Then the DSi came out and I finally decided it was time to upgrade. Its camera was a nice touch, it had some weight to it, and my DS was finally starting to look a little worse for wear. Sure, the lack of advance support was a bummer, but I was intrigued by the possibilities of DSiWare. I was ready for the jump. But then Nintendo announced the DSi XL and I decided to hold out for that, since it had all the perks of the original DSi but in a biggie-sized package.

I was just about to buy one when Nintendo shocked us all by announcing their new handheld; the 3DS, which will be delivering to us glasses-free 3D gaming in about a year while being completely backwards compatible with the DS and DSi. So instead of buying a DSi XL and then sulking in 2D depression when the 3DS comes out I’m just going to hold out one more year before making the upgrade, and so should you if you haven’t made the jump to the DSi yet.

Nintendo confused and surprised many of us by announcing the 3DS so quickly after the launch of the DSi XL, but at this point, should we really have been taken aback by it? Let’s take a look back at the history of Nintendo’s handhelds from the Game Boy Pocket on:

Game Boy Pocket - 1996 Game Boy Color — 1998 Game Boy Advance — 2001 Game Boy Advance SP — 2003 Nintendo DS - 2004 Nintendo DS Lite - 2006 Nintendo Dsi - 2008/09 Nintendo DSXL - 2010

Two years, maybe three. That’s how long you have before your brand new Nintendo handheld is rendered obsolete. Nintendo has the attention span of an ADHD-addled child with a meth addiction when it comes to their handhelds and it was bad enough before, but with the advent of digital content, it’s made even worse. If you bought any DSiWare for your DSi, it’s not transferable to the DSi XL, and it’s a safe bet that it also won’t be transferable to the 3DS.

So don’t buy a DSi and don’t by a DSi XL. And if you already have then don’t buy any DSiWare, since you’ll just have to re-purchase it when you pick up a 3DS next year. And if you do want a 3DS, for Pete’s sake get one fast so you can enjoy those six months before Nintendo announces the upgraded version.

But if we’re all lucky Nintendo will find inherit limitations in 4D gaming and give us a break for a while.