Topic: Should I Buy a DS(i) or 3DS?

It's time for one of those jolly forum threads where I tell you a good ol' fashioned yarn and you help me pick cause I'm so indecisive!

The competitors for today are: (In the Left Ring) The Standard DS(i) and (In the Right Ring) the 3DS.

Come friends, gather 'round the campfire, and listen to my tale of woe. I believe I first bought my original DS console back in late 2006. I never really cared much for two screens or the ability to touch my screen, but eventually it was the foresight of finally being to play Super Mario 64 that lured me into buying a DS (I never had a N64, and I had only tasted the awesomeness that was 3D Mario at a friend's house). As much as I enjoyed owning the system, I eventually didn't get to play much on it. When I had Super Mario 64, it was impossible to tear me away from the game. After getting 100% and then about 60% again on another file, I bought Advance Wars: Dual Strike, a good game that unfortunately felt all too familiar too me. Animal Crossing was next, and I enjoyed that one too. For about a week that is, and then I had seen all there was too see about that one. I was reinvigorated when I bought the superb Mario Kart DS (LONG LIVE THE BLUE SHELL. I kid, I kid), and yet for some reason I never really took off with the console, and about a year after I had bought it I decided to sell my poor little DS. I just didn't play on it anymore.

FAST FORWARD TO THE YEAR 2011. Earth has been devastated by an unknown catastrophe of astronomical proportions. All animals have died, food is scarce and cannibalism is a widespread phenomenon. In other news, I got my first job a few months ago. It's not nearly as good as it sounds though, as it was preceded by a college flunk-out of equally astronomical proportions, and the job is basically . The point I'm trying to make is that I don't have a whole lot of time on my hands nowadays. My Wii is hooked up to the "public" TV downstairs, which I can now only access during the weekend, because it gets occupied before I'm even done having dinner. And my 360 recently got impounded by my tyrannical brother who took it up to his room and hooked it up to his crappy TV (JUST WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO START PLAYING THE BANJO-KAZOOIE PORT). All that leaves me is a laptop and my lovely, lovely GBA, who is about to pass on the next world. The Lord knows he hath served me well, and I'm sure that, should he come to pass, he will sit besides his great ancestors in Heaven.

So all this sort of got me thinking. A while back I was checking the catalogue of games the DS has amassed over these past years where I was not paying attention to the releases. I was actually quite impressed by the large number of very interesting games that was released on the system. I can't believe I didn't play TWO handheld Zelda's, a bunch of Mega Man's, a new 2D Super Mario Bros., a whole slew of Dragon Quest remakes, a 3D remake of Final Fantasy IV, THREE new Castlevania games, Contra 4, CHRONO TRIGGER GASP (Though it's on the VC now — notsogaspanymore), a new Final Fantasy tactics, a new Golden Sun, a new top-down GTA that's ACTUALLY GOOD, a game called Henry Hatsworth (I'm IN!), the supposedly good Sonic Rush games, a new Yoshi's Island and even a Ninja Gaiden! This, of course, made me fall out of my chair ever so slightly. How could a console that I couldn't find any games for have so many awesome looking games? If I got myself a new DS, I would be able to play it whenever I wanted, wherever I wanted (and should not a man be able to relax and have the sweat from his brow rewarded by pure gaming joy?) and I'd have access to a slew of nice games.

But on the horizon there loometh a distant enemy. I could hear the faint Japanese cries washing over me in the early pre-dawn of light. The 3DS.

SO. I have bored you long enough. The question as it stands: "Would it be more beneficial for me to get a regular, old-fashioned DS, or the newer 3DS?"

Here are some pros and cons to consider.

Reasons to get a 3DS:

• It plays both regular DS games AND 3DS games. How nice! Of course, I don't know how well it plays these. Any thoughts on this guys?
• It has the eShop. I still don't believe we'll be seeing anything decent on the 3DSWare side of things, but the Virtual Handheld has to the potential to be TOTALLY RAD.
• It could be the handheld that has superb 3D graphics, and still harbour many 2D games (something I wished the DS was, but eventually wasn't. The 3D part was still a tad too weak. It sort of reminded me of the PS1 in that regard.).
• There are some VERY interesting games coming up that I'm sure I'll be able to live without. Super Mario 3DS? Super Mario Bros 3DS? Mario Kart 3DS? Paper Mario 3DS? Star Fox 3D (Enough Mario already!)? Ocarina of Freakin' Time 3D? Kid Icarus: Uprising? Bit.Trip Saga? Mega Man Legends 3? Tales of the Abyss? Metal Gear Solid? Sounds lovely to me!
• The regular DS (not the DSi) can play GBA games, but doesn't have DSiWare. Think of all the good games I'd be missing then (AKA a single game: Shantae).

Reasons not to get a 3DS:

• Let's face it: currently the 3DS hasn't got jack to offer. It currently has no game that piques my interest, and the only interesting games arriving in the near future are the Mega Man Legends 3 demo (merely a demo, obviously) and Ocarina Of Time 3D (a remake of a, what? 14 year old game?). And all the interesting looking games haven't received a solid release date or simply lack concrete information.
• It's expensive. You get to pay a lot of moolah, and for what actually? I can't really grasp why buying this baby sets me back so much. From what I've seen, the built quality is rather cheapish, and it doesn't really pack THAT much horsepower.
• The battery life. Oh yes, here we go again! I'm a home gamer, and still I complain. That's what I do. My main reason for being angry about this is that I'm paying too much to get such a weak battery and that I'm basically wearing down my system during each recharge. Durability is a big deal for me, and the 3DS doesn't really seem to pack that.
• Despite Nintendo's claims, all signs seem to indicate that the eShop will still be an absolutely underwhelming experience. Considering the basic storage capacity of the 3DS, I doubt that there will be much of a change in the size limit of the games, the system still works with wonky SD cards, and my games are still not bound to an account of some sorts. What evidence is there to indicate that I actually OWN these games? What if my system dies on me and Nintendo no longer supports it? What will happen to my games then? And what about the VC prices? Any odds of those getting more reasonable? And some decent support as well? Will bugfixes be allowed? Are translations in? Are we STILL not getting any same-date worldwide releases? What is this, the 90's? And why was the thing simply not released on the system at launch. All of this bodes ill.
• The sound quality is, supposedly, terrible and low-volume. And what greater joy is there than to blast some good old-school music through one's handheld?
• To put it lightly, I couldn't care less about this so called "Stereoscopic 3D". I fail to see the use of it, I fail to see the need to invest so much money on it, and I fail to grasp why it is referred to as 3D when there's absolutely nothing 3D about it. And with so much horsepower dedicated to rendering double images, what is the maximum that developers will be able to get out of the system.
• If I were to buy a regular DS (not a DSi) somewhere, I would be able to play GBA games on a fully-featured system Finally one that has a strong lithium-ion battery, a backlit screen, sturdy buttons AND a headphone jack. Joy!. And as you all know, the GBA was the greatest hand-held of all time (BRING IT NEOGEO COLOR FANS). Since I have quite a few of these games, and actually intend to buy a few more in the future, this is a big plus.
• We might be seeing a hardware revision in about a year or so. An upgraded battery, larger internal memory and better firmware could help to solve a bunch of problems. And to be honest, I'm really looking to make a purchase in the near-future (one/two months).
• The regular DS should be easy to get and quite cheap, so I'm not worried about money there. There are a bunch of affordable games for it too.
• The DS is region-free. The 3DS is not, unfortunately. Could anyone please explain me the use of region locking.
• And, as much as this pains me to say it, one of the biggest fears I have with the 3DS, is Nintendo's consistent refusal to either admit or learn from its mistakes. I absolutely love Nintendo as a video game developer, and I used to love them as a hardware developer, but in the last generation (the Wii, the DS and now the 3DS) they've seen incredibly keen on throwing half-ed ideas on top of their consoles, all the while paying little to no heed to the large amount of complaints. And when they do admit their mistakes, they don't seem very keen on coming up with solutions (the eShop seems to be heading that way). Should I buy a piece of hardware from a company with this attitude. I wan't to, but I'm not sure I should...

Well, that about sums up the first ideas that spring to my mind. Feel free to correct me where I was wrong. As I said, I'm absolutely no DS expert, so I likely made a few mistakes here and there. If you made it all the way down here without skipping anything: thank you! The others probably had a cardiac arrest after the first paragraph. And if you did skip: you probably did what was best to keep your sanity.

Perhaps I should just stop typing out these long posts. Nobody reads them anyway, and sooner or later I'm going to get kicked by a mod for unintentional trolling.

Anyway, any input would be greatly appreciated. I was lobotomised at the age of 4 and now I can't make decisions anymore.

GameSquid out.

The DS has a huge catalog of games that are ready to buy, and they're generally cheaper than when they came out. The 3DS has a few good games out right now, and each one will set you back $40. Also, playing DS games on a 3DS is awful, IMHO.

If you have patience and money, I'd say go for a 3DS. Honestly though, I think a DS is a wiser decision at this point.

Buy a 3DS.
:3

yes.

I lol'd.

I agree with Pixelman. With the DS' large and inexpensive library, not to mention cheaper price of the machine, I find it hard to recommend a 3DS over it. It'll be a while before the 3DS' hits come in, anyways. You could always save up for it later.

A DSi is getting outdated, only buy it if you're tight on cash. Otherwise, buy a 3DS. It is much more on the cutting edge of technology and some fantastic games are coming out later this year.

waiting until E3 before you decide might be a good idea?

Well I remember Nintendo saying not to expect a revision anytime soon. Nanotechnology hasn't become sophisticated enough to make it smaller and a larger version would just be pointless. The DS has a good library, but not great in my opinion. Just go with a Gameboy Micro.

Probably.

I say 3DS. Yes its expensive and yes the games aren't really up to par right now. But the eShop is out in just one week! I think you should have a bit more faith in the eShop or at least reserve judgment until its been out for a bit. Also, DS is very much on its way out. If you got a DS(i) you would have basically the DS library as it is now. There isn't much left on the horizon. getting a 3DS would give you access to every single one of those DS games (except of course Guitar Hero) PLUS the entire library to come for the 3DS. You said yourself how the DS library sort of passed you by over the years. Well I guarantee in 3-4 years time the 3DS will have quite an impressive library built up. Don't let it happen to you again! Future proof yourself for future awesome games by getting a 3DS. It just all around makes more sense. Oh and don't be so quick to disregard DSiWare. There are A LOT of quality things there. I for one am waiting with bated breath to FINALLY get my awesome DSiWare library back when the eShop launches on the 6th. So yeah, I say go for the 3DS!

The Wii has convinced me that a Nintendo system can go from best to worst to best quality AND quantity of games around at any random point in time, so I honestly don't feel like suggesting it or not suggesting it as it is too random to give an opinion of.

Am I the only one that has put 10+ hours in to the built-in content? The AR games and Street pass plaza have more stuff than most people seem to think (There's also Face Raiders, but that game is only fun If you have a lot of people to take faces from). The 3DS camera has more settings than the Dsi's (Lighting, Contrast, Sharpness, and the ability to take 3d photos). And I think DS games play fine on the 3DS.

I reccomend 3DS!

@yoyo: Nope, you're not the only one. I've put roughly 11 hours into AR Games, about 5 hours into Face Raiders, and about an hour into the StreetPass Mii Plaza. And yes, the camera is much better than DSi and I use that often too (I think the Activity Log said about 10 hours on that too). I forgot to mention the built in software in my recommendation but yes, the built in stuff is excellent and lasts longer than one might think.

The 3DS plays all the DS games, so why not get a 3DS? You said you like to get a lot of use out of your consoles. ... Think of how many games — both DS and 3DS — that will eventually be available for this console. You'll never play them all. Don't be put off by the complaints about the 3DS' ability to play DS games. Play them in their original resolution and there's very little difference. And the concern about wearing down battery life with each use? By another battery in two years.

I highly recommend the 3DS.

3DS because its a DSi and more

Exactly this. And a 3DS has 3D and Legend of Zelda OOT, and Eshop coming in month of June! Also the DS doesn't have OOT.

Dsi is the past, 3DS is the future (get it)

Don't buy anything until after E3.