Remembering the 3DS

Two years ago, on this day, I had to finally say goodbye to a handheld device that I played every year since I got one – the Nintendo 3DS. I sold both of my 3DSs to a used game store, about a month before the servers shut down. But later this month will mark the 15^th anniversary since the 3DS was launched here in the United States. For this reason, today’s entry will be a tribute to the Nintendo 3DS.

On March 27^th, 2011, my brother and I got our first 3DSs. Since there weren’t too many games to begin with, I mostly did the StreetPass Plaza and AR games early on. From the beginning, I did Puzzle Swap (completed the first puzzle), Find Mii (completed it the first time), AR fishing, AR Archery, and AR Shot. Despite the very little stuff they had, I did have fun on the 3DS.

Then came the opening of the Nintendo eShop. I started playing larger, yet simpler games. Since I wasn’t much into Nintendo at the time, I downloaded some games from the eShop, with Puzzle League Express, Tetris, and Spot the Difference being the first games to download. The one I played the most was Puzzle League Express, and it began to overtake the StreetPass Plaza as my most played game.

Of course, I lost my first 3DS to a house fire, but I got another 3DS the next year and replayed some of the same stuff I did from the start. No actual 3DS games, but I did some of the niche downloaded games that I enjoyed form the start.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf:

On June 9^th, 2013, my experiences with the 3DS began to change when Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out. Since I didn’t feel ready, I didn’t start playing until June 10^th, 2013. Since I was confused with how to start a town, it took me four attempts to create my very first town in ACNL. My first town name was Westport, with Ferry as my mayor. To be honest, due to some bad experiences on my first town and the layout, I did not like my first town at all. Eventually, I deleted my first town four months later and started a new town. Inspired by the Town Tree’s timeline and how you can get some stuff out of order, I decided to use time traveling and start in January to get things in the correct order. My second town was Belcroft (it’s supposed to be Bellcroft, but due to the 8-character limit, I had to cut it short). It was also my first town to have a female mayor. My mayor was Kaylee (who I previously created as my second character in Westport), her birthday was October 1^st, and she had a sci-fi house. From this point on, I primarily played as female characters in Animal Crossing. My experience with ACNL also got me using the name “Kaylee” more frequently when naming female characters (including apples) in any of my original works.

While I enjoyed the town of Belcroft, I had to admit that it wasn’t a good town for making a Dream Town. So I ended up deleting it again to start a new town. But before I even did so, I had to prepare for the new town. In June 2014, during my trip to Kansas City, I bought a 3DS XL just to start a new town on. But I wanted to get all of the items I wanted or needed to get started, including all of the legit art, Sci-Fi themed items, Fall themed items, and Winter themed items. The next town I made was made not just to become a dream town to share, but also built around journaling every step I made in the game. Keep in mind that I am a time traveler.

On June 17^th, 2014, I created the town of StarFall. It was set on January 2^nd, 2014, as I went across the whole year to catch all of the fish, insects, and deep-sea creatures, while also building PWPs and paying off my debts. The characters I created were Kaylee (the mayor), Jenny, and Penny. Even though Kaylee had the mayoral duties, I used all three of them to make contributions rather than just give Kaylee the lion’s share of the duties while making Jenny and Penny mere alternative characters.

StarFall was my last town I made before I joined the Bell Tree Forums. The creation of the town and the journalizing my gameplay was what inspired me to join the Bell Tree (which I later became a forum regular who got addicted to the forum collectibles and events).

StarFall was my best town for a while, that is, until the Welcome amiibo update came out. I decided to build one last town, which was the town of MoonGlow, with Andrea (a character I previously made for Happy Home Designer) being my mayor. It was my only town built upon the Welcome amiibo update, and it wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for the update. I also did a few things differently (like choosing the Classic Police Station over the Modern Police Station, keeping T&T Mart as my final Nookling expansion, and having no secluded beaches). Like StarFall, I started in the month of January for MoonGlow, but in reality, I created it on May 14^th, 2017. I based the houses off of the United States rather than some seasonal themes, with Andrea’s house being based on California, Jordan’s house being based on Texas, Morgan’s house being based on New York, and Holly’s house being based on Florida.

New Leaf wasn’t the only Animal Crossing game I played on the 3DS. I also played Happy Home Designer. I even created another WordPress site in response to Happy Home Designer. Within the first year of HHD’s release, I also worked on an amiibo card collection (which I got all 400 cards), an Idea Book for the next Animal Crossing game (which is now Animal Crossing: New Horizons), and several projects for the Theme of the Week. It eventually became the last Animal Crossing game I ever played on the 3DS, and in my final renovations, I remodeled all ten facilities to resemble the California theme.

Pokémon Sun/Moon:

Although I have specialized knowledge and experience in Animal Crossing games, I haven’t played a main series Pokémon game until I was 23 years old. Since the 7^th generation had a good lineup of starters, I finally got involved in the Pokémon games. I started with Pokémon Sun on the day it came out, but then got Pokémon Moon for Christmas.

As my first Pokémon game, I didn’t understand the battling statistics until I did more research on Bulbapedia. Then I started working on competitive Pokémon by training some. I got too addicted and close-minded towards Pokémon Moon until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out. After getting some intervention, I took a break from it.

Eventually, Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon came out the following year. I got Ultra Moon at first, then Ultra Sun. I have to be honest, I liked Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon more than Pokémon Sun/Moon. But the most I ever had fun with them were from December 2019 to February 2020, when Pokémon Sword/Shield’s disappointing story and gameplay inspired me to replay Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. I will say the original Sun/Moon was better in terms of story, but Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon had better postgame content (Team Rainbow Rocket, Ultra Wormhole, Totem Stickers, Eevee Sidequest (which was in the original game), and more Z-Crystals). Later in 2020, owing to Pokémon Sworld/Shield, I started a long project called the “Pokémon Project”, where I trained several species of Pokémon to store in Pokémon HOME. I used Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, Pokémon Sword/Shield, and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet to breed and train Pokémon. I remember breeding some Pokémon in the depths of the Resolution Cave (which is in Alola), which now have their Tera type assigned after their trip to Paldea.

Some time between when I first played Pokémon Sun and when I first played Pokémon Moon, I got another 3DS, for the purpose of playing Pokémon Moon. This was the galaxy one, and it was the only new 3DS I ever got. Getting another 3DS is what got me building one more Animal Crossing town as well.

While Animal Crossing: New Leaf and the times I worked on these towns gave me nostalgic memories, Pokémon Sun/Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon did the same thing, as they remind me of previous Christmas seasons and the time in 2020 before the COVID-19 Lockdowns began.

Nintendo 64 Zelda Games:

Pokémon and Animal Crossing weren’t the only games I played a lot on the 3DS. After the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time got a Nintendo Selects discount, and after news of the 3DS eShop closing, I got both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask downloaded onto both 3DSs. I played Ocarina of Time on the Wii U’s virtual console twice, but after discovering the 3DS version, I started to think it was better for the 3DS than it was for the Nintendo 64. Not so much for the Master Quest version, but I played it a couple times. Once in mid-2016, once a the end of 2016, once in September 2022, and one last time in October 2023. If I could, I may give the 3DS version another try in the future. Majora’s Mask, I didn’t play until September 2022, but I never finished it. But I would give the 3DS version another try if I could.

Final Statistics:

Before I sold both of my 3DSs, I decided to keep track of the final play time records for both of my 3DSs. According to my data, this is how it went:

• Animal Crossing: New Leaf (StarFall) – total playtime is 945 hours and 47 minutes, total times played is 2,215, average play time is 26 minutes, from June 17^th, 2014 to November 15^th, 2017.
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf (MoonGlow) – total playtime is 454 hours and 50 minutes, total times played is 569, average play time is 48 minutes, from May 14^th, 2017 to November 17^th, 2017.
• Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer – total playtime is 312 hours and 25 minutes, total times played is 392, average play time is 48 minutes, from September 25^th, 2015 to May 17^th, 2019.
• Pokémon Sun – total playtime is 192 hours and 21 minutes, total times played is 284, average play time is 41 minutes, from November 18^th, 2016 to February 1^st, 2023.
• Pokémon Moon – total playtime is 313 hours and 21 minutes, total times played is 593, average play time is 32 minutes, from January 12^th, 2017 to February 1^st, 2023.
• Pokémon Ultra Sun – total playtime is 652 hours and 7 minutes, total times played is 1,054, average play time is 37 minutes, from December 25^th, 2017 to December 22^nd, 2022.
• Pokémon Ultra Moon – total playtime is 354 hours and 13 minutes, total times played is 669, average play time is 32 minutes, form November 17^th, 2017 to March 5^th, 2024.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – total playtime is 132 hours and 18 minutes, total times played is 106, average play time is 75 minutes, from April 2^nd, 2016 to November 2^nd, 2023.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D – total playtime is 21 hours and 32 minutes, total times played is 94, average play time is 14 minutes, from September 7^th, 2022 to September 13^th, 2022.
• Super Mario 3D Land – total playtime is 8 hours and 26 minutes, total times played is 57, average play time is 9 minutes, from February 17^th, 2022 to February 20^th, 2022.

The game I played the most in total hours and total times is Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and that’s even if you only count StarFall and MoonGlow. Howver, the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time had the longest average play time and the game I had the longest duration from the day I started to the last time I played.

I’m going to miss the 3DS. I no longer have any 3DSs, and even if I did, there’s no point in having them because the servers are shut down.