Guess who just picked up a DS for the first time :D To be specific, it's a "New 3DS XL" so any sort of DS game should be fair game. I do have games I'm eying playing (and even running) but several of them are difficult games in their own right and I've never played a handheld before so I kinda need to learn how to start off with. If anyone has game recommendations that make use of a lot of the (3)DS's features, and are maybe a little on the easy and/or short side, that's what I'm looking for here.

Just gonna throw in the entire Mario DS/3DS library. They're all pretty good. Some personal favourites are mine are Mario Kart 7 & Mario Party Star Rush.

Unfortunately can't recommend much else right now. Every other game I follow is either too long, too hard, or too .... not good (looking at you, The Cube)

For a short game that makes use of the system’s various features, you could try a WarioWare game.

Mario games are definitely some of the easier games to have for learning the controls.

If you want to get used to the DS's touch controls, there's a decent number of games that include them in some way. Launch titles especially liked to include that kind of functionality. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass at least starts out easy, and the game is very touch control based. It's the game's whole gimmick, really.

Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates isn't too hard either to start off, and includes a bit of touchscreen use throughout.

Less action-y stuff like Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons or Pokemon I suppose also work but I can't say they'll need you to use the controls quickly. I'm in the same house as Walgrey here, most of my stuff is very difficult to play or hard to get a hold of.

Edit: Yeah, forgot about WarioWare games, they're also a great pick for this.

@EmeraldAly I'd say MK7, 3D Land or world or whatever that game was called (the 3ds 3d platformer) if you want to use almost every button.

It's really not all that difficult to learn to use the system though, it's built for children to use, but those would probably be the best if you're having problems learning everything. Once you get comfortable with it though, I'd recommend advance wars: dual strike and advance wars: days of ruin. They're 100% not speedgames, but they're very fun to play casually. And of course I'd also recommend all the pokemon games for DS (not the 3DS ones) being platinum, soulsilver, white, white 2 (but you want to wait for those insane prices to drop back down).