Something really funny is Nintendo's recent survey actually asks if people are playing games on certain consoles and the 3DS was an option while the Wii U was not.

Here is the real simple reason. No subscriptions. No Ads. Its that simple. Really it is. I don't even have to log into steam. its amazing.

Another great feature of online play on the 3DS is that it was FREE. I didn’t know that online play was free on the system until around a year before the server shutdown - I can’t afford the online Switch subscription right now so, I really enjoyed being able to play Mario Kart online again and also visit other towns in Animal Crossing.

One thing that was actually good about the dual screen gimmick getting old with the 3DS, was that the second screen started to be used in ways that were actually better, mostly for being used for inventory or maps, or options. Having the main screen host the main game, using buttons to perform all actions and abilities, then having a second screen to manage the game, and being able to use the stylus in the menu, was a great use of the second screen. This sort of use was much more common in the 3DS. Compared to the OG DS where dual screen was still a gimmick, and lots of times action was done on the touch screen with the stylus. That can be fun sometimes, but is gimmicky. I'm a strong believer in having a second screen for utilitarian purposes, but not core gameplay.

I still miss dual screen portable gaming... it's so useful if you can put all your UI info in the bottom screen and put the main game on top. I was a big fan of that.

It’s so easy to just close the 3ds and put it in your pocket till later. Even the switch light requires a larger pocket and I lost a thumb stick cover from not using a case in my pocket.

I never got tired of the screens!

"It's the first Nintendo thing I've ever owned" Damn, as someone that grew up with the DS lite and DSi this makes me feel old.

Literally bought one a month ago cause I finally have the funds to buy stuff I couldn't when I was a child

from what i know, the 3ds rose in popularity again back in 2020, 2021 or 2022, you are just a bit late to it, but you explained this all really well

It's always been popular. Now that homebrewing is possible, you can play almost anything the 3ds offered

My husband bought me a N3DS XL back in 2017 and I played it for a bit before buying myself a Switch and becoming hooked to BOTW. I finally started playing my 3DS again in late 2022 and fell in love with the system. Now I haven’t touched my Switch in at least 4 months and have been predominantly playing games on my 3DS.

As some people already pointed out, the 3DS is basically a buffed up DS, and it still includes the GBA instructions, so you can avoid emulating GBA and just run the games natively as if you were playing in a original GBA. There's two ways to do this, you can inject rooms into the same wrappers nintendo used for the 3DS ambassador program using New Super Ultimate Injector in your PC, this generates a CIA file that you can install; or you can use custom firmware, open_agb_firm lets you load .gba roms to the GBA CPU directly. The only disadvantage over emulation is that you can't use cheats.

Thankfully I found my 3ds a week before the servers shut down and the day it shut down I modded my 3ds

I still think foldable handhelds would be optimal. Not just because you can fit things like dual screens, but because it solves the biggest problem in my opinion: size! The New 3DS XL was bigger than its other models and could still fit in your pocket. The foldable handheld design means you can keep it at a good length to hold it in your hands while also making it able to fit in your pocket. It doesn’t really have to get longer, it just has to get thicker and even afterwards it probably will still fit in a pocket or bag easier. Of course there are some things to increase the power of a console that will inevitably make it have to get longer (eg graphics cards and stuff), but being able to put that UNDERNEATH the controller and saving space with the foldable design still keeps it consistent with size.

I have to admit, I also am getting so much nostalgia for the 3DS. I had it a long time back when I was still in Middle School, playing Nintendogs with my best friend (hope she's doing well wherever she is now). Playing Animal Crossing New Leaf and developing a brand new place and meeting so many great people on islands (I will drop one name, I met this one really nice person on ACNL named Eloise and she was the nicest person ever). Playing New Super Mario Bros 2 and trying to collect as many coins as I could. The 3DS has so many fond memories I can hardly list here. I'll miss it.

In the next few years I hope we get a legacy version of the 3ds, revamping the graphics, reopening the eshop and making a few more releases for the updated 3ds.

Loved my 3ds, what an awesome console. I like your point about 'handheld games' not existing in the same way. One of favorite features was street pass as i would carry my 3ds around everywhere and get tons of connections on campus. My switch, on the other hand, sits in my room like a console and never goes anywhere

It's actually insane for a console as old and as popular as the 3DS to be reselling at these prices. I'm split on whether there's going to be a bubble that pops or not. It kinda depends on what happens with next gen consoles I think. If there's no option for physicals I think prices for everything that does will be on a major climb.

The World Ends With You was awesome on dual screens!

The GBA issue is to do with SD cards over 32gb and cluster size chosen. You need to pick 64kb as the cluster size and then they will be normal.

the 3ds has been in my life since 2011, since i was 7, it grew up with me and i hold it so close to my heart. ive bought quite a few more over the years, i just love the system that much. im glad people are loving the 3ds again. it fills me with so much happiness, though i am sad that its servers have closed. but there will always be a deep love in some of us that burns on until the day we arent here anymore.

Simple answer: every single game is free when jailbroken now!

I've had my Old 3DS modded for years, but seeing the outpouring of interest into this little handheld that I've spent so much time with is truly a unique feeling. Once I can purchase a replacement battery (mine was beginning to look like a spicy pillow) and get a hard drive for my Wii U the next few years are gonna go crazy

I think people have kept caring about it for a while, its just the servers and pretendo and all that have put it in the news spotlight again so people are more vocal about still playing it.

For me the 3DS has always been a great platform that never lost relevance. See the Switch as great as it is, its less portable than the 3DS. Sure you could argue it can be used as a portable, but even the Lite model is bigger than the 3DS itself. And if you're like me and went for the full hybrid version of the Switch, there are only two ways to carry it with you. You can either put the screen in one pocket and Joy Cons in the other (I use a shell case to protect the screen btw), or put it in a case and carry it in a bag. The 3DS is ten fold easier as it easily fits into one pocket and protects itself with its clamp shell design. Its for this reason I tend to carry my 3DS more frequently than my Switch when I'm on the go.

For decades we've had Gameboy Color devices, Gameboy Advance devices (including the SPs), Bunch of Nintendo DS's (including the Lites, DSi, DSi XL, AND 3DS). However, it's amazing to see the new generation of gamers go back to emulating/homebrewing consoles they grew up with, much like what we did with the Gameboys/Original DS's and 4th/5th/6th generation consoles and PC games as well.

Love the video MJ!! I bought myself a 2DS a few months ago at a game sale event for £50 and it has been my first time playing 3ds games! Modding the 2ds has been so much fun and i am enjoying games i thought id never get to play!

I love the switch, but if I want to play on the couch I play a home console and if I want to play a handheld I play a vita or 3ds. I miss the pocketable handheld gaming eras. They were awesome. I still keep them alive by playing on my modded 3ds and vita. My blue 3ds and vita turn heads. People are very interested. The market is still there. They should just make pocketable handheld consoles again. Better than lugging around a switch or a steam deck around in a shoulder bag/ phanny pack.

The switch’s built in home software and menus definitely lacks the charm that the 3ds and wii u had. And while it is portable, i almost exclusively play my switch in docked because the joycons constantly disconnect as if they were detached from the screen. And with online multiplayer games like splatoon 3, i rather have an Ethernet connection for the best possible experience. As a result of it trying to cater to both, it’s held back by its hardware.

10:19 There is an English fan translation, it's not finished, but it has a decent amount of translated stuff (like a full main story translation)

Super Underrated dude! Kinda want to play my 3ds now ha ha Keep it up!

Awesome vid and well written! You touched on a lot of points that I've also been thinking about the past few days. I haven't opened my 3ds for so long, but have also been drawn back by no longer feeling any moral reservations to actually mod my device given its discontinuation of services and support. Going back to these older game libraries has also scratched an itch for me I didn't realize I had, missing the nostalgia of shorter, simpler pick up and play handheld gaming sessions, that I've found have been easier to fit into my life.

Ive asked my parents and grandparents for a 3DS for years and i still want one

The 3DS, especially the Street Pass feature, is so cool and would be super fun to use today!

Loved this. Please make more on the 3DS, DS, and Nintendo handhelds.

15:56 make a hotspot on your laptop called "mobile hotspot" in windows settings then connect your 3ds to that hotspot and then your connection will be faster also make it 2.4GHz not 5GHz

16:00 if your pc has wifi you can use it as a hotspot for the 3DS while still using ethernet cable. Also recommended if your 3DS can't find your router bc of newer security protocols

I will always love my 3DS. Been replaying Pokemon Blue/Crystal/Sun recently. Might have to give OOT another play too. Homebrew is something I have not explored yet. Great to see there is still a way to get access to old games.

Great video! Top 100 hShop games video next?

Nintendo: tomorrow your 3ds will explode!!!

I still have my old 3DS since the year it came out. Used to play it none stop for days. Even modded the system back in 2019.

I like the fact that you capture your footage from your device like that :)

Awesome video. What I love about modding is a home-brew app that allows remapping of buttons, my r button on my 3ds is stuck so I remapped it to select and that solved many games issues

Great video!!! Didn't know you were a Yo-kai watch fan

I actually just bought a new one and replaced the parts in my first model. H shop and Pretendo makes this handheld shine brighter than ever and I personally like playing on something that isn't monitored anymore by my most hated gaming company. Plus the 3d remakes of Ocarina Of Time and Majoras Mask are still stuck on there

Having handhelds that fit in the Average Pocket are always gonna be loved i like my Steam Deck but only at home on the go i desire a small handheld

13:24 my solution was to open twilight menu whilst holding START and SELECT which then lowers the resolution of the games to their usual resolution. not only do the games look better, but the screen tearing issues goes away as well

If you're willing, GBA games can be added to the home screen too, or run natively through open AGB firm from Universal Updater. It played GBA flawlessly, but you do lose save states and stuff if that's important to you personally.

hey I haven't been able to get pretendo working on mine, I've got it downloaded and enabled but I had issues logging in, is there any extra steps you would suggest that weren't explained well in the original setup instructions?

8:41 It's actually fairly straightforward, especially in comparison to upgrading something like a homebrewed Switch or modded Vita's storage. All you need to do is format the new SD card as fat32 and then copy over the files from the old SD card onto the new one.

6:50 Genuinely curious as to whether there has been a price disparity between console games and handheld games. Can't be bothered running the numbers myself lol

I really, really, enjoyed 2 screens fire emblem, having the stats always on display was amazing. I got used to play 1 screen again, but for some games like FE I couldn't. I still play time to time in 3ds.

Some people still play the game boy color which is 26 years old.

great and informative video 😁👍🏼

I've been playing the same red 3DS since December 2011. My sister and I put so many hours on it. It's fun to look back at our old photos/videos, as well as our gameplay logs. I have pictures of people and places I'll never see again on there (I should probably back those up sooner or later).

people finally realising how good 3ds homebrew implementation is

Just so you know, it's not hard to move data to a new SD card. If you want a new SD card for your 3DS, all you have to do is format it to FAT32 on a PC and then copy all the data over to it from the old SD card on the PC. There's nothing special that needs to be done! It is however recommended to not go higher than a 128 gigabyte SD card on the thing due to compatibility issues.

I appreciate how complete the system felt. Back when the console originally released my brother and I got one and we got one game each and for awhile that's all we had, but we weren't bored. It was always a treat to open Nintendo Video and see something new. I spent a lot of time with my cousin recording videos on it and had my mind blown when my brother showed me how to make stop motion videos on it and my mind was blown for a second time when I put a song on the SD card and the 3DS not only could play it but had mini games while it was playing. They just did more with less back then, and imo it feels like the games and consoles we have today don't.

The Homebrew community focus a lot on the 3DS.For example,2 days ago a new Luma3DS firmware camed out.Imo, the 3DS should continue to matter in the next years.

Twilight Menu runs in DS mode so it's too limited to play SNES accurately since the OG DS has a very weak CPU. There's a port of Snes9x for 3DS that WILL be able to use the 3DS's much more powerful hardware. Similar situation for Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. The mGBA emulator works fine on the "New 3DS" models however it often struggles on "old 3DS" hardware. Instead there are tools to inject GBA ROMs into the "DS ambassador" Gameboy Advance virtual console titles. There's also the option of temporarily booting the 3DS into a custom boot firmware called Open AGB Firm. These don't emulate the GBA per se, they actually take advantage of the fact that the 3DS is similar enough to the GBA that it can run GBA code natively. When you attempt to run GBA games from Twilight Menu it will do so using a homebrew program for the original DS called GBARunner2 which kinda ran GBA games inside of a virtual machine. Most games will work but audio & video issues are common with GBARunner2.

2:58 I LOVE HOW YOU PUT YO-KAI WATCH AS THE FIRST EXAMPLE!!!!!!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

That 3D screen is awesome. I want that in HD!

2:37 This moment made me laugh. That immediate “Time” from P3P surprised me.

Wii U also is quirky and underrated imo Doesn’t matter if two games are on the same system or genre if they’re different approaches with a different audience in mind then they’re different

Yeah, nothing beats original hardware when it comes to touchscreen-based games on the DS. I don't recommend playing pokemon ranger on a capacitive touch screen! As an aside, I would play that series on wii-u virtual console if possible, given the advantages of a larger screen.

Been playing my 3ds again and I'm realizing how nice the dual screens and touch screen is. All the time I find myself pressing buttons with my fingers/stylus that I normally would have had to navigate through a menu for, which just makes playing on the switch feel so much worse in comparison since despite having a touch screen it's barely utilized.

dude i remember playing metroid prime hunters on the og DS and being blown away by how effective aiming with a stylus was in a FPS

is it still possible to mod a 3ds system?

I’ve been procrastinating modding my 3DS for soo long

I guess it's time to homebrew my own 3DS, great video. I own steam deck and use it for playing nintendo games but I have to agree it's very large and not so portable. I did not know about all of this homebrew stuff so I have to give it a shot

simple gen z and younger millennials are getting older and becoming nostalgic and trying to buy it

Dude, first rule of hShop is you do not talk about hShop.

For streaming, try creating a 2.4 GHz hotspot with your PC's wireless NIC or a dongle. Also, try the HR fork of BootNTR Selector.

past owner of a 3DS XL here, since i was in elementary school until i sold it sadly. i remember when i would go to school and put it in my backpack, and after school i'd be so happy to see the amount of people who were in my mii plaza, that was such a cool feature in my opinion and i wish they never discontinued that in the first place. one day ima get it back again just for the nostalgia. 🙏

the 3ds exists because it makes us realize how blant the switch is imo

There's a Sony handheld you have to try out it's called the PlayStation Vita Sony just didn't give it a lot of love

I'm definitely part of the Homebrew Community as for why I'm still playing. Got a bunch of emulators (and a 126gb sd card). Currently I have all the mainline pokemon games on it and theyve all been patched to allow trade evolutions without the trade. That mixed with PKSM to transfer my caught pokemon has been a blast. 13:00 Retroarch has been great for NES, SNES and GB/A

Do you have any idea what is the max micro SD Card that the Nintendo 2DS XL accept?

Modern video games today aren't as good as retro games 😅

For emulating nes, snes, gb and gba, you can inject the rom files onto the main 3DS homepage. They run so much smoother, at the cost of qol add ons that emulators have and taking up one of the 300 app slots on the 3DS homepage(for snes you can only inject for the new 3DS).

Yoshis wooly world is a game i return to on the 3DS. I don’t see many comments here about people actually enjoying the 3d effect, which I still think is fantastic.

I love my 3ds xl. Didn’t get a switch until like a year ago but even now i find myself bouncing back and forth between the two, so many great games on the ds/3ds

I didn't know Another Code was getting a re-release. I only played the first game, but some of the puzzles used the dual screen in very clever ways, like using the reflection on the top screen to highlight a clue on the bottom screen. PS: Several of my coworkers are actually saving for a 3DS. One for nostalgia, one to play on lunchbreak.

I would truly love to see more dev tools to make my own homebrews for 3ds. Really, being stuck with c++ and dealing with screen buffers like in the 90's suck. I'd love to see things like godot export for 3ds, or at least raylib with Haxe for 3ds.

I think it’s genuinely a generational thing, and it really comes down to your preference, what you like, what you remember, etc., and it’s not to say that nostalgia doesn’t play a BIG factor in this. I went into Nintendo handheld games by the time I was young, so I was definitely there when the OG DS came out, was def there when the Lite came out, was def there when the DSi came out, I was there when the 3DS/2DS came out. I hold such great memories for those games that, in reality, the switch could try and replace some of them, but, it’s really not the same. I still have my 3DS XL I brought more than ten years ago now from when it came out in the early 2010s, I wish I had my I XL, and I wish I had my Lite, but I’ll have to rebuy them at a later point. I actually like that generation more because you could tell people put more effort into putting out games and dishing them out to people that actually liked to play games regardless of age, rather than a lot of the games that come out, that are more or less geared towards a certain demographic of people that want to buy and use the switch. I had a switch for about… give or take about a year, and I had to sell it because I just didn’t see the point in having it since most of the games I had were kind of boring, and not really hitting at that time. I would be 100% down to mod my 3DS and alike, and actually have fun to play those games, rather than just, play whatever the switch dishes out now in days. A lot of my friends are still on the switch for whatever reason, I personally feel like they’re wasting their money, and what I’ve noticed is that they’re playing games that don’t really fulfill them in the slightest, and really should just look forward to play games that actually make them happy for once.

A while back I hacked my New 2DS XL and did the wifi video capture to play and stream a nuzlocke of Alpha Sapphire. The biggest issue in my opinion is that it didn't stream audio, so you had to run an audio cable to your PC which can get a bit unweildy. The number of people who were super surprised when the 2DS came into my webcam's frame and they realized I wasn't emulating was great.

I've been using my modded 3DS to play all the games i had missed out on from not being able to afford them as a kid. There's still a lot of games that haven't been ported to other systems (that, and the ludicrous amount of virtual console titles including *native* GBA support) make it an insane deal

I'm actually watching this video while also waiting for some hShop games to download, so this definitely got me very inspired to further experiment with the 3DS modding scene haha! 😅 Also, I had no idea the Universal Updater was so versatile! I thought it was only used for updating Homebrew software, but I guess I gotta look more into that now... 🤔

13:19 I had the same problem, you have 2 solutions: or resetting the game by pressing the bottom screen and doing the same thing as many times as the screen fixes, or just modify some setting in the TWL menu

I remember just before the 3DS was discontinued, they were on price cut and some retailers were putting sales on top of that to get rid of, to them, obsolete inventory, and I grabbed a 3DS XL for like $90 at Target. I didn't have any plans on avidly playing it, and frankly I haven't since, but I homebrewed it, bought it a nice shell and case, loaded it up with a bunch of games, and it's there for those occasions where I can sit down and play a casual game! That's the beauty of past hardware!!!

3:01 i am so happy to see Yo Kai Watch, as i am replaying yo kai watch 3 and i still love the series, sad that it didnt get another chance to see the daylight

Starting to look into physical mods for my New 3DS now like swapping out the c stick and replacing the analog with a black one

13:22 Close your 3DS and open it and see if that works. For some reason sleep mode seems to fix it, at least for the current gaming session.

Some things to note: - all non-3DS games can be run in sharp, native resolution by holding Start or Select when booting the game until you see it run - open_agb_firm is the best way to run GBA games natively, but for New 3DS/2DS mGBA runs fine enough as you said, but not on old 3DS (except for GB/GBC games, those are fine) - running games natively is not emulation, be it through open_agb_firm or twilight menu

i've been playing mine consistently since like 2020. picked up a card on amazon that had pretty much every ds title on it and i'll slowly work through new games now and again when i have down time or when i'm not in the mood to play anything on console or pc. there is a huge amount of good title on 3ds so it's staying value is still stronger than most consoles imo. it's also a perfect form factor for a portable console since you can just pocket it.

If you were to download pokemon on h shop would you still be able to trade even though it's a rom or will it not let you (will pokemon home work too?)

I’m very lucky to have both a 2ds and 3ds growing up. Played a bunch of Pokemon and Mariokart 7, just to name a few. Still have my 3ds, 2ds broke a while ago, and play it here and there for the nostalgia.

I've been playing the 3DS right along since it was launched. What I'm really playing the most is the DSi and DSi XL as it gives you the best DS game experience and I'm really into DS games right now. I have also spent some time on the Vita recently since I finally modded it though I've had it since launch.

I want a hybrid between switch and 3ds. Like the full portability of the 3ds, smaller than switch (downscaled graphics are not a problem if they succeed in making the battery last 5-6 hrs like the 3ds), with a special docking that upscales the graphics up to 4k if you want to play on a monitor. Even sold separately if you just want to play portable or not spend extra money, since a docking with an extra graphic card could be expensive.