I got a notification on my 3DS the other day, something that has become a rare occurrence. I was always into the StreetPass stuff and I got excited for a second. Just a second. The notification came from YouTube announcing the company would be discontinuing support for the YouTube app on the Nintendo handheld.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It seems everyone with a voice on the internet has declared the death of the final iteration of the 3DS family. Nintendo hasn’t made such a definitive announcement but with no upcoming releases for the system and the Switch Lite launching on 9/20, it doesn’t take much detective work to put the pieces together.
That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it. Look, I expected this. It happens with every console and like other consoles I’m not going to stop playing or collecting for this one. The 3DS was special, though. My affinity for handhelds aside, the 3DS (and especially the New 3DS) is an impressive piece of hardware. The home screen alone made this feel like a real console. There were apps for Netflix and YouTube, mini-games that utilized the stereoscopic 3D functionality, and it even looked good. I loved each and every Nintendo handheld leading up to the launch of the 3DS in 2011 but it felt like they were treating it as a console, not just a handheld.
Early sales were rocky but it was an expensive unit. Nintendo dropped the price from $249 to $169 and tossed 10 NES and 10 Game Boy titles via the eShop to anyone who had purchased their system at the original price. That seemed to do the trick, leading to over 70-million units sold over its lifespan. Compare that to the Wii U’s 13-million units sold from 2012 to 2017, it’s clear that the 3DS was doing a lot of the work for a good chunk of time.
I didn’t mean to go on eulogizing like this. I was kind of put off by a lot of seemingly gleeful articles and videos about the end of the 3DS. It’s not that I’m all, “no, the 3DS will never die! Arrrrrrg!” But I am for more quiet reflection of a system that was, and still is, very important to me, as well as to the history of Nintendo. By our nature, people who are into retro games aren’t quick to toss aside outdated hardware because the next generation has a better frame rate or a more powerful processor. One of the many things I find so compelling about Nintendo is their ambition to carve out their own path in a crowded market. While other companies vie for the title of fastest or most powerful, Nintendo challenges itself to be the most fun if not the most interesting. That does a lot for a system’s longevity.
Gunpei Yokoi implemented his “lateral thinking” philosophy with the Game Boy; instead of using state of the art technology, he opted to innovate using “mature” tech which would be well tested and cheaper to produce. Today, Nintendo isn’t the place I go in search of the most impressive graphics. I expect to find excellent game design and hardware that delivers experiences well. The 3DS frequently met those expectations and occasionally exceeded them. Tentpole titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokemon: Sun/Moon, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and many more were as exciting as any home console release and I could take them with me anywhere.
The Switch is an impressive successor, if you can call it that. I’m still not sure. I love my Switch and it goes with me on road trips, but it’s not quite the same. It doesn’t fit in my pocket like the 3DS (I have a smaller New 3DS – unless I dig out my Jnco’s, there’s no way I can accommodate an XL) and size makes a big difference. I’m interested to check out the Switch Lite but I don’t think there’s a lot of incentive for me to go that route. Not yet anyway.
This little system has a lot of life left. There are still so many games for the 3DS (and the DS for that matter) that I have yet to play. Let me know some of your favorite games!
Handheld History 