The Nintendo 3DS is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, March 27, 2025. Below, we look back at its design philosophy and how it differs from modern-day handheld counterparts like the Switch and Steam Deck.
Portable consoles are big now. The Steam Deck and its wave of competing devices are just PCs that you can slip into a suitcase. In and of itself, this can make the Steam Deck feel like the best possible version of the portable console. If you're willing to tinker and/or emulate, you can play almost anything on it. If you've already got a massive library of games on Steam? All the better. The Nintendo Switch, which anticipated the Steam Deck's form, went bigger for its sequel. All this size and expansiveness has me longing for a truly handheld device: pocket-sized rather than merely portable. Though some op-eds opined that the 3DS was a serious departure from the minimalist design philosophy that defined the early Nintendo handheld, what has endured is its relatively narrow focus. The 3DS outlasted its own extra-dimensional gimmick and in the process became one of the very best ways to play.
Strangely enough, the portable shift towards maximalism may have started with the 3DS. The original Game Boy, though large and cumbersome in its own right, was made cheaply. Designer Gunpei Yokai advocated for using mature technology that could be obtained easily. The philosophy paid off. The Game Boy, fueled with the lean efficiency of Tetris, was a cascading success. Over two decades later, the 3DS took a new approach. It was not exactly cutting edge, but it boasted a high-tech gimmick of its own (3D effects without glasses) and bright, colorful graphics in those dimensions. It had augmented-reality features and wireless, cross-device communication. Some of the early titles, like Resident Evil: The Mercenaries and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, boasted console-quality gaming on the go. But its competition was the Vita, an even larger and more maximalist portable console (which, in a funny twist of fate, became better for playing visual novels and old JRPGs than any big-budget Sony games). The 3DS was cheaper and appealed to a significantly broader audience. It helped a lot that it was a successor to the already resoundingly popular DS.
Additionally, and this is underrated, it was cute. Nintendo handhelds have always been cute. The name Game Boy itself feels both affectionate and diminutive. The Game Boy Advance SP and the DS Lite were almost fashionable accessories in their own right. Can you imagine Beyoncé fronting an ad campaign for the Steam Deck? Each of the six versions of the 3DS, from the original model to the ultra-cheap and compact 2DS, has its own charms. I love their soft, rounded edges, and the chrome-plastic pop of their color schemes. The XL models of the 3DS did get big, but were still small enough to fit into a purse or jacket pocket. I treasure my sticker-bedeckled 2DS more than almost any of the tech in my possession. I use my phone way more, but it is undoubtedly a more wretched object (more on this later).
The 3DS saved the Fire Emblem series with the release of Awakening. Nintendo had made an ultimatum: Sell fewer than 250,000 units and the franchise was toast. As it turns out, the 3DS was the perfect vessel for a revitalization. Awakening skyrocketed to become the best-selling Fire Emblem in the US, selling 1.4 million units worldwide. Much to the chagrin of some Super Smash Bros. fans, Fire Emblem isn't going anywhere. In retrospect, the 3DS was a perfect platform for the kind of grandiose, anime storytelling that Fire Emblem specializes in had grown in popularity. The 3DS had the right balance between graphical fidelity and spritely abstraction to be its ludic ambassador. Of course, Awakening was not alone. Games like Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright, the Corpse Party remake, Attack of the Friday Monsters, and the various Shin Magami Tensei games were fellow travelers. But Fire Emblem's success was part of a sea change in the broader culture.
Well into the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle, the company continued to support the 3DS, with games like the Luigi's Mansion remake and Metroid: Samus Returns, not to mention Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. The decision baffled some at the time, but now it feels touching. The Switch was a different system that served different wants. That time was a brief acknowledgement of that difference.
The shift to the Switch, which merged Nintendo’s handheld and console manufacturing, and the Steam Deck means that fewer games are designed directly for the handheld format. Everything is for both the PC and the go. Although some games, like Mewgenics or Slay the Spire 2, are pristine picks for playing in bed or on the subway, it's not quite true that they are designed for such play. Mobile games have taken this slot. Games like Candy Crush have short levels and intuitive touch controls. Surely the banner of handheld design has moved to the phone?
The answer to this is complex, but to put it simply: no. For one, even as the 3DS boasted easy internet connection and intuitive social features, it never held the kinds of microeconomies that fuel phone games. The platform was still built around games you, for the most part, bought once and which were sparsely updated. But there is a more fundamental difference: The 3DS is a device that you have to engage with deliberately. Unless you are playing on the 2DS, you have to open it. It will never chirp or vibrate at you; you cannot open it with a tap or a glance. The core loops in games like Animal Crossing: New Life or Fantasy Life reflect this. There are built-in off ramps: places where you can spend some time, but not all your time and certainly not any more money. It is built around the more human rituals of life.
It's easy to be romantic or overly nostalgic about this time. The Nintendo 3DS and its multitude of iterations were products, after all. But now that it is unsupported and rarely updated, its best qualities shine through. It is a handheld with which you could play classics like Earthbound and as well as dual-screen oddities like The World Ends With You and Feel the Magic: XY/XX. It is a place where indie darlings like SteamWorld Dig and Shovel Knight got their start. It is still lean and flexible. Perhaps the 3DS is best understood as a device that got out of your way, which let you engage with it in the way you wanted to.
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Portable consoles are big now. The Steam Deck and its wave of competing devices are just PCs that you can slip into a suitcase. In and of itself, this can make the Steam Deck feel like the best possible version of the portable console. If you're willing to tinker and/or emulate, you can play almost anything on it. If you've already got a massive library of games on Steam? All the better. The Nintendo Switch, which anticipated the Steam Deck's form, went bigger for its sequel. All this size and expansiveness has me longing for a truly handheld device: pocket-sized rather than merely portable. Though some op-eds opined that the 3DS was a serious departure from the minimalist design philosophy that defined the early Nintendo handheld, what has endured is its relatively narrow focus. The 3DS outlasted its own extra-dimensional gimmick and in the process became one of the very best ways to play.
Strangely enough, the portable shift towards maximalism may have started with the 3DS. The original Game Boy, though large and cumbersome in its own right, was made cheaply. Designer Gunpei Yokai advocated for using mature technology that could be obtained easily. The philosophy paid off. The Game Boy, fueled with the lean efficiency of Tetris, was a cascading success. Over two decades later, the 3DS took a new approach. It was not exactly cutting edge, but it boasted a high-tech gimmick of its own (3D effects without glasses) and bright, colorful graphics in those dimensions. It had augmented-reality features and wireless, cross-device communication. Some of the early titles, like Resident Evil: The Mercenaries and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, boasted console-quality gaming on the go. But its competition was the Vita, an even larger and more maximalist portable console (which, in a funny twist of fate, became better for playing visual novels and old JRPGs than any big-budget Sony games). The 3DS was cheaper and appealed to a significantly broader audience. It helped a lot that it was a successor to the already resoundingly popular DS.
Additionally, and this is underrated, it was cute. Nintendo handhelds have always been cute. The name Game Boy itself feels both affectionate and diminutive. The Game Boy Advance SP and the DS Lite were almost fashionable accessories in their own right. Can you imagine Beyoncé fronting an ad campaign for the Steam Deck? Each of the six versions of the 3DS, from the original model to the ultra-cheap and compact 2DS, has its own charms. I love their soft, rounded edges, and the chrome-plastic pop of their color schemes. The XL models of the 3DS did get big, but were still small enough to fit into a purse or jacket pocket. I treasure my sticker-bedeckled 2DS more than almost any of the tech in my possession. I use my phone way more, but it is undoubtedly a more wretched object (more on this later).
The 3DS saved the Fire Emblem series with the release of Awakening. Nintendo had made an ultimatum: Sell fewer than 250,000 units and the franchise was toast. As it turns out, the 3DS was the perfect vessel for a revitalization. Awakening skyrocketed to become the best-selling Fire Emblem in the US, selling 1.4 million units worldwide. Much to the chagrin of some Super Smash Bros. fans, Fire Emblem isn't going anywhere. In retrospect, the 3DS was a perfect platform for the kind of grandiose, anime storytelling that Fire Emblem specializes in had grown in popularity. The 3DS had the right balance between graphical fidelity and spritely abstraction to be its ludic ambassador. Of course, Awakening was not alone. Games like Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright, the Corpse Party remake, Attack of the Friday Monsters, and the various Shin Magami Tensei games were fellow travelers. But Fire Emblem's success was part of a sea change in the broader culture.
Well into the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle, the company continued to support the 3DS, with games like the Luigi's Mansion remake and Metroid: Samus Returns, not to mention Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. The decision baffled some at the time, but now it feels touching. The Switch was a different system that served different wants. That time was a brief acknowledgement of that difference.
The shift to the Switch, which merged Nintendo’s handheld and console manufacturing, and the Steam Deck means that fewer games are designed directly for the handheld format. Everything is for both the PC and the go. Although some games, like Mewgenics or Slay the Spire 2, are pristine picks for playing in bed or on the subway, it's not quite true that they are designed for such play. Mobile games have taken this slot. Games like Candy Crush have short levels and intuitive touch controls. Surely the banner of handheld design has moved to the phone?
The answer to this is complex, but to put it simply: no. For one, even as the 3DS boasted easy internet connection and intuitive social features, it never held the kinds of microeconomies that fuel phone games. The platform was still built around games you, for the most part, bought once and which were sparsely updated. But there is a more fundamental difference: The 3DS is a device that you have to engage with deliberately. Unless you are playing on the 2DS, you have to open it. It will never chirp or vibrate at you; you cannot open it with a tap or a glance. The core loops in games like Animal Crossing: New Life or Fantasy Life reflect this. There are built-in off ramps: places where you can spend some time, but not all your time and certainly not any more money. It is built around the more human rituals of life.
It's easy to be romantic or overly nostalgic about this time. The Nintendo 3DS and its multitude of iterations were products, after all. But now that it is unsupported and rarely updated, its best qualities shine through. It is a handheld with which you could play classics like Earthbound and as well as dual-screen oddities like The World Ends With You and Feel the Magic: XY/XX. It is a place where indie darlings like SteamWorld Dig and Shovel Knight got their start. It is still lean and flexible. Perhaps the 3DS is best understood as a device that got out of your way, which let you engage with it in the way you wanted to.
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