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The Nintendo 3DS is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, March 27, 2025. Below, we look back at its design philosophy and how it differs from modern-day handheld counterparts like the Switch and Steam Deck.
Portable consoles are big now. The Steam Deck and its wave of competing devices are just PCs that you can slip into a suitcase. In and of itself, this can make the Steam Deck feel like the best possible version of the portable console. If you’re willing to tinker and/or emulate, you can play almost anything on it. If you’ve already got a massive library of games on Steam? All the better. The Nintendo Switch, which anticipated the Steam Deck’s form, went bigger for its sequel. All this size and expansiveness has me longing for a truly handheld device: pocket-sized rather than merely portable. Though some op-eds opined that the 3DS was a serious departure from the minimalist design philosophy that defined the early Nintendo handheld, what has endured is its relatively narrow focus. The 3DS outlasted its own extra-dimensional gimmick and in the process became one of the very best ways to play.
Strangely enough, the portable shift towards maximalism may have started with the 3DS. The
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