For the emulator part, I am currently using Azahar on android but its not without its issues. It used to work perfectly but as I had played more it started crashing, stuttering, and slowing down as if there was a memory leak. Ive lost hours of progress because of the crashes though... My devices not super old either, its a samsung S23. Besides its just not the same as playing on actual hardware you know.
As someone who equally values emulation and original hardware - I think the 3DS is one of the few consoles you should really seek original hardware for. Azahar just isn't there yet. I'm glad it exists and it works
alright, but I've encountered issues with literally every single 3DS game I've tried on it so far. These issues range from minor (some missing graphics in Star Fox 64) to game-breaking (major stutter and distorted audio in Sonic Generations, broken lighting in Kid Icarus Uprising). There's the cache stutter that plagues all modern console emulators, but it seems broken in Azahar where it never goes away.
Even if emulation was perfect, the 3DS still makes an unusually strong case for original hardware. Nothing else does the 3D effect, which looks awesome in person. Modern capacitive touchscreens don't quite replicate the feel of the 3DS' older resistive touchscreen, particularly its pinpoint accuracy when used with a stylus. And emulating a 2-screen device on a single screen just feels weird no matter what you do (though the Ayn Thor solves that problem).
Hell, it probably runs better than an actual 3DS.
I doubt it, given 3DS games often run worse on my gaming desktop with high-end specs than my real 3DS. Sure I can crank up the resolution and sometimes framerate, but the actual experience is often quite poor with all sorts of glitches and stuttering. Hardware isn't the issue here but rather emulation maturity.
However I have seen modded 3DS that still feel authentic, with themed menus similiar to the original.
You can change as much or as little with a modded 3DS' interface as you like. You can keep it looking almost entirely stock, just shove all the homebrew apps in a folder. But you gain a lot of functionality, so there's honestly no reason not to mod it these days.
Ive also considered getting a default 3DS because theyre rather affordable compared to the other variations, I would only be missing out on modding(and exclusives which I dont mind) but what do you guys think about it? Thanks in advance.
IMO, from best to worst experience it goes modded New 3DS > modded old 3DS >> emulation on Thor >> emulation on any other device. If you want to keep things simple and just play games, the older 3DS models are just fine, and definitely still better than emulation. But if you see yourself using the 3DS a lot and really getting into it, it's 100% worth splurging for the New models. They didn't get a ton of exclusive games, but they get a lot more out of homebrew and can boost some games to run better, much like a PS5 Pro over the base PS5.
The smaller New 3DS, with the swappable cover plates and colorful ABXY buttons, is my favorite handheld of all time. It represents the apex of a particular philosophy toward portable gaming hardware and software design - devices that were small enough to fit in a pocket, "toy-like" by offering novel ways of engaging with the hardware itself, and a haven for lower-budget, more experimental games. And sadly it seems very unlikely we'll ever go back to those days. We really did lose something with the Switch, as successful as it's been.
