That's the point, without the second analogue stick some of the games' are getting terrible control schemes. I'm not sure why everyone thinks having the second control stick (and forcing the few Nintendo fans who wouldn't normally upgrade anyway to buy the periph) is so bad. It's far more desirable than ending up with any more games this bad.

That's great that some games play fine, clearly some do not.

I read up on the 3DS in several places because I was considering the new XL version but the whole circle-pad thing put me off massively. I thought the Nintendo DS had some horribly shitty controls - Mario 64, Metroid, etc. all felt incredibly awkward to play and despite being great games in essence, the controls just put me off.

I'm sorry but touchscreens should NOT be used for analogue movement or aiming - I own three Android devices and most games that insist on them are a pain to use and it was even worse with the Nintendo DS because of its tiny screen and bad touchscreen technology.

I love the touch screen controls, personally. I understand it's not for everyone. I'm somewhat let down by the lack of a second stick on the new 3DS redesign, but it isn't a deal breaker for me. I never once looked for a second stick on the original DS, so its OK for me. I do expect a redesigned 3DS some day that will have the second stick.

To the credit of Kid Icarus and the stand, Metroid Prime Hunters had a similar control scheme. I usually played with the left side of the system hanging off a table to give my hand space for the d-pad and L button without having to support the system's weight in my left hand. I found aiming nicer than it would have been with dual-analog controls, and could definitely see the benefit of having a stand for a game like that. On that note, the stand would probably be brilliant for that game as well as Kid Icarus.

I don't have a 3DS yet, but it was a mistake not to include a second analog stick in the first place. Now they have an optional add-on and an XL version of said add-on. I would've jumped on the XL if it had the second analog stick. I guess they want to encourage developers to focus on using the touch-screen, or they want to sell extra hardware or something. All I can say is that a second stick is far better for manual camera control than the alternatives, and more options are usually a good thing.

Personally, I don't think it's about focusing on touch screen. I think they didn't want to add a second stick because it would simply splinter the user base of 3DS ownership to those with a second stick and those without. Making the second stick part of the XL meant that developers truly couldn't tell how big the market is for those who owned 1 stick and those who had access to 2 sticks. The 3DS has been selling really well and the numbers of those who owned the add on controller right now is probably not significant enough for Nintendo to go, OK we need 2 sticks to be part of the final 3DS form. Nintendo is pretty slow when it comes to introducing some major changes to their hardware. Lastly, I think Nintendo is trying to price the XL right because they were burned really bad with the original 3DS launch price.

I'd say maybe the next 3DS iteration, the 2nd stick could appear.