PixlBit

 4 Years of Nintendo 3DS

Hey Pixlbit, how's it going? It seems like alot of stuff is having an anniversary recently, HAL Labs, Sonic All-Star Racing, my 25 blog thing, and now the 3DS. The 3DS is 4 years old today, well as in the Japanese release date, the 3DS actually came out on March 27 in 2011 but it released in Japan on the 26th that year. So rather than wait till March 27, I'll write about it now.

The 3DS is Nintendo's recent portable offering, that is being replaced by the New 3DS. Nintendo has released several iterations of it, starting with the original model, to the XL, and the 2DS budget model. And now we have the New 3DS. I've had mine since launch and I loved it. I say loved because it doesn't function well as I've showed previously. But the fun times I had with it.

At first the thing wasn't selling, it was doing rather poorly and people thought Nintendo was doomed. I always find Nintendo doom and gloom articles funny because Nintendo seems to get alot of focus and media attention everywhere when one of their pieces of hardware is not selling well, yet when their fortunes turn around and winds up outselling the competition, nobody gives a damn about it. Well it was Nintendo's fault at the time for selling the thing at 250 bucks, which is the original price of the Wii. That and the 3D Effects gimmick no one seemed to care about. Then Sony came with the PSVita at the same price, and the Vita had so much more going for it. Bigger screen, dual analog control, more powerful hardware, alot of game support, and more, all for the same price of 250 bucks which is the exact price the 3DS was retailing at.

Alot of people asumed Nintendo was doomed, again doom and gloom. As an act of desperation, Nintendo lowered the price.  Nintendo even offered 20 free games to those who got one at launch. Nintendo's fortunes changed following the pricecut and the rest was history. They say something about history repeating itself and it did like what happened with the DS and PSP.

        

As for the games, at first it didn't have must haves at the start, which didn't bother me, as I was still playing Pokemon White at the time. It did get great games overtime and now it has a great enough library of games for those who were on the fence, but could now jump in. I don't have the biggest library of Nintendo 3DS games, but I guess I have and played most of the essntials. I'll post a pick of my 3DS games probably when the North American anniversary comes along.

I'll admit that the only reason I buy Nintendo Portables at launch or as soon as I can is for Pokemon. It's always been the reason I get them and it's been that way since the Gameboy Color for me. Everything else is stuff I know I'll be playing anyway but Pokemon has always been a top priority.

Nintendo has done alot to turn its fortunes with the 3DS, and while it isn't perfect, it's still a very good portable and it's good at what it does and that's the ammount of games it has. It reminds me of the Gamecube in so many ways, heck I sometimes call it a portable Gamecube. It's a great system and has a big enough library of games to back it up, I'm glad I own one, but wish I could play it.

So what do you think of the 3DS? Do you have one? What are your favorite games? Thanks for reading and later.