Reviving (3)DS Street Pass & 3DS wireless connections

[Memory]

Hey there,

I have been playing Pokémon Black for DS on my 3DS lately (it's my first Pokémon game, super excited!) and something that made me sad was seeing all of the cool features that are now almost impossible to use these days. Street Pass, the questionnaire thing where people you pass by and you exchange interests and short greetings and stuff, and everything built into the 3DS operating system itself! Since no one carries around a DS/3DS anymore, let alone one actively running Pokémon, this is kind of impossible these days.

I feel like these days any feature like this would either be used as spyware, to advertise slippery things, for harassment, or would simply not be implemented.

Since Iwata died it in general felt to me that Nintendo's unique and playful identity (Miis, menu music, cute themes, playful animations everywhere) also died. The Switch feels soulless and corporate in comparison to the Wii/DS/3DS era with its flat design, nothing-SFX, no music and only two themes, lack of Mii integration and inside jokes, and cute little child-oriented social features. I feel like video games are no longer designed for kids and that also hurts adults who liked said design choices.

[sig]

At conventions and such you can still get a lot of StreetPass connections! I went to Gamescom last year and I got a whole barrage of hits there. My greeting message was 'i hate gamers' which is pretty rude in retrospect but to be fair, I had been standing in line for the first demo I went to for 1 hour already when I remembered I should set up StreetPass 

[debleb]

3DS era nintendo was really something special that i don’t think we’ll ever see again. so much personality.

[Moodle McDoodle]

I miss the 3DS era so bad. I’ve been trying to take my 3DS out with me more in the hopes of streetpassing someone. No luck so far but I have hope! I can’t be the only one at my uni who still loves the 3DS. I’ve met at least one other person who has a gameboy at least…

For real I think the 3DS might be the best console of all time for it’s versatility and charm and soooo many weird and wonderful games considering it has the whole DS library as well! It deserves more recognition and I hope more people start to return to it

[kandeez]

I still use streetpass quite often when I go out. I don't know where you are but if you ever go into a larger city and just throw your ds in a pocket or bag and you might be surprised with how many you get!! I used to leave it on in my bag on the way to school and got a fair share of interactions via commute. I feel like quite a few people still play on a 3ds but either don't realize they have streetpass or don't fully get how to use it to actually get passes.
But honestly some of  the best places to get them would be spots people wait around in and need entertainment so things like bus terminals, train stations, or airports tend to be great if you're traveling. But otherwise cities and conventions or even events get you a lot. Maybe you can use the desire to see what you can get on streetpass to really get out during the day and visit as many spots around you as you can with your 3ds!!

[serenefork]

I still use StreetPass! I have to charge my 3DS again (I misplaced the charger recently...) but my partner and I will StreetPass with each other every so often. I also like to leave it on for my Nintendogs and pedometer coins (I mainly use them for Animal Crossing fortune cookies and Happy Home Designer upgrades.) I get so excited whenever I get a StreetPass notification.

[dirtnap]

Since no one carries around a DS anymore,

i still do. rare for me to leave the house without it, actually.

let alone one actively running Pokémon,

pretty much the only thing i use it for.

when i first got black (when it was new), was (and still am) annoyed that the bottom screen is entirely wasted on this useless black thing. i hate that the game demands to connect to the wi-fi every time i start it up, and i have to select no each time. hate that if i accidentally touch it (because it's on the fucking touch-screen!) it will try to connect again.

hgss had it perfect. i loved having something useful on the bottom screen in a pokémon game. the entire menu! even dpp had something decent, the pokétch felt like a waste of space at the beginning of the game but once you got the useful screens for it like the item finder and the day-care status that became kind of useful too.

i think the ideal bottom screen for a pokémon game on ds would be a choice of both. by default, the menu, but one could also cycle through various pokétch-esque screens with useful information on them.

but instead they took a gigantic step backwards from either of those options and locked the bottom screen to nagware that desperately wanted to connect to the wi-fi.

i would absolutely have used streetpass a ton, and would likely still be using it when i do play black, if it was politely introduced. if i had to walk into the top floor of a pokémon centre to use it. if it was something i chose, rather than something the game aggressively tried to force me into.

alas, the insistance that i use it constantly made me refuse to ever let it connect. and i never will.

i agree that a modern iteration of the nintendo wi-fi connection would be used for spyware and adverts, because i firmly feel that they would have done that with the bottom screen in black if they felt the wi-fi network would have been capable of that. indeed, there are certain things about the nintendo switch that have made me decide not to buy one each time i've been in a position to seriously consider buying one.

I feel like video games are no longer designed for kids and that also hurts adults who liked said design choices.

interesting, i would have said it feels like more games are designed for children now. everything is annoyingly shiny and bright and covered in sparkles and sound effects and animations. i often wish those things would go away and let me play the game, as they often actually slow down gameplay or visually get in the way of it. HUDs are getting huge, too, intruding further into the screen, and increasingly crammed with stuff that again only serves to get in the way and which i desperately wish i could get rid of.

i know that to some extent this depends on the kinds of games one's playing, but it's reasonable to say that dark souls was not designed for children, and never would have been. instead, the feeling i get is that any game that isn't blood and sex is being explicitly designed for children rather than just being designed as the game it is.

i actually think pokémon black/white are a good example. i would imagine a child would be more likely than an adult to mindlessly (or accidentally) say yes to the wi-fi, and that's why it was so aggressive about connecting, because the devs expected a child to agree.

______

i did use pictochat a ton to communicate with a neighbour a couple of houses down. i can't imagine all five(? four? i can't remember how many there are) chatrooms ever filling up except at a big convention or something, even back when the ds was new.

personally, i think the pokéwalker's player-player interaction could have been better, i remember wishing it basically worked the way (i think) streetpass in black/white was supposed to work. it's a shame. i really would have been delighted to get random streetpass battles and such in black if the feature hadn't been made to be nagware.

soulsilver was the single best pokémon game for a lot of reasons in my opinion. if black is your first, i highly recommend getting soulsilver! (or heartgold, lugia is just more popular)

[creaturefeature]

I remember someone trying to keep the street pass alive in some form here i do not know if its still reiable. But its great if like me you live in a less populous are.

But oh god the streetpass brings me Memories. I remember every weekend when I return to my family´s home from college. I would go to the metro station turn on the street pass, and get a ton of tags. I sometimes had people from other countries.

And it was always fun to see stuff, seeing other people nintendogs or seeing how they decorate their houses in animal crossing.

Its suchs a shame the switch doesnt have this feature.

Now that i got my 3DS working again I might try to use it again, you never know, maybe someone will show up.

[dotmidi]

I definitely recommend talking to some IRL friends about reviving the street pass function since me and my group of friends decided to get all our 3DS's hacked n homebrewed thanks to a friend, I now have like access to any game I want for free and I crave for more streetpass interaction as well. Usually if we have a hangout I'll at least get 2 or 3 streetpass tags now :-)

At conventions and such you can still get a lot of StreetPass connections!

This was also something I was considering to mention, it's actually still a thing to bring your 3DS, DS, or GBA to a Con and I'm considering doing so myself!

[grovyle]

A myriad of circumstances made it impossible for me to ever use/get a streetpass (country where nintendo got very little sales until the switch, had my 3ds hacked my someone else and don't know/care enough to connect it to wifi and not lose the hack, getting the ds+3ds a bit later than everyone else, living in unsafe cities etc etc etc). But it does sound awesome and very nostalgic! I would love to have those little connections with people, seeing where they're from and kind of bumping shoulders with them in an impersonal online space.

One of the things that disappointed me the most about the switch was that it wasn't portable. Like, yeah, technically it is, and I'm sure people carry it around all the time. But for me it's too huge, too fragile and too expensive to take it out of the house. I wanted another DS family console, tbh :( Folding touch screens are wayyy too new now, and were even more so when the switch came out, but even that I'd have welcomed with open arms. It was the first time in my life I could buy a nintendo console less than a year from release!! And it's not a DS!! Not arguably the best family of consoles ever!! And even if it is technically hybrid, it took away most if not all of the features from the portable nintendo consoles, from the streetpass to the funky cool uses of the touch screen. I wish it had introduced something new on that regard, at least!

[yatagarasu]

I love the asynchronous concept. The ability to share specific snippets from a game (like your animal crossing house, specific items, ghost data, messages, user created levels, etc) with other players within proximity is incredibly interesting.

[creaturefeature]

A myriad of circumstances made it impossible for me to ever use/get a streetpass (country where nintendo got very little sales until the switch, had my 3ds hacked my someone else and don't know/care enough to connect it to wifi and not lose the hack, getting the ds+3ds a bit later than everyone else, living in unsafe cities etc etc etc). But it does sound awesome and very nostalgic! I would love to have those little connections with people, seeing where they're from and kind of bumping shoulders with them in an impersonal online space.

One of the things that disappointed me the most about the switch was that it wasn't portable. Like, yeah, technically it is, and I'm sure people carry it around all the time. But for me it's too huge, too fragile and too expensive to take it out of the house. I wanted another DS family console, tbh :( Folding touch screens are wayyy too new now, and were even more so when the switch came out, but even that I'd have welcomed with open arms. It was the first time in my life I could buy a nintendo console less than a year from release!! And it's not a DS!! Not arguably the best family of consoles ever!! And even if it is technically hybrid, it took away most if not all of the features from the portable nintendo consoles, from the streetpass to the funky cool uses of the touch screen. I wish it had introduced something new on that regard, at least!

Oh yeah, in my home town i barely got any so it was usually in a bigger city that i would visit once a week where i´d find a ton of passes.

The lack of of those data features and the size of the switch is why i didn´t bother with the switch.
I still bring the console with me in order to get coins, I´m currently playing yokai watch so i can use them on the vending machine feature.

But you know there is at least one groups who is still trying to organize international streetpass events if you´re curious

[wygolvillage]

I miss the fun of being able to easily play multiplayer and use the various wireless features of Pokemon on my DS, I have a lot of fond memories of bringing Pokemon White into class with me. To this day I still prefer handhelds vastly to the "console experience". It feels so much more tactile.

I love the Switch, but I agree that it's not truly a portable, I always get nervous taking it places with me... Not to mention that you just can't play with friends over long distances if you don't have Switch Online, so whether you're playing locally or over the internet, there's absolutely no winning!

[Scootarooni]

I have very vivid and fond memories of streetpass!! I would bring it with me to football games and marching band competitions in high school and end up making little friendships with other band kids I'd streetpass. And when I went to community college there was always the same handful of people I'd streetpass! Unfortunately I never met them but it was such a comfort to see familiar miis almost every day!

I've enjoyed my time with the switch so far, but man did they miss so many opportunities with this system they specifically advertised as being portable! I don't really understand why they wouldn't have some kind of streetpass for it :^(

The 3DS and wii are by far my favorite nintendo consoles partly because they're so fun and interactable outside of games

[mechanical]

Something small from my time playing Chrono Trigger. I thought this little sprite was cute