These things must be laced with crack. My children are ridiculously in love with their DSI XLs. They play on them all the time. They also use the PictoChat. I think it's like text messaging software. No joke, they will "chat" while sitting next to each other.
I have asked. Why don't you just talk? The littles tell me it is more fun to PictoChat. I'm not sure if Hadley's 3 DS has the PictoChat. The 3 DS drives me nuts. I looked at it once and got a headache in about 4 seconds flat. I've never been much of a game-type person. The hubs and kids love to play games. Just not me. I prefer to read or do something that makes me feel productive.
I love finding them curled up together playing games. It's so sweet.