Well, I took some time to jot down some thoughts on the one handheld that everyone seems to agree was the bee’s knees: the Nintendo 3DS (and all its various iterations thereafter!)
It’s one I’ve gone through a few ‘phases’ with - collecting, modding, selling, then buying a ‘perfect’ one, then…the pattern just repeats and repeats. I love how truly customizable it is now that it is…essentially an abandoned generation. The community took things to great new heights (those themes!!!), 3D printed docks and displays, vinyl stickers…it makes me so happy to see how very few 3DS consoles look like anyone else’s.
The market is getting crazy though. Prices are only going up (and special editions are going waaaay up), but it’s nice to see options like the Thor, Pocket DS and Anbernic’s RG DS coming up to give modern users some solutions to playing.
Anyway
Don’t expect anything wonderful here, I wasn’t even sure what to write for this article. I guess while I call it a retrospective, it just touches on some key points in the lifetime of the 3DS system.
P.S. 100% ready for any 3DS games recommendations to be shared!!!


I just realized my Z-fold with controller case could make a truly excellent DS emulator.
Anyone know if there’s an emulator out there that supports folding phones in landscape mode as a DS, similar to the way YouTube will split the video and the controls when partway folded in landscape more?