3D lessens 3DS battery time

With the Japanese day one software line-up now in place, more details about Nintendo’s 3DS are emerging – including confirmation that the 3D functionality comes at a price.

Andriasang reports that playing 3D enabled titles on the device reduces its play time to between three and five hours on a single charge. For DS games this increases to between five and eight hours.

It takes three and a half hours to fully charge the device.

It has also been revealed that enabling the 3D function on some games can have an impact on the performance of titles.

Siliconera reveals, for instance, that Team Ninja’s fighting title Dead or Alive: Dimensions will natively run at 60fps. Turn on 3D, however, and that decreases to 30fps.

In other new 3DS news, blog TinyCartridge has translated some interesting information about another brand new system included on the device – Game Coins.

If carried around the 3DS translates the number of steps taken by a user into a system-wide currency. It works much in the same way as the PokeWalker bundled with recent Pokemon titles. Game Coin will be compatible with "supported games".