This is something that's been on my mind for a while. I know needless gimmickry and pointless touch controls are a bugbear for a lot of people, but there are many games which, one way or another, make very good use of the system and use the stylus for direct interaction on screen to produce a great game which just wouldn't be the same with a pad or mouse. Nintendo found out very early in the development process that a 3D touchscreen was a no-no because something in the way of the screen screws up the 3D effect (which is going to give mobile phones a problem if they want to jump on the 3D bandwagon later down the line).
So what we have now is a large, wide 3D screen and a small touch screen. Previously, the screens have been identical and developers have been able to move the action to whichever one is most suitable. So if the touch screen is for selecting icons, the action is taking place at the top, if you need to be directly interacting with objects in the game (tapping out cubes in Picross, stroking your dog in Nintendogs, drawing lines for Kirby to run along, tapping targets in Point Blank) then the action can be on the bottom screen and the top screen can be used for something else - stats, filler art, whatever.
Are companies going to dare do this with the 3DS, when so much of the console's new appeal is in that top screen? If a game would benefit from direct interaction through the stylus, would a company have the player looking at the small, non-3D screen all the time and just use the 3D screen for stats and filler? Are we going to see the touch screen used more like a 'tablet', where your actions on the bottom screen are relayed to the top screen?
So what we have now is a large, wide 3D screen and a small touch screen. Previously, the screens have been identical and developers have been able to move the action to whichever one is most suitable. So if the touch screen is for selecting icons, the action is taking place at the top, if you need to be directly interacting with objects in the game (tapping out cubes in Picross, stroking your dog in Nintendogs, drawing lines for Kirby to run along, tapping targets in Point Blank) then the action can be on the bottom screen and the top screen can be used for something else - stats, filler art, whatever.
Are companies going to dare do this with the 3DS, when so much of the console's new appeal is in that top screen? If a game would benefit from direct interaction through the stylus, would a company have the player looking at the small, non-3D screen all the time and just use the 3D screen for stats and filler? Are we going to see the touch screen used more like a 'tablet', where your actions on the bottom screen are relayed to the top screen?