I bought a 3DS XL sometimes last year. It was under $200.
After seeing the surge in demand, I feel lucky that I bought it when I did. I also decided to take it out and play some animal crossing new leaf for the first time and I’m really enjoying it.
I sometimes wonder if I should have bought the “new” variant back then, but they were much more expensive and I’m still not sure if the performance improvements would have been worth it.
I’m basically just using not for ds and 3ds games, so, I’m guessing the power difference would not really matter.


DS was the first dual screen games(bottom is a Touchscreen), dsi added a web browser, a store to purchase “DSiWare” and a camera, 3DS added 3D, gyroscopes street pass and probably some other things I’m forgetting, NEW3DS is faster hardware and eye tracking to fix the 3D so you don’t have to hold the 3DS directly in front of you stiffly. 2DS is for kids because parents got it in their heads that the 3D would fry the kids eyes and has no hinge so you can’t protect the screens. I don’t remember there being a “DS XL” but I remember a DSi XL, 3DS XL and NEW 3DS XL(the best version). There’s also a 3DS I don’t remmeber the letters for but was exclusive to Japan that was a NEW 3DS with changeable faceplates. I forget which console added the IR emitter/sensor but the Pokémon DS cartridges originally had them in them I think for transmitting to the pokewalker but I don’t think the built in or sensor ever worked for that functionality.
If you don’t consider the DS fat an upgrade to the GBA like the GBA was to the Gameboy Color, then I wouldn’t consider the DS on the same line the 3DS is. Basicly from the Gameboy DMG all the way up to the NEW 3DS XL is just one upgradeable line of handhelds that Nintendo just kept making better and better. That’s the “why” to there being so many, always has been. The Switch truely feels like its own third branch from Nintendo’s handheld and console lines with how ass backwards they regressed in features. No backwards compatability at all hardwarewise with a prior device so its definitely a new starting point.
Holy fuck, how much money did you blow on all these devices to know all this stuff?
Fuck, that much N addiction makes a crack cocaine habit seem healthy.
Dude, you asked for information and then you attack everyone who answers with knowledge you can find on wikipedia.
What’s wrong with you? If you don’t want answers don’t ask questions.
If you ask a question and someone answers it, the proper response is “Thank you for the detailed answer”, and not claiming that anyone who has knowledge you don’t must be a drug addict.
Get a grip, man.
Maybe teach the toddlers to grip their handheld game consoles and not drop them in the toilet, or maybe even prevent them from taking them into the restroom in the first place, then techs like me won’t get upset.
I didn’t say anything about toilets. In fact, I have never seen anyone drop handheld consoles into toilets. Is that something you do?
Please stop posting while drunk. Makes you look really dumb.
Bruh, my point is, it was freaking obvious that some toddler dropped the thing in the toilet, and the parents waited like 6 months while the thing rusted from the inside out before bringing it to a shop to attempt to fix it.
It was already practically hopeless, but I was tasked with trying to fix it, by my boss at work. Hell, the kid’s parents even bought the new screen.
Whether I’m drunk or not, point is I’m smart enough to not give toddlers electronics.
What do I care if you dropped a DS in a toilet?
Stop posting while drunk. You are obviously not smart enough to make sense while drunk.
Did you even read my comment?
Let’s start from the beginning…
And I literally told the front desk and even the company boss that it had no chance to begin with. Was no sweat off my back, hell I probably made $80 wasting my time on the piece of literal shit anyways.
Now, where in the hell did you get the idea that I was the one that dropped it in the toilet?
Point is, stop giving toddlers electronics!
Believe it or not, sometimes a person can interact with many other people to learn things. They can also use the internet to look up information.
Money need not be spent for this knowledge.
No, but much time must be spent on this knowledge between all these various devices. It’s a waste of time.
I collect games that I’ve never played. You expect me to arrange a means to play over 5000 games to see if they even work?
Fuck, I’m an archiver, not a player.
https://tinyurl.com/172games
That’s only a fragment of what I have here, I ain’t got time to play every game I have…
I mean this in a genuine way - I actually don’t expect you to spend your free time on things you don’t have interest in. That would, indeed, be a waste of your time.
Your archival of games is a great effort and a positive thing.
Some folks enjoy gaming, game history, and cultural critique of generational hardware. Those interests/hobbies are also valid. That’s not a waste of their time.
LOL, I didn’t upload those games from my own system!
Most of those games I never even downloaded in the first place, I just found a loophole in the systems out there at the time and tricked the archive to upload stuff from other servers…
The main advantage I have seen with my kids in the 2DS over the 3DS is that the 2DS survives being shaken without issues. My kids tended to shake the consoles when they got angry that they lost a game. Try doing that with the 3DS and you are soon going to build a GBA Macro.