What do you think of the 3DS today?

[Jayro]

It was dead to me as soon as the Switch launched in 2017. Haven't turned it on since then. Still on Firmware 11.17.0U.

 

[The Catboy]

3DS > Switch
The 3DS was the last best Nintendo system before they ruined the Switch

 

[Maeson]

I'm a big fan of the 3DS and the DS line in general and I think the 3DS (and also the WiiU) OS were pretty much peak nintendo, albeit rather slow and frustrating in its execution.
Streetpass was a great idea and somethng I really miss, I just came back from a trip to japan and took my 3DS in my bag just to see if I would get any hits and over the few days in tokyo I managed to pass about 5 other people doing the same.

I'd like to see another dual screen handheld which refines the OS, but sadly I can't see Nintendo doing that again any time soon.

I hardly see Nintendo going back to this design, the current industry at large seems to be unwilling to take advantage of each hardware's unique features when they could just don't care at all, similar to how underutilized the joycons many features are, for example.

Anyway I just wanted to mention Netpass if you want to revive Streetpass. It works really nice.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

What is something you don’t like about the gaming industry in it’s current state?

The answer on that is off topic as I said before. Well. I'll put it into a spoiler instead of not replying.

Spoiler

My main critique on the gaming industry is heavy DRM. Anti-consumer practice which made me stop PC games around 2003 because SecuROM, SafeDisc, StarForce,... turned games into malware. Today this is even more extreme with PC gaming being a disaster for privacy. The only people completely unimpressed by the increasingly invasive DRM are... the software pirates.

Consoles, despite heavily locked down by DRM even more, were shielded from problems that frequently made PCs unusable due to copy protection. They simply worked. I've yet to see a PS1 go apeshit with the copy protection.

But with Nintendo going heavily after homebrew users to the point of locking them out of eShop making supporting indie-devs impossible, I decided to drop gaming altogether and never bought a Switch (let alone PlayStation newer than PS2 or even PC games).

All in all things generally move from buying (physical media) to renting (streaming, subscriptions). I hate paying monthly fees instead of one time payments. Imagine my NES cartridges would demand paying each month since decades. Those games cost a fortune in the 1980s and 1990s. But they are paid and just work.

Gaming in general moved towards online multiplayer offering less and less single player value. Providing online services costs money. Constantly. This leads us to... big surprise... subscriptions.
I've zero interest in playing with strangers. It is anti-social opposed to local multiplayer. And if an opponent hits me with a blue shell in Mario Kart right before the finish line I want to be able to throw a pillow at them.

Then there is declining quality control. Games are delivered unfinished. Huge updates are a hassle... and require being online. Being online and not banned, which limits what I can do with my own computer (console). Companies hiding behind shady and overly long TOS with arbitrary conditions is evilness.
"We are everything. You are nothing. We may do anything. You may just pay without the guarantee to get anything in return. Now click on agree!"

I'm just not a masochist. I don't get any enjoyment out of getting treated like a piece of shit.

While the 3DS already is a DRM nightmare and had certain online gaming features, it largely worked offline and the DRM was broken into pieces. Wii U and 3DS are the last devices of the old kind. When XBox, PlayStation and PC where already online-centered mess without notable single player and offline focus, Nintendo (despite being super evil) was still usable.

 

[Crystal_tofu]

the 3ds is one console that feels like yours in more ways than one and as much as i dont mind NSO, subscriptions like that come with the expectation to utilize what comes with it for more hours than you should which is unhealthy for all angles, while the 3DS's network and games themselves encourage you to not be ashamed of jumping across different games the 3ds is a console i last felt had passion in it due to just how fun it looked and compact it felt, i would definitely consider it something that very much deserves all the praise it gets.

 

[Maeson]

Subscriptions in general have made so many things a disgusting hellscape, but on top of that it's true that paying for temporal access to something often conditions people to try and "make most of it" in very unhealthy ways, specially when it's something related to "entertainment" stuff. And it's so by design.

I would argue the price of NSO is less hurtful than other console-based subscriptions, but Nintendo does have its own annoyances like a subscription on top of the basic one to access more Virtual Console titles (and the emulation of N64 is bad enough to argue against being worth it) too. And having to pay to make backups of your saves is just scummy, when it was something we could do on older systems normally.

Current industry is hostile towards any sort of respect to both games as culture and art (and the people that make it), and the rights of consumers (which seem to not care as long as "they get thing they want" even if it means eroding their rights), and the more time passes, the more glad I become that I do not waste time, energy or money on it, and does hurt to say but even more to see happening so thoroughly.

 

[memorydecay]

The 3DS is still my favorite Nintendo handheld, probably favorite handheld in general (My Vita is very close behind). I have a hacked Switch, and I honestly still barely use it. Switch Games run better on my Ally while staying handheld, and most of the other games on it I just play on PC, so there isn't a reason. The 3DS is comfortable, has a GREAT unique library, and has much better battery life. Nintendo will never replicate it, which bums me out.

 

[4d1xlaan]

It was dead to me as soon as the Switch launched in 2017. Haven't turned it on since then. Still on Firmware 11.17.0U.

11.17 was 2023 ;p

 

[nine0nine]

I hardly see Nintendo going back to this design, the current industry at large seems to be unwilling to take advantage of each hardware's unique features when they could just don't care at all, similar to how underutilized the joycons many features are, for example.

Anyway I just wanted to mention Netpass if you want to revive Streetpass. It works really nice.

yeah I am not expecting a return to the dual screen format any time soon, the 3DS sold about half as many units as the OG so I think Nintendo see the format as done with for the time being.

I do wonder just where they will go with hardware in future though, they will most probably stick with the switch dock style hardware for the next console, but after that it would seem uncharacteristic to just keep doing the same.

 

[Maeson]

I would say the launch price of the 3DS hurt the interest of people initially. It still sold well enough in the end, though.

And yes, I would guess they stay with Switch's design. It's far more friendly for mass production by being just a screen (people call it a tablet for a reason), it fills the handheld market by itself at this point, with the added benefit of conecting to TVs.

It's selling too well to deviate much from that, and Nintendo would be crazy to abandon that spot that puts them on a different viewpoint than Sony and Microsoft. Both of which seem to be looking for a future outside of their own systems, specially Microsoft.

...But I digress too much.

I do wish Switch had a similar personality as 3DS though, even the little things like the game banners add so much charm (and some had small secrets if you blow air into the microphone, like the Dillon games). It feels like a nice evolution of Wii's channel banners.

 

[4d1xlaan]

(people call it a tablet for a reason)

that reason being that it's a touch screen

a lot of people don't notice this because few games even use that

it might have even been more popular if they would have officially supported android for it, then people who dont have a tablet could buy that one for android tablet while also being able to play switch games

kinda like ps2 and dvd player, or ps3 and blu ray player, back then

 

[Maeson]

Yes, that's partly why I said there's a reason, just like I said that devs at large ignore unique features, touchscreen included (although I have to concede that you cannot use the touchscreen if docked, so it's its own can of worms so to speak).

And I don't see Nintendo ever giving such liberties, like adding Android support ever. Just knowing there's emulators for that would make it impossible, specially with their sibscription stuff, but as a possible entry point for jailbreaking and such it would instantly would have been thrown out too.

After all, Sony dropped Linux on PS3, and Microsoft has ongoing shenanigans with emulators too.

 

[SeventhSon7]

I wish it was easier to play via flash cart

 

[jassin000]

Flash carts are a poor option for a console that already contains a microSD port.
Purchase a large 128GB+ microSD and simply install everything you want/need.

Bonus you can use that same microSD card for GBA/DS/DSi ROMs as well.

Back on topic: What do I think of the 3DS today?
Its the home of three important games...

• Zelda - A Link Between Worlds
• Metroid - Samus Returns
• Luige's Mansion - Dark Moon

Now that LM-DM aka LM2-HD is on Switch its maybe slightly less important.
For a person that basically refuses to play most HD remasters its absolutely essential.

 

[4d1xlaan]

Yes, that's partly why I said there's a reason, just like I said that devs at large ignore unique features, touchscreen included (although I have to concede that you cannot use the touchscreen if docked, so it's its own can of worms so to speak).

And I don't see Nintendo ever giving such liberties, like adding Android support ever. Just knowing there's emulators for that would make it impossible, specially with their sibscription stuff, but as a possible entry point for jailbreaking and such it would instantly would have been thrown out too.

After all, Sony dropped Linux on PS3, and Microsoft has ongoing shenanigans with emulators too.

Yeah I was elaborating on what you said, sorry that wasnt clear

 

[gameboy64]

It's a great handheld and I am glad it has gained more popularity in recent time. You can run many game boy emulators on it so its pretty verstaile. Overall it's not a bad console and themes are so well made. Wish I could say the same about Switch...

 

[Maeson]

Flashcards also use more battery, something I've noticed testing with a DS Lite, and apparently is also present on 3DS as I've read about (I am not buying one to just test that), so it's a big no for me, even less when the system itself support digital copies of games and can directly dump your real carts to the SD card.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I haven't touched it since I got a Switch, and the battery's probably dead now.

I didn't play the Mario & Luigi remasters which is kind of a shame. I might play them on emulator, I just can't go back to those crappy low res screens.

 

[lordelan]

I think the 3DS (and also the WiiU) OS were pretty much peak nintendo

I absolutely agree. From an aesthetic point of view nothing beats the Wii U home menu imho, especially with a dark theme (SDcafiine).
It's annoying though that there's a 300 tile limit and it's even more annoying that a folder can only hold 4 pages of tiles (=60 games).