Review: Japanese Nintendo 3DS accessories

Hori make some great stuff in Japan, is it worth importing them to get it? Yes

While in Australia, most accessory makers are hell bent on sticking as many accessories into a pack at once but in Japan, things are much different. The quality of many accessories such as cases and game cases are much greater than the majority of things here. You do get what you pay for though.

Hori, perhaps most well known for the only screen protectors you should ever stick on a console (really) also make a ton of other accessories of equal quality, they’re really great. We’re not going to rag on local accessory makers, they make some fine stuff too (and some not though) but accessories Hori make look great and are well built and even though you have to get them from another country – they’re relativity cheap as well. Let’s take a look at some of their range.

Compact Pouch 3DS – Buy

Despite the name, the pouch isn’t as compact as the Easy Pouch, in fact it’s a little big for my liking – but that’s what you get for buying something off the Internet right? Anyway, despite it not being that ’compact’, it is a great looking case and it protects the Nintendo 3DS will. There’s room for the three games in the top lid and I’ve been able to fit the AR Cards as well as my cleaning cloth in it without the case looking even bigger than it really is.

The outside of the case is a shiny woven metallic plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap either. The case is zipped up with two zips, but really I think they could have done with one. Inside of the case is all nice and soft, but there isn’t an abundance of padding. To that end, and maybe it’s intentional, but you can see the LED lights of the 3DS through it at night. We have the Aqua Blue colour and a red one but there is several other colours as well.

At $10AU the case is a great price, and is currently my choice of case.

Easy Pouch 3DS – Buy

This case is a more pencil case looking one with a zipper across the top of the pouch. When there’s no 3DS in it, the case is quite thin until you put the 3DS into it and it pops right up like a bag of popcorn in the microwave. However that’s because the case is extremely well padded, even more so than the Compact Pouch. We got the black one (for an Aqua Blue 3DS when it arrives, go figure) and it again features the same shiny woven plastic as the Compact Pouch.

There’s enough room in this pouch to slip in the AR Cards but fitting in a cleaning cloth however is a bit of a struggle – things will probably get looser as things get older however. There is also a little flap to hold two games in this case. This case only costs a mere $8 too.

Cleaning Cloth 3DS – Buy

It’s a microfibre cleaning cloth with the Nintendo 3DS logo on it for $8. I’m not sure how much these cloths cost normally but if you need a new one, this one is nice and thick and will last a while I’d say.

3DS Card Case (Multiple varieties) – Buy

Everyone will have a different way of storing their games, I prefer to just take the cards with me in my bag and store them via these cases. They’re made of a hard plastic and can hold up to 12 or 24 games depending on the variety. As you can see from the pictures you can store both DS and 3DS games and even an SD card, though that holder can be removed to fit in yet another game.

There’s tons of colours and different models of the cases available and even some non-Hori ones. They’re pretty hard too, I picked up one of these for the Nintendo DS when they first came out years ago and it’s still going.

Bonus Round: Pokemon Zip Case

This one isn’t actually an import and can be picked up with from the likes of Target and K-Mart for about $15 to $20 depending on where you go. It’s actually not even a Nintendo 3DS case, but it fits it well. This case has one zip with a nice squishy top on it and a hard bottom.

The lid is adorned with Pokemon Black and White legendaries Reshiram and Zekrom. There’s enough room in this case for three DS or 3DS games and two extra stylii. There’s also a couple of elastic straps to keep your system tucked in nicely. I’m not a big fan of those really but it’s another level of protection.

All cases were purchased from Play-Asia except for the Pokemon Zip case which was provided by Nintendo Australia.