The3DSis truly a one-of-a-kind handheld. Nintendo is known to do things its own way, innovating with its consoles in fresh new ways that make them stand out in a competitive market, and the 3DS is no different. This is most easily seen with the stereoscopic 3D effect that comes built into the 3DS, but also its emphasis on portability and connectivity with StreetPass.
While not every game supported it, the very idea of playing games in 3D is revolutionary, albeit short-lived. Below, we’ll take a look at games that prove the 3DS is the best handheld console, thanks to its variety of features and 3D effect.
Fire Emblem Awakening marked a turning point not only for the 3DS, but also for the entire Fire Emblem franchise. The game follows Prince Chrom and his army, who travel the land, protecting it from undead called the Risen.
As one of the first titles to release on the handheld, Fire Emblem Awakening did all it could to convince players that the 3D effect was as cool as it sounded, and they definitely delivered. Awakening even included a first-person mode for its battles, which offered an immersive perspective for every fight.
Just like the name says, Animal Crossing: New Leaf turned a new leaf for the franchise, allowing you to be the mayor of your very own town, the core concept of which carried over into New Horizons on the Switch, and most likely into future games, as well.
For the first time, you could change almost every aspect of your town, from creating paths and bridges to decorating the landscape with a variety of objects. All of this on a console you can put into your pocket. The depth of gameplay is still astonishing, even today, and just proves how great the 3DS is.
The Monster Hunter franchise has gained worldwide appeal with its newer entries, like World and Wilds, but if you’ve only played the newer games, you’re missing out on some of the best monster hunting the series has to offer.
While Monster Hunter had been a primarily handheld experience since Monster Hunter Freedom, it’s incredible just how much game they managed to pack onto the 3DS with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. To this day, it’s still considered one of the best in the series, with tons of awesome monsters, great weapon mechanics, and one of the best stories (which isn’t saying much, but still!).
As a follow-up to A Link to the Past, which is considered one of the greatest video games ever created, A Link Between Worlds had a lot to live up to, but it does so in spades. This game made full use of the 3DS’s functions, including one of the best uses of the 3D technology on the entire handheld.
A Link Between Worlds is primarily a top-down Zelda game, but at certain points, Link will be able to merge into walls, which shifts the perspective accordingly. It’s a technological marvel, and only solidifies the 3DS’s superiority.
Kid Icarus: Uprising is yet another 3DS title that attempted to use every piece of the console that it could, from gyro aiming to earning weapons through StreetPass. Kid Icarus: Uprising was originally intended to be a launch title for the 3DS, but issues with development delayed it until about a year after the console’s release.
The game is split into an on-rails shooter and grounded segments where you control Pit, who is tasked with fighting back against Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness, and her armies from the Underworld. For a third-person shooter, the game controls surprisingly well on the 3DS, especially if you use the gyro controls.
Bravely Default took the 3DS’s capabilities to their absolute limit, including nearly every feature exclusive to the handheld. This Final Fantasy-adjacent JRPG follows four heroes who embark on a journey across the world to gather and restore four crystals to stop impending doom.
The game’s beautiful art style is only amplified by the excellent use of stereoscopic 3D, and the game also makes great use of StreetPass for the town-building mini game, which unlocks powerful weapons and endgame content.
Etrian Odyssey is a series of first-person dungeon-crawling JRPGs that were released for DS and 3DS systems, with Nexus being the latest entry in the series and a sort of best-of compilation of the previous games, including returning classes, characters, and dungeons.
Compared to other dungeon-crawling RPGs, the Etrian Odyssey stands out for its unique map-drawing mechanic. Where most older games in the genre would make you get out a pen and paper, Etrian Odyssey has map-drawing built right into the game, and it’s a lot of fun to map out each floor of the game’s massive dungeons by hand.
Metroid: Samus Returns is a remake of Metroid 2, following Samus’s mission to eradicate the Metroid species from her home planet. The original Game Boy game is impressively remade with all of the 3DS’s capabilities in mind, with some of the best use of the 3D effect of any game on the handheld.
Of course, the difference in technology changed quite a bit in the 25 years between the original and remakes' releases, but Metroid: Samus Returns is the perfect example of a remake done right. It enhances the original with its stunning visual overhaul, and the 3D effect adds much-needed depth to the world of SR388.
