Nintendo 2DS

[substantial_snake]

I've owned both a 3DS and XL model in the past and one thing that has always tripped me up about the hardware is the D-pad.

Its uncomfortable for my hands and I also don't like the circle pad much as a catch all replacement.

The 2DS looks to have largely solved that problem simply by its nature but I haven't had a chance to hold one before.

Does anyone here who might have any idea on what I'm rambling about here or have a similar issue with the 3DS's D-pad placement?

[celerystalker]

I don't own a 2DS, but I know exactly what you mean about the D-pad. I can't play my 3DS for too long, as it is just crazy uncomfortable for me, and I also don't care for the analogue disc for 2D games.

[otaku]

the 2ds reminds me of the jaguar or original xbox controller its not comfortable for very long i do own one

[Niku-Sama]

Anything like that makes my fingers go numb after a while. It never happened as a kid but the Gameboy was thicker and my hands were smaller then

[kupomogli]

I've never owned a 2DS, but I'll give my impressions of the original 3DS, 3DS XL, and New 3DS XL for anyone who happens to interested.

3DS is easy. It's the most uncomfortable handheld I've ever had the experience of playing. Playing more than 15 minutes at a time and my hands would be in pain. Hitting start or select feels you have to press down extremely hard for it to do anything.

3DS XL is actually the most comfortable in the DS line of handhelds, including the fat. The face buttons and L and R buttons are the best in the line up, and while the control pad is far beyond the quality of the DS Lite, it's worse than the fat DS and previous Gameboy line because it's just so thin. The slide pad is garbage. The PSP's analog nub was the same thing, but it controlled better, just had horrible positioning on the sytem. The start and select are the best of any handheld.

New 3DS XL is almost identical to the 3DS XL aside from the start and select placement. The 3DS no longer has the amazing start and select on the XL :( and instead includes a C stick that feels like pushing on a pencil eraser and even when visually something is happening on the screen, it's very uncomfortable to do so. They also added the R2/L2 buttons that have absolutely no use for any game, which is sad because despite not looking like they'd work well before purchase, once you get the item and are playing around with it, it's clear that the R2/L2 buttons would work very well on a handheld if implemented this way.

Side note, even though the PSP is my favorite portable, I really wish Sony went with the type of material and style Nintendo did with their shoulder buttons. Never enjoyed the L and R buttons on the PSP or the Vita, while original GBA did it best and the 3DS line up of systems do it well. Or atleast make them feel the same as the shoulder buttons we're used to on the Playstation consoles with R1/L1. *edit* Didn't think of PSP Go, but the L and R buttons on that were great in terms of how they felt, Sony should have really kept it like that.

[BlastProcessing402]

I've never held a 2DS, so I don't know if it'd meet your d-pad needs, but I think I'd try a grip (or even circle pad pro, which hardly anything supports, but does double as a grip, I got one for like 10 bucks on amazon when I was just looking for something to add to an order to put it into the free shipping territory, but I digress...) before resorting to a 2DS, but that's just my preference. I'm never going for a non-clamshell design when there's a clamshell available. Also, I feel the 3D effect, even when turned way down does add something to the graphics, vs having it off. Again, my preference.

[Tanooki]

I used one on a store display before. The screen is pretty nice, audio is fine though a bit muted given you lose 1 speaker going down to mono, and the lack of 3D if you enjoy it. If you don't care about the audio having the pair and the 3D being gone it's fine, but it is exposed since it doesn't close up. It's very sturdy though, and it also isn't uncomfortable to use.