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Nintendo 2DS announced by Nintendo for entry-level gaming


If you’ve been eyeing the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system, but aren’t interested in the higher price or its 3D functionality, Nintendo just announced a product for you… maybe.

Today, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 2DS, a handheld gaming system that allows you to play all of the 3DS games on the market, but without the 3D viewing option. It will go on sale for $129.99 USD on October 12.

All other functionality of the 3DS is kept in this new version; you’ll still be able to connect to the Internet via WiFi, play local multiplayer, and download games from the Nintendo eStore. It’s also backwards-compatible with Nintendo DS titles.

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There is, um, one major difference. Unlike the Nintendo 3DS, or the previous generation’s Nintendo DS, there’s no clamshell design, allowing you to close the system and keep your screens protected. Like the Gameboys of yore, your screen will be exposed to the elements (until you invest in a Nintendo-branded or third-party case, of course). And by elements, I mean the keys in the bottom of my purse, which have a knack for finding scratchable screens.

“Imagine a standard 3DS laid all the way flat, and with the depth slider all the way down,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told IGN. “Everything else is there in the system.”

Fils-Aime also told IGN that the system is targeted at younger gamers, the five-and-six-year-olds, who are below the recommended age for safely using the stereoscopic viewing functionality on the 3DS.

Other changes include the removal of a physical WiFi switch. Users will now have to turn off WiFi using software controls. There’s also only one speaker, so sound will be in mono instead of stereo.

As we learn more about this newly announced system, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

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