My thoughts on the news of Nintendo 3DS going offline soon.

It's, at best, two months until the online functionality of many DS games will become useless with the shutdown of online 3DS servers. 

Realistically, I know this is an inevitable consequence of time passing - old things are less profitable and tougher to maintain against new technologies, and it's only natural that Nintendo would take this step. But there's a part of me that yearns for the online functionality to never end! I'm 100% tinged with a deep nostalgic love for the 3DS (specifically ACNL online) and it probably just skews my view... maybe I look at the 3DS online functionality the same way a mother lovingly looks at her ugly baby but I just can't help it.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf was one of the best ways Nintendo ever implemented online play and it's appeal has been so great that many current ACNL players cite this online functionality as their reason for still playing! Tortimer Island and the mini-games were (and are) phenomenal; the appeal of playing these games with friends and earning medals to buy special items is seemingly timeless and it's just such a shame to know that soon this will become impossible. For many, including myself, the online functionality of the 3DS created core memories. I have countless memories of whole days spent online on ACNL, hoards of messages me and my online friends sent to each other and it's also where I discovered my love for online trading - in the years since that discovery I have traded with 500 people across three AC games. For a generation of players, the 3DS connected us and fostered deep bonds so this farewell is going to be bittersweet but I think somewhere deep down we all knew it was going to happen eventually. The warmth its given us in its lifetime will live on forever in a fuzzy ball of nostalgia waves, I'm sure.