Current Events > What was the 3DS like?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I always forget the 3DS exists. It never comes up in conversation either.
Whenever I think of it, I think of remakes, the handheld version of Smash 4 and Pokemon phoning it in.
Was it any good? Did I miss something great?

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Was it any good? Did I miss something great?

yes

One of Nintendo's best systems imo

Off the top of my head you missed out on the full Ace Attorney series being there, Kirby's big revival after RTDL, Fire Emblem's renaissance, Etrian Odyssey becoming accessible, and Bravely Default.

I jailbroke mine and put a bunch of ROMs on it. Itll play up to some PS1 games smoothly and everything below that flawlessly.

theAteam posted...

I jailbroke mine and put a bunch of ROMs on it. Itll play up to some PS1 games smoothly and everything below that flawlessly.

Oh yeah I did this too

I was asking mainly because recently I saw a bunch of people agreeing Gen 6 was where Pokemon fell off.
And yesterday I found out there was a Bowser's Inside Story remake where they just made the graphics look slightly better (But also less endearing imo) and nerfed all the enemies.
Between that and the remakes it started sounding like a catch-up/entry level console for new Nintendo fans.

Kid icarus uprising is my number one game ever and fire emblem fates for the characters and gameplay isnt far behind either also I remember kirby triple deluxe and planet robobot being an improvement to the wii game, mario kart 7 was always a fun game, I liked smash 3ds for the exclusive dungeon mode I forgot the name.
Other games I liked:
Rhythm heaven
Sonic generations 3ds
Ace attorney
Zero escape though I played it on ps4 later on
Sonic sega racing transformed
Oh I almost forgot mario and luigi rpgs dream team was sooo good my fav in the series and the remake of superstar saga was pretty nice

ah yes, the ultimate drawing software

Have a 2DSXL that a friend gave me a few years ago. I still play it fairly often even now. Only way I was able to play the first Luigi's Mansion as I never had a GameCube.

Love the backwards compatibility with the original DS, too, as I already had quite a few games. Lots of remakes, sure, but a great system all around.

I like my 3DS much better than I like my Switch. The games were great, and drift wasnt a thing.

Everyone lauds the Switch, and it has a lot going for it, but Nintendo should get more heat for how bad the Joycons are. I had two sets get massive drift before giving up and just buying a pro controller. I have been gaming forever (Pong and Atari 2600 type forever), and I have never encountered drift like this. And Nintendo has admitted and apologized for the problem.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I was asking mainly because recently I saw a bunch of people agreeing Gen 6 was where Pokemon fell off.
And yesterday I found out there was a Bowser's Inside Story remake where they just made the graphics look slightly better (But also less endearing imo) and nerfed all the enemies.
Between that and the remakes it started sounding like a catch-up/entry level console for new Nintendo fans.

Oh no, not at all. Pokemon XY didn't even start off that badly and was actually rather ambitious for its time. It also kind of revived the Pokemon series, sales wise at least, as sales had started to dwindle during the DS. ORAS is when the devs admitted that they're prioritizing the "mobile children with low attention spans". My theory is they took the wrong lessons from XY's success (it was very easy but the theory was that a lot was getting saved for the Z version. Most initial duos are lacking in features).
Bowser's Inside Story remake was at the tail end of the 3DS's lifespan and a poor decision by Alphadream throwing all their shots at the wall in order to try to recoup costs from a failed mobile game. A big outlier.

Garbage system for the first 2 years of release, then it became great after 2013 when New Leaf and XY were released. They even had to make an ambassador program for people who bought a 3DS early. The 3D was a gimmick, I don't think anyone ever uses it.

Streetpass was a great system though, it was fun traveling through airports or college campuses and see what kinds of people you meet. I remember Streetpassing TheJWittz during XY's midnight release at Nintendo World Store. Got a Streetpass from a family member when I went to Ecuador.

3D gimmick was broken until the New 3DS release with face/eye tracking.

You could play every Dragon Quest from 4 to 9 on it.

There was a very long stretch of time around release where there was next to nothing to play on it, but the 3DS ramped up by the end and became a great system.

I'm gonna try find some retrospectives.
It completely vanished into the big decade long void where I wasn't interested in consoles or handhelds at all. I think I played a total of two games on someone else's very briefly.

All the fun I've been having on games lately has been on handhelds and I am becoming curious.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Between that and the remakes it started sounding like a catch-up/entry level console for new Nintendo fans.

This is how the switch feels for me

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Whenever I think of it, I think of remakes, the handheld version of Smash 4 and Pokemon phoning it in.

I am not a Smash player, but what was wrong with the Smash 4 port? I thought it was lauded as being pretty incredible for the handheld and it's weaker hardware?

The Pokemon games on 3DS were fine, they were kind of the last of the old-school style and they looked and played well. I actually enjoyed playing through X, it felt nostalgic but updated. Sun and Moon were pretty good too.

ExtremeLuchador posted...

3D gimmick was broken until the New 3DS release with face/eye tracking.

Nah, it worked fine.

Some games were just better for it, like racing games really benefited. Not perfect in all situations, but it was cool tech.

Torgo posted...

The Pokemon games on 3DS were fine, they were kind of the last of the old-school style and they looked and played well. I actually enjoyed playing through X, it felt nostalgic but updated. Sun and Moon were pretty good too.

It was the start of Pokemon getting simpler and having less content. XY is excessively easy. ORAS doesn't have the battle frontier and uses Ruby Sapphire's lame lineups for Gym Leader teams instead of Emerald's far better lineups. Basically every route and "dungeon" in SM are straight lines, the national dex was removed (still has every Pokemon in the code so they can all be transferred at least), they dropped expanding on megas to add a new gimmick which was the start of needing a region specific new gimmick for each gen instead of expanding on older mechanics, and the infamous handholding tutorials.

They're much better than the Switch games but the dwindling quality and less effort in exchange for pushing out the games faster most notably started here.

I found it to be a mediocre system. The Nintendo first party games as a whole were very weak and it didn't have the third party support of the DS. If it didn't have the Monster Hunter games on it, it would be nothing to me and even then they succeeded in spite of the system, since the 3ds was very underpowered, damn near feeling weaker than a PSP. I found the Wii U to be more compelling, since the first party line up was much stronger, even if most of the better ones have been ported to the Switch at this time

SM are very underrated games. I do not fault the effort that went into them.

They look great on the 3DS. The region is large and diverse. The Battle Tree is great. I don't find it any more linear than the previous games. Pre-SV, Pokmon was not exactly known for its lack of linearity. The QoL improvements for breeding/training are a huge step up (easily visible stats, hypertraining, Pelago). There's plenty of content and story, Team Skull are very entertaining. They tried to do something different with the Trials and Totems, but fell foul of the usual 'please innovate, but give me all the same stuff' fan complaints.

Long cutscenes irritating? Sure. Hau not an edgy arsehole? You do you, I guess.

But they'll get their reappraisal, just like Gen 5 did.

ai123 posted...

But they'll get their reappraisal, just like Gen 5 did.

I highly doubt it. Gen 5 got their recognition by Gen 7. It's already Gen 9 and Gen 6 is still divisive let alone adored. I even see some quite a few patterns of people who like the Switch games hating gen 7 in particular for some reason. I think these 4 gens will always stay divisive. Gen 5 is an outlier for its actual game balance and story being good and was only initially hated because the Pokemon seemed ugly which people eventually eased up to. These last several gens have inherent gameplay and story flaws that aren't easy to vindicate.

3DS has a great selection of games you should try them if you got the chance i am fond memory of it along with PSP

I gave it a look, listened to some people talk about it and list their favorite games.
I kinda see the appeal, especially compared to the other two consoles at the time. Nothing here's really appealing to me personally though.

Quite possibly one of the best platforms Nintendo ever put out.

In addition to its own vast, unique library, it supported DS games via backward compatibility (and the DS was already a beast in and of itself), and--while a moot point now unless you hack your 3DS--had a robust selection of great indie titles, first-party games, and classic Nintendo games (NES, Game Boy/Color; and SNES with the New models; plus the Ambassador GBA games if you were an early adopter) available via the eShop.

I think I used the 3D thing once and turned it off

I really wish I still had 1. Bravely Default, Bravely Second, SMT4, and SMT4A are badass games.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I was asking mainly because recently I saw a bunch of people agreeing Gen 6 was where Pokemon fell off.

More accurately it exposed Gamefreak since they've been living large and sitting pretty with sprites and never had to bother with 3D models since Nintendo handhelds weren't strong enough for proper highly detailed 3D models until the 3DS released.

super_felicia posted...

Kid icarus uprising is my number one game ever

We need a remaster for the Switch because the controls fucked my fingers up

One of Nintendo's best platforms and probably the best handheld platform ever released.

dameon_reaper posted...

We need a remaster for the Switch because the controls fucked my fingers up

Even Sakurai wants it to be done (doesn't seem like he's in a position to do so himself) :
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/7/AANZVmAAD6eH.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/8/AANZVmAAD6eI.jpg

Solar_Crimson posted...

Even Sakurai wants it to be done (doesn't seem like he's in a position to do so himself) :
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/7/AANZVmAAD6eH.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/8/AANZVmAAD6eI.jpg

It was an amazing game that was hard to play for me but one I'd buy instantly. It had great dialogue and I had a lot of fun with the combat. I even played some of the multiplayer which I don't tend to do but man it was so good. i still have it but I don't know if I could handle it again, even with that nub of a second joystick.

dameon_reaper posted...

It was an amazing game that was hard to play for me but one I'd buy instantly. It had great dialogue and I had a lot of fun with the combat. I even played some of the multiplayer which I don't tend to do but man it was so good. i still have it but I don't know if I could handle it again, even with that nub of a second joystick.

Unfortunate, Uprising doesn't support the second joystick, either via the Circle Pad Pro attachment or on the New 3DS models. Sakurai even once lamented that they weren't able to offer support for it because the possibility of a second joystick came about when the game was too far in development.

It had a solid library, but I literally always had the 3D function toggled off.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Unfortunate, Uprising doesn't support the second joystick, either via the Circle Pad Pro attachment or on the New 3DS models. Sakurai even once lamented that they weren't able to offer support for it because the possibility of a second joystick came about when the game was too far in development.

Damn. Good thing I didn't try it then. I would have been pretty livid.

The 3D was cool but after a few months the novelty wore off and so I just turned it off to avoid double vision issues with not holding in the sweet spot

What's with that game anyway? I saw videos of people saying it was good but the controls sucked. It even came with some kind of 3DS stand.

The rail shooter sections make me think of that DMC1 Mundus fight. (Which coincidentally also makes your hand hurt on DMD because you have to rapid fire and holding the button down fires way too slow.)
The running around segments I don't know what it's meant to be. Jak and Daxter with a big crosshair on the screen?

eh, forgettable system
i was gonna say good system with good library, then i realized all the games i remember were actually DS games. lol well then...

3d function was totally pointless and dumb. best part was when they rereleased n64 games lol.

It was one of the best portable consoles ever made with an amazing Metroid exclusive and multiple Castlevania exclusives, the best 2D Zelda game and backwards compatibility. Also the best digital novel series in Zero Escape.

MH4U alone ate the entirety of 2015 for me

I loved the 3d effect. Too bad there were hardly any 3D classics.

The 3DS was a grest system with great games, but the 3D stuff was a pretty useless gimmick.

It was peak technology for sure, especially with the inclusion of the 3D camera, AR features and improvements with the new 3DS, but damn, 3D isn't as fancy and enjoyable as it would like it to be.