Yesterday, when the 2DS was announced, some outlets made sure to tell folks that it was not, in fact, a joke. But it kind of sounded like one, right? Enough that it shouldn’t be surprising that someone predicted something much like the 2DS years ago — 2011 to be exact — as an April Fools joke.
“Folks, be ready to be amazed. Not shortly after Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS, they have dropped another bombshell. It’s soon to be the age of the Nintendo 2DS,” David Murnan wrote on RF Generation, right before presenting the mock-up you see above. “Face it, 3D was so 2010. You know that, I know that, and certainly Nintendo knows that. That’s why we have been graced by this announcement. The Nintendo 2DS offers to provide the best that a 2D Dot Matrix can provide,” he jokingly continued.
Obviously, not a serious post… and yet you can’t help but chuckle at how accurate even just the mock-up is, no? Compare to the actual 2DS; it’s not an exact-exact match — the colours are different (it’s Game Boy themed) and the placement of the buttons is slightly off — but still close enough to raise eyebrows, yeah?
Goes to show… maybe we shouldn’t be so sure the absurd ideas people come up with on April Fools could never be a reality!
Nintendo 2DS: The Future [RF Generation, via Wario64]
Comments
17 responses to “The 2DS Was Predicted Years Ago… As An April Fools’ Joke”
This is the first time i’ve seriously considered buying a 3DS (well, 2DS, but you know what I mean). People keep saying this isn’t for us it’s for kids they are the ones that want it, but what i see, is a handheld i was never going to leave the house with anyway (so less portability isn’t a problem), at a cheaper price, and without the feature i’ve never liked to begin with, right when the first Pokemon in a long time i’ve been interested by is about to come out. What’s not to like?
Do whatever you have to to bring the price down and keep the core features Nintendo, it works for me.
finally, somebody that actually has a brain on this freaking site!
If it lets you play…then go for it! 🙂
This is exactly my reasoning aswell.
All i want it for is to play the new Pokemon, this 2DS suits me perfectly and I will finally buy one because the 3DS has always just been out of my price range to pick one up to play 2 or 3 games.
Exactly right. I was begrudgingly going to have to buy a 3DS to play Pokemon, Animal Crossing with the missus, and Luigi’s Mansion 2. I didn’t want to buy that dinky thing, but the 2DS is incredibly appealing to me. The throwback of a handheld console that doesn’t fold agrees with me.
Who actually carries handhelds in their pockets? The original GameBoy was hardly pocket sized, simply portable. Even the GB Pocket was almost a misnomer. If I’m carrying a portable console with me, it will be in a backpack or laptop bag. If I’m going somewhere and not taking a bag with me, I won’t be needing a portable console anyway.
People seem to have determined that if a system is portable, and handheld, that it must also be pocket-sized. But, examining the history of handheld gaming consoles, this has rarely been the case. GBA SP/Micro, DS Lite and PSP at a stretch… If people can take tablets on the train, they can take one of these. This slab of plastic will suit my needs just fine.
But wasn’t 3D a core feature?
Yes, but it was a core feature that needed to be turned off for children as it is bad for developing eyes. Seeing as they are the target demographic for this model, then it’s a perfectly reasonable way to cut costs.
ANIMAL CROSSING, YESSSSSSSSS!
Considering the Pandarian race in World of Warcraft was once a April Fool’s Day joke by Blizzard, yeah, it’s not the first time.
Or what about when Ubisoft announced Blood Dragon as a real product and people thought it was an April Fools joke.
Didn’t it become a real product after it was announced as an April Fool’s joke and people overwhelmingly thought it was awesome?
Pretty sure this was the case…
No, I don’t think so. I think the images just happened to get leaked a few days before April. I remember reading an article somewhere where one of the devs said that the fact people automatically assumed Blood Dragon to be a joke showed how much the industry took itself too seriously. The game came out in May as well, and despite it being a little more than a neon-modded FC3, I don’t think one month would have been enough to make the game a reality.
Frankly it’s not really that important, it’s an awesome game none the less and one of the best expansions ever made.
Best non April fools joke!
Thw 2Ds 2 screens are actually one big touch screen with plastic bits separtating them giving the illusion of 2 screens.Why they didn’t just release it as a tablet that was compatiable with 3DS software is beyond me.
The pictures on this link are worth looking at.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/how-the-2ds-could-have-been-nintendos-first-true-portable-tablet/
i actually think they probably had to keep the two screens separate, rather than one big screen. To make all the games compatible i mean. If they had one big screen they’d either need to patch every game to change the layot of the screen to allow for the larger screen…
When Farcry 3: Blood Dragon was leaked everyone (including myself) thought it was just an april fools joke, it didn’t fit the theme of the Farcry series at all and yet that become and awesome relailty 😀
I bought a 3ds a year ago…just for animal crossing new leaf. …I don’t use the 3d feature much but the easy portability is what I like
I love my 3DS and I hate the 3D.
If Nintendo released a 2DS with the original GameBoy styling on it… I’d be throwing money at them for it!
Will it have a better battery life, I wonder?