Update: We’ve added ten more proposals to the list below, including some absolute winners who have a physical release in Europe but only digitally in North America.
There’s still plenty of time to get games from the 3DS eShop before they’re removed, but you don’t want to leave it until the last minute, do you? Browsing the web while you can, it’s all like…
3DS eShop is about to close, after more than a decade of service. It’s not a huge surprise, but it’s a big pity, because it means we only have until March 2023 to buy some of the best games on the console – the ones that don’t. play only when available on the 3DS eShop.
However, as the 3DS ship begins to sink, we’ve rounded up the best selection of merchandise to save, so you can get it up and running.
Just keep in mind that you can’t use credit cards to pay for 3DS eShop games after May 23, 2022 and you won’t be able to top up via gift cards at all past August 29, 2022 (although if you’ve linked your Nintendo Network ID to your Nintendo Account, the pool will still be accessible at closed stores until March 2023) . So now’s the time to top up your gift card while you can – and if you like, get a nifty 10% off with our eShop gift card discount code. Details below!
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Once you’ve got enough cash up and ready to spend, check out our top 29 games you should buy through the eShop before it’s too late…
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: HAL . Laboratory
Friend sure need to get BoxBoy and all its sequels on the 3DS, and you won’t even have to shell out that much for these fun puzzle games: Every game in the trilogy (BoxBoy, BoxBoxBoyand Bye-Bye BoxBoy) under $5 / £5.
There’s an actual release of BoxBoy, but you’ll never get it – it’s a Japanese exclusive and you’ll have to pay several hundred dollars, Even without shipping. Also, it’s region locked. However, it does come with the super rare, Japanese-exclusive Qbby amiibo, so maybe it’s worth it?
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: Smart system
You absolutely need to get Pullblox (or Pushmo in North America) on your 3DS, index. This innovative little puzzle platformer is all about pushing and pulling blocks to create the foundation yourself, and it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. It’s just as cute, with bright colors and a tiny player character named Mallo, who will acrobatics, stretch, and bounce on each level like a little marshmallow.
Make sure you get the sequels as well, just as good: Fallblox (AKA Crashmo), and Fullblox (Stretchmo). No, we also don’t know why the names are so different. It was a bloody nightmare.
There are also Pullblox World (Pushmo’s World) on the Wii U eShop, but that’s a different list.
Publishing company: Level 5 / Developers: Level 5
Level-5’s 3DS days are, in insight, some of their best work. Liberation of Maiden is a collaboration between their publishing arm and Suda51’s Grasshopper Workshop as the developer, as part of the Guild01 collection in Japan that also includes Aero Porter, Crimson Shroudand Weapons shop de Omasse (all of which are on this list, of course).
Liberation Maiden is a short but sweet mech shooter in which you play as a schoolgirl who is elected President after her father (former President) is assassinated. And then, as the President usually does, she must battle an invading force. In a mech suit. Did we mention that it’s a Suda51 game?
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: Weird game
Occasionally, Game Freak gets out of the Pokémon cage for a quick run around the park, and in the meantime they make some weird and wonderful games. HarmoKnight is one of their best: A Rhythmic Platformer created by James Turner, who you may remember as the first Westerner to create the official Pokémon designs and Art Director for Sword and shield… or more simply “the guy who invented that ice cream Pokémon”.
HarmoKnight is great. Play HarmoKnight.
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: Nintendo
Poor Pit! He has not been acknowledged by Nintendo (except in Smash Bros.not counted) in ten years. Well, at least you can play the original Kid Icarus on 3DS and show love of lil guy.
this is not only The way to play Kid Icarus of course, but it modified the Pit’s jump physics a bit to make this the best version of the NES game stick. The 3D Classics series of games also add stereoscopic 3D, making them unique simulations that can’t be experienced in the same way on any other platform – although many of them are the same. available on the Nintendo Switch Online service. And with that in mind…
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: HAL . Laboratory
… You should probably download this 3D remaster of Kirby’s Adventures, too! This original Kirb platform is not the best uses 3D and it doesn’t use the bottom screen at all – it’s a wasted opportunity, if you ask us – but it’s still a great game and well worth hanging out with the pink ball game old and have turned out on you a bit. Also, it has a pink border! Pink!!
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: Weird game
Remember how we said that Game Freak is sometimes taken out of a Pokémon cage? Here’s another example: Weird, Unusual Solitaire Meets Horse Racing, Pocket Card Jockey. It’s a simple yet addictive premise, comes with engaging chibi visuals, and you can also play as a horse matchmaker and give your horses fun names like ‘Obi-Ham’ Baloney’.
What if you don’t love?
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: Nintendo
Go on a picnic !! Everyone loves it. And everyone But also love Zelda. What if they were strangled together?
That’s the idea here in my Nintendo-only game taking iconic images Sunset princess and turn them into Picross puzzles. If you have a lot of Platinum Points, you should spend 1,000 of them on this, and then hope that Nintendo makes more weird crossovers like it in the future.
Publishing company: Capcom
Poor Phoenix and poor Apollo – their digital-only feats will soon be lost forever, locked in the prison of the 3DS eShop. Dual destination marks a great turning point in the Ace Attorney series towards slick 3D visuals and dark storytelling, plus the introduction of new attorney Athena Cykes and a case where you must defend an orca accused of murder.
If only they re-released this, huh? HINT HINT
Publishing company: Level 5
Another game in the jam-like Guild collection of Level-5 games was released independently in the West, Sixth Monster Attack is a look at rural Japanese life in the 1970s that you simply won’t find anywhere else – except for designer Kaz Ayabe’s other series, Boku no Natsuyasumi, but that’s for for Japan.
If you love the pastoral magical realism of Ghibli movies like My Neighbor Totoro, you must try Attack of the Friday Monsters.
