I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a softmodded DSi that reads game ROMs off an SD card. I haven't loaded it up with every single game ever, just some that I like, and it's been great to play on when I'm in bed. I've almost 100%'d picross 3D (unless it has secret extra content for after you finish)
I have a soft modded 3DS that I just copied the games that I owned onto an SD card so that I didn't have to worry about my kids losing them anymore. Wonderful that people put in the effort so I can play all my games still.