This wishy-washyness hasn't prevented everyone with a keyboard and an ego from attempting to say just exactly how the L and R triggers or face buttons or the bottom row of buttons or whatever on this new hunk of plastic feel, opinions spouted off after three seconds of manhandling the device. They "click," "have some give," "feel good," and are "better" than the other ones, while occasionally being "bad" and "the worst." I can't say that I have the answers to each thing, individually. I am not really an "analytic" writer when it comes to crap like this. The best way, that I have been thinking, I could sum up the 3DS XL, is like this: "matte." It's a matte mother fucker! If the original 3DS felt hard, felt slick, angular, sharp, the XL is its softer, bigger friend, the confident teddy bear. He knows how to use what he has, he will allow you to feel it. inside you
Part of that, I think, is that of course the entire thing just feels matte. It's got that lightly textured surface everywhere (except the smooth exterior, which manages to be smooth but also matte somehow?! like a pebble or somethin). But the feeling of the buttons, the way your hands push and interact with the whole shebang, also "feels" "matte." Perhaps most notably, the directional pad has more travel but also terminates in the clicky, surface-mounted buttons like the GBA SP, the DSi, and the original 3DS. I think the reason for these clicky d-pads is probably two-fold.
Firstly, the hard metal acuators on the circuit boards that cause the "clicks" are much more resistant to wear than the rubber/connective metal setups used on all Nintendo's legacy systems as well as the first GBA, the GB micro, and the DSL. The second reason though, if I had to field a guess, is probably system space. Those rubber pads require a not-insignificant amount of clearance to allow the Give that makes them feel right, and this thing is thin. And yet, even the clicky d-pad, which I traditionally kinda hate, feels nice and matte on the XL. It seems a little bigger, a little more willing to do what you want, less binary, less fixed. The extra distance between the d-pad and the bottom edge of the system also grants it with a luxury the original didn't provide: more extra space for your thumb to merely "exist," meaning that if you come at the pad diagonally from the bottom left corner with your thumb, instead of from the side, you'll be able to use it without having your thumb bent at the knuckle, a much more natural feeling.
One thing that I have to mention is that because of the increased distance, it's kind of hard to position your hands in a way such that your left thumb is on the d-pad while your left pointer finger is on the L button. It's exceedingly more comfortable to just rest your pointer finger on the back of the system, allowing for that diagonal reach I mentioned, so you don't have to bend your thumb to hit the pad. Using the Circle Pad of course allows you a nice comfortable grip on the L button. I can't really think of a ton of d-pad games that will require you to be using the L button all the time, but it's something worth noting (maybe for GBA stuff?).
Going back to the original 3DS after using the XL only long enough to do the system transfer and fiddle with a couple games made it feel like the 3DS Mini, which is kind of interesting. Part of the weirdness is that the XL honestly does not feel all that much bigger while you're using it than the 3DS does. And yet, the screens feel enormous, seem to occupy much more of the surface area than they did originally, seem to really draw you in. Even now, as its gentle blueness sits here at work charging away, I am hard-pressed to say it actually looks any bigger than the original did in the same place, without the benefit of having it next to me to compare. But then you open it, and you are like "HOLY GOODNESS."
Are people willing to read this many paragraphs about the 3DS XL? One thing about it is that the screens are better, colorwise. Where the original 3DS screens were icey, cool, tending toward the blue spectrum of vibrance, the new screens also have that warmer, "matte" feel, pushing more towards the reds, the browns, more rich. There is a lot of Internet scared-dom about the screens being "yellow," which people tend to fear I think in the same way that people fear vinyl records. I don't want to be a tool and say that the Warmth is worth it, but that's ultimately how it comes across, I think. The colors don't feel worse, but almost—in the same way the second-gen GBA SP added richness—more accurate. The muted browns of the original 3DS system menus were replaced with a full, nutty Walnut! OH GOD what am I even saying.
People concerned about the "dpi" or "ppi" or whatever, I mean, I think I am generally pretty picky about this crap, and I am not gonna say that the screen, now the same size as the Vita's screen, looks as clear as that one does. But by and large, the bigger pixels just add to that matte feeling, and are not distractingly "inferior." Far from it—the screen seems softer, more akin maybe to looking at an N64 game on a really crisp S-Video feed or something, only the graphical detail, the polys we're pushing here, is more than what that system could do. I don't mean to say it looks anti-aliased into oblivion, though... in the 2D mode, the display is exceedingly crispy. But when you turn on the 3D, you get that softness that sorta smooths things out, makes them have that soft depth that helps you look into the distance.
Maybe this is a good time to mention the 3D, which is almost so much more impressive on these big-ass screens that it's hard to emphasize. Simply put, more screen means more area you're looking into, and consequently more depth. It feels like the "lightbox" is bigger, at the same distance, less like you're looking into a little diorama and more like you're looking down the hallway, since more of your field of vision is occupied by them big honkers. Even small things, like the world map on Find Mii, expose layers of 3D now that I barely even noticed before. Ocarina of Time was like a bizarre mother fucking revelation, even just on its intro crawl. Now that people have seen "the 3D," now that they have that touchstone, maybe it's easier to relate it in text, but it just expands that field of view, makes it feel more around you, more present. I made Jessy get her ass over here to check it out, I was like Oh My, hey check this out. Of course, the drawback is that now that everything is bigger, the "sweet spot," where your eyes are in exactly the right positions, is a little smaller than it was originally. Part of that is because the display is just huge, you see everything a little better resolved now. If you play it like I often do, kinda resting in your lap, you will virtually never tilt it from side to side and it becomes a non issue. But if you're really holding it up there, I don't know, you're all shaky or some shit, maybe this would be a problem? But not really, I am just sorta nitpicking.
The increased screen size mercifully also means that legacy titles are now playable in their original pixel modes in basic equivalents to their original hardware. Minish Cap and Wario Land look just like they did back on the good old SP, and I even threw in Dragon Quest VI for the DS, checking it out both in pixel mode and stretched. The new pixel mode is almost equivalent to the 3DS stretched, only now it looks great. The new stretched is sort of like gazing into the nipples of the future without wearing corrective lenses. That's a useful description, right? Anyway, the pixel mode. Use that one, not that the other one is bad, just that it is sort of, I DON'T KNOW MAN. They are both fine. You like that 1:1? Good, you can use it now without getting out your reading glasses.
The clicking as you open this thing is sure snappy too. If you remember like, the old DS, how you'd open it, and the first position would be the "first click," and then if you pushed it totally flat open, it'd have that sort of resistive final click? Well the first click now is the new 90 degree type position, and the normal way you'll play it, the second click back, feels kinda like that old final click used to. Only there is YET ANOTHER click, the fully open one, after that. When you slam it shut, there is the slight sound of undampened plastic, not fully absorbed by the rubber pads, the inertia briefly clacking it together with another part of itself, a civil war, a disagreement, but only for a moment, then it dissolves. Once it's together it feels solid, compact, it feels right, so right. The screen doesn't seem to hit against anything else, I don't have any marks or anything but I guess we'll see how long it lasts? There's a generous enough gap in there via the bumpers that seems to prevent the screens from rubbing together even when I apply a little force to the top, so that's good.
Maybe all that anything like this, this WALL of letters can accomplish, is trying to encourage someone that hasn't yet actually experienced this thing for themselves, to understand what it is like. With stuff like heaven and love and all that you'd never know if I was full of shit, because they're all different things to different people, and you can't just go to a store and buy hell, so you'd never know. Thankfully you can discover what a Nintendo 3DS XL is like to use by merely using one. Until then, imagine it using this crap I typed, as you unbutton your little shirt-wristbands.