How to Overcome Eye Fatigue When Playing the Nintendo 3DS

All forms of 3D entertainment have one huge drawback: eye fatigue. Even the most resilient of folk will, after an extended period of time at looking at 3D content will begin to experience tiring eyes, and perhaps even a headache. It's an unfortunate side effect and the Nintendo 3DS is not immune to this.

Ideally everyone would simply stop spending extended periods of times looking at a 3D display, but that sort of advice rarely sinks in. People are going to play the Nintendo 3DS for hours on end to get fully immersed in the experiences. At the very least, there are a few ways to avoid eye fatigue during this time.

Now, one of the best features of the Nintendo 3DS is that you can enjoy 3D effects without the need for those goofy glasses. But alas, perhaps it's better to look goofy and keep your eyes in check? That's what GUNNAR believes, a company who manufactures the i-AMP glasses designed for enjoying stereoscopic 3D content for long periods of time. They're not specifically designed for the 3DS, but they're confirmed to work perfectly with the system. This is their official description:

Our main product line, the i-Amp lens solution, is optimized for viewing digital screens in various situations, whether its the game marathons or staring at a monitor in the office for hours on end. Our glasses will work to enhance the experience with autostereoscopy displays and help to reduce eye fatigue from straining to view the screen for long periods of time.

But there's not that much of a need to buy external products unless you're really keen to beat eye fatigue while still enjoying 3D content because Nintendo has actually built-in the ultimate anti-eye fatigue combatant. Simply called the "3D Slider," this toggle allows you to easily adjust the intensity of the 3D on the fly so you can put it on the maximum level, or even turn it off completely. This allows you to either find a comfortable medium, or resort to 2D gaming on occasion to give your eyes a rest.

David Turnbull is a Nintendo 3DS enthusiast who wants to make it easy to buy cheap Nintendo 3DS games and hardware.