Pokémon Shuffle does not compare to a fully featured story game. Growing up I played Pokémon games on my Gameboy Color while out with the parents (of course, this long predates WiFi) . Shuffle requires being online to function, vastly reducing the places it can function.

I agree with other commenters. The poster should purchase a 3DS.

Shuffle is closer to a flash game really, so I doubt it would hold their attention that long.