The AR Cards are INCREDIBLY AWESOME ! ! !

You are instructed to take your set of 6 cards out of it's handy envelope holder. The cards are numbered as such:

A-1: Mario "?" Block

A-2: Mario

A-3: Link

A-4: Kirby

A-5: Samus

A-6: Pikmin

It first instructs you to put the "?" Card down on a flat, well-lit surface. You need a good amount of light. It then measures the distance between the camera and the card. You need to be about 14 inches away. (Resisting the urge to insert a joke here!) Countdown... 3... 2... 1... Three-dimensional Block grows out of your desktop or wherever you've placed the card! ...but then the sucker animates!! It does things like holds up targets or splits itself into 9 different blocks where you have to aim in 3D space to shoot the targets. This is gonna sound a tad childish, but I wasn't prepared for what happened next: The area around the card began to swell and buckle, like something was trying to break out of the desk top. I was like a little kid witnessing a magic trick! The desktop image "breaks open" and the block unfolds into a tropical island type of diarama scene where there are more targets to shoot... After that you encounter a DRAGON! HOLY CRAP!! SO!! FRICKIN'!! COOL!! I won't spoil anything else here, but (fuck yeah!) SEEING IS BELIEVING!!

Yup, I got about 4 hours sleep then jumped out of bed to play around some more!

I got out the Samus card, posed her on my desk top a few minutes and quit! I'm tired, but so extremely satisfied with this new little marvel!! I can't WAIT to hear all of yours impressions!!

More to come later!!

Everyone is up this morning!!

All of my original concerns have been put to rest!

• The 3D slider is NOT by default loose! I can see it loosening up with a lot of use, but I don't have a problem with the 3D, so I don't see the need for a whole bunch of adjusting!
• Having the 3D introduced TO you, while you are HOLDING it in your own, personal "sweet-spot" trains your eye IMMEDIATELY. Sure, there can be blurriness and double vision but --QUICK-- HOLD YOUR POINTER FINGER UP IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE... Blurred? Double-Vision? Yeah. It's natural... Your eyes adjust in real life, so why was I disappointed by this during my demo play?  
• The Slide-Pad is AWESOME and should (hopefully) be the default controller of choice for 3DS games. Once you play with IT, you won't have ANY tolerance for the d-pad anymore... Your days are numbered my little cross-shaped friend!!  
• The Home, Start, Select "Bar" has JUST enough resistance on my systems, neither too hard to press nor too loose where you can press it accidentally. PERFECT!
• The Shoulder buttons are a little small. On my blue system they are clicky and resistant, on my black system they feel fine, but don't click. Curious, but they all work fine!

More to come, later in the morning!

It has flipnote, right?  I spent hours with that app.

I entertained my nephew countless times with that.

Alright!

Now I know it is 1387 steps from my apartment, to my favorite coffee shop and back!

Played a bit of Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars.

Pictures just cannot do the games justice. I am not saying this is the best looking game ever, but pictures don't capture the minute details...

Can you make out the characters heads in this shot? How about the depth of the different levels or the colored lighting effects? Can you tell if that red arch in the upper right is laying on the soldier or if the soldier is standing underneath it? Or, who does that Cross Symbol belong to? The proof is in SEEING the game in action!

This is a game set in the Tom Clancy universe, but the characters have a cell-shaded look to them. It plays like an Advance Wars, turn-based strategy game, but units will fire on enemies in defense of other units within their area of action. I have only played the intro level, but it has some X-Com-ian effects to it too, like Line of Fire and for some reason, the fonts remind me of X-Com too; I'll have to confirm whether these are the same as Microprose's game or not!

More as I play more!

It's really hard to answer that. There is a "clean" aspect to the graphics. It is obviously better than any Nintendo portable, and higher resolution than any Nintendo console. It is very much a Nintendo creation unto itself!

...

People always get on me for pre-ordering. I want my games NEW, SEALED and WITHOUT price tags STUCK to the actual boxes! Peace of mind is TOTALLY worth saving $4 or $5 dollars to me! Even if a game sits around for a while, at least I know it is NEW and in good condition when I choose to open it!