Sim City DS: the reason for NDS
I just bought a replacement Nintendo DS (used) to replace the one I lost, which I bought to replace the one that stopped charging batteries. There are two reasons that DS are invaluable: battery life, and Sim City.
Nintendo is making a bit step backwards with the 3DS, in that the battery life is now really short by DS standards: 3-5 hours. The old DS Lite DSi derivatives can do well over 10 hours–enough to game continuously during an international plane flight and have battery left over for the next day. Unless a must-have 3DS game appears (which seems very unlikely) I don’t see why anybody would have one.
And Sim City isn’t 3D, so who cares? This game is the reason I “need” a DS. When nothing else is going on, this game lives in my DS. Sim City isn’t a game, it’s a hobby.
