We’ve never really been fans of the idea of buying an expensive ticket for a concert only to spend the 2 hours or so it’s likely to last holding some sort of recording device up in the air, watching the whole thing through the lens of a screen. Call us old fogeys, but to us, concerts are one of few experiences in life where you can truly live in the moment, forget about everything on the outside, and just get lost in the music.
Having said that… If we were to record a concert, you can bet we’ll be taking a leaf out of a few Nintendo fans’ books and using our 3DS consoles to do so. We know what you’re thinking: the quality would be awful, right? Well, yeah. But that hasn’t stopped others from doing the same. As reported by IGN
Here’s a peek at what said footage actually looks like:
Pretty poor quality, right? The maximum resolution of 640×480 pixels for the 3DS camera isn’t exactly going to pick up on the finer details, but here’s the thing; it’s in 3D. Sure, there were a few phones that sported a 3D screen before the fad died a quick death, but the 3DS has endured in a way that precious few other 3D devices could hope to do. It provides a certain charm to video recordings that’s unlikely to replicated anywhere else, despite the obviously poor quality.
Here are a couple of other accounts of people using 3DS consoles at concerts:
IGN reached out to the chiptune-based band Anamanaguchi to get a comment on the bizarre emerging trend. Having had plenty of experience with gaming-related music in the past – including composing the entire soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game – Anamanaguchi was unsurprisingly enthusiastic about the trend:
“Yeaa it’s sick. Been happening at our shows for a while now but definitely seeing it more and more. Honestly it’s always way more hype footage than the like iPhone 15 front row super stable full set in 4K HD footage lol. Love 20 seconds of bassboosted deep fried totally shredded DS audio. The audio gets so wrecked, it always takes us a second to figure out what song of ours it is loll but it sounds and looks so good.”
The band also put out the following request on Twitter regarding the trend, joking with IGN that it would create a ‘Live on 3DS’ album and put it on vinyl:
“if you take footage of us live with a Nintendo 3DS, you are legally obligated to send us the footage. maximum penalty will be pursued for those who refuse to comply.”
Despite how awesome this clearly is as a strange, albeit likely brief trend, we can’t help but feel a tad anxious about the whole thing. After all, concerts are exceptionally busy places and it’s only a matter of time before some poor 3DS owner drops their console onto the sticky floor, guaranteed to be trodden on by an over-enthusiastic music lover. Phones can be replaced fairly easily these days – costly, perhaps, but easily – but 3DS consoles are slowly but surely dwindling since Nintendo discontinued the device in 2020. If one of those things gets lost in a sea of concert goers, that may well be it.
Anyway, what do you think of this emerging trend? Have you tried it yourself? We’d love to see the footage, if so! Share your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.
