Nintendo Producer Talks 3DS Shape, Tag Mode

Nintendo producer Hideki Konno, of Mario Kart and Super Mario fame, recently talked 3DS development and hardware design.

In an interview with Wired Game|Life, the Mario Kart producer disclosed a few details on Nintendo's tasty new hardware, including a little more on the potential benefits of the "tag mode".

The feature, embedded in the 3DS itself and designed by Konno, lets games that have it enabled to save data directly on the console. Players will be able to see that they've communicated with other owners without having to keep the cartridge in the slot and running. Nintendo hope that this might encourage players to come back to a tagged-enabled game if they receive new data from others.

Konno also hopes that software will also push the motion control found in the 3DS, with the hardware offering similiar capabilities to the Wii Motion Plus.

Finally, he confirms that the shape and design of what's been shown is near enough what will hit the market - unlike the original DS prototype.