My favorite handheld is the DS, mostly because of nostalgia. My sister used to play a specific game on it, and I liked to watch her. I played a lot of games on the DS, too. It was my introduction to Animal Crossing, for example.
Voted for DS (specifically thinking DS Lite but that wasn't an option). I grew up with GBA games so my DS Lite was one of my most precious consoles. It had backwards compatibility with GBA games and some of the Pokemon DS games had different effects happen depending on which GBA Pokemon game was in the slot. DS games were also really cool because they had the touch pad! I loved games like WarioWare and Nintendogs which utilized pen touch motions for the gameplay. Also games like BrainAge that flipped the DS on its side like a book. That was new to me and really fun to get to play around with.
My GBA-SP was an older model without the LED (? unsure of the correct terminology but basically it wasn't the pink or turquoise SP which were brighter-screened overall) so it was really nice having a bright screen to play with on my DS.
I also loved Cooking Mama on DS, and I think I almost punched a hole into the touch pad trying to chop and slice stuff quickly. Those memories will stay really close to my heart.
the switch is my favourite in terms of game quality, but in terms of memories and functionality, i’d say the 3ds is my favourite. i still remember how excited i was when i got my purple 3ds back in 2013, and how i did my best to distract and entertain myself with other 3ds games until new leaf came out in NA that summer haha. i have a lot of amazing memories with the 3ds, and loved carrying mine with me wherever i went (whenever i actually remembered to lol) so that i’d earn play coins. i also loved creating miis, streetpassing other people, and the streetpass mii games (ex. find mii/streetpass quest). hell, i even used my 3ds to take photos on school field trips before i had a tablet or phone lmao, and i liked being able to play my regular ds games on it as well.
i also appreciate its functionality a lot because even though my circle pad has a chunk of it missing, it still works better and has full functionality almost a decade later unlike my switch lite, whose left joy-con control stick started drifting mere days after i started using it for the first time, and has only continued to deteriorate over the last 2 years. it’s gotten to the point that i may have to get a new switch altogether, because it’s made playing any game ridiculously frustrating.
I cannot decide between DS, 3DS, or the Switch but I choose the 3DS because I have the fondest memories playing New Leaf which is my first Animal Crossing game. As for the DS, I mainly play Pokemon and some Mario games back in the day. Flipnote is also amazing and I remember all those Flipnote animations online.
Gameboy advance SP. It had a lit screen, it could close, it had one screen, it was small enough for pockets back then even though pockets are tiny or gone in women's pants today... It had a charging cable, and I liked it's library.
3DS Because I have had mine since 2014! Also because of the absolutely huge and fun library of games. The DS is close because I had one of those before I owned a 3DS and I LOVED IT SO MUCHIE! DS and 3DS are my faves. I love how they were both backwards compatible because I got to try Gameboy Color games on my DS Lite! I despise the Switch SO SO SO much I hate it so much. The only thing good about it are 1/4 of the games and the customizability. Other than that I hate it. (I know its surprising lol)
DS! It was light and had nice graphics (there's something so nice about pixel artwork). Its library was also really good. I'm still finding games today to play!
