The most obvious device to be touted the “3DS killer” by Sony fanboys and industry analysts alike, the PS Vita has enough power under the hood to bring you console-like experiences from flagship franchises such as Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet to a handheld. It’s also launching at a competitive price of $249 for the wi-fi model and $299 for the AT&T-powered 3G model, certainly putting any of your nightmares involving Giant Enemy Crabs to rest.

Debuffed
Need we remind you of the fact that at $249 and $299, the Vita will still be selling at a loss? Sony hopes to make up for these losses using their first-party and second-party software titles. While that’s all well-and-good, the Vita’s price-point is still pretty much locked at $249 and can’t drop any further. In contrast, the 3DS is now being sold for a profit thanks to the industry’s immensely positive response at E3 last year. The 3DS could certainly afford a big price drop if the sales figures call for it, and we wouldn’t be surprised if a 3DS sells for as little as $169 (which was the launch price for the DSi, and certainly more affordable for the dozens of denizen Pokémon fans waiting in queue) by Q3 2012.

Moreover, Nintendo’s line-up is pretty much… brutal. Replacing the disappointing launch titles, Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising promise to keep you busy till the end of the calendar year: it’s probably the first time that we’ve seen as many first party titles gracing a Nintendo handheld in its first fiscal year, with even more to come in early 2012 (Paper Mario, Luigi’s Mansion 2). Don’t forget third-party titles like Snake Eater 3D or Resident Evil: Revelations. As with the Wii U, Nintendo is targeting “core gamers” this time around, but with Nintendogs already keeping the casual crowd busy and Cooking Mama on its way, the 3DS also sports a much wider audience. Only time will tell if Sony has as good a line-up (which we find hard to believe at this point), if not, they’ll have more “boo”s heading their way than the one they got for announcing their ties with AT&T this E3.

The App Store and the Android Marketplace

The Angry Birds are out the get’cha! It’s the decade of multifunctional devices, and why bother carrying around a brick just to play games on it?

Debuffed
Ever heard of Pokémon? Yeah, those critters that have been all the rage since 1996. Or that italian plumber whose clone just topped the charts on the App Store, in addition to various useful applications, for example call recorder apps for iPhone? They best fit that shiny new handheld that just hit stores this spring. Face it: the 3DS may have an “ancient clamshell design” or sport a “prehistoric stylus” that we “haven’t seen since the last Palm handheld“, it’s a DS, a reincarnation of the Game Boy. It’s built for a crowd who love to play their games for hours on end – not for a short gameplay session on the bus or during recess. It’s not about flinging angry birds using a catapult or cutting ropes for a quick dosage of fun: it’s about depth and immersion. Games built for phones might top the charts, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re no better than flash games of the past generation – though a lot of them are rooted in pretty fun ideas. While a lot of people did have fun with Cooking Mama, Nintendogs and Clubhouse Games on their DSes, very few of us actually purchased the system for those games alone. Nintendo knows this, and the focus on core games on their newest handheld is proof of this.

Nintendo themselves

The only way the 3DS can shrivel up and die is if Nintendo makes a lot of mistakes. They seem to be respecting their core fans right now by keeping out the shovelware and giving them the software that they crave. But that’s just on the 3DS. That’s right, cue Operation Rainfall. Reggie & co. have outright denied the United States of America access to Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower on the Wii, leaving them with only Kirby Wii and their swan song for the system – Skyward Sword. If Nintendo wishes to stick to winning ways, they must look to appease the loyal fanbase who grew up respecting the company and its ideals – they need to show this multitude who cheer for them at E3 that they care not only about their money and sales figures, but also these big fans. They need to know that the big N cares for them, and Reggie’s team needs to reaffirm their belief that they truly are about “making games”. The 3DS is a winning formula for the company and Nintendo’s the only one who can mess things up henceforth. Here’s hoping the system lives up to their, and most importantly, their biggest fans’ expectations, because Ridge Racer isn’t gonna cut it