Hi again!

I said I'd do this eventually...well, eventually is now! ...Wait-

Anyway! It's about time I finally yap and gush about something I, for some reason, am very passionate about. 

The Nintendo 3DS!

(Image above provided by: l4in-1waKur4 )

But not just the 3DS as a console, it's games, the actual 'era' in which it existed, etc. This is gonna probably be my longest blog, period. We'll see. But it's mostly just me yapping and gushing, don't expect a comprehensive retrospective or anything. But I do have a lot to say! I'm actually playing a 3DS game right now, taking breaks every so often to add to this blog. (Albeit, on an emulator. Though once I have an sd card reader, I'm definitely gonna be modding my physical 3DS.)

Speaking of, if you're curious, I'm currently playing Bravely Second. Here's a look at my party!

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(From left to right, if you aren't familiar with the characters, skip ahead if you don't care!)

Yew is a Knight/Performer, being a knight helps him survive and protect others, the performer subclass helps him buff the rest of the party while he's at it. Magnolia is a Red Mage/Summoner, the Red Mage has versatile elemental coverage, slight healing in a pinch, and a way to regenerate MP for free with Aspir. The summoner is the master of big elemental damage, albeit at the cost of lots of MP. And I have the spellcraft ability on her as well, which lets me alter her magics in various helpful ways.  Edea is a Valkyrie/Freelancer, the Valkyrie does excellent physical damage and can even bypass blocking enemies if I remember correctly. The freelancer I mostly just have on her so I can have a way to examine enemies, and use items on the entire party with the 'halfsies' ability. Lastly, Tiz is my Confectioner/White Mage, he can make cakes that buff the party and debilitate the enemy, as well as do some okay damage of his own, he can also use 'decorate', which I use on Yew. To make the enemies target him more often, since he's my tank. And the white mage is the unrivaled master of healing, so he's my all around support! This game's party building is so fun... but I'm getting side-tracked.

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Anyways, I got a 3DS in high school, I was about 16 years old, I think? And the first game I got with it was Pokemon Y. I was originally going to get Super Mario 3D Land, but my friend who also had a 3DS, and was a BIG pokemon fan at the time, wanted me to get Pokemon, to play with him. It wasn't a bad first game, lots of content, at least to me at the time. And I eventually got Mario 3D Land later on anyhow. Both good games in my opinion. 

The main reason I even got the 3DS wasn't even because I'm a big Nintendo person or anything, I've always liked Nintendo stuff but I didn't want the 3DS *because* it was Nintendo. But it was announced the next smash brothers would be on both WiiU AND the 3DS. I wasn't very interested in the WiiU, but I was definitely wanting a new handheld, and thankfully, for my birthday that year, I was able to get a 3DS! But since Smash wasn't out yet, I was stuck with Pokemon Y and whatever else I could get my hands on until then. But! Once Smash 3DS came out? Forget about it, my free time VANISHED. That game, and my 3DS, was a time blackhole. I must've played hundreds of hours of Smash 3DS. Not just that either! At some point I picked up Mario Kart 7, that took up a ton of hours too, but definitely not nearly as many. Then, at some point...I discovered the 3DS had an absolute goldmine of JRPG's!

What you see above isn't even a quarter of the masterpieces you can get on 3DS, if you're into JRPG's. 7th Dragon, for instance, is one of like, the most unique rpg's I've ever played, with some of the coolest class ideas. So then, JRPGS galore, Smash Bros, tons of fun laid back stuff too (like the games I mentioned before.)

But beyond my nostalgia over it, beyond the cool ideas the 3DS and its games brought forth (even if not all of them were executed well), what I love most about the 3DS, is the era of gaming, and specifically, Nintendo, that it came from.

Nintendo's Golden Age (imo)

Back in the prime of the 3DS and the WiiU (though you could argue if that console even HAD a prime...) Nintendo had a certain like...'flair'. Everything they put out, and everything they did, oozed with care and love. Whenever a game came out from Nintendo it was polished to a shine, it felt flawless. (Pokemon not withstanding, but even the 3DS pokemon games were good.) This was also when the "Nintendo Direct" became a thing. And these were awesome! We still have them now, but they're just a back to back showcase of games, which is fine, they're still cool for that, but in old Directs, they'd have little skits, they'd come on screen and yap about the games they're making, etc etc etc. Does anyone else remember the robot chicken skit they did? Reggie sets a dude on fire for asking about Mother 3, that shit was hilarious. (Man I miss Reggie.)

Well, in any case, I've yapped for FAR too long, and I have a headache. Thanks for reading all of this, if you did. I'm sorry for rambling, but if you have fond memories involving the 3DS, tell me about them!

Have a lovely evening.