The tech also seems to eliminate the uncomfortable jitter that can crop up while watching 3D through glasses. In one scene Link's sword threw off a shower of sparks, an effect I've seen to cause that in some of the 3D shooter demos. Here, though, the sparks shone clearly, without any flicker. Not having to wear glasses also eliminates the jarring switch from looking through them to seeing parts of the world without them in your peripheral vision.

All of the demo simply featured Nintendo characters in static scenes that could be rotated with the new analog stick. The stick felt smooth and solid under my thumb. While not controlling game action, the movement of the scene related very comfortably to my thumb motion.

One potential drawback to the system is the limited screen size in the handheld format. While the screen looked great, it got crowded pretty quickly with 3D objects. In part, the depth of field control should help some by allowing the effect to be turned down for more complex scenes. I did find myself wishing it was a little larger, though; if only it used the larger body of the DSi XL. But from the long list of games announced, the graphics power that seems to almost rival Nintendo's home console, and clear, crisp 3D, the 3 DS will be a day-one purchase for many.