It's official, all models of the Nintendo 3DS have been discontinued. This includes the original 3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS and XL, and 2DS and XL models. It's been a pretty long road for this handheld, 9 years in total, which launched way back in 2011 and had a rather rocky start until Nintendo slashed the original exorbitant $250 price tag and released some killer apps. At the time I remember being pretty jaded and skeptical about the whole thing, especially after the monumental success of the original DS compared to the shortcomings of its successor. That said the 3DS eventually pulled it out of the fire with some amazing games, solid hardware revisions and sheer endurance in the face of mobile gaming. It even outlasted its major competitor, the PlayStation Vita, by over a year.
This is a melancholy moment for me, as the death knell for the 3DS signals the end of the DS line as a whole. It's been 16 years since the original DS hit the market in holiday 2004, and despite all that has happened since, it feels like a remarkably brief period of time. I was just starting college in fall of '04 and I bought the first model DS with the first check I got from my work study job. Nintendo was in a rocky spot at the time considering the ongoing failure of the GameCube, and we wouldn't know about Wii for a couple years. I remember being astonished by the forward-looking features of the DS and later the evocative industrial design of the DS Lite, but I wasn't sure if anyone would care. I picked up a carry case for my DS at the time and I remember wondering if the DS would ever have enough must-buy games to fill out the 9 game card slots that case had.
Of course I filled out that case and several others during my college years. The DS line hosted some incredible software, both traditional like Ocarina of Time 3D and unique and innovative, like Trauma Center and Elite Beat Agents. That said its unique two-screen design still makes it something of a curio, and the only way to get the full experience is to play DS software on authentic hardware. Thankfully, all models of 3DS are fully backwards compatible with DS software. Nintendo has also announced that, for now at least, the 3DS online services will remain, so you can still purchase digital titles off the eShop and engage in online play.
As the 3DS's last page turns and we prepare to close the book on this chapter of portable gaming, it might be a good idea to snap up any lingering hardware units, as it's the last chance you'll have to buy one new. If you've been out of the loop for the last decade and a half or just lapsed after you beat Brain Age, you're in for a decadent feast of portable gaming the likes of which our industry and fandom isn't likely to see again.
Source: Nintendolife
