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Discussion What was Nintendo's worst handheld?

What was the worst Nintendo handheld?

  • Gameboy

  • Gameboy Color

  • Gameboy Advance

  • Nintendo DS

  • Nintendo 3DS

Results are only viewable after voting.
None of their handhelds are bad, unless you count the Virtual Boy. And Virtual Boy isn't even bad due to its software; it has great games, but is hampered by its uncomfortable and unreliable hardware.

Out of the poll options, it has to be Game Boy Advance. Short lifespan that was quickly overtaken by the DS as Nintendo's primary portable system, which ended up longer lived with a vastly better game line-up. It doesn't help that a lot of the early GBA games look washed out, in an attempt to counter the dim screen of the original hardware.

Not a chance in hell that it's the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color. Plenty of classics there that I still return to today!
 
SMH at the people voting Game Boy, but I feel like that's a "you had to be there" sort of thing. Yes, there's a lot of shovelware (it was a cheap system and targeted at kids) but there's some bona fide classics on there.

Anyways, of the options I'd say the 3DS and that's mostly because, like I said in the home console thread, the design behind the system is not great. As a DS successor it's miserable. The 3D screen requires all the action to happen on the top screen because 1) that's where the stereoscopic effect is and 2) there's a mismatch in screen dimensions. So all the neat little tricks with the DS where action could jump back and forth between the screens is no longer really an option. Plus it killed "book mode".

Touch controls were also largely deprecated in this system for some reason, with far fewer games really needing them or forcing you to use them unlike on the DS.

Like the Wii U, the 3DS feels like it was made by a Nintendo that was not sure of where to go next with their hardware after a run of some of the best handheld systems to date and rather than spinning out in a different direction entirely or iterating in a logical sense they opted to chase the 3D display trend of the time for some reason. And as much as I like the system, it's hard not to look back in hindsight and think it was a bit of a misfire.
 
The 21 votes for 3DS are killing me. It was such a wonderful system with a great lineup of first party games and Japanese third party.

And the 3D, especially on the New model, was fantastic. It was not intrusive and just there. And best part, it was OPTIONAL, so you could switch it off you didn’t like it. I personally always used it on because even less 3D intensive games, it provided a sense of depth. Like Bravely Default and the the way it made towns and cities just… pop.
 
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I don't think any of Nintendo's handhelds are outright bad, but the 3DS sure has a lot working against it. The system launched semi-unfinished, with the eShop not even launching until months after the hardware did, the online features had some pretty notable weaknesses from how piecemeal they were added, the 3D feature was largely abandoned towards the end of its life, and there was just a very large concentration of not great entries in various franchises on the thing. Pokémon, nearly everything Mario-related, Chibi-Robo, even Zelda to a degree were all just not at their best on the system and it got hurt way more than Wii U by the general malaise Nintendo was in towards the end of that generation. There's still a fair amount to like about it, and I really liked the 3D effect in particular, but overall there's just a lot about it that left me cold.
 
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I’ll exclude GB like I did NES because it doesnt seem fair due to age,

So DS- by far the worst first party library
 
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Gameboy Color.

If only because, in retrospect, it comes off as the most pointless, half-step upgrade from the original Gameboy and its proper successor, the GBA. And this is with me being fully aware that Link's Awakening DX and the Oracle games all occupy spots in my personal favorite games of all time.
 
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MissingNo. said:
Unlike with their home consoles, I will not answer this question. Because I am simply not able to answer this question.

This is like asking which chocolate is the worst. At the end of the day it's still chocolate. It can't be bad.
Click to expand...
Have you ever tried the American chocolate brand Hershey's? Cus somehow they managed to make bad chocolate lol.
 
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3DS by far. The 3D screen is Nintendo's worst hardware idea, followed by the WiiU gamepad.
 
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Mainline Mario on 3DS: 3D Land, NSMB2
Mainline Mario on DS: NSMB

Mainline Zelda 3DS: ALBW (amazing)
Mainline Zelda DS: PH and ST (well..)

Mainline Metroid on 3DS: Samus Returns
Mainline Metroid on DS: ERROR: NOT FOUND

Smash on DS: ERROR NOT FOUND
Kid Icarus on DS: ERROR NOT FOUND
Luigi’s Mansion on DS: NOT FOUND

just an example on why I prefer 3DS to DS lol. Pokemon carried that system first party wise, and I’m not a fan of it

And when you compare to GBA, GBA has better Metroids, it has Golden Sun and Advance Wars which from what I hear from fans the DS entries were subpar comparatively.

DS is the worst first party wise. And first party games are by far the most important aspect of a Nintendo system imo.
 
In terms of noteworthy games I think it's gotta be the GBC.

But in terms of hardware and overall design I'd have to say 3DS. It (and the Wii U) felt a bit like the Homer Simpson school of design. Tons of random shit jammed in there even if it doesn't work very well for no clear reason.
 
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It's the Pokemon Mini, and there should be no debating as to why.
Pok%C3%A9mon_mini_system.jpg


There's less games on it than the Virtual Boy! It's also a tad weaker than the Game Boy, though it does have a few extra tweaks the GB lacks like a motion sensor and a Infrared receiver.
It's really only notable for the novelty of how small it is, and the fact Nintendo helpfully preserved a good chunk (Some of it was in the form of demos, though.) of it's library through Pokemon Channel.
250px-Pok%C3%A9mon_Mini_Channel.png
 
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Don't think they ever made a bad one, but GBA has the smallest library, so less stand out games. Though it does have Mother 3, my favorite Nintendo game...
 
Quoted by: em
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Clov said:
None of their handhelds are bad, unless you count the Virtual Boy. And Virtual Boy isn't even bad due to its software; it has great games, but is hampered by its uncomfortable and unreliable hardware.

Out of the poll options, it has to be Game Boy Advance. Short lifespan that was quickly overtaken by the DS as Nintendo's primary portable system, which ended up longer lived with a vastly better game line-up. It doesn't help that a lot of the early GBA games look washed out, in an attempt to counter the dim screen of the original hardware.

Not a chance in hell that it's the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color. Plenty of classics there that I still return to today!
Click to expand...
I wanted to say GBA but I didn't want to make an unpopular choice in both threads lol

GBA does have three great Wario games and a Nancy Drew, though
 
The original GB is brilliant, although it's technology is obviously out of date now. Its limitations worked in its favour - having worse graphics than the competitors meant that the designers had to concentrate on raw gameplay, and they turned out some great games.

Super Marioland 1 and 3
Megaman series
Monster Max
James Bond
Link's Awakening
Tetris
Operation C
Nemesis
Parodius
Mercenary Force
Revenge of the Gator
Kirby
Donkey Kong 94
Kid Dracula
Gargoyles Quest
R-Type

All great and still playable.
 
Roger Rabbit said:
The original GB is brilliant, although it's technology is obviously out of date now. Its limitations worked in its favour - having worse graphics than the competitors meant that the designers had to concentrate on raw gameplay, and they turned out some great games.

Super Marioland 1 and 3
Megaman series
Monster Max
James Bond
Link's Awakening
Tetris
Operation C
Nemesis
Parodius
Mercenary Force
Revenge of the Gator
Kirby
Donkey Kong 94
Kid Dracula
Gargoyles Quest
R-Type

All great and still playable.
Click to expand...
Best thing about Game Boy is it was outdated when it came out, and it still managed all that. Incredible.
 
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If I'm not being bias it has to be the gbc, It has a very small lineup of game. But I hate the 3ds for region locking game and have nostalgia for the gbc as my first handheld I own so I choose the 3ds.
 
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OP didn't put the Virtual Boy in the poll to sow chaos and destruction, that's just evil.
 
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Initial first instinct at seeing these options was the Gameboy, just due to a lot of its games not holding up compared to time of release.

Much harder than the worst nintendo console thread, as the handhelds have all been consistently great. Like despite what i said above, there's still a bunch of OG Gameboy games you could play for the first time today and have a great time.
 
Gonna have to go with the OG Gameboy. I mean, I played the hell out of that thing as a kid, but I have no desire to go back to it. Every other handheld since then has been an improvement, with games that I could call all-time favorites.
 
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YoboD said:
Initial first instinct at seeing these options was the Gameboy, just due to a lot of its games not holding up compared to time of release.

Much harder than the worst nintendo console thread, as the handhelds have all been consistently great. Like despite what i said above, there's still a bunch of OG Gameboy games you could play for the first time today and have a great time.
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Yeah, I’ve never had a handheld that I felt was disappointing years later, I had an original Game Boy and the thing was one of my most treasured possessions as a kid. On the other hand, both N64 and WiiU had me enjoy a handful of games on them but be largely unimpressed with them as a whole compared to the competition.

None of them are outright awful. What makes these discussions interesting is that any of the devices still have enough decent titles that they are going to have some people going ‘well, games X, Y, and Z alone made it worth it to me’, even as others had zero interest in those games as a redeeming factor.
 
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All of my favourite games on the 3DS are remakes or reimaginings of older titles. Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask, Star Fox 3D, Metroid Samus Returns, A Link Between Worlds etc. Then some more standout games have had later titles make them less impressive in retrospect. Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates aren't as good as Three Houses and Luigi's Mansion 2 is worse than 3. 3D land is worse than 3D world. Smash 3DS is worse than Wii U, which are both worse than Ultimate. Mario Kart 7 isn't as good as 8. The only franchise I had a lot of fun with on 3DS is Pokemon Y and Sun.
 
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People voting for DS are crazy lol.

Besides the obviously unmatched 3rd party titles and the variety they brought, several Nintendo franchises had great or even amazing entries on DS.

Pokemon being the big one of course, but Mario Kart DS and Party DS were received and hold up really well. Kirby had it made. Canvas Curse was fun, Super Star Ultra is one of the best remakes in gaming, and Mass Attack was a unique and charming spin-off (with 3 incredible side games I wish Brawball was made into a full thing plz HAL)

Mario and Luigi had Bowser's Inside Story, which is basically tied with Superstar Saga in being the best Mario and Luigi game. Other first party titles that were great include Pokemon Conquest, Rhythm Heaven, Animal Crossing Wild World, Elite Beat Agents, Diddy Kong Racing, etc.

A few franchises didn't have the same care and quality on the DS, but there were still plenty of Nintendo games that were well done.
 
Easily the DS for me. It had the worst first-party line-up of any major Nintendo console in my opinion.
 
Wow i never realized that my opinion on this topic is so unpopular. For me it was the Nintendo DS. I bought it day one and was really hyped for it but I ended up using it was less then I ever thought. To many Touchscreen gimmicks in most games. The two worst Zelda Games... Ofc there are also some gems on the system but no Nintendo handheld was really bad.

Gameboy and Gameboy color were my childhood. Ofc many of those games didn't age well but back in the days I loved it.

Gba still has a very special place in my heart. In many ways even till this day the best Nintendo handheld.

Nintendo 3ds is the hardware that got me back to Nintendo after they lost me more and more with wii and wii u. And its the ultimate Zelda machine.
 
Wow so many votes for the Game Boy, this must be an age thing. While it's true the tech was outdated at the time, they chose it deliberately to reduce the amount of batteries it would eat and make the system affordable. Systems with better specs like the Game Gear and Lynx didn't do nearly as well. Many games were designed to be played in short sessions, "primitive" or rather simple on purpose. It's what made newer handhelds less appealing to me, most of their games weren't much different from console titles expect worse graphics. I guess it became this way, because smart phones have replaced handhelds as gaming devices on the go. Makes me happy about the Switch, now I can choose to play these titles how I want.

On the poll I chose the 3DS, because of it's failed 3D gimmick and the blunder of only having one analog control device. The latter was really inexcusable in 2011, they should've known better. It's still not a bad system of course, it has many great games.
 
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I voted for 3DS, because it was poor direction to take for Nintendo’s hardware line, quality of the games aside. All of those games would have worked just as well or better on a single-screen horizontal GBA/Vita/Switch-style device. I understand the benefits of backwards compatibility, but the trade offs were not worth it IMO.

But I’d also argue that the GBC should not be considered a separate platform from the GB if the DSi and N3DS are not separate from the DS and 3DS, respectively.
 
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Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
Don't think they ever made a bad one, but GBA has the smallest library, so less stand out games. Though it does have Mother 3, my favorite Nintendo game...
Click to expand...

The GBA has great Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Zelda, Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Mario Sports, Mega Man, Pokémon, WarioLand, WarioWare, Final Fantasy, and Metroid games. And Drill Dozer, and in Japan, Ace Attorney and Mother 3. Its library is packed with top-tier games, easily on par with any other Nintendo handheld short of the Switch.
 
The 3DS. While it's still got a great library of games, and if I was a kid I'd be all over the backwards compatibility... the gimmicky glasses-free 3D, and outrageously high initial price point (in part because of aforesaid gimmick), and lack of games supporting the "New" features of the inevitable upgrade mode, mean l would reluctantly say the 3DS line is the "worst".

I think it's probably more interesting to discuss what's the "best"--especially if you're looking at the library, the form factor, the appeal of the time, how it's aged, etc.

Some 3DS games look rough as hell, whereas I think some Game Boy/Colour games look fantastic even blown up on a HD screen.

And the GBA was full of pixel-perfect pocket adventures. In a clamshell (SP model) you could literally take anywhere. And it was cheap.

It's swings and roundabouts and I'm glad we've had them all. Let's all rejoice that we have backlighting now. I can't be the only one who used to own one of those worm lights...
 
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yeah the gameboy should not be winning.

its iconic, it still influences hardware design. revolutionized videogames as we know them by taking them out of the living room. and tetris is one of the best selling game of all time.

worst handheld does not mean most archaic by modern standards.

guess you had to be there.

out of that list, i could see arguments being made for GBC and 3DS (though, again, in context GBC was a pretty big deal too - which is why i voted for 3DS)
 
The answer is 3DS.
Phendrift said:
Mainline Mario on 3DS: 3D Land, NSMB2
Mainline Mario on DS: NSMB

Mainline Zelda 3DS: ALBW (amazing)
Mainline Zelda DS: PH and ST (well..)

Mainline Metroid on 3DS: Samus Returns
Mainline Metroid on DS: ERROR: NOT FOUND

Smash on DS: ERROR NOT FOUND
Kid Icarus on DS: ERROR NOT FOUND
Luigi’s Mansion on DS: NOT FOUND

just an example on why I prefer 3DS to DS lol. Pokemon carried that system first party wise, and I’m not a fan of it

And when you compare to GBA, GBA has better Metroids, it has Golden Sun and Advance Wars which from what I hear from fans the DS entries were subpar comparatively.

DS is the worst first party wise. And first party games are by far the most important aspect of a Nintendo system imo.
Click to expand...
Logic like this is why Nintendo is so risk averse and so dependent on most of those franchises, it's a subject I always have some disdain for when talking about Nintendo with fellow fans. The DS let Nintendo work on lesser known series and also provided the most third party support Nintendo had gotten since the SNES.

More than that, the reason why I might never understand the love for 3DS is because it was basically Nintendo's PSP. These games were still compromised in quality from home console games but needed more resources from the teams that made them. 3D World released a full year after the Wii U launch because the team was busy making 3D Land, a game hardly anyone will hold in the same regard.

This is why Switch is a great answer to the problems Nintendo was having during that 3DS/Wii U period as well, it literally provides the high quality games everyone wants from Nintendo without the need to split their resources across two platforms. To me both Wii U and 3DS were just stopgaps for Nintendo to reach where they are today. I don't hate them, but I don't rate them highly either.
 
Anyone saying DS needs to like, branch out from first-of-first party stuff.

I guess maybe 3DS is my least favorite? The thing was an aimless mess of feature bloat almost as bad as the Wii U but homebrew does a lot to redeem it. GBC is also kind of unnotable but it's barely separate from the original.
 
essemkato said:
Anyone saying DS needs to like, branch out from first-of-first party stuff.
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Even the first party stuff on the DS is great, it's just that outside of Pokemon and Kirby (the peak of those two franchises IMO) a lot of the best first party games were in lesser known or new IP's like EBA/Quendan, Cing Adventure games, Advance Wars, Rhytm Heaven, Puzzle League etc.

Even with Mario, Mario Kart DS was a massive deal at the time as the first online entry in the series and the entry that cemented the series as Nintendo's blockbuster. Same with NSMB being the first new 2D entry since SML2 back on the original GameBoy.

Add that to the incredible third party games available on the system and its easy to see why it was the favourite handheld of so many people.
 
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Can't believe that 3DS is that high, it's my favorite one ever.
The New (regular not XL) particularly. Great ergonomics, colors, screen, 3D, etc. Great library with tons of hidden gems, you add to that DS BC...

Voted GBC because it was pretty useless in terms of tech and iteration (most color stuff was pretty mediocre at best). Not sure you can even count it as more than an iteration.
 
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I tend to rank my Nintendo hardware by the first party libraries, so I usually get stuck deciding between Game Boy, DS, and 3DS. DS has the best Pokemon games and 3DS has Link Between Worlds/Triple Deluxe/Robobot so Game Boy it is…
 
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em said:
The GBA has great Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Zelda, Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Mario Sports, Mega Man, Pokémon, WarioLand, WarioWare, Final Fantasy, and Metroid games. And Drill Dozer, and in Japan, Ace Attorney and Mother 3. Its library is packed with top-tier games, easily on par with any other Nintendo handheld short of the Switch.
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A lot of good games for sure, I just think their other handhelds have more good games. Nintendo has just always had great handhelds.
 
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The Original Game Boy has not aged well. There's some great games, and it's cool for it's time, but it doesn't come close to matching the library of any of it's successors.
 
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I've slept some nights on this and yeah, I think it's the 3DS for me. It's not bad in terms of line-up, even if it is very RPG heavy and a lot of those RPGs are crawlers - but that is hardly a big knock against it, seeing how I like most of these games, I just wish there was a smidge more variety on the system, especially when compared to its predecessor. Same goes for Vita vs. PSP, imho.

But then we have the other issues - a very lackluster launch year (good, that CAN be overlooked), spotty 3rd party support where people often had to beg for games to be released overseas, a very mixed effort towards localization in Europe - not the fault of the system, but Square Enix hardly gave a fuck about EFIGS (cutting the I and S out of the EU release of Dream Drop Distance) until later in the system's life and Capcom just straight-up refused to release Ace Attorney in languages other than English in Europe, some games were only available as download titles here including Ace Attorney 5 & 6 - and finally, the revision to the 'new 3DS' that, in my book, should've been the system to lead with, especially considering how Nintendo tied SNES VC to it when SNES games already ran on the DS.
 
Quoted by: em
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I consider the GB/GBC to be the same system, and it's that system. It still has a ton of games worth playing, but a lot of them are less substantial than what was on consoles at the time.

If you don't it's the GBC, I guess.

They've never released a bad handheld. Also extremely spicy take: The Switch is decently close to being my pick. I think I could make the argument that it has the fewest games I want to own, but ultimately I'd rank it above GB and GBA.
 
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em said:
What?
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SNES VC was exclusive to the 'new 3DS' family of consoles - a bit of an odd choice, if you ask me, considering the DS had already received ports/remakes of SNES titles like Dragon Quest V and VI as well as Chrono Trigger a generation earlier.
 
I remember following the 3DS hacking scene and apparently the vanilla 3DS was incapable of running SNES emulators. Ports are a way to get SNES games running, but they require much more effort than just uploading some ROMs.
 
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sir_AnGer said:
SNES VC was exclusive to the 'new 3DS' family of consoles - a bit of an odd choice, if you ask me, considering the DS had already received ports/remakes of SNES titles like Dragon Quest V and VI as well as Chrono Trigger a generation earlier.
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What? Individual ports are absolutely not comparable to general purpose emulation lol. There's a pretty big difference between a la carte ports and general purpose emulation. Launch 3DS was not up to being able to emulate SNES games to a level that money could be charged for them. It wasn't just something that Nintendo did on a whim lol.
 
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