A Hobbled Pikachu... 3DS XL

Well, I hate to admit it, but that 3DS story that I posted about way back in January may be coming to an end pretty soon. I left my 3DS for repair at the end of June with a very, very good friend - actually a friend of my friend from whom I bought the 3DS - who handles many local console repair needs, and only today I was able to pick it up from my friend's shop. It was a grueling repair process and it was slightly fraught with the uncertainty of whether I would be able to continue playing with what I have. Yet it turns out, I could... but not without a catch.

First it would help to review the problems I had with it. One of the problems was as I mentioned in my Circle Pad digest, the broken Circle Pad, for which the solution is easy - just crack open the case, install a new pad, close it, and off you go. At least it would be easy, if not for another problem; I hinted about this in my "limited editions" post. You see, a week before I sent my beloved 3DS in for repair, I found a different problem: sometimes my 3DS would mysteriously turn itself off when the lid was moved in a certain way. This presented the concern that should this happen while saving, I could stand to lose many of my hard-earned progresses on my games. Clearly it was time to get the console repaired.

Initially the console was to be repaired as I had detailed above. However, during this process, it was found that the lower screen had become corrupted, possibly as a result of the lid problem. A supposedly easy repair job just became harder as now the lower screen had to be repaired as well. A new lower screen was placed on order, came, and installed within a span of a few days. Now it seemed like everything was back to normal, but that was not fully the case. Even though the lid problem is alleviated, I was warned that I can no longer flip the lid so that it is flat when I play, lest the lid problem return. The screen too is not as bright and vivid as it was, and the colors seem a bit off, something that I've noticed going back into Shuffle. While I can still play quite a few of the games I play, I now know I have to be gentle with the console, which also means leaving behind the most intensive of games. It is for this reason that I now consider the 3DS "hobbled".

Every great story has an end, and for this one, the end seems to be nigh. It's clear that I can't stay on this hobbled console for the long term. However, some stories also have an epilogue, and this one may have such. I plan to get a New 3DS very soon, and once that happens, I would like to transfer everything to that and make it my primary console; I then want to make this 3DS as a secondary console for my other less-played cartridges, thus facilitating the "epilogue". Whatever the case, I need to come to terms that my time on this 3DS is slowly running out, but at least I can continue the story in other means, if I take action now.