my other devices, that size just isn't adequate or enjoyable to play on.
Was the XL just some grand cost cutting maneuver or something? The existence of this thing has me scratching my head.
