Nintendo A Wild 3DS Thread Appeared! (AKA 5 Games That Should Have Been on 3DS - And Almost Were!)

[GameDadGrant]

Nobody:

Absolutely no one:

Not a single soul:

Me: "Did someone want to talk about the Nintendo 3DS? Let's talk about the Nintendo 3DS! Alright!" 

So. It's 2020. Nintendo has officially discontinued their stereoscopic 3D handheld system, the fairly successful Nintendo 3DS. I really dug this portable, and it had a pretty good run! Sold around 75 MILLION units over its lifetime, had a ton of great hardware revisions, and most importantly, tons of great SOFTWARE. Both games and applications, but I wanna talk about games. And while the 3DS library has many, many great games on it, I feel like it was missing a small handful of titles that would have made it feel really complete. (I mean, it IS complete already, but these would have been nice feathers in the 3DS's proverbial cap) 

What games are those, you ask? Here's my list of games I feel the Nintendo 3DS SHOULD HAVE had (and almost did!):

5.) Advance Wars



I think this goes without saying, but let's talk about the elephant in the room. The 3DS needed an new entry in the Advance Wars series. It seemed Nintendo was pretty much laser-focused on making sure Intelligent Systems made the Fire Emblem franchise as successful as possible last generation. And while that worked (definitely worked!)...what cost did it take to make that happen? Apparently, the silence (or death?!) of the Advance Wars games. Which is a shame, because the series was such a great fit for the handheld platform. It worked fantastically on the original DS (twice!) but apparently it was not in the cards for the 3DS. And unfortunately, no third party or indie developer would make an Advance Wars-style game until Wargroove, which came out after the 3DS was really a "thing" anymore. It's a bummer, but at least 3DS is backwards compatible with Dual Strike and Days of Ruin. By the way, if you guys get the chance, check out Intelligent System's other turn-based strategy game, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - it's actually pretty good!

4.) Assassin's Creed



Yeah, this would have been a fun handheld game! And for anyone out there that thinks, "Well, the 3DS is kind of a kid's system, would an M-rated game like this really work on this?" First of all, shut up. And second? There were already TWO Assassin's Creed games on the 3DS's predecessor! And don't tell me it wouldn't have been COOL AS HELL to climb up a big building or tower and look down on the city in MIND-BOGGLING STEREOSCOPIC 3D! The sense of height and scale would have been incredible, I think. Funny enough, Ubisoft was actually developing a game in this series for the 3DS (called Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy), but apparently the size/scale of the game got "too big" for the handheld, and eventually a lot of the ideas got reshaped and then used in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. So...I guess the silver lining here is, we may not have gotten the game on 3DS, but at least a version of the game did come out (on consoles) so it's not like we missed out on the game entirely. Glass half full!

3.) Call of Duty

 

It's really odd how few FPS games actually came out on 3DS. The stereoscopic 3D seems like it would have been a shoo-in for the system, but...apparently NOT! Which is really a missed opportunity for Activision. A 3DS-specific Call of Duty game would have been an ENORMOUS fish in an incredibly small pond. And again, anyone saying a game like this wouldn't "fit" on 3DS...first of all, look at all the CoD games on the original DS, and also, look at all the other M-rated games on 3DS like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon (though that last one might be T...but whatever). Really strange this never happened, and I'm still a bit baffled as to why. 

2.) F-Zero



Of course, of course. We're all waiting for the next entry in the F-Zero series. It kind of goes without saying, but I figured I'd say it anyway. This should have happened. Either a port of F-Zero GX, or (preferrably, IMO) a remake of the N64 game, F-Zero X. That game needs a face-lift, and the 3DS would have been a PERFECT spot for that to happen. I'm not entirely sure what developer GREZZO was doing between the release of Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D, but is it too wild of an idea that they could have spent some time doing a remake of ONE more N64 game for the 3DS? Or maybe Monster Games? Or heck, let Shin'en make it. They clearly WANT to make an F-Zero game, and they clearly had a firm grasp of the 3DS architecture. Ah well, another missed opportunity, IMO. 

1.) Grand Theft Auto



Alright, if any of the previous suggestions didn't cause too many "pah! how outlandish!" remarks, this one might. It may seem like the most controversial, but when you think about it? It's not, really. The Grand Theft Auto series doesn't *seem* like it has much history with Nintendo, but that's usually because people only think of Nintendo CONSOLES. But on handhelds? The truth is, Grand Theft Auto has a LONG history with Nintendo. The series had appeared on EVERY. SINGLE. NINTENDO. HANDHELD. As far back as the original Game Boy, all the way up to the original Nintendo DS. The 3DS had the horsepower to make a game like this (open-world, free-roaming games like LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins and DRIVER: Renegade are proof of that) and it wouldn't have been too out of place for Rockstar to release this. So why didn't it happen? My thoughts are multifold. A: The company just pretty much gave up on handheld systems. I mean, they didn't even bother to put a GTA on the Playstation Vita. B: Rockstar had basically put the GTA series on hold during this era. Think about it; a new GTA hasn't been made since Grand Theft Auto V - TWO generations ago! (yeah, two generations, the new Xbox and Playstations are out now, it counts!) And finally, C: By the time Rockstar got around to making a portable game in the series, they put it on the always-online mobile platform where...I guess they felt they could make more money. Which probably is true, if I'm being honest with myself. Still, would've been cool to see an entry of this series on 3DS. 

SO! Those are my thoughts. What are yours? And thanks for indulging me and letting me talk/vent about the 3DS...a system that may be in the back of everyone's mind at this point. But hopefully not forgotten. Cheers, everyone!

[TheLeon]

It is completely absurd that there hasn’t been an Advance Wars game in almost 13 years, either on 3DS, Switch, or phones. 

[ShreddieMercury]

Agreed 100% on F-Zero and Advance Wars, though I'm not a fan of the other franchises.  Still would have been cool though for those who were!

 

I was going to say Pilot Wings but then I looked it up and I guess there was a Pilot Wings game on 3DS that I didn't know about.  I only had a 3DS for a brief time, and though the games were awesome I realized that I just didn't personally enjoy playing games portably.  It makes me sort of sad that Nintendo will probably continue the hybrid strategy into the distant future, because I really liked having a split between portable and home consoles.  The Switch is amazing, but I think it fails to completely satisfy both camps - the original revision is probably just slightly too large to be a true portable device (like the DS & 3DS), while its concessions in power leave something to be desired in terms of docked performance.  Even then, it has several of the best games I've ever played so I can't fault it too much!

 

 

[Zaku3]

19 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

It is completely absurd that there hasn’t been an Advance Wars game in almost 13 years, either on 3DS, Switch, or phones. 

 

Last one didn't sell well. So with the rise of FE Nintendo probably doesn't care to do another AW.

[Biggie]

5 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

 

Last one didn't sell well. So with the rise of FE Nintendo probably doesn't care to do another AW.

[crispy4000]

Wargroove is on my play list.  Definitely missing my AW fix.

[5timechamp]

Advance Wars: All it required was the perfect balance from Days of Ruin with the art style of Dual Strike. Days of Ruin near perfected CO Powers, unit balance, promotions and had the best map editor in the series.....it just had a crappy art style

 

F-zero- I had hoped that F-Zero X would just get a graphics upgrade ala the Zelda N64 games...thats all it really needs to get my cash...the music and track design was already sublime

[Paperclyp]

Nice writeup @GameDadGrant

[Xbob42]

I have missed threads like this.

I also miss the 3DS getting games, because it was actually portable and didn't require me to wear cargo pants to fit it in a pocket.

Always thought it would be kind of neat if From tried making a portable Souls game. Like, not just a port of one of their existing titles, but something designed specifically for portable machines. What would a handheld version of Dark Souls look like? What would be streamlined or simplified, what would be expanded on? Would they make compromises for convenience, or would they make it unrelentingly difficult? The always-saving nature of the Souls games lends itself well to handheld games, you could practically just turn the game off at any point and pick it up immediately, even outside of sleep mode.

[Reputator]

Definitely agree about Advance Wars and F-Zero!

[Keyser_Soze]

Other than you saying an Assassin's Creed game was in development you don't really bring proof that many of these other games "almost were" on the 3DS.

 

This thread feels more like angry old man who only plays handheld is sad he missed out on console games.

 

An F-Zero and Advance Wars game would be welcome on ANY platform at this point.

[Biggie]

2 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Other than you saying an Assassin's Creed game was in development you don't really bring proof that many of these other games "almost were" on the 3DS.

 

This thread feels more like angry old man who only plays handheld is sad he missed out on console games.

 

An F-Zero and Advance Wars game would be welcome on ANY platform at this point.

[BloodyHell]

Quote

d look down on the city in MIND-BOGGLING STEREOSCOPIC 3D! 

There was nothing mind Boggling about the stereoscopic 3d. In fact it was trash, and not worth buying until they came out with a 2d model. It was terrible, looked bad, pulled really hard on the eyes, and did I mention it looked bad?

[GameDadGrant]

On 11/25/2020 at 10:39 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

Other than you saying an Assassin's Creed game was in development you don't really bring proof that many of these other games "almost were" on the 3DS.

 

This thread feels more like angry old man who only plays handheld is sad he missed out on console games.

 

An F-Zero and Advance Wars game would be welcome on ANY platform at this point.

 

Hey. HEY. I'm not that old.

 

I'm not sure what you're talking about when you brought up console games, but totally agree with you on both Advance Wars and F-Zero. Especially the latter. Is it nuts we've had more from the Excitebike/Truck/Bots franchise than we have from F-Zero in the past decade or so? I think the answer is YES. 

 

On 11/26/2020 at 5:49 AM, BloodyHell said:

There was nothing mind Boggling about the stereoscopic 3d. In fact it was trash, and not worth buying until they came out with a 2d model. It was terrible, looked bad, pulled really hard on the eyes, and did I mention it looked bad?

 

Hmm. I don't care for the 2DS screens - I feel they are lower quality than the 3D ones. Which...I suppose shouldn't matter *too* much since the 3DS family of systems weren't exactly powerhouses when it came to graphics in the first place. But I still prefer the stereoscopic 3D effect. I thought it was cool and a fairly unique visual trick that no one else was really doing at the time. I was sold when it looked like Fox McCloud's Arwing was literally flying out of the screen and the nose of the ship was about to poke me in the eye, LOL. But...that's just me. I suppose it was a different experience for other people, like yourself. 

 

By the way, you know you could turn off the 3D effect with the 3D models of the system, right? You didn't really have to wait until the 2DS to come out. 

[BloodyHell]

3 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

 

Hey. HEY. I'm not that old.

 

I'm not sure what you're talking about when you brought up console games, but totally agree with you on both Advance Wars and F-Zero. Especially the latter. Is it nuts we've had more from the Excitebike/Truck/Bots franchise than we have from F-Zero in the past decade or so? I think the answer is YES. 

 

 

Hmm. I don't care for the 2DS screens - I feel they are lower quality than the 3D ones. Which...I suppose shouldn't matter *too* much since the 3DS family of systems weren't exactly powerhouses when it came to graphics in the first place. But I still prefer the stereoscopic 3D effect. I thought it was cool and a fairly unique visual trick that no one else was really doing at the time. I was sold when it looked like Fox McCloud's Arwing was literally flying out of the screen and the nose of the ship was about to poke me in the eye, LOL. But...that's just me. I suppose it was a different experience for other people, like yourself. 

 

By the way, you know you could turn off the 3D effect with the 3D models of the system, right? You didn't really have to wait until the 2DS to come out. 

Yeah, I know you could turn it off. I don’t know why, that screen was incredibly hard on my eyes and gave me headaches, even with it off. Got a 2ds and I was fine. Then later got the folding 2ds that I like a lot. So yeah, im probably biased against it.