Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announces Netflix for the 3DS handheld at Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March.
Photo credit: Nintendo

Nintendo launched the Netflix app for its Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system on Thursday, promising a lineup of 3-D movies in the near future.

The free application can be downloaded through the Nintendo 3DS eShop, which was launched in June. All Netflix subscribers with a streaming plan can now access the thousands of movies and TV shows available on the company’s Internet streaming video service through their 3DS.

The Netflix app has the capability to display in 3-D. When browsing through titles and fast-forwarding through videos frame by frame, the menus and icons pop out of the screen. However, the current content library contains no 3-D content. Nintendo said on Thursday that a “select” lineup of 3-D movies will be available “soon,” declining to give any more specifics.

Designwise, the 3DS app isn’t much to look at, but it gets the job done.

When you load up the app, the lower touchscreen is filled with an array of boxes — the first row is your Instant Queue and lower rows are recommendations and new releases. You can use the D-pad to move around, tap the top and bottom of the screen to shift rows and drag rows left and right (but not top to bottom) by sliding with the stylus. You can also use the L and R shoulder buttons to quickly scroll through rows.

As you highlight movies, their descriptions and larger box images quickly pop up on the upper screen.

Browsing through the menus was a little slow on my wireless connection, although once I gave it time to load all of the boxes and descriptions I could browse through them quite easily.

When you select a program, you can add it to your Instant Queue or play it immediately. Controls are simple during playback: tapping the screen pauses the film, and you can then drag a slider around to skip forwards and backwards. Again, it took a few seconds to load in the frame images for this feature.

You can play films and shows with subtitles and alternate language tracks if they support them, turning the options on and off before you start playback.

Since Nintendo 3DS only features a Wi-Fi connection, you must be connected to a hotspot to use Netflix.

Nintendo launched a separate service, called Nintendo Video, in Europe and Japan this week. It offers a small selection of short-form free content, no subscription required. Nintendo Video will launch in the U.S. later this summer, according to a 1up.com report. The service is region-locked: Wired.com tested it with our Japanese 3DS in San Francisco and the app said we were outside of the service area.

Available across a wide variety of devices including most game systems, Netflix’s instant streaming service has been a breakout hit. The company says that 24 million people subscribe to the streaming service, although that may change now that it has instituted a new pricing scheme.

The PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 game consoles account for 66% of all Netflix streaming, according to an independent study. Nintendo said 1.5 million Wii owners use the system to play Netflix on an average day.