Japanese gamers reportedly sickened by 3DS at recent event, GamesRadar reserving judgement 'til tomorrow

We are, however, a little dubious of these claims at the moment. In fact we'd say it's way to early to worry about a Nintendo-induced pukecarnival. You see while the report, from Friday Magazine, claims that "over half the people" interviewed reported various cranial unpleasantries, its exact statistics aren't revealed.

The report claims that the majority of players questioned experienced dizziness and tired eyes rather rapidly, with one 30-year-old man stating that he had to switch the handheld's 3D display off altogether. Others said that the symptoms could be reduced by holding the device in a fixed position.

Rather worrying on the surface of it, but the thing is, we don't know how many people were actually surveyed. The magazine's claims of more than a 50% complaint ratio sound damning, but if that 50% breaks down to three out of 5 people in real numbers then it really doesn't matter. Similarly, if those comments about holding the machine still mean that some gamers were goonishly waving the thing around trying to see behind 3D objects like cavemen trying to work out where the sun was buried at night, that might explain some of the prolems they were having.

Basically, there are too many unknown variables in this story in the moment. And you can add to that list of unknowns the fact that we really don't know what kind of a magazine Friday is. It looks a little on the tabloidy side from the few images we've seen of it, but again we're basically guessing. Its typical game coverage could be hard-hitting Edge-style analysis, or it could be the Japanese equivalent of The Daily Sport.

So how can you know the truth? Simple. Just stick with GamesRadar. Matt and Justin are braving a stupid o' clock flight tomorrow morning to head over to Amsterdam, where they'll go hands and eyes on with the 3DS themselves. They'll return packing every bit of information you could possibly need, from hardware, to games, to quality of pixels and robo-eye-analysed framerates ifMr. Towellhas his way. And should either of them return to the office covered in vomit and tripping over furniture, we'll let you know immediately. Though if they do,it could just be because they'll have been in Amsterdam. Either way, the truth will out.

Thanks,The Magic Box

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.