10 Years of Nintendo 3DS

[Nz17]

Nintendo 3DS was launched in North America during March 27th, 2011. That means that this month marks ten years of the Nintendo 3DS. I actually bought four at launch - one to keep and three to resale! It is one of my favorite consoles. I play 3DS almost every month. Remember how swamped the eShop was during the first two months of its life? How about the Ambassador Program? Recall the big price drop? How about the awful cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3?

How about all of the (unfounded) Health and Safety Warnings about how children younger than 7 or 8 years old shouldn't play the 3DS as the stereoscopic 3D visuals might negatively affect the development of their perception of depth? (And how that actually only applied to children aged 0 - 2 years old and thus didn't really apply as how is an infant going to play a 3DS while focusing on the screen anyway?)

Some of my favorite features were StreetPass, SpotPass, and Play Coins. Too bad Nintendo jettisoned all of those features with Switch. I guess the Switch notifications are kind of like SpotPass at least. Oh, and it was nice to see the Virtual Console return, the formerly Japanese exclusive Famicom game The Mysterious Murasame Castle get an official Western release, the addition of the Game Gear to the Virtual Console, and the abandoning of "points" to purchase games in favor of regular old currency units like dollars and cents. And hey, how about those snazzy themes from the Theme Shop? There were even some cool themes available for free or included with the purchase of select games like Ultimate NES Remix and the DLC for Ace Attorney 6.

There were some fantastic games for 3DS too: the Theatrhythm games (Final Fantasy, Curtain Call, Dragon Quest), Kid Icarus: Uprising, the Ace Attorney games, the Layton games, Asphalt 3D, Bust-A-Move Universe, Crash City Mayhem, Detective Pikachu, the Japanese Rail Sim 3D series, the Kirby games, The Legend of Zelda games, the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games games, Mario Kart 7, RPG Maker Fes, Rodea: The Sky Soldier (though it was better for its intended platform, the Wii), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, some of the other Sonic The Hedgehog games, Star Fox 64 3D (now with save support!), Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido, Urban Trial Freestyle 2, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, WarioWare Gold, Rhythm Heaven MegaMix, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, SEGA 3D Classics Collection, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Hey! Pikmin, Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk, LBX: Little Battlers' Experience, Attack of the Friday Monsters!: A Tokyo Tale, Rusty's Real Deal Baseball, HarmoKnight, Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, and so many more.

Even some of the games included with the 3DS were neat for their time. Recall the fun of the note-and-drawing exchange programs Swapdoodle, Flip Note, and Swap Note? My friends and I exchanged quite a few fun cartoons and holiday greetings that way. The mini games (both free and for cash) for StreetPass: Mii Plaza were some of my favorites as well including Find Mii, Find Mii II, and Puzzle Swap. A few had some real depth! I actually bought all of the DLC mini-games: Battleground Z, Feed Mii, Flower Town, Market Crashers, Mii Force, Mii Trek, Monster Manor, Ninja Launcher, Slot Car Rivals, Ultimate Angler, and Warrior's Way. It was really cool taking my 3DS to conventions and even Japan and getting StreetPasses from the people there. I imagine that I provided the first StreetPasses from the United States for many of them. I know that I acquired my first Japanese StreetPasses from them. My world StreetPass map marked many Japanese prefectures with color thanks to that trip!

How about when they added Amiibo support with the 3DS NFC Reader / Writer Accessory? What about the New 3DS line of consoles with improved, head-tracking stereoscopic 3D, the C analog pad, the ZL and ZR buttons, the improved CPU, GPU, RAM, and Web browser, and the included Amiibo NFC hardware? How about the 2DS and XL line-ups? What about the debacle of Nintendo not including power chargers with the consoles? Or how about the phasing out of printed instructional manuals?

I was glad when the homebrew and custom firmware makers were able to figure out how to get their software running on the 3DS for the general public. I gladly installed CFW so that I could play my games which I had imported from Europe and Japan. Plus all of the homebrew media software, FTP server programs, emulators, and other applications really made it an awesome option.

Shoot, I even recently bought a ton of 3DS games just back in November 2020 thanks to GameStop's Cyber Monday sale. It was something of a Buy One, Get One free sale, and there were a lot of games which I wanted to acquire!

What are your favorite games and fond thoughts about the Nintendo 3DS after its first decade of existence? Is it retro now?

[gbpxl]

I don't know if they still do it or not but they lend you a 3DS at the Louvre museum in Paris and theres a map and audio descriptions on the 3DS for you to follow. That's my only experience with the system

[SpaceHarrier]

You know what I loved about the 3DS, the exacting way it measured statistics regarding playtime totals, and further detail in a day-by-day journal. I love that kind of stuff. Why the heck this was changed to an extremely vague "Over 20 hours" type of thing listing just the last few titles you've played for Switch is beyond me. It's funny to see that I had like 12 hours just on the eshop, and hours more just looking at the gameplay journal.

3DS is also home to the first portable game I put over 100 hours into, Tomodachi Life. I mean, it's barely a game, but I had so much fun making characters and moving all the personality sliders around, then watching their bizarre interactions. Granted this was during a period of extended unemployment, I had NOTHING going on...

I remember sitting in the parking lot at McDonald's (which had a relay for Streetpasses, or something) to try and get Tomodachi items and to download an event Pokemon for either X or Omega Ruby. I regret not taking my system more places, I never got very far in Find Mii, or completed a single puzzle.

I actually started with the 2DS, and spent most of my gameplay time on that device. I upgraded to a New 3DS XL a few years later. I think my favorite use of the 3D feature was actually the Sega 3D Ages releases like Streets of Rage 1 and 2, Sonic 2 and Outrun. Yeah, classic 2D games now with actual space between the background layers.

I rolled my eyes when I first saw footage of Theatrythm. I thought it looked like a cheap flash or mobile game. Later, Curtain Call would become one of my favorite games on the system. Whoops.

One thing I got into right at the end of the system's life is that free-to-start claw machine game, Nintendo Badge Arcade. My 2DS is covered in badges now. Game takes forever to load, though.

[Tanooki]

Funny thing the 3DS has been in and out of my life quite a few times. Had the original, sold that for the New model. They hit this huge slump after it with Xenoblade, sold it. Friend of mine needed money a year later, bought his same color too, had it again fo a time and dumped it again after another dry spell. Late last year with it dying off officially I decided since the 3DS even with it working right (New3DSXL) head tracking, did nothing for me, so I went and bagged the turquoise/black New 2DSXL and I don't regret it in the slightest. I may not use it a whole lot, but I do like it, well enough to keep it and get games for it slowly. It in a way is like having a pocket Gamecube(original) or pocket Wii(new style) as far as what the audio/visual side of it can handle and that's great. There's plenty of good variety, and if you don't have a DS (I do though) all that there is another layer on top. One could have the 3DS side of things, especially with DS access and never run out of some new experience to do that won't stink.

As it sits now though, I just have a dozen games for it, plus one I used to have coming in the mail again. They're a mix of new and a little old re-hash when you consider the likes of Star Fox 64. I've got Adventure Time(the zelda2 clone), Ace Combat(plus), Code of Princess, Ever Oasis, Kirby Planet Robobot, Pokemon Ultra Sun, Poochy & Yoshi, Starfox, Monster Hunter Stories, Super Mario 3D Land, and Theatrhythm FF Curtain Call, Shin Megami Tensei 4(boxed ver), and Hatsune Miku box in the mail.

I've had quite a lot more games from the other times of ownership in the past and a few now that didn't for me either.

One thing that was utterly surprising to me was that pokemon game. Such a re-runny played out style that franchise has become, but they pulled a near 180 on that UltraSun/Moon and it's nuts. NO gyms, no 8 badges, no paper thin story with wash rinse repeat of the last 25 years. Islands, challenges, totem pokemon mini bosses, a true JRPG level story with many subplots/stories, and various other nice things that made it fresh again so I actually like it, a lot unlike most since the GBA era. And another surprise I got a second hand bundle that Monster Hunter came in, a franchise I love/hate due to the bad camera, bad control, and grind to death slow harvesting/making of goods. This one though, it's a JRPG, and it's faster, not grindy/crafty, and just all around well made. It kind of feels like DQ Monsters where it's you and your monster in battle, and it works.

That said though I could go into more detail on those and dozens others why they're worth it, but more so these days and some years I typically crawl back to the Gameboy brand as it is even more pick up and play friendly and fun for me.

[kupomogli]

3DS is my second favorite portable right behind the PSP. I mean come on, it's the PSP, yo, nah just kidding, the PSP has a lot of great games. However, the 3DS has a lot of great games as well and I probably have just as many as PSP or atleast almost. What the 3DS does that the PSP doesn't though is the 3D effect and I absolutely love this effect. I say this every single time I talk about the 3DS but the 3D is absolutely amazing. I even bought the New 3DS solely because of the 3D tracking.

Nintendo is a joke though, they came up with a brilliant idea that they overpriced purposefully because of greed, that pretty much caused them a year of sales they would have otherwise had and then they just drop the effect because the Wii U's poor performance. They refuse to make Advance Wars on the system and claim it's because they can't find out how to waifu on the game. They also didn't want to make games for the console and say it's because "they're giving third parties opportunity to make sales," which is complete bs. Then finally, Nintendo is one of the only developers who doesn't utilize the 3D effect, they made the console with 3D and then a lot of their games mid gen and later don't have the effect at all. However, I will state that they've made some great games and Super Mario 3D Land is one of the best games I've ever played and uses the 3D effect well.

I bought the Atooie collection because the games aren't bad, they're just all pretty average, but they all use the 3D effect and even without playing the 3DS version of them it's quite obvious the effect would have been done well with the ability to jump into the background much like the Kirby game.

One of my favorite games on the 3DS is Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate. It's not as good as SotN, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow or many of the classic games however, it plays a lot like a amalgamation of the two genres. It feels like a classic Castlevania game with platforming and instant death traps, while also being a very exploration heavy title. Yes, it still uses the Lord of Shadow mechanics, but is still a great game.

Fantasy Life is another amazing game. Combine Monster Hunter, Harvest Moon, and Zelda and put it into a single game and that's Fantasy Life. It's got issues, it's not a perfect game, but as much as it does and as much as it does not just well but extremely well, it's my favorite Level 5 game.

There's a lot of other great games, but those are a couple stand out that I don't feel get enough recognition.

[gbpxl]

3D was a big trend at the time- late 2000s/early 2010s, and I think the general public stopped caring about it. I dont think Ive watched or played anything in 3D, ever. Im more into 4D