Now, I grew up a handheld person and the handheld that carried my childhood was the 3ds, I got it when the price was slashed, cause my parents would have never bought it for me at full price.
I got the bundle with Mario 3d land, which was the only game I had for it, for a few months at least. Luckily, there was also a lot of other stuff to do with the 3ds, you got the camera, the audio app, face raiders and the streetpass plaza, which I all used so fucking much, they would probably make it on my top 20 most played games of all time.
All my friends had one too, we used to always play together, especially the Pokemon games, we fought and traded with each other it was soooo much fun. Then along came Animal Crossing new leaf which revolutionized the concept, everyday I had a different friend who I played Animal Crossing with, visiting each other's towns and going to the turtles island.
Even to this day, I play on my 3ds, especially with the added usability that a homebrewed 3ds gives you, it's still one of the best gaming deviced to own, but be quick, I've seen the prices of 3ds surge after playing with the idea of buying one for my girlfriend, this shit is getting too damn expensive!
Even though my pc is powerful enough to emulate 3ds games, I still prefer playing on the original, it's just a unique vibe that you cannot get on a pc, especially for games like Tomodachi life or Animal crossing.