The new Nintendo 3DS = Basically my **** is much bigger than yours.

If you've seen the Chinpokomon episode of South Park you will know that one of its driving themes is penis envy. Sure, the relevance isn't really there, yet ever since I saw the 'new' Nintendo 3DS reveal I can't for the life of me get the episodes repeated gag out of my head.

"Japanese penis.... soooo small."

The Nintendo 3DS was released in 2011, I bought one immediately. After a lackluster set of launch games and Ocarina of Time 3D hype died down I ended up selling the thing. I figured, there will be an XL version eventually and a whole new string of decent games will be out by then, I can just wait. So I did! Last Christmas I received a 3DSXL and The Legend of Zelda: A Link between worlds (great game), I was incredibly satisfied.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to knock Nintendo for re-releasing updated versions of the 3DS. It's completely expected by this point in time. The original Game Boy had several re releases (pocket, light and colour) and so did the Game Boy Advance (SP and Micro). Even the Nintendo DS had 3 upgrades within a seemingly really short period of time (DSLite, XL and DSi). The 3DS has been out for around 3 and a half years and has already seen an upgrade through the XL and a downgrade for the 2DS, it makes sense though as different price strategies will attract different customers.

The problem I do have is that whilst the re-releasing of a console (or any piece of technology for that matter) manages to manipulate you into thinking you have the inferior product, it's usually just the aesthetics. The upgrades usually focus on SIZE above all else ('soooo small') and minor but useful features... The 'new' 3DS and 3DSXL change that entirely. The new models boast extra power to run more powerful games, such as the soon to be ported Wii classic Xenoblade Chronicles, which is where the problem arises. If you didn't know already, the game will not run on an older model of Nintendo 3DS. As someone who wouldn't mind playing the game, I now feel like Nintendo has me over a barrel. It's likely this isn't done as a cruel marketing tactic and the new model is necessary to run such a game. But can Nintendo really expect not to give it's consumers who can't afford a new console every year some kind of a break? If an extra memory add on for the 3DS isn't possible, how about offering a fair price for trade ins for the previous consoles?

I should not have to have owned three 3DS' before playing Xenoblade Chronicles... I started with a South Park reference and I'll end with one too.

This is how Nintendo makes me feel sometimes.