Nintendo 3DS

A turquoise Nintendo 3DS. The 3D switch can be seen on the right side of the top screen.

The Nintendo 3DS, commonly referred to as the 3DS, is a handheld video game system developed by Japanese video game company Nintendo and released on March 27th, 2011. The defining feature of the system is its ability to display images in 3D without the use of 3D glasses. It is the successor to the Nintendo DS, and compatible with all DS games. As of December 2023, 75.94 million 3DS hardware units have been sold. The system has been discontinued.

The system consists of two screens that can be folded to put the system to sleep or make the system more portable; the bottom screen is a touch screen. Buttons for controlling the system surround the bottom screen, including a joystick and a four-way directional pad. New to the 3DS is a home button which allows players to return to the system's home screen to select a different software. 3D can be turned on, off, and adjusted with a slider on the right side of the top screen. The 3DS has cameras on each side of its top screen. These cameras combined with the 3D capabilities allow the 3DS to perform Augmented reality (AR) functions.

A diagram illustrating how players can use StreetPass to connect to other people they pass by

The 3DS includes software such as a camera app, recording software, an online shop, an activity log, and StreetPass. With StreetPass, if people passed each other with 3DS systems in sleep mode, the systems would tag each other and send each other data. Players could open the StreetPass application to play games with the characters of the people they pass. Additional Streetpass games were available for purchase.

The 3DS online shop closed on March 27, 2023. Players are still able to download software already purchased software, but cannot purchase new games or add funds to their account. Almost all 3DS online services will end on April 8th, 2024, aside from a few Pokémon applications that allow users to transfer Pokémon between game systems.

3DS Family

The 3DS family of Nintendo game systems were classified based on their ability to play 3DS game cartridges. These cartridges are nearly identical to those of the DS, but they are a lighter shade of gray and are a slightly different shape that will fit into the cartridge slot of the 3DS family, but not of the DS family.

A Nintendo 2DS, which consists of one unfoldable piece rather than two without a hinge in the middle

The first two alternate versions of the 3DS were the 3DS XL, a larger version of the 3DS released in July 2012, and the Nintendo 2DS, released in 2013. The Nintendo 2DS was released in October 2013. It does not have 3D functionality, which is the reason why it was cheaper in price, nor does it fold in half. Users toggled a switch on the bottom of the system to put it in sleep mode.

In October of 2014, Nintendo released the New 3DS and New 3DS XL. These systems included upgrades in technology but still were meant to play the same type of cartridge. When a new version of the 2DS was released in 2017, the New 2DS XL, it received an upgrade in technology, maintained its lack of 3D functionality, but was changed to the foldable DS style from its previous form.