Top 10 games we want on the fancy new Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo's new handheld will be able to crank out 3D visuals without making you wear strange glasses. Probably using motion-tracking software and a nifty camera set-up, the 3DS will be able to give the sensation of perspective and depth inside its handheld screens.

But what games could actually benefit from the wacky new visuals? You only have to sit down with the full selection of 3D Hollywood blockbusters to see that not everything works when an extra dimension is stuck on.

Well, we had a good think, and here's the product of that contemplation: Pocket Gamer's most anticipated 3D Nintendo games.

The anthropomorphic fox and his Tales of the Riverbank buddies need to get out of retirement. They haven't been on an intergalactic mission since Starfox Command, but the 3DS could be the perfect home to their next adventure.

Imagine flying through dilapidated space-cities, asteroid belts, and lush tropical planets as obstacles come rushing towards you. And imagine Starfox's trademark gigantic bosses looming out of the darkness to envelop the screen.

3D could give the Arwing spaceships a very real feeling of floating about in space, shooting alien ships, and doing endless barrel rolls.

Saying that a new Nintendo device needs a Mario game is a little redundant. If Nintendo threw in the towel and resorted to electrical appliance manufacturing, I'd still say all its toasters and fridges needed new Mario adventures.

But gamers who played first-person platformer Mirror's Edge in 3D have come away pretty impressed. The sense of vertigo, the buildings barrelling towards you, and the knot in your stomach as you jump between rooftops are all very much enhanced by the 3D perspective.

Give us a new Mario 64 style romp and slide the 3D switch to 'on', and you might just have a killer new platformer.

Racing games work in 3D. It's just a fact of life. Back when Sony was showing off 3D technology on the PS3, the demos everyone was talking about were MotorStorm and Gran Turismo.

It just makes the cars pop off the screen, adds to the sense of speed, and makes you tilt your whole body with the track even more than usual. Which is perfect for this franchise because speed and wacky track design is what mental futuristic racer F-Zero knows best.

Then again, with loop-the-loops and upside down racing and harsh banks, playing F-Zero in 3D would probably make you puke faster than playing Virtual Boy on a roller-coaster. Nintendo might want to bundle that one with a free sick bag.

Greedy plumber doppelgänger Wario knows how to milk a franchise. Give him a Wii Remote, touch controls, a motion sensing cartridge, or a packet of Twiglets and he'll come back with hundreds of three-second microgames to play.

So I'm sure the malevolent money maker could come up with some cool time wasters with a 3D gimmick. You could slide a key in into a lock, drive a car into a garage or pick a gigantic 3D nose. It's not a Wario Ware game without picking a nose.

The Zelda series isn't much for annoying gimmicks: outside blowing into the DS microphone all the damn time, that is. But if there's some new technology out there, you can rely on the hero of Hyrule to find a judicious and sensible use for it.

I'm sure Nintendo can add some depth and perspective to bow and arrow fights, make the world of Hyrule really pop, and perhaps even create a new dungeon concept or item that could only be pulled off in 3D.

Or Nintendo could do a 3D Zelda horse racing game. That's also possible.

First-person shooters are another 3D favourite. With guns and bullets protruding out the screen, and enemies and obstacles realistically slotting into the firefight, games like Left 4 Dead 2 have enjoyed an extra injection of immersion with a new layer of depth.

Which would be perfect for Nintendo's premier shooter series, Metroid. Perhaps the game could even incorporate Samus's visor so you really feel like you're in the Power Suit as you turn your head.

Plus, the morph ball could be given a new lease of life with an extra dimension, and Metroid's penchant for puzzles could introduce some wacky new 3D brain teasers.

Much of Picross 3D's enjoyment is seeing your finished creation get splashed with colour, come to life and explode into a 3D object.

But what if that three dimensional dog you just chipped away at was like a real object floating in front of your eyes? That'd totally be worth the extra development time and cost, right?

Still, Picross 3D is all about flattening the 3D puzzle to 2D cross sections and working on them layer by layer. But with a little 3D kick you could really delve in there and poke out the wrong blocks like keyhole surgery on a blocky, LEGO-style lung.

Flying around the countryside, cities and aircraft carriers in eye popping 3D is all well and good, but its this SNES game's second event that would really benefit from an extra dimension: skydiving.

Imagine hanging from a helicopters rope ladder and looking down to see the ground so far out the back of your 3DS that its painted on the floor. Then as you freefall down and manoeuvre your skydiving champ, the world moves in stomach-churning 3D before you pop the parachute which flies up and hits the player in the eye.

Finally you land on the ground, get awarded some points for style and then puke up in the nearest dustbin. Success.

Mario's paper RPG is all about flattening the world's favourite plumber and plopping him in a patchwork world.

But Super Paper Mario on the Wii kicked this into high gear, as tapping a button would rotate the camera from side-scrolling platformer to tunnel vision 3D adventure.

Well, forget buttons, sonny, this is the 3DS! You could literally move the console around to spy objects and enemies that are hidden behind the level's objects.

"Be careful when walking in the long grass," says a helpful Pokeland denizen. But it's not until that grass flies out the screen and tickles your retina that you realise the true terror of elongated flora.

That's it, I'm afraid. Not everything's going to get magically more enjoyable, immersive and innovative when you add an extra layer of depth.

Sure the Pokebattles will be more striking than ever, and giant Charizards looming out the screen could make you crap your Pokepants, but Nintendo's critter-collecting RPG probably wouldn't get much benefit for 3D.

In some cases, as in the world of film, 3D will turn out to be a bit of a gimmick.