Well… for all the hype and excitement surrounding the 3DS it appears that backward compatibility was not something that the big N put a lot of thought into. I have included a link at the bottom of the post with all the details but to sum it up the screen will either be very small or fuzzy. Take your pick on that one. I understand that with the leap forward in resolution it is difficult to maintain a perfect picture but I had hoped Nintendo would have found a better workaround. In all the past the iterations from the original Game Boy to the DSi XL they have managed to maintain an almost perfect picture integrity when allowing backward compatible play. In many cases the picture was better on the newer system than the old one. The kicker here is that in order to play your DS games on a decent screen you will be forced to keep and at times carry two systems. The DS and 3DS are not small devices so this can be pretty impractical. Another negative aspect is that Nintendo has announced that the battery life for the 3DS may be as short as 3 hours per charge. This is very surprising considering I don’t even know what the average charge for the DS Lite is since I rarely ever have to charge the thing. In light of these recent updates along with the delay of all the core titles to June and August I’m starting to questions if I will hold my pre-order. I will more than likely still pick it up just to experience 3D without glasses but at this point in time I’m considering waiting for the 3DS Lite.
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Been There, Played That 
Too bad man… I am caught in a pickle the hinge on my son’s DS is busted and the top piece won’t stay in a locked position. He wants a DSi XL for his birthday, but should I just get him a 3DS. Will Nintendo continue to develop title simultaneously?
I have continued to look into this since the post and I’m going to wait on the 3DS. I think it is going to be a while before there are really compelling games that take full advantage of the 3D feature and I want to wait and see how Nintendo handles it in general. I think that there will continue to be games released for the DS as the install base is the largest in the market and I think 3DS adaption will be slower due to the price point. As for first party games Nintendo may very well only release on the 3DS which would be the most compelling reason to switch. I have been very impressed with both the DSi and DSi XL and I think either of those would be a good purchase right now. I honestly just want to wait for the 3DS Lite or whatever they call it with the hope that some of the glaring issues such as battery life will be addressed. I pretty much only play my DS on the go and the latest reports put the battery life at 2 to 2.5 hours when you have 3D enabled and are using the screen at moderate brightness. If you do decide to go with the 3DS I would get it fairly quickly as there are reports that after this initial shipment supply will be short till after Christmas and now with all that has happened in Japan supply could be worse since several key components are manufactured there. Keep me posted on what you do. If you do pick it up I will be very interested in what you think of it.