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Despite it all, I look back on Nintendo’s years with the Wii U and 3DS fondly; and while the games that both systems offered are a major source of nostalgia, it feels almost overshadowed by how Nintendo really fostered relationships in ways that have yet to be replicated since. With features such as StreetPass and Miiverse, Nintendo gave players all the tools to make communities all their own, and it’s a pity they were left behind.
It may be a silly thing to reminisce about – aspects of these consoles that didn’t directly tie into the games most players bought them for. But for a specific type of Nintendo fan, I can assure you that having a connection to the other players meant the world to me. Setting up my Wii U at launch, and getting to discuss all the games I was excited to play – this was before I joined Twitter, and it’s not hard to wish for something akin to that lighthearted discussion board given the current state of social media. Scrolling through Miiverse not only let me learn about games I’d never heard of, it also helped me find others to play those same games with. As a Monster Hunter fan since the PSP, finding friends on Miiverse to play Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is still one of my fondest memories of the Wii U as a whole.
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While Miiverse eventually found its way to 3DS, it always felt a bit overshadowed by the system’s other major social feature. As I began to go to conventions such as Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con in my later school years, StreetPass became a revelation. If Miiverse helped players discover new friends and games across the world, StreetPass did the same for those around us. Taking a break from walking through convention halls to check the Miis you’ve accrued was a ritual that many convention-goers from the mid-to-late 2010s are all too familiar with. Finding out who you’ve crossed paths with, and the games they play were one thing, but seeing the impact that those same players could have in many games on the system helped make even single-player games feel like a community experience.
That’s not to mention the impromptu multiplayer experiences that StreetPass could bring. Waiting for a panel, and seeing the green light pop up indicating that someone else with a 3DS was nearby, perhaps in the same line as you. Maybe one of you notices that the other has the same multiplayer games, and within moments the wait feels all the less painful as players bust out their systems to play Mario Kart, Smash Bros. or Monster Hunter. Maybe you exchange friend codes, and perhaps those chance encounters lead to friendships down the line.
Nintendo has always excelled at bringing players together. We can see it even now with the Switch and how the Joy-Cons are explicitly designed around the idea that you could hand one off to a friend or a stranger to play multiplayer – even if they don’t have a Switch of their own. Yet while the magic of the Switch’s Joy-Cons has perhaps faded over the system’s life, it always felt like both StreetPass and Miiverse never suffered the same fate while actively supported.
As the Wii U and 3DS fade into the sunset, it’s hard not to hope that some of what made those systems so special might make a comeback. Yet even if that’s fated to not be the case, I’ll always have the memories of the games I played, and the friends I made along the way.
Looking to the future, I can only hope that whatever Nintendo works on next can bring that same energy forward. The gaming community truly felt like it was a brighter place for all that the 3DS and Wii U added to the conversation; and while we can never go back to those days, it’s exciting to think about what Nintendo has in mind to bring players together once more.
If you're still interested in the older handhelds, you can't go wrong with our list of the best 3DS games.
