Nintendo killing off the 3DS - Surprisingly not a corona victim this time

[Kiyoshi's Wristbrace]

You had, what, a few years to get on that? It's a 9 year old device; it's bound to sunset eventually.

I've yet to have any battery issues, and it's both sat for months at a time and used extremely frequently when I have a FE game to finish.

 

[BananaSplit]

Can't believe "lol no games" ended up being one of the better consoles of the last couple decades, but boy I sure got plenty of time out of it. The last half of my 3DS's life was basically spent as a Wario Land and Metroid machine.

All things must end, however. You had a good run, 3DS.

I thought the "lol no games" was attributed to the Vita, mainly for the sake of trolling. I do not remember at all that sort of attitude towards the 3DS, even if I personally considered its library to be a bit weak (especially on Nintendo's part) in comparison to its predecessor and its main rival. And the default region-locking that prevented to directly import the third-party jap games wasn't helping either so it took me some luck to find an imported 3DS model without the extra Nintendium fee in the early 2010s.

Still, the era of handhelds is dead for good and that's quite the shame. They were my favorite gaming platforms for a very long time since the Gameboy

 

[le fishe]

even when i was younger i hated nintendo's games so the DS platform was never for me. The Wii is another story however. it's an ancient machine and it will always have a homebrew scene, which i could not exaggerate the importance of to me. They should make a new edition with better software just for people to tinker with and do as they like.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

I thought the "lol no games" was attributed to the Vita, mainly for the sake of trolling.

Very early on the only game worth playing was Ocarina 3D and it stayed that way for a bit.

 

[The Demon]

3d is real

 

[DuckSucker]

even when i was younger i hated nintendo's games so the DS platform was never for me. The Wii is another story however. it's an ancient machine and it will always have a homebrew scene, which i could not exaggerate the importance of to me. They should make a new edition with better software just for people to tinker with and do as they like.

I was about to bring this up but the 3DS did have a big homebrew and emulation scene I believe. By about 2017 the Switch had come out and ended up being a hit, but they wanted to hold on to the 3DS in case the Switch flopped--even though I think Nintendo had known about shit like the Freeshop for at least a bit. It had become one of those public piracy things where its real easy to find guides for it but all of them had "WE TOTALLY DONT RECOMMEND AND HOLD NO LIABILITY IF YOU DO THIS ITS TOTALLY ILLEGAL (but heres how to do this )" disclaimers, but for some reason, I think something to do with how their 3DS eshop was set up to work with the hardware, they couldnt to anything about it.

Very early on the only game worth playing was Ocarina 3D and it stayed that way for a bit.

Now that you mention it I remember that, up until around 2010 or 2011 and the holiday season combination of both Mario 3D Land and immediately after that, Mario Kart 7, plus a price cut, really got it running. Damn I have memories of getting and playing it that Christmas, then going with my family to a Trail of Lights type thing and checking for my first streetpass. Takes me back.

I hated the streetpass because I never got any, but thinking back on it, it made me bring it with me to a lot of places and make sure it was charged and shit, I had it with me through good and bad times, different people and phases, events, in a different way than your phone, remembering popping out and playing it for a bit whenever I had downtime even with other people, giving me some real "Damn, 10 years?" feels. Plus I had the Hot Rod red Mario Kart DS from when it launched before that, I played with it so much as a kid all the paint faded off from me keeping it in my pocket.

 

[Toolbox]

Surprised it took them this long. Went from the handheld that seemed interesting but had no games to a smash hit, and then they dropped it like a newborn after the Switch came out. Definitely pulled another gameboy with the 3ds here.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The Switch is already a portable though.

Anyway I still think of the 3DS as a recent system, mainly because the 2010s seemed to have gone by ridiculously fast.

 

[Dom Cruise]

R.I.P. the last real handheld console.
Yeah, the Switch is technically handheld too, but it's really sad that we might never see something like the 3DS or the Vita again because of mobile cancer taking over.

What sucks is the phone could be a good platform for gaming, but any potential is wasted on stupid gacha game bullshit.

The Switch is already a portable though.

Anyway I still think of the 3DS as a recent system, mainly because the 2010s seemed to have gone by ridiculously fast.

Tell me about it, the 3DS still feels like a recent system to me for the same reason, it's downright freaky how fast the 2010s went by.

 

[BananaSplit]

The Switch is already a portable though.

It's 'portable' but it's not an actual handheld. Handhelds used to be their own little thing due of the restrictive hardware, with a different kind of game library separate from home consoles (though the PSP and Vita allowed actual home console games to some extent and the GBA was often seen as a portable SNES) and they had backwards compatibility with the previous systems they succeeded. Handhelds also became the last bastion of the old-era vidya while the industry gradually changed overall in the late 2000s and 2010s (for the worst imo).

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Reminder that the 3DS was also the last time Nintendo would let you go online for free without having to pay a subscription. It was, however, their way of sneaking in shit like "free-to-start" and making Pokemon Bank a "Subscription Service", which is the opposite of what Pokemon Box was for the GameCube. You can blame Pokefags for making Nintendo think subscription services are a good idea to begin with because they will pay for anything.

 

[Dysnomia]

Fuck you, Nintendo. Seriously. This is going to make replacing my 3DS' battery a nightmare.

I just replaced mine earlier this year. Unlike the PSP, the 3DS won't run plugged in without a battery. It's needed to complete the circuit.

Well, I knew this would happen sooner than later.

It just recently started losing its ability to hold charge. Literally last couple months.

Get it out before it starts to swell. My back plate ended up getting warped. But it went back into shape on it's own after awhile.

 

[NerdShamer]

It's 'portable' but it's not an actual handheld. Handhelds used to be their own little thing due of the restrictive hardware, with a different kind of game library separate from home consoles (though the PSP and Vita allowed actual home console games to some extent and the GBA was often seen as a portable SNES) and they had backwards compatibility with the previous systems they succeeded. Handhelds also became the last bastion of the old-era vidya while the industry gradually changed overall in the late 2000s and 2010s (for the worst imo).

Well, it doesn't help that it's graphically underpowered in comparison to it's competition.

 

[Pissmaster]

Another thing that sucks about the 3DS dying is how there's no console with a stylus as standard anymore. I really liked using a stylus, it worked perfectly for Trauma Center and Elite Beat Agents, and the drawing apps like Art Academy were fun.

Digital styluses like the Note phones have aren't even close to commonplace, sadly. Nobody designs games for those. The next Nintendo system should really, really have one.

 

[-4ZURE-]

The Switch is already a portable though.

Anyway I still think of the 3DS as a recent system, mainly because the 2010s seemed to have gone by ridiculously fast.

It feels new because the 3DS was very weird about games. Had a 2nd year, a decent 2014, then randomly in 2017 it got tons of big hitters out of no where. It sort of died, then was reborn when the Switch was released.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

It's 'portable' but it's not an actual handheld.

What about that smaller model that can't be hooked up to a TV?

 

[NerdShamer]

What about that smaller model that can't be hooked up to a TV?

It's kind of large to be shoving in the back pocket of your jeans; which is something that can be done by a lot of Nintendo's handhelds.

 

[starborn427614]

I'll miss the little guy. I just hope that franchises that were primarily based on DS/3DS aren't relegated to the trash now like Layton, Ace Attorney etc.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

It just recently started losing its ability to hold charge. Literally last couple months.

Might want to get a portable battery and a USB 3DS charging cable.

 

[TFT-A9]

Might want to get a portable battery and a USB 3DS charging cable.

...Actually, yeah, come to think of it. After I replace the battery, obviously. I had a funny feeling that my last apartment's wiring was so shitty that it was fucking with some of my electronics, I also had my old smartphone's battery crap out there. I had a UPS for my computer that conditioned the electricity for that, but there weren't enough outlets on it to jam literally every piece of sensitive hardware into it.