The Switch 2 Looks Cool, But The 3DS Was Mind-Blowing

The Switch 2 is on the way, and I don’t need to tell you it looks pretty freaking cool. A bigger, beefier Switch, Nintendo’s upcoming console is mostly doing what its predecessor did — but with an innovative new feature that makes it more than just a simple refresh. Namely, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Joy-Cons can function as mice now, allowing you to play first-peꦗrson shooters in a way that blends traditional console gaming with classic PC controls.

Other upgrades are more incremental. It’s more powerful, the screen is bigger, the Joy-Cons attach via magnets, and the kickstand is stronger. Like the 3DS before it, the Switch 2 is adding one truly innovative feature, along with a raft of less flashy changes that, nevertheless, significantly improve the experience. It just so happens that the 3DS did this 𒉰better than any consoleꩲ before or since. Better than any console ever will? I wouldn't bet against it.

Seven Questions I’m Ask𝄹ing Myself Before Pre-O💞rdering A Switch 2

Pre-ordering a Switch 2 is a big, costly commitment, so we have to ask ourselves some que🌼stions before putting t😼he money down.

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Remembering The 3DS As The Switch 2 Approaches

When the 3DS got announced back in 2010, the reveal of its titu♛lar gimmick managed to recapture some of the wonderment I felt way back when Reggie Fils-Aimé first showed off the original dual-ღscreened handheld in 2004. As cool as the Switch 2 looks, none of its features get my mind racing in quite the same way.

I’ve written before about how much that first DS presentation at E3 — or, more precisely, the moment I read about it in Nintendo Power a month late🎃r — felt like the arrival of the future. That machine wrapped several features I hadn't even imagined could be possible into one chrom💞e-colored clamshell. Two screens? One of which you control by touch? And there's a microphone, too? And you can blow into the mic to make a boat sail or a pinwheel spin? Or even talk into it to give a virtual puppy commands?

It's hard to imagine now, but the inclusion of native Wi-Fi support was just as big of a deal back then. My family still had wired internet, so I only ended up using this feature when I could convince my dad to hang out at McDonald's for an hour or two while I played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart DS online, but it was exciting to know that it was there.

The closest thing before that was the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Boy Advance's Wireless Adapter, which allowed GBAs to link up wirelessly for multiplayer gaming (including swapping Pokemon in later entries like FireRed an𒆙d LeafGreen). Prior to this, all multiplayer GBA gaming required the Game Link Cable.

So, how could the 3DS possibly top all that?

How The 3DS Built On The DS With Magic

It didn't, but the big feature it added was just as impressive as anything the DS brought to the table. The handheld follow-up maintained all of its predecessor’s features, but added one that was as mind-blowing as all those old features put together: it let you play games in 3D — without wearing those red and blue glasses. Over time, the DS's innovations have become commonplace. In 2025, your phone has a touchscreen, as do your parents' fridge and the drink machine at the movie theater. At this point, a consumer electronic product would be more notable if it couldn't connect to Wi-Fi. Microphones have seemingly colonized every single piece of tech, and they’re always listening. Other handhelds didn't chase𒈔 the DS’ two-screen design, but that novelty has worn off, too, thanks to the ubiquity that comes from being the second-best-selling console of all time.

And from your successor being the 12th best-selling console of all ♈time. And from smartphones borrowing tܫhe vertically oriented design.

As much as I've become accustom🍬ed to all of those features (and in some cases, have grown to resent them), the fact that I can simply slide a dial to crank the 3D up or down has never stopped being absolutely buckwild. I didn't always want to use it, but it never stopped fascinating me. It’s a technological magic trick; each time I used it, I felt like I was seeing a brave assistant cut in half and put back together or a rabbit pulled out of a hat.

It isn’t actually magic, though, and here's my very basic understanding of how it works. When you watch a 3D movie, it was either filmed with two cameras running simultaneously, then combined through the use of tho𓃲se glasses they give you before the screening to produce one image which achieves the appearance of depth (or was post-processed to achieve the same effect). The 3DS does something similar, with the top screen projecting two columns of pixels which we perceive as one whole image. Beyond those basics, I can’t explain much more, but that's part of why it remains cool over a decade later.

3D Just Won’t Die, And Maybe It Shouldn’t

Bowser walks among some brown blocks in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the 3DS.

The 3DS hit the market in 2011 amid a 3D revival at the movies. In 2009, Avatar made a big, blue, three-billion-dollar argument for the theatrical possibilities of the technology. And, as Avatar rode the tech's impressive effects (♚and added ticꦅket costs) to the highest box office gross in history — a record it still holds — it remade the industry in its image.

For years after James Cameron's blockbuster, 3D became a de facto feature to include with big-budget movies, and given that The Way of Water used 3D and premium large formats to become the third-highest grossing movie ever, with Fire and Ash hoping to repeat its success a third time, it's reasonable to expect the tech is gꦏoing to continue to play a role in theatrical exhibition for big movies. Theaters are still trying to gain back the moviegoers they hemorrhaged thanks to streaming and the pandemic, and 3D paired with movies that know how to use it well will continue to be trotted out as an incentive. As has shown, a movie feeling like an ‘event,’ with all the premium formats that entails, is an increasingly common path to success. Would Sinners have made even more at the box office if it could boast 3D blood spray?

Regardless of what the future of 3D holds on the big screen, I remain most impressed by what Nintendo was able to pull off on a tiny one. Tricking my eyes when I have plastic glasses over them is one th🎉ing; tricking my naked eye is quite another. The Switch 2’s big gimmick may end up being more useful than the 3DS’. I can imagine myself using the Joy-Con mouse to play shooters much more often than I used the 3D functionality (which, admittedly, could give you a headache after a while), especially since previews have noted that you can use your leg as a mousepad. But I understand how a mouse works. Fourteen years after it first hit the market, the 3DS’ key feature is still a bit of a mystery to me; one I never want to see resolved.