Buy These Nintendo 3DS Games Before They’re Gone Forever

The Switch may have succeeded the 3DS and Wii U, but that doesn’t mean the older systems are useless. Both the handheld and the Nintendo console have plenty of reasons to exist in 2023, whether it’s the vast Game Boy library on the 3DS or the Wii U’s ability to play all the Zelda games on the console . However, if you don’t currently have these games on your 3DS or Wii U, you will soon miss your chance to buy them forever.

Pour one for Wii U and 3DS eShop

Nintendo plans to close online stores for 3DS and Wii U on Monday, March 27th. While the move threatens the game’s preservation and upsets fans around the world, it’s not necessarily a surprise. We’ve known about these plans since Nintendo announced them last February . It even tingles anyway. Nintendo isn’t just dropping support for legacy systems, they’re effectively cutting players off from their gigantic library of games.

Of course, many of these games can be found on the used games market, whether you go to game stores or browse eBay listings. In addition, many of the best Wii U games have been ported to the Switch. But many of these titles don’t actually exist in physical form or are hard to find. The Wii U lets you play any Zelda console game, including the remakes of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD, and both systems feature a massive library of virtual console games that will take you back in time. From now until Sunday, these games are available to anyone with a 3DS or Wii U. From Monday, they will be gone forever, unless they move to another platform.

If you have a 3DS and/or Wii U and want to get some games before they run out, there’s one more thing you need to figure out. Nintendo ended support for online store credit card purchases in May 2022. This means that in order to make any purchases from now until the 27th, you need to buy online store gift cards and exchange them for your wallet.

The move started the conversation about the state of conservation of video games. A company like Nintendo should have no problem accessing their libraries on a modern system like the Switch. Imagine being able to play almost every game from the 80s to the 20s on your Switch. However, we find that we have a handful of retro games available on Nintendo’s most expensive online subscription, and the vast majority of its virtual console library is bound to disappear.

Some do not take the closure of an online store lightly

YouTuber TheCompletionist highlighted the issue in a surprisingly dramatic way , spending a total of $22,791 (464 eShop cards) to purchase each game in the 3DS and Wii U eShop libraries. That’s a total of 866 1.2 TB Wii U games and 1,547 267 GB 3DS games.

It was an epic feat, and more than expected. Stores had strict limits on the number of gift cards that could be purchased at a time; credit cards were rejected after too many gift cards were purchased; the online store has a $250 wallet limit at any time, forcing the team to constantly switch between buying games and downloading gift cards; the way Nintendo systems stored things in blocks instead of traditional storage was a mess.

My personal hell would be how Nintendo themselves handle DLC for their first 3DS games. Not only do 3DS games force you to play them before you have access to DLC purchases, Nintendo also hides DLC behind certain gameplay lengths :

I Didn’t Crap You – New Super Mario Bros. 2 . You need to complete the first world, which is the ninth in the game, before the DLC becomes available for purchase. You must play the game before paying more money to buy more games.

The team faced an endless array of challenges and the video itself is 100% worth watching.

As to why TheCompletionist and the team have been torturing themselves on this project for almost a year, the answer comes down to pure save:

Why put in so much effort and spend so much money that I don’t have? Well, because developers all over the world have done just that. They have put effort and money into putting their games on these various online stores. If you can’t find a physical version of a game, or if it was digital-only like most games, an online store is your best bet. But when it’s all closed down, all those recommendations from your friends can’t help you anymore.

Nintendo likely won’t change its mind at the last minute, and we’ll still lose the Wii U and 3DS online stores forever anyway. But it’s nice to know that these titles still exist somewhere in their entirety. They will not be completely lost in the digital broadcast.

If you have a 3DS or Wii U, I highly recommend checking out the online store one last time to see if there are any games you want to keep in your library. Kotaku has a great selection of must-buy 3DS games from the online store, and NintendoLife has an equally great list for the Wii U. For me, you can make things easier by buying just about any Mario or Zelda game to sell on both platforms. (The 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time is excellent). But take your time browsing through recommendations and listings to find games you might like.

RIP Wii U and 3DS online store. You will be missed.