I'm pretty sure that it was showing it's age a long long time ago. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my 3ds. I've bought many of the different console refreshes, like the "NEW" 3DSi XL & Knuckles, but it's hardware it really rather old. It is already struggling to run some of the most popular game on it like Poke S/M and US/UM. Not to mention that major and minor releases have been slowing way down, and Nintendo is hardly even talking about it anymore, despite their promises to keep it alive. I'm pretty confident that the 3ds isn't going to get too many games released for it anymore. I'll still love it forever though. Once Pokemon on Switch comes out, that will be the final nail in the coffin for 3ds.