People may be seeing a trend with the threads I'm doing here... hopefully people find them fun and interesting at least. So, now the 3DS:

1. Portability

Like the Vita, the 3DS is a portable system which is a big draw but for slightly different reasons I feel. The 3DS is purposely pushing itself on the portability front with the Streetpass mini-games and intergration into other games which is actually shockingly fun and engaging. A friend and I have been known to drive around the town looking for new areas we can wander about to get more streetpass hits. It's given the 3DS something different. A gimmick maybe, but one I do enjoy.

2. Backwards Compatibility

Yep, much like the Wii U, this is a massive thing for me. Backwards compatibility means we have an almost endless selection of DS games to pick through and it means the system had an instant library, they're dirt cheap too. It also means there's no need to carry around a DS any more. If only Nintendo released GBA games on the 3DS virtual console, it'd be perfect.

3. Home Of Platformers

If you like platformers, you're in the right place. Mario, Donkey Kong, Rayman, Sonic... they're all here and they're all really good quality. They play beautifully on the 3DS, the screen feel the right size, the D-pad is decent quality, and the circle pad is comfortable for 3D movement. This is, in my opinion, one of the most natural places to play a platformer now and it's nice to see one of my favourite genres getting a revival.

4. Virtual Console

If you're a retro gamer, the fact that you can play so many old NES, Gameboy and Mega Drive games is great. Personally I'm hoping for more; SNES, Master System, TurboGrafx-16, and Gameboy Advance all need to be brought over to the 3DS store because these games so perfectly lend themselves to portability nowadays. They can be somewhat pricey admittedly and you could just stick a load of ROMs on an emulator and play them on your phone; the thing is, unless you own a Sony Xperia Play, (and I'm the only person in the fucking world to own one of them), your phone doesn't have physical controls and that's something that makes the 3DS really shine when it comes to replaying these old games.

5. RPG Heaven

Last gen was honestly rather disappointing for me for RPGs. Sure they happened but they never seemed to have the quality and range of the generations before... now though we have the 3DS and it's got RPGs coming out of the woodwork. There's Pokémon and Zelda for the traditional Nintendo fan but then there's also Fire Emblem: Awakening, Bravely Default, Tales Of The Abyss, Shin Megami Tensei 4 and more; and there's the many DS RPGs including Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest 9, Final Fantasy 4, Lufia: Curse Of The Sinestrals and so many more I could be here all day. This is my number one reason to own a 3DS. Sure, Nintendo First Party is good and all, but this device will always be my RPG machine.

So, that's another system done. My top 5 reasons to own a 3DS. Any opinions, discussion etc. is welcome.

Your Nintendo ones seem a lot more half-assed than Sony ones... You include exclusive games as a reason to buy the Vita but not 3ds? Should have just sticked to doing Sony ones

Correct, because I consider the 3DS differently than I do other consoles. I don't care about the "exclusives" because almost the entire library is "exclusive" unless it's a remake or port of an older game which seems to be happening more and more. The two screen set up alone means current games are rarely ported directly and more often than not any game that's advertised as being on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Nintendo DS/3DS is actually on only the first three, with a completely different game that just happens to have the same name on the handheld, (which I personally consider as false advertising myself).

When I consider my 3DS I don't think of exclusives, I instead think of it in terms of the types of games I play on it. Every other system I play, the first question I ask is "what exclusives does it have?", with the 3DS my reaction was, "that's a lot of RPGs I could play on the move, and most of them have been remade better than ever, I like that". So yes, I didn't include exclusives because it's not one of my 5 reasons I would use to justify someone buying a 3DS. That said, some of the Platformers and RPGs I mentioned are exclusives if it makes you feel better.

1. The Vita is also portable
2. The Vita also has platformers
3. The Vita can also play classic games (even more when PS Now comes out)
4. And i'm pretty sue the Vita has more RPGs.

Wut?

1. Yes, but the Vita doesn't have Streetpass to encourage taking it with you out of the house, which I've found has genuinely increased my playtime and enjoyment of the 3DS

2. True, but the 3DS seems to have more and better quality; Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion, Rayman 3D, Sonic Lost World and Super Mario 3D Land are all great games. Sure the Vita has Tearaway and Sly Cooper 4 which are fantastic, and games like Rayman Origins are far better on the Vita, but I still think Super Mario 3D Land is the best platformer on a handheld to date, and 3DS still has a far larger selection of great games in this genre.

3. You can yes, but only really PSOne games, which is great and was one of my reasons to buy a Vita; but if you're wanting old 8-bit retro gaming the 3DS is the place to be.

4. It does but only if you could old PSOne PSN games. The 3DS has far more new RPGs and remakes that revitalise the old game, rather than straight downloadable ports, especially if you count the DS library which thanks to the 3DS being backwards compatible I think is perfectly reasonable.

So yeah. All good points... in fact I tend to agree than the Vita is the better system, but I feel the 3DS is the better handheld because it's lends itself to being taken out of the house moreso than the Vita. I play my Vita more than my 3DS but if I'm going out the system I reach for is the 3DS 9 times out of 10.

Who the fuck needs 5 reasons, there is only 1 good reason

Reason why you should get a 3DS and Vita
1- they have better games than consoles.

The mollases-like rate of releases belays this point, unfortunately.

So much yes.

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People should fucking stop with the stupid dick-measuring between 3DS and Vita. Both are fantastic consoles and If you like one of them, I can guarantee that you´ll enjoy the other.

The games are very different on both but they share the same "feel". I can´t quite put it in words.

I´d describe them as

Non- AAA / like midtier GameCube or PS2 games ........perhaps ?

They really do. At the moment my most played systems are Vita, 3DS, PS3, Xbox, PC, and Wii U in that order.

My Vita is still kinda new so it's got the novelty factor, I kind of expect the 3DS to overtake it soon, though replaying Final Fantasy 7 may keep it on top for a while yet. The 3DS has Zelda and Bravely Default to keep me occupied. I'm currently playing through DmC, Alice: Madness Returns, and Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow on PS3. The original Xbox has Psychonauts, Vexx and Burnout 3, so it's my "relax" console for when I want to switch off. PC is an odd one for me. I no longer have a proper gaming PC (it died), but I do occationally play PC games like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Dungeons Of Dreadmor, and Tropico 4 on this laptop, (though Tropico 4 makes it groan, it's really not a gaming PC). The Wii U is unfortunately barely getting my time now; Super Mario 3D World is awesome, and I want to re-play Deus Ex: Human Revolution again (and actually finish it this time), but I keep getting distracted by other games. My other consoles haven't been touched since before Christmas...

...so many games so little time.