The New Nintendo 3DS Announced

Last night, a Nintendo Direct swept Japan and in it was the announcement of an upgraded Nintendo 3DS, the “New” Nintendo 3DS.

Named like the New iPad a few years ago, the New Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL sports a ton up grades to the prior model:
-Second analog stick: a C-stick is in the corner of the right side of the device. It works like an old laptop numb, but will be used for all software that uses the Circle Pad Pro.
-Two extra shoulder buttons: ZL and ZR

-Micro SD Card support
-NFC Tech built in: amiibo support built in without any extra accessories

-Upgraded CPU: Games can be more powerful if exclusive to this device. Iwata announced that Xenoblade Chronicles will be ported to the New Nintendo 3DS. This was a port that Nintendo has wanted to do, but couldn’t due to the current 3DS’ CPU, so owners of the older hardware will be left out along with future New 3DS-only games (a preemptive nightmare for American stores).

-Upgraded 3D: The “Sweet Spot” for viewing it is enhanced greatly. The screen will no longer be blurry if you watch over someone’s shoulder.

-Themes: The main menu can be totally altered to look like a particular theme. The background, icons and music will change.
-Faceplates: like the Xbox 360, you can change the exterior of the device too.

-Web Browser: The more powerful CPU allows a much better web browsing experience from the device
-Transfer Wirelessly: Transfer music and images though your personal network. no SD card swapping needed.
-Faster Downloads: eShop purchases will download quicker.
The devices will launch on October 11th in Japan and 2015 in Europe. The ‘New’ systems stay relatively the same price-wise with the smaller 3DS retailing for 16,000 yen and the 3DS XL at 18,800 yen.