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!!!
That’s a nostalgic pic.
I’m not crying, you’re crying
One thing I’ll add, since reviewing the AYN Thor, I have been playing a LOT of 3DS games. Upscaled and looking so beautiful. I just love the games they made for this console. I wish the Switch had more…pocketability? But seeing how the size increased for the S2, I don’t expect that will come about again :(
Just looked it up, really disappointed it doesn’t do the 3D part. (yes, I’m part of the few people who always had it on and set to max depth)
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 :
- No cameras !?
- No microphone !?
- No analog triggers
- No 3D display
- No stylus support
- No Streetpass
- No personality (fun apps, menu music, themes…)
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.
I really liked my 3DS and especially StreetPass and getting all those puzzles pieces. I’d take it to work with me everyday but once I lost all my progress I eventually just stopped playing on it.
I’m keeping an eye on the new dual screen handhelds but will wait a bit longer and see how it fares.
For a recommendation, the Boxboy! games are great fun.
What are your game recommendations?
- Shin Megami Tensei 4
- Bravely Default
- Professor Layton (I LOVE PROFESSOR LAYTON!!!)
- Kid Icarus: Uprising
- Metroid: Samus Returns (I’m obsessed with Metroid)
But I’m also playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the very first time on the AYN Thor at the moment. I’ve never stuck with it, and I’m enjoying it so much. What a game! I’d have expected the ancient age would make it less of a game, but nope. It’s perfect!
There’s so many more, but that’s a nice little cross-section of GREAT games :)
Thanks for this list.
I played the Metroid game and I love that series.
I’m not sure I liked smt4 too much, but I’m not familiar with the others. I’ll check them out.
I got a 3dsxl about 6 months ago for some Pokémon action, now I need something new.
There is a modded version of Majora’s Mask 3D out there that fixes the stupid shit they broke
I think I’ll always grieve the loss of Miiverse and Streetpass.
I’ll never forget the first time I took my 3DS to a nerdy convention and my green light just FIRED up! (Like a …. Green flame 😅)
I’m glad though that we can now at least use Pretendo. Those guys did an amazing job of recreating the community feel!
My favorite memory of the 3ds is probably from playing a link to the past. My worst memory was selling all the games I had for it… no idea why I did it considering the prices for them are insane now. Should have just kept them…
I still own the XL version and am not letting it go. Still play fron tine to time.3DS was 3DBest, I love mine with all the Picross games
I didn’t realize there were alternate hardware options available. I have the custom firmware installed on mine, but I had two of them crap out of me in the past so it’s crossed my mind that if that happened again the resale market for them might force this one to be my last.
Some ds and 3ds games tried to shoehorn in touchscreen usage, which was annoying because there’s no shame in a good game not making use of the stylus. With that said, the ones that made good use of both screens were spectacular. Shoutout to Yo-Kai Watch 3.
Fire emblem awakening
