The 3DS is my Favorite Handheld Ever.

Handheld gaming has played a gigantic part in shaping the way I play games and the types of games that I enjoy. From Pokémon on the Game Boy Color, to Golden Sun on the Gameboy Advance, and even to Chrono Trigger on DS—handheld gaming has been a part of my video gaming repertoire even to this very day. But my favorite handheld of all-time will forever be the mighty Nintendo 3DS.

I grew up with the Game Boy line of systems, sinking nearly hundreds of hours into Pokemon, Medabots, Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga, and even Golden Sun. As I got older, I started to neglect my handhelds in favor of home consoles, like my GameCube and PS2. I wanted more from games that handhelds couldn't offer at the time. By the time I had an Xbox 360, I had given my Gameboy Advance to my little brother. I did have a DS, where I played Chrono Trigger and Pokemon Black and Black 2, but that was stolen from me by an old roommate. From them on, I completely ignored handheld gaming altogether. The rise of Xbox Live and online multiplayer further drove the nail into the coffin, as most of my friends were playing Modern Warfare 2 or Halo 3 and hanging out in Xbox Live party chat.

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Fast-forward to 2016—I've just started my new job and made some new friends at work who enjoy Pokemon. The 7th generation Pokemon games (Sun and Moon) were releasing in a few months, and my workplace was lenient enough that they allowed us to play video games in our down time. My girlfriend's (now my wife) son had a 2DS and played Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, so I borrowed that for a day and dug around to see what the big fuss was. Needless to say, I fell in love. Soon after that (like a week later), I had purchased the red New 3DS XL, which I still have to this very day.

Just a few of the AMAZING themes that I’d bought from the Theme shop. Left: Persona Q, Middle: Dreamcast, Right: Blastoise.

One of the main things that I had become enamored with was the amount of personalization that you had with your system—something that I always take full advantage of with a system. Nintendo provided so many tools for you to make your entire experience on the 3DS feel like it was 100% your own. One of the first things you'd see is your theme. The 3DS had the unique ability to apply one of dozens of different themes to your home screen, changing not only the background image, but the background music and sound effects. There were themes based on different games, Nintendo characters, basic patterns, and even Sega consoles, like Saturn and Dreamcast. The Dreamcast theme is my favorite ever. When you open the 3DS, you'll hear the loud beep and grinding of the disc that you'd hear with an actual Dreamcast console—all while "Day Dawns" from Phantasy Star Online gently graces your ears with one of the jingliest, most chilled-out tracks from any video game.

I used to doodle in the 3DS notepad all the time. Here’s just a few of the dumb things I’d draw.

The 3DS home screen is always such a joy to just goof around with. Sometimes I'll scroll through my games and apps just to gaze at the gigantic pop-ups on the top screen that were unique to each and every piece of software. I also used to doodle on the notepad a lot, saving my awful creations and sharing them to Facebook or Twitter via the onboard web browser. There were so many functions and features jammed into the 3DS that it makes previous handhelds look so bare by comparison. Things like both front and rear-facing cameras, StreetPass and SpotPass, the notifications that you'd get from the eShop, and even Miiverse. My god, remember how relaxed and easy-going Miiverse was? Nintendo made their own social media network just for the 3DS and Wii-U, where you'd share screenshots, tips and tricks from games, share doodles, or just chat about games with like-minded folks who wouldn't ridicule you or spout offensive nonsense. Miiverse was amazing.

UGH, the Badge Arcade was so simple and so fun.

Then there's the Nintedo Badge Arcade, run by none other than Arcade Bunny (yes, that's his actual name). In Nintendo Badge Arcade, you would play claw machines with various layouts and backgrounds, each containing a certain theme. You' have Pokemon, Kirby, Legend of Zelda, even Nintendo Switch badges. You had one to five free plays each day and could purchase additional plays via the eShop or by getting a certain number of badges in one play. The badges you collect could then be used to decorate your 3DS home screen, either by attaching them to folders or empty spaces in your home screen. There were badges for almost EVERY GAME on the 3DS—Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Warioware, Yo-Kai Watch, and even Fire Emblem. I always had a great time logging into this game once a day and seeing what awesome badges were available.

Some of the ABSO-LUTE best on the system!

The software library on the 3DS is immaculate. When I first got my 3DS and ventured into the eShop, I got pretty overwhelmed by how many awesome games were available to download directly to my system. The first games that I had bought for my system from the eShop were Fire Emblem: Awakening, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Breath of Fire 2, Super Metroid, and Earthbound. I had never owned a Wii or Wii-U at that point, so this was my first exposure to the Virtual Console, and it was breath-taking. My mind was blown even further open when I had discovered that the 3DS was fully backwards compatible with DS games. Since then, I've become an avid collector of 3DS and DS games. Some of my favorite 3DS exclusives being Shin Megami Tensei IV, Bravely Default, Yo-Kai Watch 3, and Ever Oasis. If you're a fan of JRPGs, this is the system for you.

3 GB/GBC hidden gems that YOU NEED to check out!

Circling back to the 3DS Virtual Console, the 3DS was the first to have Game Boy and Game Boy Color games available on Virtual Console. They had so many awesome games (mostly ones that I had never heard of) and really helped me discover just how many games I had missed out on from that family of systems. Mainly Legend of the River King, Mole Mania, and Gargoyle's Quest. Those games rule. Let's not forget Pokemon! The 3DS Virtual Console had Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal, as well as the various spin-offs. Any Pokemon that you caught in the Virtual Console games could be transferred to Sun and Moon and had GUARANTEED HIDDEN ABILITIES—EVEN LEGENDARIES. This was the only way to get Hidden Abilities for legendaries, outside of special giveaways.

During this era of Nintendo, their systems were packed full of character and charm. The 3DS eShop is the perfect example of this. Right as you touch the eShop icon and start loading it up, you're greeting to this jingly, heavenly tune that welcomes you right in. Once you were in, you were greeted by a different upbeat tune that changed depending on the time of year, kind of like music at a department store. Nintendo put so much time and effort into making the 3DS eShop feel so alive, even adding unique background to your wishlist screen.

One of the most underappreciated pieces of software on the 3DS is the Activity Log. Not only does it track the amount of time that you've put into each game down to the very minute, but it also tracked how many steps you'd taken in a given day. Nintendo even went the extra mile and gave you graphs to track steps and game time either by the day, week, month, or year. You also had log that kept track of each game's play time, average play time, number of times played, and when you first and last played it. You could even sort games based on the number of hours played and see which games you've played more than others. Keep in mind, this app just comes with the system FOR FREE. This feels like something that you would pay $5 for in today's market.

Some photos taken directly from my 3DS. Since the image sharing no longer works on 3DS, I had to just take a photo with my phone.

I'm barely scratching the surface of all of the cool things that this sytem does, the amazing games it offered, and of course the decadent themes. The 3DS does so much that it whole-heartedly makes the Switch look like Nintendo did the absolute minimum. The 3DS had the ability to message friends, browse the web, had background music, millions of ways to customize your homescreen, and even the robust Activity Log. While I do love the Switch, there's a lot more that I wish Nintendo would do it, or the Switch 2 at the very least.