2011 was rough, with only a few good games before Q4, which saw a couple of strong Mario games come out. 2012 had a great Q1 and Q4, but the middle of the year was pretty slow. 2013 is looking pretty incredible so far, though. February and March have seen several extremely strong releases, with some of the strongest titles yet to be released.. April will see the release of Soul Hackers, June the new Animal Crossing, and July Rune Factory 4. Project X Zone is set to come out in August, and Pokemon X and Y should be out in October. More than likely after E3 or the next Nintendo Direct we'll know the release dates of DKCR3D, M&L: Dream Team, and the new Mario Golf (I personally don't care about golf games, but I know the series is popular). If I had to guess, I'd say they'll probably come out Q3, which would probably cover September at some point. More than likely there'll be some big releases in Q4, too. Overall, this is shaping up to be an absolutely incredible year for 3DS owners.

It'll probably only get better, too (at least until the 4DS with ZD graphics gets announced. ).

Yes it is. I'm really looking forward to this years batch of 3DS games. I work out of town quite a bit during the summer, so the 3DS will keep me busy and out of trouble . And Mario Golf is one that I'm looking forward to playing. I couldn't care less if its a Mario game, I just want a good golf game for my handheld.

A 4DS would look really nice sitting next to Nintendo's successor to the Wii U, the Nintendo Gametesseract.

This year will be really hard to beat. Although if Bravely Default and Shim Megami Tensei 4 get released in the US next year, 2014 would be off to a really good start.

Studying becomes much more fun when you alternate short study sessions with short bursts of gameplay.
I'll probably end up trying Mario Golf on the VC sometime soon to see what all of the fuss is about.

it looks pretty cool, and Nintendo confirming they are publishing 3rd party japanese titles almost guarantees this year will be great for the system.

The 3DS era thus far has felt like this big apology to core gamers for the DS/Wii era. While both of those consoles had quite a few stellar titles released on them, the markets for those consoles were also flooded with shovelware. Moreover, tons of great Japanese games didn't make it over here. I think Nintendo is trying to rid itself of its casual gamer image now. That's probably why there isn't a Wii U Fit yet (something I'm actually looking forward to, to be honest).

Animal Crossing and Rune Factory 4...gonna be a gaming summer, lol.

Fire Emblem kicked the year off, and with DLC it just gets better ( how about that dreadfighter class) Mario golf will be awesome, but personally I think that animal crossing will be the next big one. They may have perfected it like they did with fire emblem

I'm predicting Animal Crossing is gonna be one of Nintendo's most popular non-Mario/Pokemon titles in quite a while.

Animal Crossing will keep me busy for the rest of the year.

So maybe Animal Crossing being a huge hit would be bad for Nintendo, you wouldn't need to buy other Nintendo games for a while.

Animal Crossing will keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Pokemon X will keep me busy for months and will be the only thing i will really play on the 3ds

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:Gates to Infinity,AC:NL,Pokemon Y,and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon will keep me busy for YEARS.

The year we get Bravely default will be the best year ever.

I'm pretty excited about 2013, although I haven't even finished buying all of the 2012 3DS games I wanted (I still need to pick-up my own copies of Rhythm Thief and Harvest Moon: ANB).

Ahhh, me too. 2012 was a good year for the 3DS and those nice-looking games were the unfortunate victims.

I totally have to finish off some of my older games before April. I have too much of a backlog as is!

I am crazy excited about 2013, but I've only just got a 3DS so I have so many games from the backlog to get my hands on! ARGH DECISIONS. A good problem to have, though, and not one I would have foreseen on 3DS when it first released!

First world problems, aren't they?

75% of the world has to worry about malnutrition, political oppression, overpopulation, rampant disease, dwindling water supplies, etc.

We whine about having too many games to plough through!

By the way, if you like strategy games, a real gem released near the beginning of the system's life is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. It's super-cheap on Amazon and has 70+ hours of gameplay in it. It's easy to overlook, but it is surprisingly fun.

As to your last point, that's why the Wii U launch drama is so annoying. The same places that were writing the obituary for the 3DS in its first six or so months of life are now doing the same for the Wii U. But you know pretty soon it's going to be the same situation with the Wii U: so many great games being released that we don't know where to start!

I am pouncing on:

• Pokemon Mystery dungeon: Gates to Infinity
• Rune Factory 4
• Project X Zone
• Pokemon X/Y