This really does suck. At least games you have bought will still be available for download.
I have filled up my SD card, downloaded every demo and app I want. If there are any games I want in the future I will have to hunt down a physical cart on ebay.
Gameboy Advance SP cries.
The SP was such an amazing system! That was my first Nintendo system. The backlight finally made it usable under normal circumstances, and then the 101 was even brighter. (Come to think about it, all of the Nintendo portable systems had notable upgrades later: GB to GB Color, GBA backlight, DS to DS Lite, 3DS to 3DS XL…)
I still use my SP. Love it!
Oh, I’m not suggesting that the 3DS was the first. I think the SP was my second Gameboy, after the original. I don’t think I played all that many games on it though. I wonder what ever happened to my old one.
Same, still the best version of Mario Golf, I feel.
There’s a few mainline Zelda games that can only be played on the 3DS and WiiU currently.
Hopefully those will all eventually make it to the Switch or Nintendo Online or some modern platform.
Please do share your list!
Seconded!
I do too, it’s a great little system, and home to my favorite of the Zelda and Metroid series.
Well, sort of…three of those are Gameboy Color games, two are GameCube games that have HD remakes on Wii U, one GBA game, two DS games, and one 3DS game. So if you have access to a Gameboy Color, and GBA, and a DS, six of those games are covered.
But wait the GBA can play GBC games. So you don’t need a physical GBC if you have a GBA. Right?
Right. Unless you’re a purist, of course.
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons have a special shop that can only be accessed if you play on a GBA instead of a GBC, so you’ll want to do that anyway.
My point was, the article says we’re losing access to half of the Zelda games when the two eShops shut down, but there are plenty of other options for most of them.
The beginning of the article mentions the best option is to hang onto original hardware, but most people don’t have that option. So this is the latest hardware that you need to have all the Zelda games.
Okay, here’s the list I’ve made of 3DS titles that will be unavailable after the eShop shuts down. I’ve compiled these games from various online lists of interesting games that either won’t be available anymore, or are preferable on the 3DS. I’ve broken them up into a few different categories.
One other piece of advice I read: Search for “update” on the eShop, because a lot of games have 1.1 or 1.2 updates that fix bugs in the games. They’re all free, but will be unavailable once the eShop is gone. Even if you’re planning to buy the game later, you can still download the update now!
Series:
Nintendo Games
Other Games
Level-5 Guild games
3D Classics:
Picross:
I’m not even bothering listing out the SNES Virtual Console games, since most of those are also on the Switch. And I skipped the games that have a retail version, but physical copies might go up in cost over time.
I hope this helps someone!
Awesome, that helps, thanks for taking the time to put that together!
I think some of those might be available in various bundles or other ways. I know there’s a Mighty Switch Force collection on the Switch (which I highly recommend, I loooove Mighty Switch Force).
I think there’s also cartridges of Ultimate NES Remix, but maybe there are multiple different versions?
I have a copy of Project Steam sitting around, and I should probably download the updates for that in case I ever want to play it even a little, since that’s apparently kind of unplayable pre-patches.
In what sense is the Ace Attorney trilogy exclusive? It’s on multiple other platforms. There are some games in the series that are more limited, mind. just not those three.