Had to clear some old stuff out of my parents and found my 3DS still working a decade on. Ordered an SD card reader so I can jailbreak it, but it leaves an important question:

A bunch of recommendations:

• Mario Kart DS CTGP-Nitro (custom track mod)
• Mario Kart 7 CTGP-7 (Custom track mod)
• Animal Crossing Wild World (Cozy game)
• Animal Crossing New Leaf (Cozy game)
• Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey (Fun hybrid-combat jrpg)
• Metroid Prime Hunters
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate [Circle pad pro required]
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (Best in series IMO) [Circle pad pro required]
• Monster Hunter Stories (spinoff pokemon-like)
• Sonic Rush
• Sonic Rush Adventure
• New Super Mario Bros
• New Super Mario Bros 2
• Super Mario 3D Land
• Rhythm Heaven Megamix
• Star Fox 64 3DS
• Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy

Ask away about any of them if you have questions

Rune Factory 4 is my favorite game in the genre. If you like Stardew Valley, it's one of the many games that inspired it. And in my opinion it's miles better. Not throwing shade, I like Stardew Valley, but it just can't compare imo

if you've never played Shovel Knight, I personally consider the 3DS version to be the definitive version, 1:1 pixel art to screen resolution with great 3D and easy weapon swapping on the bottom screen

All of the Guild games, but especially Attack of the Friday Monsters!.

Maybe try Tomodachi Life! From all the YT gameplays that I've seen, it's a really fun game. Just don't grind it for 3 hours, though.

I’d recommend Fantasy Life if you’re looking for a basic RPG with a good job system, and Pocket Card Jockey for a fun mix of solitaire and horse racing.

DS Chrono Trigger :chrono-doll:

Legally, X/Y and USUM might still be somewhat affordable. I know they had reputations of being less popular, but over the pandemic all the used games largely skyrocketed.

Buy a decent memory card. There's free shops you can go ham and download everything you can to. You didn't need a giant card, I think 256 or 512gb would be somewhat affordable for most these days, and just download all you can. All the classic Nintendo games are great. There's a lot of hidden gems too for sure.

Be sure to grab the Virtual Boy emulator that came out recently. It works flawlessly and it's a sight to behold

You gotta play Bravely Second! It's the best game out of the three by a landslide imo. It rebalanced the job system so that combining skills is more consequential and added a few more jobs that are mechanically interesting such as exorcist (a job that specializes in reverting the game state, like unkilling an ally or unspending your MP).

Its plot is also very well told. I mean, it's just a final fantasy game so it's not revolutionary or anything but it has a metanarrative that is unforgettable because of a certain moment that you'll know when you get there.

Consider playing the demo too because it's essentially a prologue; it has some story and character development that isn't in the main game at all.

Also if you like Pokemon then you'll probably like the Yokai Watch series too. They're the same genre but Yokai Watch is goofier, has better writing, a bigger world, and just has more effort put into it in general. Though its battle system is less strategic, it's not a big deal if you're playing casually. The 3D is gorgeous too fwiw

I recommend you play 1 first because it's the most basic and some of its plot gets referenced later, but it's not that important tbh. 2 and 3 are both fantastic though and are very different from each other so you should play both. Concurrently, even, because they're pretty distinct.

(btw Psychic Specters is the definitive version of 2. YW1 doesn't have separate versions. And the definitive version of YW3 is the only one that got localized)