BPX035: Nintendo 3DS - Eight Year Legacy

[Neon Ignition]

At one point a poll was run for each anniversary the 3DS reached, next month the little handheld will reach its eight year anniversary and is clearly coasting towards the end of its long life.

After a rough start the handheld recovered and has enjoyed solid success even if its lifetime sales aren't what its predecessor enjoyed, the 3D aspect may have drifted away from the systems concept as time has gone on but users enjoy a healthy library of titles.

What are your thoughts of the Nintendo 3DS with the joy of hindsight now behind it and how does it stack against Nintendo's other main handheld efforts?

[Asura]

For me, it was a toss-up between the GBA and the DS.

If we're going in terms of their "importance" or something more abstract like that, definitely the Game Boy. It not only codified portable gaming; I would argue it started the process of normalising a generation of people carrying a portable digital/computing device of any sort, leading to the modern norm of possessing some manner of smartphone.

However, I didn't own a Game Boy until after the release of the N64, so I very much "missed the boat" with that one. I had a Game Boy Color not long after launch, but I soon traded that for a Neo Geo Pocket Color once I'd finished Pokemon Red; a decision about which I have zero regrets.

So I have to consider the GBA as the first Game Boy console where I was in "on the ground floor". I got one not long after launch, with F-Zero, and absolutely loved it. I have some great memories of games on the machine, including Final Fantasy IV, Riviera, spending years looking for a genuine copy of Lunar and never finding one... Ah, good times. Admittedly my memories of the GBA are somewhat hampered by the scarcity of some of the games. Like (I suspect) most people, I resorted to buying a dodgy copy of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow when the prices for legit versions spiked over £100. I've had every version, right up until my current AGS-101, and I still use it with reasonable regularity.

However, the DS just edged it out. I bought it after selling my launch PSP, along with Castlevania DS and Yoshi Touch n Go, and my memories of the machine are just so vivid. The Phoenix Wright series was certainly a highlight, but there were others too, like Solatorobo and 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, which I just couldn't put down until I had finished them. Polarium, Meteos, Infinite Space... Though surprisingly few Nintendo first-party games.

I think, if I'm honest, the GBA's library was probably better, but the DS came at a time in my life when I did a lot of train travelling, so I just got so much use out of the thing.

The 3DS, to me, was always disappointing. I bought a launch unit and sold it very quickly, after the 3D felt bad due to the cross-talk ghosting and I really disliked the unit itself (the shape, finish, styling, super-reflective screen...). The later units fixed many of these problems but I struggle to call to mind a single 3DS game of which I feel as much for as any of the key DS games. I mean, I liked 3D Land and a bunch of others but just not enough to make the system feel like a classic; plus if I was going to play that or MK7, I would go to their WiiU/Switch follow-up instead. Someone's probably going to point out a game now which will make me reconsider, but that's the point - I need to be prompted. The DS and GBA require no such prompting.

[Digfox]

For me, it was a toss-up between the GBA and the DS.

I agree with this. For me there was something different and new about the DS's library that gave it an edge. I believe the DS was a special machine. I owned 3 over the years and still have 2 DSi XL consoles in the house with a library of 45 or so games. For a while it felt like the DS was knocking it out of the park. Particularly after the Lite revision, and when Nintendo and some of its third-parties really got to grips with it.

Whilst I enjoyed the 3DS (and also have 2 XL versions) it never quite made the same impact as its predecessor imo.

[briareos_kerensky]

I prefer the 3DS over the GBA but not as much as the DS. I bought the GBA relatively late in its life cycle and I only have a bunch of titles, while the DS is still the console I own the most games for. The 3DS had a number of quality titles, but it lacks the number of quirky games the DS had. I still rate the 3DS rather high both as a mobile platform and overall platform, I always had it besides my computer in standby, ready to go for a quick 15-30 minutes session when I didn't had enough time to fire up any of the domestic consoles.

[DeathAdder]

I think the 3DS is probably the weakest of Nintendo's handheld family if we aren't considering the GBC as a handheld in its own right.

As Asura said, there were a lot of good games for it, but none that really stick in the memory. Can't think of any great franchises that started out on it, like the Ace Attorney games did on the DS (in the West, anyway) or any of the great quirky games that the DS enjoyed (Pac Pix, for example). I don't like digital purchases, so I suppose there may be some in the eshop.

The 3DS also represents some of the things I dislike most about gaming - region locking has always sucked but it was particularly annoying when a handheld had it, seeing as how handhelds almost never had previously. There was also the matter of some of the games I really wanted only getting digital releases in the West (AA5 and 6).

I have over 100 games for the 3DS, but I remember the GB, GBA and DS much more fondly.

[Asura]

The 3DS also represents some of the things I dislike most about gaming - region locking has always sucked but it was particularly annoying when a handheld had it, seeing as how handhelds almost never had previously. There was also the matter of some of the games I really wanted only getting digital releases in the West (AA5 and 6)..

Ah yes, I forgot about this. Yeah, the region locking was a real pain; I think a lot of us here had plenty of American and Japanese DS games (I played Phoenix Wright on the Japanese version with its slightly shonky English translation before the western release). If the DS had been region-locked, the Ace Attorney franchise might never have gotten off the ground outside of Japan. I loved Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars.

Wasn't there a game we were all really disappointed when it was confirmed it wouldn't get a western release? I can't remember what it was. A Phantasy Star Online-type thing, but it wasn't PSO.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Wasn't there a game we were all really disappointed when it was confirmed it wouldn't get a western release? I can't remember what it was.

Personally speaking, my disappointment was/is that Capcom refuse to localise The Great Ace Attorney and The Great Ace Attorney 2 and would instead rather endlessly re-release the original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy.

[Asura]

Personally speaking, my disappointment was/is that Capcom refuse to localise The Great Ace Attorney and The Great Ace Attorney 2 and would instead rather endlessly re-release the original Phoenix Wright trilogy.

Yeah. Their excuse for doing the last few as digital-only games was that it made them more viable, because they weren't big enough sellers for a physical release. It seemed duplicitous of them, then, to also suggest that those games and Edgeworth 2 weren't worth releasing at all.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yeah. Their excuse for doing the last few as digital-only games was that it made them more viable, because they weren't big enough sellers for a physical release. It seemed duplicitous of them, then, to also suggest that those games and Edgeworth 2 weren't worth releasing at all.

Ace Attorney has never been a historically big seller in Japan so all of Capcom's excuses in this regard are pure bullsh1t.

[Dogg Thang]

Personally speaking, my disappointment was/is that Capcom refuse to localise The Great Ace Attorney and The Great Ace Attorney 2 and would instead rather endlessly re-release the original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy.

Yep, this is a huge shame and I would love to have played those.

For me, I ADORE the 3DS. Yeah, the first model was a bit shoddy. Yeah, there was a severe games drought early on. Yeah, I would probably agree that it falls beneath the DS and GBA but not because it was weak, only because those were so strong. I own a crazy amount of 3DS games a a large chunk of them are really, really good. The thing about the 3DS, like the DS before it, is that there are types of games on that system that just don't appear anywhere else. But with the 3DS came the power to do more and get the more ambitious games up to a better standard.

And as a result, I feel it has a superb mix of games. We have Mario Kart 7 alongside Layton Vs Phoenix Wright. Kingdom Hearts DDD alongside Pokemon Sun and Moon. And with the best versions of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask while also having Link Between Worlds and the GBA ones if you got in early, it is a Zelda fan's dream system. Animal Crossing New Leaf is brilliant and is probably the game I have racked up the most hours in ever. And it has some little gems like Attack of the Friday Monsters as well as a few very regular games if you're looking for that sort of thing, like RE Revelations.

I think the system has a huge amount of offer and has a great library. I do wish we'd had an Ouendan game for the system and a good Advance Wars or a Final Fantasy Tactics or something so not all my hopes were realised but we did eventually get a good Metroid game on it so that's cool.

Yep, I love my 3DS. And I wish some of those more 3DS-type games would come to the Switch.

[Neon Ignition]

For me, it's the 3DS. The GBA was a great handheld but for my tastes in games it always felt hampered by being more heavily reliant on rough ports than its aged predecessor, there were some gems that were made specifically for it but even now I'd struggle to have many jump to mind.

The DS, that was a system where the hardware concept exceeded the software. It was fresh in the sense of having those quirky concept games but again, they were always things I'd experience and then never feel any compulsion to return to. A system that was easier to enjoy at the time rather than later.

The 3DS, it does lack software that is as defining of it as a system as its predecessors sometimes had but the games that it does have I'd play without issue at great length with no issue over the entries on the previous handheld. Plus, I had the perk that the 3D effect worked brilliantly for me.

[ItsThere]

I've been rabbiting on in another thread about getting back into the 3DS line albeit via a 2DSXL. I'm not sure I am missing that much by not having the 3D screen anymore (I've previously had a launch model and a 3DSXL) but I have missed out on some gems.

Metroid: Return of Samus was a great Metroid game, really challenging in places and very well judged.

I've got Luigi's Mansion 2 and A Link Between Worlds to start, I can't decide which one to go with next but they both look excellent.

Fire Emblem also awaits thanks to [MENTION=2946]gordon[/MENTION] on here and there have been some great suggestions for things I might also have missed.

It had a rocky start but there are some quality games available for the DS line that you can't get anywhere else!