3ds cases/pouches and you

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hi everybody today we are going to be talking about the variety of 3ds cases released from the original 3ds's inception to its tragic demise.

NOTE: this is only covering official/officially licensed ones because while i do have a custom 3ds case this isnt what i care about i care about the ones i couldve realistically bought at gamestop as a 13 year old like i did with the ds lite. because it turns out i missed a lot of 3ds cases at 13!

titles of each section are roughly based off the random phrases ive had to make to find results on these little bastards. take them as word of god though (/joke)

step 1: the basic clamshell case

these bad boys are the bread and butter of the 3ds case world and i think have come out for every style of 3ds. they are a hinged zippered protective case with a pocket inside for accessories/game cards, no wrist strap, slightly bigger than a 3ds xl, and that is IT. no other features. nada.

this was my first kind of 3ds case i bought the pokemon x/y edition one when X/Y came out; i have the yveltal one. its scratched up a bit but as you can see it served child me very well!

as far as i can tell a majority of 3ds cases released are this type. there was one made for loz (i think for spirit tracks?), a few made for the varying mario games, 2 for x/y (xerneas and yveltal), 2 for ULTRA sun and moon (dusk mane & dawn wings necrozma, which is interesting for something ill get to next), 2 for oras (primal groudon/kyogre).... plus there are the official plain colored ones that i believe were made for every plain color of the og 3ds. they kind of remind me of the og gameboy cases, the big clunky ones with the buckle texture wise & color wise. i even found a persona Q edition one while researching the wrist strap cases!

anyways! i bet everyone with a 3ds back in the day had a variant of these ones they were pretty cheap and not super frills-y.

step 2: the superior 3ds case (wrist strap)

idk how better to explain these ones: remember the old ds lite cases? the ones that had a wrist strap so you as a little child could run around with your ds lite? i recently as an adult found out they DID keep making these for the 3ds but few and far between! (and then i immediately picked up a used one lmao)

these cases are sort of similar to the above ones; theyre a zippered padded clamshell. however these ones have a wrist strap and substitute the little pocket for a small, reinforced insert sewed into the pouch that has individual game card pockets & a small little elastic loop to hold extra styluses (or in my case. an airfly. because i use my 3ds now as an adult with wireless headphones,); less random storage in your 3ds case, more functionality because you can keep it on your wrist and have it handy to transport.

SO FAR that ive discovered, these were released in: a few stock colors to match the 3ds, pokemon sun and moon (solgaleo and lunala) -- this one fascinates me because as i said above, USM got the regular clamshell cases sans wrist strap and game carts pockets??? the lunala one is the one i picked up secondhand for my daily use now though --, possibly a single edition for ORAS that has primal groudon on one side and kyogre on the other, and POSSIBLY the same type of single edition for USM with dusk mane on one side and dawn wings on the other. there's also a single very generic pikachu one i've hunted down.

i noticeably cannot find many examples of non-pokemon ones so far and im genuinely unsure how many were released? which is a shame because imo this is the best functional type. ive discovered in my web travels what appears to be a new super mario bros edition one, for... some reason.

my og pokemon platinum shaymin wrist strap case for my ds lite is still in great condition despite constant use and i have it as decoration now so i am a huge advocate for this style.

step 3: this weird bag/buckle style thats been a staple since the gameboy SP

once again: these titles are based off the kind of shit i have to google to get anywhere. these ones are a very popular nintendo staple and probably partially inspired the non-slim pouch versions of the switch cases we have today! tbh if i had one of these as a kid i wouldve just used it as a daily bag as my switch carry bag is now for me but.

so they made a ton of these. here is, in no specific order, some of the interesting ones ive found:

hori released 1 of each legendary bird, presumably for pokemon go related tie-in purposes

they made pokemon b/w, b/w2, as well as d/p? bags in this style. bw and bw2 makes sense i think since they were weirdly released on the ds lite when the 3ds was already out but the d/p ones are pretty unique. i might honestly pick up a b/w one at some point just for the novelty of it. what a bizarre piece of merchandise i love it.

these mother fuckers are suitcases for your shit. this is for LAN parties. this is for intense pokemon trading sessions. this... is for SSB5 tournaments. theres a pretty good variety of these plus plain versions but god how do you have so much 3ds stuff you need to transport? i get it for gbasps. you needed link cables and shit. i get it for the switch because you can carry so many random bt accessories for it. but the 3ds?????????

step four: misc

yeah these were part of the previous section but on reflection theyre not exactly bag-and-buckle style. idk what to title these ones. but some more assorted case styles ive found in my travels;

this is the 3ds equivalent of the really nice padded cases with the giant rubber handles that came out for the switch, such as the original splatoon 2 case that released on launch. which i have. anyways its just that but 3ds sized so if you have a switch you probably know what this feels like and is like. AGAIN though HOW do you have this much sh

club nintendo pouches! these really dont offer a lot of protection or anything, theyre JUST a fabric reverseable pouch, but like. theyre cool. theyre from when club nintendo existed. people like these!

conclusion: the world of 3ds cases has yet more to be uncovered in the 3ds's retirement

yeah so i might do a follow up blog post if i find any more silly cases, or maybe ill just update this post -- but what the fuck! i literally only ever saw the type 1 clamshell cases in my childhood and maybe my gamestops were just super understocked but man some of these shouldve been more widely produced (wrist strap) and marketed. some of these... should maybe have been left in the ds lite/gbasp era. i might eventually make a shrine that just documents Weird 3DS & Family cases i find in my travels because this is a whole rabbithole. thank god for nintendo i guess.

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