It's always weird reading these reviews since the original 3DS. The hardware is crap, even with the little adjustments it is stays bad but nevertheless the reviews are giving the 3DS line a thumb up. It's nice to have this flip now for the cartridge but the TN/IPS lottery is a neck breaker.
And the price is ridiculous. Sorry but the cheapest smartphone is better then the 2DS and not just recently but for quiet some time now, this should be 75 Dollar, 99 Dollar at most. It's clear as day Nintendo wants to have the N3DS price still at nearly 200 bucks. I was lucky to get an N3DS XL in some special sale with an IPS panel on top, so I can sell now my old 3DS XL but this handheld line on the regular market is a rip off.
The reviews should be a lot harsher, from the beginning.
@Mr-Joker
The arguments are pretty awful. Every generation has an end and the 3DS is at it's end as is visible in the sales, that are a lot worse then they were with the NDS back then. Nintendos reasons are mostly emotional, not rational. Japanese companies shun the competition of the global market and it's rules, they produce a hybrid but since the Wii U flopped they don't know if they can truly focus on one platform only, so they stick to the 3DS and since the sales are declining, they produce another iteration to boost sales and to hold the old price, so the profit margin stays as big as possible or is increasing. Also Nintendo is feeling safe at the moment, because there is no real competition even though there is the Vita but everything is settled and Sony doesn't make any move, so no problem there.
The install base sounds good but as said above, every old hardware has a (way) higher install base, so that's usual. The price is an argument but it has nothing to do with parents but people in general. The idea that Handhelds would be mainly for children is rather strange. As if 60-70 million handheld owners with dozens of games each would be children. Pokèmon as a brand is a good argument but not old games. They are already released, it's not like you need to hold a platform alive for games you already released and sold. And regarding the mobility: Let's be honest, we are living in a time of netbooks and tablets. And people don't have an issue throwing them in their bags.