Nintendo is super-sizing their 3DS hand-held gaming console, announcing last night during their Nintendo Direct video that the Nintendo 3DS XL is coming in August.
The new 3DS XL is timed for release to coincide with the arrival of New Super Mario Bros. 2 on August 19. Retail price has been set at $199.99 with red and blue as the available colors at launch.
As you can see in the first images of the 3DS XL below, Nintendo has slightly modified the design to be more smooth and rounded than the original 3DS. In addition to the screens being 90 percent larger, the new 3DS XL has better battery life than its predecessor and comes bundled with a 4GB SD card.
What the new 3DS XL doesn’t have that fans have been screaming for is a second analog stick. This seems like a glaring omission as there is clearly space on the 3DS XL to fit one. With the add-on device for a second analog stick designed to fit the current 3DS, the new model will have no means of dual-analog stick support at launch.
Amazon pre-orders for the 3DS XL are not yet live, but I’ll update this article with the link when they are.
