For treating the 3DS like this in the West. I mean after a fantastic ending last year with SM3D Land and MK7 which really resurged the 3DS, we all expected that this year, or at least the holiday season, would provide the same or more. Yet for all the promise of Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion by the end of the year, they've been delayed to 2013 for us. And whereas Japan has the total support of 3rd parties, it's been somewhat lackluster for the 3DS over here.

That's not even the only thing bothering me! While the DS had a constant release of fresh new IP's that changed the gaming world from Brain Training, Nintendogs, the first 2D Mario game in 15 years, etc... The 3DS hasn't really shown anything new to offer. They've gone back to the GC days of just recycling old franchises, and worst of it all just giving us ports from the N64 era. This really is a dangerous road to take. Reggie promised last year a lot of innovation coming along, and we're still waiting. And even if Nintendogs and Brain Training weren't for everyone, they helped capitalise on the touch screen market and give us amazing experiences like Professor Layton.

All in all it's been a really disappointing 2012. I expected much more! 2013 offers a bit of promise with Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, and Luigi's Mansion releasing, but there's a lack of new ideas! And I wouldn't be surprised if the 3DS ends up as the worst selling handheld for Nintendo unless something changes soon.

Thoughts?

Wii U.

That's eaten up a ton of their resources and time this year.

I am annoyed with the 3DS in NA too. Even Europe is getting more than us. I think that's a big fail.

seems to be a trend going back to at least the GC... they blow out an amazing amount of software early then scale back quickly to support the next hardware (in this case wiiU). nintendo needs to expand so they can better support games thoughout the entire lifecycle of a system.

The amount of games Nintendo used to release on the DS was insane! I know they were easy to make, but still it's been a dry year! Especially knowing that a lot of the games not released yet have been promised before launch. There's also a new Super Smash Bros game that I didn't mention, but I wouldn't be surprsed if it gets released in 2015 :|

Yeah. My 3DS has been gathering dust for months while I wait for Paper Mario.

Well, Nintendo has been doing a fantastic job of bringing content.

For once, they brought west 99.5% of their games so far. And there's a lot of them too. So unless you're a biologist freak, you're not missing anything from them (the only "game" that hasn't been brought over is "Encyclopedia of Fauna and Flora"). Dempa Men, Fire Emblem... this brings me hope of even Tomodachi Collection being brought west too - it's been a dev desire too.

Delays are terrible. But I personally don't care, too much, as long as it's announced west. Luigi's Mansion was delayed, but I don't think Animal Crossing was, it was never announced as 2012 was it? It's probably a translation thing, as it one of those games that have infinite text and infinite language jokes.

Other than that, they been making partnerships with other companies to bring content, like layton, inazuma eleven, monster hunter...

So it's not their fault per se. They could do more partnerships, obviously, but it's technically not their job.

Now third parties could do more. There are a few games that I would like translated, but it's still not time to panic.
The only lost cause to me so far is Rocket Slime 3, but that's hardly a major loss.

BTW... colors and special editions... yeah... Reggie sucks in this area. And having this holiday line-up very dry too, that's terrible for sales momentum. Just one more game could spice things up...

There are only so many employees at Nintendo, and I'm sure their development teams are spread pretty thin at the moment working on the Wii U launch, blockbuster Wii U games I believe will be revealed at E3 2013, and upcoming 3DS titles. I think 2013 is going to be a monster year for Nintendo.

We got some terrific games on 3DS this year, half of them from Nintendo. Epic Mickey is still to come -- that game looks awesome, and if the demo is anything to go by, it IS awesome.

Why should they care? Western consumers are profligate and buy it in the droves when it has so few games, If I was Reggie i'd be laughing all the way to the bank. The 3DS Japanese sales make sense as it has an amazing library over there, the Western sales don't even remotely make sense. So your quarrel should be with the consumer and not Nintendo.