Nintendo 3DS

[Xeogred]

It shipped. I'm getting a new handheld. WORLD ENDING 2017!

I'm buying it for Samus Returns and all those Zelda's, but there's probably some other stuff I can check out. Absolutely loved Super Mario 3D World so I'll check out 3D Land. I might get Blaster Master Zero unless I wait on getting it for the Switch. I still need to play one of the Mega Man ZX games too and now that I love Contra I need Contra 4 (I have a DS but haven't cared to touch it in a decade or something). Other than that, I have no idea... I'm not sure if I'm interested in JRPG's for a handheld, but SMT4 does look pretty cool.

I have no idea what's been ported to the 3DS, what the exclusives are, etc. Completely in the dark since you all know I don't care for handhelds much at all. But I plan to get some use out of this one!

[strangenova]

I'd recommend the aforementioned Zelda games (minus Triforce Heroes), Super Mario 3d Land, Luigis Mansion Dark Moon, Mario Kart 7, and Kirby Robobot. I haven't strayed too far from the first party path with my 3ds, and truth be told I usually play snes games on it.

[casterofdreams]

I have a few recommendations: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars is a third-party version of Advance Wars (BTW what the heck happened to that franchise?); you have some Shin Megami Tensei games to lose hours in; lastly you have a great port on the PS2 game Tales of the Abyss.

I myself just pick up a 2DS. I got it refurbish directly from Nintendo for $60. I mentioned this before on the page dedicated to it but I'm such a huge fan of the 2DS.

Anyway hope you enjoy the handheld. When you combine it with the DS library you have by far the most diverse types of games you can choose from on any platform.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I have no idea what's been ported to the 3DS, what the exclusives are, etc. Completely in the dark since you all know I don't care for handhelds much at all. But I plan to get some use out of this one!

I like to think I know a thing or two about 3DS stuff, so I will more than happily throw ya some pointers :3

Recommendations:

Fire Emblem: All three games are great. If you've liked any of the others in the series, you can't go wrong with just about any of them. If you're just starting off, I'd recommend Awakening or Fates: Birthright. I haven't played Echoes, but Conquest was my favorite out of the 3 Fates games and Awakening

Animal Crossing New Leaf: Just about the best Animal Crossing game out there. Takes all the good ideas from City Folk and Wild World and pushes them into something entirely new. It's the best tube-world-style game in the series by a country mile.

Kirby Robobot and Kirby Triple Deluxe: Neither are particularly hard games, but they're great Kirby fun if that's all you're after. KTD especially has some fantastic remixes of tracks from older games.

Kid Icarus: Uprising: More of a spiritual successor to Sin & Punishment than Kid Icarus, but it's still a fun rail shooter

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: Fantastic sequel to a fantastic game. It's spread across several mansion stages this time around instead of one giant one though. It's a bit like Mario 64's stages, where you go back to each mansion/world several times to do distinct missions. I thought it was great, and it controls just fine without the second joystick or anything.

Mario Kart 7: It's Mario Kart, it's on 3DS, and it's great as it always is. 'nuff said

Pokemon X/Y and Pokemon Sun/Moon: It's more Pokemon. If you like Pokemon, you'll like these. Even if you don't like Pokemon or if you've gotten a bit sick of it, I'd still say give Sun/Moon a shot (or just wait for Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon to come out in a month or so). They change up the formula enough that it's given Pokemon the playability update it so desperately needed.

Resident Evil: Revelations: Pretty sure you've already played this one, but it's freaking fantastic. It plays like a Resident evil 4-II. It's a damn fine RE game. Probably one of the best of the action-focused ones to be sure. Up there with 4.

Tales of the Abyss: Not one of my particularly favorite Tales games, but it's the start of when they really got the 3D battle system down. You can finally free-run, so all of the weird bullshit from Symphonia is gone in regards to just not being able to move like you should be able to. It's not a bad entry point to the series. It was my first one, and while it didn't get me super hooked on the series, having it be portable made it far more digestible to younger me

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: I REALLY liked this game. The main idea explored is that instead of you getting the special items halfway through the dungeons that revolve around them, you can get all the items you want immediately and then the WHOLE dungeon can be focused around them. It just uses stuff other than special items for gating where you can and can't go. Never really a particularly hard game, but a good Zelda to be sure.

Mario & Luigi Dream Team: You can get it on Nintendo Selects now I'm pretty sure, so at $20 it's a good deal for this one. It's another fun M&L RPG. If you've liked the previous ones, you'll probably like this one.

And of course I couldn't not mention...

Yo-Kai Watch 1 or 2!: You've heard me preach enough about it in other places to know my opinions on it, but they hold firm. It's my favorite Pokemon-like that I've played by a country mile. It's on equal footing with Pokemon for me. 2 definitely is the one I'd recommend picking up mostly because of all of the quality of life improvements it makes. It doesn't fix allll of the annoying parts of the first game, but it does a fair few.

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ANTI-recommendations (I recommend you avoid them):

Super Mario 3D Land: I really didn't care for this game. 3D World is MILES ahead of where this game is. It's single-player, far too easy, and just generally not that interesting. Unless you can find it really cheap, I'd recommend finding other stuff to play, because after 3D World, you'll just find disappointment if you're looking for more of that golden stuff here

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven: Don't let the XSeed logo fool you! This game is shit! Sure it has waifus, but oh my god the combat takes SO unforgivably long. It takes so god damn long for anything to kill anything, and even then the game is pretty dang hard, so you'll have to restart hour+ long missions just because shit doesn't do enough damage. Trash game. Avoid it!

Then I'm sure Pfsnl_gmr can fill you in on hot digital stuff (other than the brilliant Alien on the Run which is totally worth picking up). He's the 3DS digital KING!

[Xeogred]

Yeah, I shouldn't sound too negative. I'm honestly pretty excited.

I want to go fully digital as much as possible. Not sure if some DS stuff I might want is available that way but who knows.

I guess it's a little tempting to check out some VC stuff again... but I feel pretty burned by Nintendo with the Wii and U having separate libraries and not moving over to the Switch. And I have a Buffalo SNES USB gamepad now which rules. I might sucker into buying a few classics though. I was really annoyed that the 3DS and U had different listings sometimes, that made no sense. But having classics on a portable could be cool.

PartridgeSenpai: Nice!

I've kind of written off Fire Emblem, but maybe I'll get back to it. I liked the two GBA games a lot. I just haven't seen much that compels me to play more of them. I'll have to look into those Kirby games. Always heard cool things about that Kid Icarus for sure. Never been into Pokemon. Got Revelations covered. I played one of the Mario & Luigi's and it was okay, not nearly as cool as Square's Soft SNES RPG! I never played the first Luigi's Mansion. Tales of the Abyss has always interested me and I never knew it was on the 3DS, so I might look into that.

Yeah I've heard that about 3D Land. I know it's a lesser version of World, but I loved World so much... is it really that bad in comparison? It's probably something I'd consider down the road anyways. For now, Link Between Worlds is probably what I'll check out after Samus Returns.

Honestly, I'm kind of wondering if there's some good sidescrolling recommendations. But that said, if there's an option for a game on Steam I'd rather get it there. Like I think Mighty Gunvolt was on the GBA/DS or something, but those are on Steam now. I stick with Steam for indies or ports lately.

[Exhuminator]

3D Land. I might get Blaster Master Zero

Both of those games are fantastic. Like 9/10 fantastic. (PartridgeSenpai's crazy talking smack about 3D Land.) I also enjoyed Kid Icarus: Uprising, Mario Kart 7, and Resident Evil: Revelations. You'd probably like the Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack, as it includes both Azure Striker games. And I think the 3DS version of Shinobi would be up your alley.

[Tanooki]

I'm fairly picky about games, at least those I've retained at this rate.

I can easily recommend some stuff, but some has already been put up like Shin Megami Tensei 4, most definitely Tales of the Abyss (kept this one), Fire Emblem Awakening, Kid Icarus Uprising(kept it), Mario Kart 7 if you're a big fan, same with Pokemon X/Y if you can commit to it (same can be said of Xenoblade Chronicles as both are HUGE time sinks), Resident Evil Revelations (will have on Switch again), and Zelda Ocarina of Time, and Super Mario 3D Land too. More or less a straight N64 port but Star Fox 64 is a great one to have around as well.

Now outside of that stuff not sure if you want existing franchise or new, but Castlevania is fantastic as is Ace Combat. A newbie which is like a final fight with RPG mechanics and a heap of unlockables/characters would be Code of Princess. Castlevania and CoP I still have. If you liked the mechanics of Zelda 2 but love Adventure Time there is a game (first one 'Hey Ice King...') that's a really great adventure. If you're into music tempo games Hatsune Miku while bubbly cute with j-pop is amazing good stuff, better than (though I'd still recommend it) Final Fantasy Theaterhythm Curtain Call. Oh and if you like old 80s/earlier 90s real pinball you can pick up the Pinball Hall of Fame Williams' Collection really cheap and it's amazing with the 8 tables it has. With the 3D slider up it really does feel like a real little table in there.

[Segata]

DQ games are great. I'm a fan of Code of Princess tho not everyone is. Samus returns. Any of the Fire Emblems are great. Xenoblade for sure.

[MrPopo]

No one's mentioned the Etrian Odyssey series. For shame.

[PartridgeSenpai]

3D Land. I might get Blaster Master Zero

Both of those games are fantastic. Like 9/10 fantastic. (PartridgeSenpai's crazy talking smack about 3D Land.) I also enjoyed Kid Icarus: Uprising, Mario Kart 7, and Resident Evil: Revelations. You'd probably like the Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack, as it includes both Azure Striker games. And I think the 3DS version of Shinobi would be up your alley.

I don't mean to say that 3D Land is a bad game. It's a fine game. However, even at the time it really didn't impress me, and now that 3D World has come out and blown me out of the water, it just exaggerates 3D Land's relative okay-ness. Not a bad game, but not one I can recommend wholeheartedly.

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So as a few of you in the Slack chat know, I got a New 2DS LL to play my Japanese games on! I will try and summarize the dialogue-review I gave to Bogus last week about it here.

Pros: It's $50 less than a New 3DS XL, for starters, while still having all the NEW's perks of a better CPU, extra joystick, and extra shoulder buttons. I'd say that's probably the main draw of the console. The cartridge slot is still on the bottom, but it's now covered by a little latch (exactly the same covering mechanism as the 3DS XL used to hide its SD slot), so it's basically impossible to accidentally output the game anymore. On top of that, the mini-SD slot is now no longer BEHIND THE BACKING PLATE (like seriously wtf), and is positioned right next to the game-card slot. However, it's put in such a way that you'd really have to try to take it out, and it'd be very very hard to accidentally eject it while getting out your game. It's a clamshell design and awfully slim, so that's nice as well. Noticeably lighter than the New 3DS XL. Lastly, and maybe this is just for my size of hands, it feels like the ZR and ZL buttons are far easier and comfortable to reach.

Cons: The speakers are indeed on the bottom. It's not really that irritating, but side-by-side with any other model of 3DS, it's fairly obvious that the sound isn't being directed towards your face. Granted, if you're holding it, the cups your hands make to hold the thing kinda direct the sound towards your face, but if you hold it a way where your hands hug the bottom corners, you'll totally block the speakers. Not really a problem at all if you're someone who plays it with headphones when you're out and about on the bus though. The build quality doesn't feel as nice as other models. I think it might just be cheaper plastic on things like the face and shoulder buttons, but even the left-joystick doesn't have the same kind of resistance as the older models, it feels like. Throw that on top of the very slim top-screen and you're definitely gonna want a case for this thing (even moreso than usual). Lastly, the stylus is CRAZY short. It's not extendable and it's like 2.75 inches long. It's crazy uncomfortable to hold, and I'll definitely be buying an extendable as soon as they're available.

The main reason I bought a 2DS LL instead of another New 3DS LL was because of the price point. If you can afford a N3DSXL and the small drawbacks I've described really turn you off, then just go for the N3DSXL. If the lower pricepoint is appealing to you, as it was to me, then you should probably go with the 2DS. It's a fine little machine, and just because it's a bit cheaper in price and a little cheaper in quality doesn't make it worthless