The Nintendo DS and 3DS
 

I've been in a DS/3DS mood lately, which made me put aside the Switch for a while. There's still several good DS and 3DS games I haven't played or don't own yet.

Honestly, this was a pretty fun family of handheld systems Nintendo created. With the dual screen and touch controls. The fact you can play DS games on the 3DS and neither system is region locked is even better.

I also love the presentation and the features the 3DS has. Switch's home menu looks so dull in comparison.

I've spent hours on Animal Crossing New Leaf, Pokémon games, Smash and Advance Wars on my 3DS. And then there's games you can beat in less than 30 hours but still have a lot of fun with such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remakes, A Link Between Worlds, the Fire Emblem games, Contra 4, NSMB, Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, etc.

I haven't owned an original DS, so I play all my DS games on the 3DS. Meaning I've experienced both systems at the same time basically.

What are your memories from the DS and 3DS and yoyr favourite games?

It totally was, as well as the Gameboy. One of my favourites through the handheld gen was the Mario & Luigi series. Played through all of them except Paper Jam. I actually got a hankering for some Dream Team now.

I've only played Superstar Saga só far on the 3DS and that's a remake of a GBA game which played back when it came out. Fun game.

I still love my 3DS. I just recently purchased a few Gameboy VC games right before the Eshop went away. Unfortunately, the battery on my system doesn't seem to hold a good charge anymore.

I remember reading some eyars ago that, after 300 or so charges, the battery life shortens a bit.

300 is a lot, and there's no way I've been keeping track of how many times I've charged my 3DS. But I haven't noticed it getting worse yet. Then again, I don't think the 3DS battery life was ever that impressive. Everyone seems to say the original DS had a longer one. That being said, the 3DS battery life sure is better than the Switch one. But the Switch is hybrid system, anyway, so I guess that's to be expected

The last 3 games I got on my 3DS were some of Nintendo's last releases for it:

Metroid II remake (came out in 2017)
Hey Pikmin (a 2D sidescrolling Pikmin game, it's pretty good)
Wario Ware Gold

Weren't Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon also some of the last releases for the system?

I love the original GBA Wario Ware and Laos like Wario Ware Touched a lot. How does Gold compare to those?

I still have my DS and 3DS. My first DS game was TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare. That was one of my favorites with the other favorite New Super Mario Bros.

My first 3DS game was Super Mario 3D Land. My favorites are Zelda OOT 3D, Mario Kart 7.

I haven't played any of the TMNT games on the DS/3DS. What's the best one?

My first 3DS game was Mario Kart 7. My second one was Super Mario 3D Land, iirc.

Danger of the Ooze is easily the best turtles 3ds/ds game. It is a fun metroidvania game involving the 2012 turtles. I recommend getting the Splinter's training pack which is a 2 games in 1 cartridge which is usually the same price as Dangerbof the Ooze alone. I still actively play my 3ds.

Wario Ware Gold was a "best hits" version of the 3 previous games, it included microgames from the GBA one, the DS one, and Twisted (the second GBA one) and had some new games added as well.

Thanks for the tip.

DS and 3DS games are starting to get really pricey. Especially the Pokémon ones. It's insane how expensive HGSS and BW2 are these days. I'm so lucky I own both. Ditto for Platinum. I only own the Black 2 cartridge, and it cost me 50 euro. In a box it would have been over double of that!

There's also a Castlevania DS game that's super expensive nowadays.

I've had a 3DS XL for maybe the past 6 months. Mostly just to play all the 3DS/DS exclusive Dragon Quest games (at present I am playing Dragon Quest VIII on 3DS) but I'll also probably play Zelda: Link Between Worlds on it.

I played DQVIII on the 3DS in 2018-2019. I randomly found it in a shop here a late as 2018 and this guy I knew online kept raving about the series so I said "oh what the heck" and bought it.

Absolutely loved it. Sunk 127 or so hour in it. Probably my favourite 3DS game alongside Animal Crossing New Leaf.

I bout DQIX for the DS last year. Found it in a Cash Converter shop. I haven't played it yet but even when I went to pay for it, the cashier next to the one who served me looked at it and said "That's a great game!" so I'm sure I won't regret this purchase!

It's definitely not as pretty as the PS2 version, especially if you play the modded version that upgrades all the textures and such and brings it all into 4K:



BUT, the 3DS version of DQ VIII is still superior. You can see the monsters walking around so there's no random encounters, plus you get two whole additional playable characters.

Plenty of people rave about DQ IX. I personally don't like the "look" of it, but that's just me. I hope it gets the Reimagined treatment soon.

You're actually a rare case, from my experience. It seems like most DQ8 fans don't like the 3DS version. I did not grow up with the PS2 version but I do know about the monsters being invisible in the overworld in it and the music being slightly different. The PS2 has the orchestral OST.

Yes, but only one of them is "mandatory". The pirate girl, Red.

Also, if I may spoil the ending, it's slightly different in the 3DS version too since:



Have you played the HD remakes of DQ1 and DQ2 on the Switch? I'd like to but is it worth it paying 59,99 euros for it??

I guess there's a way -- on a ROM level -- to replace the MIDI music in the 3DS version with the orchestral stuff.

I mean, I've beaten it ages ago on PS2 so you're not spoiling anything. Though I could've sworn the PS2 version does let you choose who to marry also? Maybe not.

No, because they look like sh**.

Maybe there is but romhacking systems is not my field of expertise. I am probably the only major 3DS fan left that doesn't homebrew his system :lol:

No you couldn't marry Jessica in the PS2 version. Only the princess. depending on the choices you made near the end, you'd either marry the princess or just save her from her wedding and run away with her iirc. In the 3DS that still happens, but you can also marry Jessica now.

The Hero belongs with the Princess, but I'd rather have Jessica myself. Big tittied fiery redhead? Yes, please.

They do?! So it's not like the Pixel remasters of the older Final Fantasies?

Order of Ecclesia? I have all the DS Castlevania games... somewhere in a moving box.

Top Nintendo 3DS games are:

Super Mario 3D Land
Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remakes (excellent, I hope they remaster them again on consoles)
Metroid II: Return of Samus remake (excellent remake of the Gameboy game)
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team
Kirby Planet Robotbot and Triple Deluxe
Starfox 64 3DS (excellent remake)

Also the Pokemon games but they were a mixed bag this gen.

Might be the one, but not 100% sure. I don't own any of the DS Castlevania games so far, so I'm not really familiar with them.

What do you think of Kid Icarus? I've never managed to get it. I bought my 3DS in 2016 and never found the game in any shop whether new or used.

Also you only mentioned 1st party titles?

If I had to make a top 10 3DS games as of today...

1. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
2. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
3. Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
5. Super Mario 3D Land
6. Mega Man Legacy Collection
7. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest
8. Ocarina of Time 3D
9. Super Smash Bros. 3DS
10. Fire Emblem: Awakening

I haven't played Bravely Default and Second, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, DQVII and barely touched Majora's Mask so far; so this top might change once I get to those games.

As for the original DS, my top 10 as of today:

1. Pokémon Black and White
2. Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
3. New Super Mario Bros.
4. Super Mario 64 DS
5. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
6. Pokémon Platinum
7. Sonic Rush
8. Contra 4
9. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
10. Inazuma Eleven


As for Pokémon on the 3DS. Omega Ruby is great. XY is meh. Sun and Moon is alright and Ultra Sun and Moon is even better then vanilla.

But the 3DS is definitely the definitive Pokémon machine. You can play EVERY SINGLE mainline Pokémon game up until gen 7 on it since it can play DS games and you have RBY and GSC on the Virtual Console. And you also the Poké Transporter and the Pokémon Bank apps to help you transfer your mons to Pokémon Home on the Switch.

Kid Icarus is a great game but the controls are really hard for left handed people, since you have to move around with the stylus when you're on ground. Really hoping Sakurai gets to do a remaster of it on Switch.

Wait, you're left handed? I didn't know that.

As for moving around with the stylus... that's one thing that made me drop Zelda: spirit Tracks. Using the stylus to control Link instead of the D-pad? Are you kidding me?! Give me normal controls instead.

Yes it was too hard to control, I beat the game twice but my hands were in pain every time. :lol:

It needs a remaster. As for 3DS, surprised there's a lack of Zelda games on your list. Metroid is good too, the Mario and Luigi's were good.

Yikes that sounds painful. Any other DS/3DS games that are a pain for left-handed folks?

Well as I said, I haven't played Majora's Mask 3D properly yet. I played it for like 2 hours but set it aside. A Link Between Worlds? That game is fine and all but it must have taken me less than a week to beat it. Plus, even though it's not a remake, it's clearly a little too similar to A Link to the Past which makes it lack a certain identity. Ocarina of Time 3D is in my top 10. Are there any other 3DS Zelda games even? There's Hyrule Warriors which I own in a big box that came with a compass but I never played it. And since I bought the Switch version a few years ago, I just played that one instead. But Hyrule Warriors is not mainline Zelda so it doesn't count, does it??

I have the remake of Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga which I played on the GBA 20 years ago. I thought the 3DS remaster was fine but lost interest at some point in it. I own Paper Jam and Bowser's Inside Story but haven't played them yet so I can't rate them.

I don't have any of the 3DS Metroid games, and honestly, I have a feeling I'm not a big fan of the series. I've tried Prime, Fusion and Super Metroid. Prime bored me as a teenager. Super Metroid was good but didn't wow me as expected. it doessn't crack my top 5 SNES games. Fusion was fine and interesting but again, I didn't love it. I just liked it.

Ever played Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games? I own the Blue Rescue Team version.

All the mainline Metroid games are great. They're very fun to play and it's impossible to get lost as the games always point you in the direction to go. There were two new Mario and Luigi's on 3DS, Dream Team and Paper Jam. Brothers in Time and Bowsers Inside Story were DS games. And the first one was on GBA.

Yeah, 3DS only had A Link Between Worlds as a new main game, two N64 remakes and the spinoffs.

I only ever played the very first Mystery Dungeon.

You do get stuck in Super Metroid occasionally.

They might be very fun for you to play but I didn't have a lot of fun with Prime.

Yes, I know that. Clearly I don't have the 3DS Mario & Luigi games outside of the remake of Superstar Saga. And like I said I originally played that one on the GBA 20 years ago...

Metroid Prime 1 is incredible, they remastered it on Switch with better graphics so you might want to give it another chance. Metroid is a top-tier franchise.

And all those Mario and Luigi games came out decades ago. I'm surprised you didn't play all these games when they originally came out, what were you doing back then? I played all these games the same month they came out.

Not everyone is able to play every single game when it comes out, you know. Also, other games interested me more at the time.

There is nothing more important in life than playing videogames.

Even I, a guy who swears by video games, knows there's limits. Video games shouldn't be the most important things in your life. :trazz:

Good thing that I already bought the Castlevania games when they were cheap. Even Castlevania Lord of Shadow Mirror of Fate for the 3ds is pretty fun too despite getting crappy reviews. I still play my 3ds quite often. Lately I have been playing this Marvel Trading card game for the ds that has a super steep learning curve, but is really fun once you learn how it works. I suggest to all of you to buy a screen protector for the touch screen. I scratched off a small portion from the top layer just using my regular stylus and playing Kirby Mass Attack. The touch screen works just fine with a screen protector over it.

Yeah it's great you have them, but unfortunately, it's usually a matter of luck. No one can predict some games will be super hard and expensive to find 10+ years from now on. Especially not when we are kids/teenagers.

For example, I own F-Zero GX, Ikaruga and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the GameCube. They were all bought in the early-mid 2000s. I had NO CLUE they'd become three of the hardest and most expensive GC games to find a decade or so later! And the other day I saw the GameCube version of Twilight Princess at a Cash Converters selling for over 100 euros as well! Luckily, I bought that game for the GC back when it came out since I didn't get a Wii until Christmas 2007.

It's all about luck. I also bought Dragon Quest VIII for the 3DS around 2017 or 2018 which was the last year 3DS games were sold in regular shops and I happened to run into DQVIII in the wild. Its price was pretty normal. God knows how much it must be costing these days. And that was not in the back of my mind when I bought it 7-8 years ago.

Some games I did have a hunch would go up in value that I bought a long time ago, because they were rare on ebay and a little more expensive (nowadays a lot more expensive). I predicted my Metal Gear Solid gbc game,Ninja Turtles Radical Rescue, and Dragonball Advanced Adventure going up in price. Some games that went up in value that I own suprised me though. I didn't expect Castlevania Symphony of the Night to increase so much since I thought it was a common game.

As a kid/teenager I didn't think that far ahead. I didn't even use ebay or did much online shopping at the time.

Pokémon HGSS, BW, Platinum and ESPECIALLY BW2 have become super expensive. And Pokémon games always sell million of copies, even the lowest selling ones easily sell 6 or 7 million copies. So I have no idea why their prices are so inflated these days. I luckily got all of them in the last 6 years or so in shops selling used games in my city for decent prices.

As for Castlevania SOTN, sounds like a case of you wrongly thinking it was far more popular than it actually is. It's not on the list of the best-selling PS1 games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...deo_games#List

There's 126 games on this list and you don't make a top like this unless your game sells 1 million copies, at least. So, clearly, SOTN was not that popular back then. It might be loved by Castlevania fans, but it clearly was not a very popular game in the grand scheme of things. Most people who had a PS1 back in the 90s did not own a copy of it.

I was actually talking more about 20 years ago and not 30 years ago. I started collecting in the early 2000's. I had games as a kid in the 90's, but I would sell them to buy new games.

Anyway, I own a sizeable DS/3DS collection at this point and yet... I don't own any of the Nintendogs or Brain Training games that were all the rage on the DS when the system was new.

I occasionally do find those games in the wild and they're never expensive at all. Yet, they seem to get off the shelves quicker than you'd think. But somehow, I never feel compelled to buy them even if they sell for prices running from €3 to 12€ or something.

I just have this feeling that those games are products of their time being part of DS' touchscreen gimmick and that they might not have aged so well. And even if they did, you can have fun with those games in 2025-2026 for what... 25 minutes and then never play them again? Even if they're pretty cheap, it feels kind of a waste of money, you know?

Ah screw it, double post.

I forgot to mention one thing... the 3DS and the Vita were the last 2 "pure" handheld systems. The Switch doesn't count since it's hybrid and the games for it are designed in the same way they are for any domestic console.

Actual handheld games are designed in a way that you can play them for 15-20 minutes a day and get a good amount out of them. It is true the 3DS has ports of the non-handheld games like Dragon Quest games and those N64 remakes, but most of the games for the 3DS and DS were designed with a handheld philosophy in mind. Handheld games tend not to make sure not to have too many long cutscenes and other stuff that kills the pick up and play nature of what a handheld title should be. Gamefreak didn't get the memo in Pokémon Sun and Moon at times, though.

The Switch is portable but a little too big to fit in your pockets. And Switch's major titles are definitely not designed for a handheld system that you can play on the go for just a few minutes in a doctor's office waiting room with the exception of Animal Crossing New Horizons.

It's great I can play BOTW, TOTK, Mario Odyssey, The Witcher III, NieR Automata, FFX HD, Civ 6, Civ 7, Red Dead Redemption, Fire Emblem TH, etc. anywhere. But those are not games you can just pick up and play for a little bit.

Sadly, the Switch has killed handheld systems. And I guess you could say the death of handheld systems was inevitable once mobile gaming became a big cash cow. But mobile gaming is soulless and depressing. I've literally never played one I considered memorable or good enough to become a personal favourite of mine. Mobile gaming is for people who DON'T play video games and need something to play during a bus/train ride or when they're taking a ****.

It feels good booting up a 3DS or DS and not getting attacked by ads. They feel like old school systems. Crazy how the 3DS already feels like a retro system with a nostalgic aura surrounding it even though it still isn't one. It got discontinued in 2018 or 2019 and the eshop only closed a few years ago.