You may or may not be aware of this, but the Duck has never had a great relationship with handheld video games.  They’re just so tiny and cramped and often lack controls sticks, and I just never got along with them very well.  Nevertheless, I still have a good number of handheld consoles, largely thanks to Square Enix’s need to spread their “Kingdom Hearts” games across everything imaginable.  Despite playing handhelds for many years, my feelings for them didn’t begin to improve until just recently, when I bought the 3DS.

The 3DS is actually a pretty cool, little handheld.  The screen is the biggest yet, it has a control stick, and the graphics are quite nice and are comparable to the PS2, which is pretty good.  The 3D ranges from amazing to not really looking any different from 2D, but that’s fine, as I never was a fan of 3D.  It hurts my peepers.  All in all, it’s a good, little handheld.  But, while all of those things contributed to my feelings of affection for the 3DS, that is not entirely what caused me to see handhelds in a more favorable light.

What really caused me to love handhelds was their flexibility, something they have always had, but an aspect I never before appreciated.  You see, I was having neighbor troubles, troubles that were so extreme, it was sometimes unbearable to be in my house or certain rooms of it.  That was why I bought the 3DS, in fact, to give me something to entertain myself with during times like this.  If I needed, I could cram myself into a closet or some other space lacking a TV and play video games to my heart’s content, something that was simply impossible with my console games, unless my gaming room happened to be one of the few safe rooms, which wasn’t always the case when the trouble neighbors were on several sides of my house.  If I needed, I could even take my 3DS to a park and keep myself busy away from home, and it was just so wonderful having this little bit of freedom at a time in my life when I was feeling so trapped.

And I found another wonderful thing about flexibility, as well.  I started a new job a few months back, and gaming is not so easy when you have a huge chunk of the day you must work around.  Thus far, I can largely find console time each day, but it’s also nice knowing that if ever I don’t have the ability to play console games before or after work, I can still perhaps find a way to play my handheld games, since they are so much more flexible.  If I’m busy due to a dentist appointment, I can always play in the waiting room.  I can play during a lunch break if I so desire, or as I’m walking around the house as I prepare for my day.

I’m sure you all knew this long ago, and I suppose I did, too, but it wasn’t until recently that I got to really see for myself just how nice handhelds are.  They allow so much more freedom than consoles do, which is wonderful when you simply can’t sit down and play your console games or when circumstances beyond your control don’t allow it.  While I will always love console games more, handhelds offer benefits consoles will never really be able to compete with, and my 3DS was there for me through some hard times, so it will always have a special place in my heart.  Now if I can just get over the title of that new “Paper Mario” game….

The Duck Who Has Learned to Enjoy the Wonders of Portability