Video: For 365 Days, We Took Our 2DS Everywhere Just For StreetPass

I still try to get streetpasses, I’ve got a few at my collage campus before.

Not including the Streetpass functionality in Switch was a missed opportunity to further postively differentiate it from the home consoles. The marketing is literally all about being able to take the thing anywhere, and Streetpass provides an amazing incentive to go out and mingle.

I never got any hits anywhere except one ir two when I specifically hung out at the train station for a few hours. If they do this again and lock game content behind it, hacking the damn thing is the first thing I'm going to do.

I miss my 2DS... Nostalgia Time!

I love the green color BTW.

I'm sorry I couldn't find my 3DS charger for the last 365 days, Zion

I never got the inclusion of Steet Pass. Having the console everywhere with you seems like asking to having it stolen...

@Pandaman It's okay Alan, I know you tried. Even though you should have know I always had one with me...

Since I have four 3DS XL machines in different regions, I can always do Street Pass anytime.

Counter Idea: Streetpass is the perfect idea for a mobile game.

Piggyback the Covid-19 Bluetooth ping system

Offer Quest 1 and Puzzles for free. Sell the other games as DLC.

Stopped carrying my 3DS with me soon after Switch came out. It was also the time when I graduated from university so the chance of finding other people with 3DS plummeted. I'm going to Japan this year and I'm considering taking my 3DS with me in hopes of couple of hits. Anyone know how likely it is to pass someone in Tokyo?

@belmont How many times have you had your wallet or phone stolen? I assume you bring them with you wherever you go? I don't get how this is any different. I had my 3DS with me every day for years. It was in my pocket like the other stuff I carry with me.

Thank you for helping keep StreetPass alive <3

Some of y'all may enjoy Netpass, especially where i live it's great to have an online alternative to obtaining streetpasses

Please Nintendo, do not bring back StreetPass. It doesn't do anything for people living in rural areas, except lock them out of content that only people in high-traffic markets can enjoy. And when servers inevitably go down, then all latecomers are punished as well.

@Late you're comparing two things that are A) smaller and can reasonably fit into someone's pocket an entire day B) FAR more important than a toy to a gigantic, plastic toy that would only fit inside a purse or a pair of Jnco's.

And phones have software specifically designed to allow them to be tracked when they're lost. I keep an RFID card in my wallet that allows it to do the same thing. Can you do that with a 3DS, outside of super glue?

I was always sad that the original 2DS (not XL) was Japan-exclusive, because I would have loved collecting case covers. It's a touch that the Switch has always been lacking, and to add some fun quirk and character to your console these days, you have to fork over hundreds of dollars for a collector's edition Switch.

At its peak, streetpass was such a great feature. It was even better when places like McDonalds would have “Nintendo zones” where you could pick up a few streetpasses at once, including special ones like Reggie. I definitely took it with me everywhere for passes and coins for quite a few years but, as they say, all things must come to an end.

I will say, as great as it would be on the Switch it just wouldn’t be the same. Part of the 3DS appeal was portability and being able to stick it in your pocket. Once I upgraded to the New 3DS XL I started taking it with me less and less because it was just too big to fit in my pocket comfortably. The Switch would have the same problem.

@burninmylight Nintendo did try to combat the rural issue a bit by partnering with companies like McDonalds to have “Nintendo zones” where you could pick up like 5 passes at once. I don’t live in a rural area, but I wasn’t in an urban one either so being able to go to my local McDonalds for some passes was a godsend.

In America at least, you’d have to be pretty rural to not live within a few miles of a McDonalds. I mean it wasn’t perfect, but it definitely helped people get easier access to passes.

Wow! I don’t normally watch game related videos, let alone those that are over an hour. But I’ve now watched about half of this one and am very much looking forward to the second half. The amount of production and documentation to put this together must have been enormous. On top of that it’s just entertaining to watch and makes me yearn for the glow of that little green light. Anyway, I just had to comment to say fantastic job!

I loved street pass on my 3DS. Best ever street pass was Disney Land Tokyo. Had to stop every 30 minutes to clear through the next 10 street passes. Annoyed my wife no end (edit: this was 2014 and I had no idea there was a >10 limit introduced in 2016 - thanks for that gem Zion). At the time I was living in Cairns in Far North Queensland in Australia, maybe a town of 100-150K people which would yield ZERO street passes no matter what I did - and pre covid this was a tourist Mecca / party town.

Prior to that though I would occasionally go to street pass meet up events and it really did encourage me to keep my 3DS on me everywhere I went as a 30 year old.

So I think street pass is actually a really positive feature, both community building and encourages you to use your device (a positive for Nintendo).

I endorse street pass for switch 2 👍

I would not be interested in street pass in a Switch 2, but I would be interested by a 3DS 2 with it. Never going to happen sadly

I’ve been excited for this video since you first started talking about it. Can’t wait to watch!

i still dream of the day streepass comes back. it could debatably be easier than ever with people bringing their switches around. heck make so all you need to carry is one joycon to get streepass hits

tho i do love is more as this forbidden fruit, the most streetpasses i got in one day was 3, playing the games mainly through playcoins. i miss the 3ds era where owning the device itself was enough of its own game

@burninmylight Yes, phones and wallet are more valuable than 3DS, and that's kind of the point. If you are comfortable carrying them with you, you shouldn't be afraid of carrying your 3DS.

As for the size, the original 3DS model is about the same size as my phone, just a bit thicker. I didn't have a problem once I got the XL either. It still fit my front pocket, regardless of which pants I was wearing. If your pants can't fit it and you want to carry it with you, how about buying new pants with bigger pockets? If you were a woman instead and thus have tiny pockets, you most likely have a purse already with you. Just put it there with your other items.

There isn't really a way to track your 3DS if you lose it, no. Tracking your stuff wasn't really a thing when 3DS came out. And to quote what you said, it's just a plastic toy, why would you track it? You could argue that you can use StreetPass to know if your device is nearby, you just need another device to get the hit.

@may2day2 Then come up with a better solution that doesn't exclude people who don't live or frequent high traffic areas.

@Waluigi451 I had no idea that's what the Nintendo Zone app was for, but I'm glad Nintendo threw rural people some sort of bone. It still doesn't change the fact that latecomers to games (i.e., anyone starting up a game now) get locked out of content and it creates FOMO.

@Late A lot to break down here.

"Yes, phones and wallet are more valuable than 3DS, and that's kind of the point. If you are comfortable carrying them with you, you shouldn't be afraid of carrying your 3DS."

I didn't say more valuable, I said more IMPORTANT. Your phone and your wallet are crucial to your everyday life, not a gaming console. If you lose those, your entire life is flipped upside down. Also, you know how games like classic Resident Evil have inventory systems based on item's size and limited carrying space? Real life works kind of like that as well. I can easily walk around with a phone and wallet in my pockets, or carry them for short periods if I don't have pockets. And they justify themselves more easily because there are crucial things I cannot do without them. There is nothing crucial about a 3DS in public, outside of fighting boredom (but your phone can have games too). Speaking of size...

"As for the size, the original 3DS model is about the same size as my phone, just a bit thicker."

That phone must be thicc!

"I didn't have a problem once I got the XL either. It still fit my front pocket, regardless of which pants I was wearing. If your pants can't fit it and you want to carry it with you, how about buying new pants with bigger pockets?"

You must be thicc too! That, or you love your Jnco jeans that I haven't seen since the 90s. You're welcome to buy me these pants with bigger pockets that you recommend. I'm sure that they can double as parachutes if I ever find myself needing to jump from a plane.

"There isn't really a way to track your 3DS if you lose it, no. Tracking your stuff wasn't really a thing when 3DS came out. And to quote what you said, it's just a plastic toy, why would you track it?"

Because it's still an expensive toy that cost several hundred dollars, and many of us have not only several dozens/hundreds of dollars worth of games downloaded to it, but several dozens/hundreds of hours poured into said games that are of high personal value to us.

I take my 3DS everywhere with me everyday. When I was in Japan last year for a month I didn't get one hit. Sad times

StreetPass games aren't locked out of content!
They never were!
That's why Nintendo did the smart thing and used Walking Coins, play coins, whatever.
The ONLY issue with that was when they created new games for StreetPass, was that they didn't increase the coin count!
There are what? 20 StreetPass games now?
Back when it was like three, it was fine.

@may2day2 "Then come up with a better solution that doesn't exclude people who don't live or frequent high traffic areas."

What's so hard to understand about that? New consoles mean new and/or improved features. You want the literal same version of StreetPass that 3DS introduced more than a decade ago with the same flaws. That's like wanting the 3DS's slow and clunky OS and eShop, the limitations on how it handled DLC and downloads, and any other features that it came with to have carried over to the Switch to stay exactly the same because you personally like it. Should the Switch have been the 3DSwitch with the sterescopic 3D that everyone turned off after a week?

Obviously, people aren't missing StreetPass too badly, seeing as how Switch is on its way to being Nintendo's best selling console of all time. Newer consoles drop less popular features of older consoles all of the time, oh no.

It seems that the main thing people miss out on all of the time is the point 🤦‍♂️

@Spider-Kev Fire Emblem Awakening has characters you can only unlock and recruit via StreetPass. So if you are starting the game for the first time now (or if you have to wipe the game's save file for any reason), you're at the mercy of hoping to run into someone else carrying their 3DS around too if you want to use said characters.

@burninmylight how do you track a lost RFID card? The detection range is a couple of centimeters

@eza My bad, it's Bluetooth. Sometimes I think one thing while saying/typing another.

@burninmylight ah like a Tile card? I got a couple of those (card and keyring) for my uncle because he started leaving his wallet and/or keys in places he'd been

Ooh yeah I tried that at a local comic-con; I had zero results though. It's unfortunate as I too wish to complete my puzzles.

That white new 2ds xl has really great design 😃

After buying a brand new, new 2ds xl in 2023 now I want to search for a brand new nintendo wii, I shouldn't have sold my nintendo wii back then 😅

Street pass was absolutely golden, it was a great way to have some short on the go games with you that were actually activated by taking it with you.
When checking it in public, I had people coming to me and talking about they just got my SP as well.

The crying about being locked out of content is childish, the content it had itself wasn't all that exciting, it was all about the anticipation and the feeling you met someone like minded.
It only was made for people that were able to interact and only really did something for you if you did.

I had trouble getting them at my city as well, but going on vacation got more than enough, which gave it an extra special thing to a vacation.

Cool part is, it will work forever, no cloud stuff needed, it just works.

I am one of those people that will NEVER care for Street Pass - even, will absolutely HATE it if it's introduced again. Why? Let me explain.

I live in a place where a single Street Pass is a MIRACLE, not just a "celebratory experience". Most of the population around here is from before the 80s and the youngster are the minority (less than 25%). The city I live in has 12k population just to say. The nearest "large" city (100k+) is 3h car drive away (one way). The nearest metropolis (1M+) is 6h+ away.

So, on top of being a person that does not like to bring his cherished possessions with him, if Nintendo were to lock cool features behind this, I'd be actually mad as there's literally nobody to Street Pass from around me and if I want to have a chance, I'd have to go on a vacation at my capital (3h+ away by car) IN HOPE to get a streetpass. I think that I only got a SINGLE streetpass the entire time I had 3DS's. Now, sure, I didn't make an active effort as I'm not one to carry my consoles around but still... that one time I brought my OG - I got nothing.

@Lebon14 Sounds like your basing a lot of your feelings around not a lot of findings. I'm not here to say your opinion is wrong either, but you're coming at this with pretty heated feelings after claiming you didn't ever make much at attempt at StreetPass.

I hear you on living in a small city with not a lot of nearby options, that much be rough. Hopefully Nintendo would think of something to combat those issues. Sort of how in the US they used McDonalds restaurants as a StreetPass relay, in a sense.

Consider the possibility that nowadays, the Switch is much more popular than the 3DS ever was and the chances of walking by someone else with one of those in their bag is so much higher.

@eza Yep, it's a Tile card! Like once a year, I forget/misplace/let my wallet fall out of my pocket, and I either spend days looking for it or spend time and money replacing cards and IDs (and then inevitably find it later). So that thing pays for itself.