Will get ocarina of time first for sure then thinking Mario kart 7, beyond those i have no clue. Also is the 3ds regular not xl a reliable handheld? Lmk

Animal crossing: nee leaf
Donkey kong country returns 3d
Mario 3d land
Mario kart 7 (so much fun, nearing 250 hours on this one)
Etrian odyssey games (haven't played any of them but I heard good things)
Kid icarus uprising (this one is love it or hate it from what i've seen)
Kingdom heards 3d
Ton of lego games (always ok games, lego city chase begins might be a good choice but idk how much it ressembles Lego city undercover, which was pretty great)
Luigi's mansion 2 (fun single player, cool online multi aswell)
Mario and Luigi: dream team ( I wants this one pretty bad actually! )
Mario golf/tennis (always good sports games)
Metal gear solid snake eater 3d (remake)
Monster hunter 3
Monster hunter 4 (coming soon )
New super mario bros. 2
Phoenix wright: dual destinies
Phoenix wright: trilogy (collection of the first 3 games)
Pokemon alpha sapphire (remake)
Pokemon x or y
Prof layton games (they are fun from what i've heard, never played em)
Project X zone (strategy rpg, not as fleshed out as fire emblem but completely insane)
Rayman origins (port)
Rayman 64 (port)
Shin megami tensei: devil survivor overclocked (fucking love this one, SRPG like fire emblem, story is amazing)
Sonic generations (didn't play it, it's sanic)
Sonic lost world (sanic)
Theatrhythm (final fantasy music, rhythm game)
Tomodachi life (whacky life sim, like, real whacky)
Virtue's last reward (should play 999 first, story is fucking mind blowing )

Some are too childish for me but luigis mansion looks promising. Which have best online experience, im sure mk7 is one

If you were planning on buying a 3ds you should wait, they just announced a new model to which some games will be exclusive (not playable by earlier 3ds models)

although we won't get it til sometime 2015, so depends how badly he wants a 3ds

idk but xenoblade itself is probably worth the wait, and if i got it right they said other softare was being made that would be exclusive to the new 3ds

Xenoblade never interested me, picking up a used 3ds for 70$ i can get another newer one in a year or so if they put out a game i absolutely have to have. Ocarina of time 3d is my biggest reason so far

what about link between worlds, it's a different style of zelda game (top down view) but it's amazing

and monster hunter 4 is gonna be sweet too

Will probably get that zelda too but after oot

Picking up a 3ds tonight for 30$ off Facebook rofl