Random: New Pokémon Ad Positions 3DS As 'Retro', And The Internet Disagrees

It looks and feels ancient if we’re talking about the original 3DS model, the DS Lite looks modern compared to that flimsy clunker.

Pokémon X&Y is released almost 11 years ago. Yes, you can call it retro. That was about the same time between Red&Blue and LeafGreen and FireRed.

3DS is already retro.
Everything that already more than 10 years and didn't get support anymore, I will call it Retro.
PS4 will be the next Retro.

If you like it or not but Pokemon XY are over 10 years old at this point. RB and GS already have gotten remakes when they were that old

TL;DR according to gamers, Switch is ancient and obsolete at 7 but 3DS is pretty recent at 13.

@JohnnyMind nothing Gen 8 (or, to be completely honest, even Gen 7) feels as retro as the likes of NES/SNES/N64 used to - the current gen simply didn't offer a remotely comparable advance in video game contents (Switch is more of a revolution in QoL department). And neither will Gen 10, I dare expect.

People were referring to NES and SNES as retronin the 2000s, I think the 3DS can qualify for the same designation.

Nice ad, Nintendo are so good at these. What a turnaround from the Wii U days.

(Don't care about the is it retro discussion, who cares)

The funny part is that XY was actually better then SV - so these brothers actually downgraded. Would've been better to keep that 3ds he found in storage and pop a copy of ORAS in there.

No, nothing after the Dreamcast is retro (the Dreamcast itself is a grey area, with reasonable arguments both for and against). Modern graphics + online play (or contemporary handheld consoles from that era) will never qualify as retro, any more than something made from a factory qualifies as antique.

If the console isn't being sold by the company anymore it qualifies as retro to me. People are aging and they should learn to accept that

Yeah it’s retro. I remember getting a GameCube in 2002 and the NES was the current gen Nintendo console 13 years prior to that and that felt ancient at the time...not a single person at that time would’ve considered it anything but retro.

I think it’s just technological advancements slowing down that’s making old stuff not feel as old as it actually is- things have gotten better for sure but tech today isn’t far off from what we had in 2011 versus what tech was like 13 years prior to then and so on.

The console may be 13 years old, but Ultra Sun/Moon are younger than the Switch, at only 6&1/2.

If the Switch is “current gen”, then surely anything released after the OG Switch can’t be retro, can it?

Yeah, I’m clutching at straws…

@Euler yes things after the Dreamcast are considered retro. You yourself may not define them as retro but even the GameCube, Xbox, and PS2 are considered retro. I would even lumber the Wii in there. Maybe not the PS3 and Xbox 360 yet as they had a lot of crossover games with the last generation of systems in their final few years. The way I see it is if the systems are no longer officially supported even online and an entire generation of people were born since then and they never got to experience them then it is more than likely retro.

Can't be retro; the New 2DS LL is still selling a dozen copies per week in Japan.

Let's think about this for a second.
Some people who are now 18+ played XY as kids. No teenagers. Kids.
I can't say USUM is retro as it feels quite recent buy XY on the other hand feels way older. And 3DS is discontinued since some years ago.
As someone who has been playing since Game Boy and PC with MS2 before windows exists it's difficult for me calling 3DS as retro, but oh God time really goes fast.

I really hope that we get a port of X & Y before the release of Legends A-Z, even if it's a glorified port of the original (with some updated textures and the like). There are plenty of young fans who were too young (if not yet born) to play the originals as well as lapsed Pokémon fans who slept on the 3DS, and for nostalgic fans, a Switch port could provide the definitive way of experiencing the games.

Better yet if it's offered at a budget price too (perhaps at a comparable price to a 3DS game as opposed to a full console experience).

I wouldn't hold my breath, but Nintendo/TPCi would be crazy not to.

The Internet, in this rate instance, is correct. The 3DS is not retro.

Retro has to be at least more than one console behind us for me, 3DS is the handheld console just previous to the Switch.

It feels like anything released after the DS isn't retro. It just feels off calling a system retro whose library heavily relies on closed digital stores. Wii is kind of a middle ground as digital was rather limited but you still had stuff like Rock Band DLC, Virtual Console, WiiWare and the Skyward Sword update channel.

Pff I still struggle to comprehend PS2 as retro.

@Uncle_Franklin 100%. Exactly this.

You can’t be labelling previous gen systems as “Retro” otherwise we’d be positioning consoles such as the PS4 or XboxONE with similar labels once they conclude business.

I’d be hard pressed to even position the generation previous to that at Retro.

Really, the main issue stems from the association of the word “Retro” with classic 8/16/32bit systems.

So really anything handheld from GBA / PS1 downwards could be described as “Retro”.

I think the term “legacy” or “classic” would be a better fit when talking about past generations these days, especially since the gap on improvements are becoming more minor by the “leap” anyway.

Idk, when I was a kid with a Gamecube, SNES was called retro. Same for the N64 during the Wii era. Although they were 2 generations behind, its been 12-13 years since the 3DS dropped.

When does something become retro? That's hard to say. Is it the technology? The age? The public opinion? What 'retro' is would be a great article @nintendolife.

One thing that's for sure, the 3DS has 'classic' titles that define its library.

I mean X/Y, the games that the AD featured are 10 years old as of 2023, the boys in the AD looked in their 20s, 10 years ago for someone in their 20s is a long time ago, this is perfectly reasonable to position the way they did. I don't think they labelled anything as retro in the AD but just that nostalgia is very powerful. Heck, I was nostalgic for certain things whilst playing TOTK that I experienced in BOTW, but that sure as heck isn't retro.

The 3DS is retro yes. The console came out more than 10 years ago which is crazy to think about. To give a comparison when the Wii came out in 2006 the N64 was already considered retro and that also had a 10 year gap at that point.

Things just feel different now since "older" consoles feel more modern and advanced than previous generations.

The Switch doesn't feel so old now, does it?

It could be argued the OG 3DS and 3DS XL are "retro" at this point. However, need I remind others that New 2DS XL/LL unit sales are still recorded in the weekly Japanese charts? I'd say once those stop, then the 3DS family could qualify. Besides, the system had software support into 2019.

Give it a couple more years when the console generation switches again, then I may agree with the "retro" designation.

It’s probably an accurate statement, although it’s hard for me to admit that. The 3DS doesn’t seem that old to me.

On a different not, X&Y may be retro, but I had a lot more fun with them than I did Sword & Shield. Something about the Switch games didn’t click with me.

Even Nintendo DS is not a retro console, imo. Game Boy Advance is a retro console. And calling Nintendo 3DS a retro console is just wrong.

I feel like "retro" was always a matter of antiquety, rather than any arbitrary number of years or generation gaps. And there's little about the 3DS that feels antiquated in the same way one would feel about older consoles or handhelds.

I'd sooner call the DS "retro", given its harder graphical limitations and fewer controller options. But the 3DS has games that could get away with being console releases, even by today's standards. Heck, the 3DS even got its fair share of games originally released on consoles, while making fewer compromises compared to if a console game was being developed for GB/A and the DS.

Now all that said, "nostaligic" is fair play, as 10+ years is more than long enough to get those feelings for anything.

I mean, if you were 6 or 7 years old playing these games on your 3DS, you're old enough to be in your last years of high school now. From that perspective, it would feel retro to you.

Great now I feel old. Thanks Nintendo.

It feels foreign for Nintendo to feature a past console in their advertising, and I guess that’s just because I’ve typically only seen advertisements from them represent the new system.

What year will 3DS be retro? 2032?

This ad is so tone-deaf I want to write a 20 page essay about it.
Too bad no one can hear me scream because of the mountain of money this franchise does every year.

I generally follow the Retronauts rule of something having to be at least 10 years old to be considered retro.. but also that thinking would include the PS4, which is definitely not a retro console.

3DS is retro. You gotta look at age of entry for a child. Childhood goes by so fast. In mine alone I grew up with NES,SNES and N64 (also technically GameCube) so yeah marketing has a short shelf life. It’s only because gaming is a hobby many hold on to that they lose track of time relatively. Tech moves fast. Not many people are using a phone that came out 13 years ago either.

I disagree with the statement that the 3DS system is retro. Yes it's an old console but it's only 1 generation back. New games & consoles are still actively sold on the market (although at an extremely limited capacity). I think a fair definition is any console that is at least 2 generations removed from the newest current console and does not have active market consoles/games being sold. In Nintendo's case, that would be from the DS & Wii backwards, with 3DS & Wii U still in an intermediary space. But with the Switch 2 on the horizon, much of this will change.

@Ryu_Niiyama reading your comment made me feel old haha. The benefit for people like us is that we were lucky enough to grow up with it and those games were considered the best at their time and there was nothing to compare it too. It would most likely be too difficult nowadays for young people to go and try great games like TMNT Manhattan Project, or even the SNES Mario Kart, which is still my fav for many reasons outside of nostalgia.

@RupeeClock Yeah, that's well put. When a console has the modern sophistication of the 3DS with its smart connectivity (if it counts as a smart device) it can be hard to view it as retro or outdated, even when it's 13 years old and its online servers are on the way out.

3DS is old (If it was a child, it'd be high school age), Nintendo dropped the last pretense of support for the system last year, yeah, it's retro now.

In the context of the commercial, if the lead is a teenager, a 3DS is likely to be the first video game system he ever owned, so having it as fond childhood memory seems about right.

My general rules for a console to be considered retro, regardless of how technologically advanced is:

*Be 10 years old or more.
*Not getting active support or a notable number of new games, specifically from their first-parties.
*Games for the system get increasingly harder to find on a local basis. Maybe even non-existent unless you buy in another city or online.

So, yes. The 3DS, and even the Wii U, apply for those 3 rules and I consider them retro by this point.

Even if the Xbox One and PS4 are 10 years already, I cannot call them retro yet. New games are still coming out for those and they're still easy to find in my city.

In the case of Nintendo, I consider retro anything I see here (except for the two Game & Watch and the mini consoles).

I still prefer the 3DS for it's small easy to carry-in-your-pocket clamshell design. They need a Switch 3DS.

It is a fairly old system at this point, but I will officially consider it retro once the Switch successor releases.

I was in a GameStop yesterday and there was a sign advertising retro system trade ins. Some of the systems listed were the WiiU and PS3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29sOLG8xGE

This whole "retro" debate Is just playing semantics, the commercial can be done because of the time elapsed, no statement about what system is current or retro. But again this of course plays in the ever growing scare of our Millennial generation feeling old.

Time is absolute and invariable. Take the Atari 2600, the first game was released in 1977 and the last non homebrew games were released in 1991. If they so desired they could use the very same system in an ad with adults reminiscing their childhood within a single system lifespan. Or, they could release a Switch ad with a 15 year old High School kid playing Mario Kart Deluxe after school and later show the same person at 22 playing the booster pack with their partner and their newborn in a crib.

Yes, it's retro.

For context, more time has elapsed now since the launch of the 3DS than between the release of the Super Nintendo and Nintendo GameCube.

We're getting old, folks. Time to accept the facts!

The Game Boy Pocket came out in 1996, 14 years before 2010.

The 3DS came out in 2010, 14 years before 2024.

So, yeah, this tracks.

Although "Retro" might be the catchier term, "Legacy" is better at describing a console that's no longer officially supported. Every Nintendo console released prior to Switch would fall under that.

I'd argue the line between new and retro would be around the 6th video game generation, where Sony and Microsoft pretty much set the blueprint for every console going forward. Even the PS2 and OG Xbox games look and play fundamentally the same as PS5 and Xbox Series would despite the difference in graphic fidelity.

In 2009, the N64 was retro.
In 2024, the 3DS is retro.

I remember waiting for X and Y's launch early in the morning in 6th grade, it wasn't that long ag-

Oh.

I'm in my third year of college, huh?

Obviously not, because I was an adult during the 3DS's lifetime. Same goes for Wii and Wii U. Those aren't even old, for one (they came out just a few years ago), and they will never be retro!
/denial

This "retro" debate is one of those weird cycles with both a relative and an absolute side... Is it taking longer for consoles to become "retro", because the technical advancements aren't as dramatic as before, or is it just our perspective changing as we grow older?
It's like how any age- we'll say 40- feels younger than it did before... did the culture change, so 40-year-olds look/act younger now, or is it just that our opinions are changing as we approach that age (or leave it behind)?

To be honest, I don't wanna call 3DS a Retro system, but when I realize I have decades old memories with it, and seeing as the wifi servers will be shut down in a month, I hate to say it'll soon count as a retro thing

I set the minimum for retro at twenty years: ten years for it to go from new, to recent, to outdated, and then another ten years of just being old before it can circle back around to retro. Another way to think of it is it's enough time passed for someone who wasn't alive for the initial period of popularity to start researching and rediscovering the history of their interests/hobbies, rather than just consuming whatever's currently popular or advertized at them. And it also means I have a couple more years before I have to consider the Wii retro, which I'm pretty sure will physically hurt me.

Not sure I'd call the 3DS retro just yet. Older console? Sure. When I think retro, I think of the GameCube, and older consoles. Possibly throw the Wii in there (just focusing on Nintendo consoles for this discussion).

The 3DS was only officially discontinued 4 years ago, had its last game in 2021, and only just recently closed its eshop.

As soon as it's not the current Gen it is retro. Anything not current is retro. But please let's have endless hair splitting over some continuously shifting line across hardware generations because people don't like to feel old.

@Anachronism That time frame makes sense now (or at least I feel that it does), but did you have the same opinion when the GameCube was new? The NES was still too recent to count as retro, by that standard!

@FX29 Exactly. I mean, think about 13 years before the 3DS launched…we’d have been on Game Boy Color as the current gen handheld. Just the idea of 3D graphics on a handheld and the ability to play online/download games wirelessly would have blown anyone’s mind back then on top everything else the 3DS did.

In 2011 we had the PS Vita which was knocking on the door of pushing PS3 level graphics…go back in time to then and tell someone that 13 years from now we’ll have handhelds that are around PS4 level and it wouldn’t be so shocking.

I wouldn't consider it retro yet. Give it a couple more years, or until the next Nintendo gaming system, then I would consider it retro.

I'm between the age of the children of the video and the 'millenial' fans talking about it, but yeah, I won't consider it retro 'til you know, Switch 2. And maybe the online services going off...

Oh, but what truly matters is, they never got to experience a challenging Pokémon game without the Exp. Share

3DS is not Retro, it's CONTEMPORARY!

It is hard to go back to the small screens on the 3DS after the Switch. 🤓

I’m not considering the 3ds retro. To me I think retro it probably ps2, Xbox, GameCube and below to be retro. Anyways I’m still using my ps3 and 3ds like once a week. While still playing newer stuff like my switch.

@smoreon Well now this one might hurt you, but when the GameCube was new, I was five, and I don't think I really understood the significance of old and new hardware at the time. I had a friend with an N64 and some relatives with an NES, and I really only cared whether or not the games on them were fun, which they were. Looking at my library from back then, it was almost all Nintendo and licensed games, and I didn't really take an interest in anything less mainstream until I hit my teens.

I don't think the 3DS is retro; my cutoff line is the early 360 era. Online play further standardized, HD capability, digital games: those are the last major developments in gaming as a whole, if you ask me. It's not so much about the years that have past as it is the gaming landscape, which is why Chrono Trigger would have been retro in like 2004. The leap from SNES to PS2 was only 9 years but consider the massive advancements in graphics and processing power, along with the 2D-3D leap. The advancements in tech from PS4 to PS5 (or Xbone to XSeries if you're so inclined) have been incremental.

I mean, I remember back in high school people complain about a song that was a couple of months old because it was too old, so I can see where this is coming from

Time flies when you realize how old some of these gaming devices between 2005-2013 actually are. But I do consider the 3DS as retro, even though it's hard for me to comprehend that. Not nearly as hard as calling PS3 and Xbox 360 retro, though. Those are almost 20 years old, and it's hard to call their games "retro" when some still hold up graphically. So I can definitely see why people are mixed on calling the 3DS retro, since its games still feel like they belong in the modern era in some capacity.

Erm... they don't refer to it as Retro? They just show young adult aged people who have nostalgic memories of playing that thing as a little kid. Which definitely fits. There are people who would have picked up a 3DS as their first gaming device at age 5, and will now be 18.

Nice lying title.

"Of course, the ad isn't actually suggesting that the 3DS has somehow graduated into the retro pantheon"

Then why does your title say it does??

@Peach64 Exactly!!

Gotta get that click engagement.

Retro doesn't mean an item that came before a newer item, it always denotes a quality that makes said item feel like it's from a nostalgic point in history. The most nostalgic/recognizable deference between 2011 and today is that it was pre-Covid and kids hadn't tasted Tide Pods or spun a fidget spinner yet. If you were to shoot a show set in 2011 nobody would really be dressed any different or speak much different (modern slang notwithstanding), you'd just have to make sure there aren't any vapes on set.

As someone who plays their 3DS way more often than their Switch I really don't feel that way about the system most of the time. When it was "modern" it was side by side with the WiiU. The only thing more modern about the Switch next to the WiiU is that it's portable and has recent titles (and is actually successful). It was hardly a graphical leap, and the motion controls on the Switch are worse, so it's not like it has the symptoms of a typical generational leap, meaning aside from the lack of new releases and the soon-to-be cancelled online service the 3DS is still the same supplemental pocketable experience to its home console counterpart that never got replaced and may never be replaced.

Basically, we're retro when I say we're retro.

The 3ds is retro now though. If someone got their 3ds as a 10 year old, they would now be 23. People act like the system came out 2-3 years ago.

For me personally retro is not about how old the console is, but how long has it been "dead" (which effectively makes memories of games go into mostalgia territory). Sure, 3DS is old, but it had Nintendo 1st party games released as late as 2019. Not sure about you, but 2019 memories aren't far enough to reach nostalgic feelings for me (it doesn't help that pandemic hit right after that, but that's not the point). I would put DS in retro category, but not 3DS yet.

insert oldge emote

pokemon is always targeted at kids and teens, and the characters in this ad are really young. So it's normal that an 18yo guy (in 2024) would have nostalgia for a game he played when he was 7 (in 2013).

In the same way, I played gen 1 when i was 11 (in 2000), and in the span of 13 years i went from loving it to dropping it to loving it again on XY. Of course i was nostalgic for gen 1 when it was 2013... and now it's been 11 years from that.

So, it's all math. Years have more weight when you're a kid. After 25, every year feels like yesterday. I myself, still see the ps4 as current and the ps5 like it just came out last year.

@Anachronism That'd be me, about 10 years earlier: I was aware of the SNES and Genesis, but didn't really know anything about them. All I really knew at the time was the NES, and I enjoyed it, even though it was already outdated and nearing the end of its life.

When the GameCube was around, even the 16-bit systems (which were only about as old as the 3DS is now!) seemed ancient by comparison! Still didn't stop me from buying and playing old games along with the new, though.

Well I wouldn't ever call last generation hardware "Retro".
Because it's still one of the predecessors to the Switch (Along with the Wii U) and new 3DS games were still released after the Switch had launched.

But I think I can agree that the DS has reached retro maturity.

But when do we start calling a console vintage?

Reddit's Retrogaming forum considers retro as 5th generation and earlier.

3DS is 8th gen...

Well its not modern and it's discontinued so it's not current. They sell 3ds games in retro games stores. Like yeah makes you feel old. Sure live long enough and game long enough and it will keep happening. I've experienced it with the consoles of my school to college years the N64, Gamecube and even the wii. Eventually you get like people in their 20s that game but have simply never actually played your formative gaming years consoles once.

Retro doesn't have an age by definition so something a year old can be classed as retro.

Nah it's last gen. When the Switch 2 comes out it'll be retro.

I am a retro gamer myself and don't consider the 3DS retro just yet. But if the Switch gets a successor, then I'd say the 3DS is a retro machine.

Sure, and in the next few years after the Switch 2 is released and the old one is discontinued, these same people will start saying that the original Switch is now "retro".

@Zenszulu No, they aren't. It has nothing to do with time. A generation of people were born since the last classic rock song came out, but that doesn't make newer songs "classic rock". Millennia have passed since the classical period of history, but the end date doesn't just move forward every year. The SNES (released ten years prior) would've been considered retro in 2001, but the PS4 (released in 2013) would not be considered retro in 2024. Graphically and game experience-wise, the Gamecube is closer to the Switch than it is to the N64 (much less the NES, which came out 16 years prior to it). And the modern three-party market began in 2001 with the rise of the Xbox and the end of Sega.

To me if retro is a style anything with a CRT still counts. It can be years sure, or it could be a vibe. But ending at Dreamcast, lol. 90s sure, but Dreamcast is so particular I always laugh at people about that logic. Why you say well.

Otherwise it's just a load of vibe stupidity who cares. If years sure whatever definition there but graphics, features, advertising, tech in general it all varies.

This retro ends at the Dreamcast is dumb because get this the Dreamcast had online multiplayer with dial up AND BROADBAND everybody,is it retro now? Does the Dreamcast feel modern enough yet? Before Xbox Live existed. Also Satelliview and Sega Channel were radio then dial up/broadband. If the NES/Famicom with it's Disk System had online horse race betting, banking and more is it modern?

It must be but people won't say that because the advertising, the vibe, the years ago do put it more in it's favour. Which are fair points yes. But I mean I can use a web browser and do banking if I wanted to, it's not ideal but still.

I mean smartphones weren't started with the iPhone, that was the start of touchscreen ones. Smartphones themselves came out in the 90s. People don't get that because they don't actually look back at tech. It's like Pocket PCs, Sony/Samsung made them before GPD, Aya Neo and the Steam Deck. HP had a PDA. Many companies did things and things come back around again just like 3D movies with Jaws 3D, to 2010 3D TV. Anaglyph or movies of the 50s and 80s and their ways of doing it.

3D gaming on NES/Master System, GameCube with Luigi's Mansion was possible before the 3DS and after the Virtual Boy.

Sure there was more handhelds with pixel art and you had more pixel art Indies coming around in PS3/360/Wii gen then the more what Viewful Joe, Alien Hominid and more of stylised 2D games then pixel art unless it was notable series still that did.

So did PS2, Xbox, some part of GameCube have online multiplayer before PS3/360/Wii got their eshops and more.

PS2 had Netflix disks to connect to their service. PS2 had it's Linux Kit to be more like a PC.

PS1 and Saturn, let alone Jaguar CD, 3DO and even the Sega CD had CD playback do we count any with media features besides game consoles count as modern not retro because they aren't "solely game consoles anymore' hmm?

Most people don't look or think that far. You can go as far as you want of vibe/advertising the same way each decade 'had' differences of lifestyle, clothes, music and more going on and themes/cultural changes.

But if were calling years sure whatever of 15+ or so I guess. Maybe 20-25. But if it's vibe then well they need their stories straight and better definitions then oh it's when I feel it was or when advertising changed then sure but if a Dreamcast has online multiplayer but is called retro even though it's using dial up/broadband you people are just stupid and not making any sense saying only this 90s console counts but 2000s PS2 no it doesn't count but oh it's better graphics, it also has online multiplayer and other things.

I mean Dreamcast was 6th gen too just started early. People don't think very far.

Nowadays everything is either shorter or a mix of old and new (still old close come back around, nostalgia or a new spin on them I guess especially with clothes or games I'd say).

Let alone PS1 had system link so does Xbox (where they use the term, PS2 had iLink to connect both consoles, I forget what PS1 called it, maybe Saturn also had it). LAN was a thing still in 6th gen like PCs did since the 90s.

Many games may be 2000s but may still feel 90s as a carry over too that can happen as more changes in the decade.

So if were going vibe I'd say advertising wise sure 90s or style. If were going graphics/online multiplayer then I mean Dreamcast is more than N64, but less than PS2 but that's retro like what a load of nonsense.

I mean anything NES and older could be Vintage if were count anything that's older than retro but it depends on the lines people want to go.

Famicom banking, let that sink in the same way CD playback and DVDs do to online multiplayer and eshops. The differences of gaming only consoles weren't always the case.

I just love Nintendo/Pokemon's current commercials. The 3DS already feels nostalgic to me, so everything about the ad still worked for me 😂

While it is legacy content...We had fishing, various of battling besides just singles and doubles, dimensional travel, online minigames, as well as SOS battles in the Sun & Moon games....there is way more features than in the current Switch Pokemon games.