>>43448264read this if you want to be a legit onions child
3DS is getting discontinued. If you intend only to play pokemon on it, thats cool, but n new games will be made for it, so the library thats out there today is what you have to choose from. E-shop is also going bye-bye so you'll have to buy the carts if you want new games for the system.
Note: There are only 4ish pokemon games for the 3DS (XY, ORAS, SM, USUM)
I personally liked Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, so I guess 4 including that.
Other than those if you want the 3ds for the backwards compatibility, maybe you'll want to go for a DS lite. A ton of those consoles still exist in like-new condition.
this will let you play a ton of old games (DP, HGSS, BW, B2W2, PMD Explorers, is compatible with Wii games like Revolution, and it even has the ability to run GBA games, but not the oldy GB/GBC carts) apologies if you already have a dslite, I know your question was 3ds or Switch.
Regarding the Switch, now that Nintendo are in the process of killing the 3ds/Wii U, I expect something is in the works. Nintendo said "no virtual console" but I feel like this won't be the case. They just started cracking down on Emulators + ROMs, so soon there will literally be no way to access old Pokemon software. I'm sure the internet will get around that, but its about to get way more difficult to emulate.
My guess is, that the demand will be so high for old software, TPC will do one of two things: Remake every old game word for word akin to PMD DX; OR they will make old titles available at reduced cost on the Switch e-shop.
I'm not a fan of how they handled DX, its the same game I played a decade ago, but with SWSH quality :(. I hope this does not become the norm for Switch pokemon content.
To play Switch games of the future, you'll need a Switch to play legit. It's an 'investment', since you don't know how the future will play out. We might get SWSH2, DP remakes (SWSH style), GEN9, GEN9.2, and thats it.
