Nintendo 3DS arrives in the United States this Sunday bearing gifts. While the new glasses-free 3-D gaming platform doesn't include a packed-in game, the handheld does come with a variety of apps baked into its memory.

"We spent a lot of time and energy on the pre-installed applications," Nintendo 3DS producer Hideki Konno told Wired.com earlier this month. Konno says the applications were designed to get other people watching and interacting with the 3DS, which is why many of them feature augmented reality, motion control and photography.

We've already reviewed the 3DS hardware elsewhere on Wired.com, but the volume of features, games and applications that come with the $250 gaming gadget is so great that we're taking a deeper dive into its capabilities.

Read on for Game|Life's impressions of all the built-in 3DS software and hardware frills, so you'll know what to spend time with first when you finally get yours.