Well, I took some time to jot down some thoughts on the one handheld that everyone seems to agree was the bee’s knees: the Nintendo 3DS (and all its various iterations thereafter!)
It’s one I’ve gone through a few ‘phases’ with - collecting, modding, selling, then buying a ‘perfect’ one, then…the pattern just repeats and repeats. I love how truly customizable it is now that it is…essentially an abandoned generation. The community took things to great new heights (those themes!!!), 3D printed docks and displays, vinyl stickers…it makes me so happy to see how very few 3DS consoles look like anyone else’s.
The market is getting crazy though. Prices are only going up (and special editions are going waaaay up), but it’s nice to see options like the Thor, Pocket DS and Anbernic’s RG DS coming up to give modern users some solutions to playing.
Anyway
Don’t expect anything wonderful here, I wasn’t even sure what to write for this article. I guess while I call it a retrospective, it just touches on some key points in the lifetime of the 3DS system.
P.S. 100% ready for any 3DS games recommendations to be shared!!!
I cannot describe how disappointed I was in the switch when it came out, and the situation isn’t much better now. It took one huge step forwards, yes, bus also ditched a ton of really good features :
Even the Motion controls, which are still a thing, do not feature any IR reference point, making the Wii still the best implementation of motion aim outside of VR.
The games are great, but these days I personally play the Wii U and 3DS more often, because unlike the switch these platforms still offer some experiences that are just not possible elsewhere.
In fact, the Wii U and 3DS are currently the only consoles I would recommend actually possessing physically. Wii U emulation is really annoying (though Steam Deck can get there, with a cable in the way), and good luck finding anything for the 3DS that does the 3D part any better than a New 3DS XL.
I miss street pass so hard. I loved playing those little mini games.