The Verge reported that at some point in the last week or so Nintendo updated their Japanese site to indicate that the remaining units in the DS lineup, the 3DL XL, 2DS, and 2DS XL are “out of production.”
If you go the US Nintendo site, mention of the DS line of handheld console has been completely scrubbed, save for the support area, where it now lives in the “Other Systems” category with the Wii, the Wii U, and older generations of the DS line.
So ends Nintendo’s dual screen handheld line. The Switch was not supposed to replace it, not according to Nintendo at least, and the initial Switch model was certainly bulky enough compared to the pocket sized DS line to support that argument. But then came the Switch Lite and the writing was on the wall.
Though, to my mind, the real death knell of the DS line was Game Freak moving core Pokemon RPG development to the Switch. In our family we played some other games on the DS, but it was primarily the Pokemon console, and those core titles were always best sellers on the platform.
The end was always coming some day, and I haven’t really played anything on my 3DS XL for ages, but it is still a bit of a sad note.
On the flip side, the DS line had a hell of a run.
Released in late 2004, when the PlayStation 2, original XBox, and GameCube were the current console generation, it persisted through to pre-orders for the PlayStation 5. The hardware went through a series of revisions, starting with the DS, then the DS Lite, then the DSi and DSi XL. Then came the 3D plan, with the 3DS and 3DS XL, the latter getting a couple of revisions during its time. Finally, in order to satisfy the budget end of the spectrum, there was the 2DS, unique in its form factor, and the final entry in the lineup, the 2DS XL.
That last entry, which was also the last model I owned, was basically the 3DS XL with some improvements and a the 3D option remove. It was, in its way, the pinnacle of the line, 3D ending up being more of a gimmick than a serious feature for most people.
But we had a number of the various models along the way.
Back in early 2008 we bought a pink DS Lite for our daughter to keep her entertained on a trip that included a six hour flight. Later that was joined by a cobalt blue DS Lite of my own, since Pokemon seemed like a lot of fun. My daughter and I played a lot of Pokemon together.
Pokemon Diamond and the DS Lite
The WiFi features of the early units were ahead of their time. It could be a bit finicky, but it was a deep feature. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl had its underground feature that allowed players to interact in the caves and visit each other’s bases. (And steal their flags!) There was online trading between players around the world. And I was extremely impressed with the WiFi integration with the Wii as demonstrated by games like Pokemon Battle Revolution and Pokemon Ranch.
And my little cobalt blue DS Lite was, and remains, a solidly built unit. It went on a lot of trips and I never had a problem with it. Battery life was excellent.
My daughter got a DSi at one point, then a DSi XL, which I thought was a great improvement. Age was creeping up on me by then and the little DS Lite screen was starting to be blurry to me.
Then the 3DS line came along. We skipped that initially, there being no real incentive to go to a little 3DS from the big DSi XL, but Nintendo eventually came out with the 3DS XL. My daughter wanted one for Christmas and, once she had one, I got myself one for my birthday a couple months later. We were back and playing Pokemon again.
And Pokemon was always the main game for us. I think the peak for my daughter and I, the point when were were the most into it, was during Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. The game was good and the tropes of the core RPG series still felt fresh to us.
There was the Pokewalker, the pedometer which allowed you to unlock Pokemon by getting out and walking… or, you know, cheating. It communicated with the DS Lite via the IR port. Only one Pokewalker went through the wash.
Pokewalker on my Belt
There were many download events, the ones where you had to go out to Toys R Us or GameStop to collect. We event went to the regional championships just to see what was going on.
And, of course, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver was the game where I caught them all for the first and only time. I got the National Pokedex first, which qualifies you for the achievement in the game. But that was only 485 Pokemon, because they don’t make you get the rare, event Pokemon. But I managed to hunt them down, getting the final one by playing Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs to get an egg that could be transferred into Pokemon SoulSilver , which would then hatch a Mamphy, with could be bred with a Ditto to get an egg that would hatch a Phione, the last Pokemon I needed. I had 493 Pokemon registered, back when that was all there was.
Back when 493 was all there was
I think we might have burned ourselves out on Pokemon with that run. We played Pokemon Black & White, but were never that into it, as we skipped Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 when they came out, though I went back and played White 2 later. It was a decent entry, and actually bucked a few of the tropes of the series.
Then there was the dead time, when the new Pokemon titles were on the 3DS, but we didn’t go there until the XL models came out. Those saw a return to Pokemon for us and a modest revival of our passion for the games.
We played through Pokemon X & Y, Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and Pokemon Sun & Moon, though we stumbled a bit with Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. We bought it, but neither of us finished it. We were again in the “too samey” phase again. But my daughter did devote a lot of time to Animal Crossing: New Leaf after Pokemon faded.
And that was it. Literally the day after my wife bought me the 2DS XL for Christmas, Game Freak announced that there would be no more Pokemon games on the DS platform. The Switch was the future.
The 3DS hung around, and even saw a bit of a sales spike at one point after that, but without Pokemon there to anchor the platform, it seemed like time was drawing down on it, which brings us to this past week.
The units are still here. I can still play Pokemon if I want. But the support services have been fading since the Switch came out. None of the DS series Pokemon games can use their global trade center or other connectivity that made the games so vibrant. That has all been turned off. And soon enough the store and all the other bits that Nintendo has to maintain will go away. Like the Wii before it, the DS series will become isolated, stand alone game consoles.
Still, as I said, a hell of a run. Almost 16 years have gone by since the first units shipped, and you can still play games made for the very first DS on the final 2DS XL units. And it was a platform for some crazy ideas. Let’s just start with the whole two screens idea, one being a touch screen. Then there were the IR ports and the cameras and then 3D support, which included freaking 3D camera capabilities along with AR support along with all the things Nintendo did with WiFi along the way.
Seriously, they got Netflix to make an app to stream their video service on the 3DS series. I tried it. It was crap quality, but you could watch stuff.
So it goes.
If I want to play Pokemon today I have a Switch Lite. It is a nice little unit. The screen quality is very good. But it won’t replace the DS series in my heart. There is too much of my life tied up in that.
Other eulogies for the DS platform:
The Ancient Gaming Noob 