On February 16, Nintendo announced that it would shut down its eShop online store service for 3DS and Wii U platforms in late March 2023. After the store closure of both platforms in March next year, players will still be able to download games they have already purchased, but will no longer be able to purchase any new games. This means that players who still want to play the digital version of the game with their hands on 3DS and Wii U have one more year to stock up on some games they want to play but have not yet had time to buy before the end of the eShop service.
After the termination of the eShop service, it was not only the new games launched in the 3DS and Wii U eras that were affected, but also the large number of "official simulation games" (Virtual Consoles) launched on both platforms. Nintendo has a large number of old games from the console and handheld platform of the past here, and players can buy these old games at a fairly low price, most of which are no more than a few hundred yen. For players who don't have SFC, N64, or other old machines at home, this type of official simulation game offers considerable convenience for players who want to get nostalgic.
Including Tank Wars, players can find a large number of digital versions of older games in the Wii U Store
How important is the Wii U for nostalgic players? Let's talk in numbers. On Wii U's eShop, there are more than 480 official analog digital versions of Nintendo's older generation consoles, including FC, SFC and other 7 platform works. Even 3DS, as a handheld platform, offers nearly 300 official simulation games, including hundreds of GB and GBC era games. While on the Switch, players can also play some of the older games on FC, SFC, and N64 through Nintendo's Select Membership Bonus, the game's fairly limited subscription-based service is much weaker than the huge, self-selectable library on the Wii U and 3DS.
There are many good games in the Switch Member Bonus Game Library, but players don't have to choose
More importantly, the Wii U platform reproduces many of the more unpopular old games. Most of these games are difficult to get started with for a variety of reasons, and nowadays, the Wii U is almost the only option to easily play. Once 3DS and Wii U's eShop is closed, the only way to play these unpopular old games is to collect an old cassette for a big price. There are also some legacies inherited from DSiWare and Wii Shopping Channels, which will also disappear completely with the closure of stores on both platforms. So, before these inexpensive old games were taken down, Touchle referred to some summaries and recent popular lists on the eShop, and summarized some old games that were worth hoarding before the eShop was shut down.
Before you miss these games altogether, open 3DS and Wii U's eShop and take another look around.
Cassette high price game
Price is probably the biggest obstacle to players getting into old cartridges. The price difference between the upper and lower limits of the old game cassette is quite large, some cassettes have a large amount of inventory or no one cares, may only have one or two hundred yen, and some cassettes have a small amount or are quite popular, even if the naked card without packaging is thousands of yen. For players who just want to experience old games rather than collectibles, the official simulation games of 3DS and Wii U are undoubtedly the most suitable.
As soon as the news of the imminent shutdown of eShop came out, the Sales Leaderboard of the Wii U immediately reacted, and players began to "save" these old games with their own actions, and the most worthwhile games were topped the list. Topped the list was MOTHER3, the final installment in the Earth Adventure series, the only digital fork of the game that had only been released in Japan on the GBA cassette was on the Wii U. The price of the second-hand cassette of Earth Adventure 3 is currently high, with the lowest price of the naked card on the second-hand website approaching 5,000 yen (about 275 yuan). If you play with Wii U, it is not only cheap, as long as 715 yen (about 39 yuan), but also directly connected to the big screen, which can be said to be more convenient than playing with the GBA original machine. Of course, there are still disadvantages, Wii U as a home console can not be taken out to play like a handheld, but considering such an exaggerated price gap, this sacrifice is still worth it.
Earth Adventure 3 is still available in languages other than Japanese
In contrast to Earth Adventure 3, which was only released in Japan, Game & Watch Museum 4 (ゲームボーイギャラリー4) is a game & Watch platform game that has never been released in Japan in both the "Mario" series of characters and the original screen. The contemporary Super Mario Advanced 4 not only continued to increase cassette prices, but the original cassette also required e+ card peripherals to unlock some levels, while the Wii U edition did not require peripherals to play all levels. Compared with the original version that is difficult to get started, the Wii U version of these two "Mario" series games is indeed much more convenient to buy.
The Japanese version of Game & Watch Museum 4 is an unsold "Game of Illusion"
Also because of the high price of cassettes, the official simulation games are worth starting, as well as several "Fire Emblem" series works on the GBA platform, including "Sword of Seals", "Sword of Fire" and "Light Stone of Holy Devil". These 3 games have a fairly high status in the series, including Roy and other popular protagonists from the GBA platform. Even today, when people recommend the "Fire Emblem" series of works, they tend to give preference to the trilogy on the GBA. Unfortunately, the price of the cassettes of these three masterpieces is not low at present, and the average price is basically around 5,000 yen. If you're interested in these great "Fire Emblem" pieces from the old era, try them out on the Wii U.
The GBA "Fire Emblem" cartridges sold on second-hand websites are much more expensive than the Wii U digital version
Released last year, "Mitterrod: Fear of Survival" set off a new wave of "Mitterrod" fever, and the new work that has been precipitated for many years has infected not only the loyal old players of the series, but also many new players who have first contacted. Although the content of "Mitterrod" was briefly introduced at the beginning of Mitterrod: Fear of Survival, those old "Mitterrods" are still worth playing with for themselves. "Mitterrod" on the FC and "Super Mitterrod" on the SFC have joined the Switch's member bonus game library and can be played at any time, but the games on the GBA platform will not land on the Switch for the time being, and the cassette price is relatively high, and now it seems that the experience on the Wii U is the most convenient. Mitterrod: Mission Zero is the prequel to the entire series that reconstructs the storyline, and Mitterod: Fusion is the fourth in the series that precedes the storyline of Mitterrod: Survival Fear. For players who want to complete the series, the Wii U is suitable for experiencing these two GBA-era titles.
Players with a 3DS "Ambassador Machine" can also play Mitterrod: Fusion with 3DS
In addition to these Nintendo masterpieces, there are also quite a few digital replicas of the lesser works on the 3DS and Wii U, some of which are only available on these two platforms or one of them. For example, Summer Carnival '92 Agni (サマーカーニバル '92 Agni), which is highly regarded among bullet shooters, has its only digital replica found on 3DS. This masterpiece shocked the player with its gorgeous graphics and rich bullet system, and even with today's eyes, it still does not fade. The cassette tape of "Summer Carnival '92 Fire" has been sold to 50,000 or 60,000 yen (about 3,000 yuan) in the second-hand market, while the 3DS version only costs 524 yen (about 29 yuan). Also niche games that are worth starting because of the high price of cassettes include Trip World, which manipulates little ghosts to control other characters, and so on.
If there is no port version of 3DS, you can only find an old FC to play "Summer Carnival '92 Fire"
A game that is almost impossible to get started with
Difficult games are partly due to the price and partly because of the limitations of the medium of sale. Nintendo once tried to release games on somewhat strange medium — at least for console platforms, such as the FC erased disk games that could be erased and rewritten, the satellite communication download games in the SFC era, and so on. Since the service was long out, there was no way to buy such games unless they were digitally reproduced. If high-priced cartridges are "difficult to get started", then this type of game can be said to be "impossible to start". There are quite a few of these games on 3DS and Wii U, and once the eShop service shuts down, it becomes completely inaccessible again.
The "FC Wenku: 起始之森)",ファミコン文庫はじまりの森)就因介质問題而難取得。 This is a text adventure game with the summer rural life as the background of the story, originally released on the SFC cassette service "Nintendo Power", players can take a blank card to the machine set up next to the convenience store to write the game to the cassette, after playing, you can go to the machine to repeatedly erase and write, a cassette can play a lot of games, very close to the domestic players in the era of the Shenyou machine contact "Shenyou gas station" service. The service itself is very convenient, but because most of the games are erased after playing, it is difficult for some games to stay until now and appear in the second-hand market.
Cassettes that can be erased and written multiple times are convenient, but create difficulties for saving old games
If you want to play a Nintendo Power game like FC Bunko: Forest of Beginnings, the best way is to go to the eShop and buy the official digital version. Also hard to obtain due to the release of Nintendo Power is the robot adventure game "Metal Light" (メタルスレイダーグローリー) produced by THE ALL Research Institute. The FC version of the game costs at least 20,000 yen (about 1,100 yuan), and the SFC version is only sold on Nintendo Power, compared to the VC version of the Wii U, which sells less than 1,000 yen (about 55 yuan).
Nintendo still keeps the introductory pages of these old games, and you can easily find the diary of the protagonist of FC Bunko: Forest of Beginnings
There are also some games that are not so expensive, but the hardware equipment required to play is very limited, and it is quite troublesome to really play. For example, in the "Nintendo Star Brawl" series, there is also the FC light gun game "Duck Fighting", now even if you buy an FC, you can't play it immediately, you need a light gun that can still be used, and you also need a bulky picture tube TV - the light gun can only work properly if it receives the signal of the picture tube TV, and it has no effect when facing modern monitors. The Wii U version of "Fighting Ducks" has adjusted the operation mode, and only a Wii remote control is needed to simulate the operation of the light gun. Although the feel may not be as good as the original light gun, it is easy to play. Once you miss the eShop version, if you want to play "Fight Duck", you will have to move a CRT TV to your home.
Wii U's GamePad or external infrared sensor can be used to receive signals, replacing the FC light gun to play "Fight the Duck"
As mentioned earlier, 3DS and Wii U inherit the legacy of DSiWare and Wii Store channels respectively, so some games exclusive to these two platforms are currently only available on 3DS and Wii U's eShop, such as X-RETURNS, the sequel to the game "X" produced by "Father of handheld machines" Junhei Yokoi, and "Shine Valeo", which uses the camera to shoot the display screen to complete the task. Considering that in order to take care of console and handheld compatibility, touch screens, cameras and other elements may not necessarily appear on future Nintendo consoles, 3DS and Wii U are likely to be the last land where such games can be played.
Now that the Switch is no longer equipped with a camera, games like Photo Valeo are difficult to reproduce
Before the store closes
Not everyone can accept Nintendo's decision to shut down its 3DS and Wii U stores. The nonprofit Video Game History Foundation opposed Nintendo's decision, arguing that the move would "ruin the history of the game" and make it harder for people to access games from the past. Their voices speak for many players, and shutting down an online store for a gaming platform can sometimes have a greater impact on players than they might think, especially when there are many "only one" old games on it. Last year, sony also had a lot of opposition when it planned to close the PS3 and PSV online stores, one of the reasons is that the online versions of many PS and PS2 old games will disappear with the shutdown.
The digital version of the old game in the PS3 and PSV stores used to be the best solution for playing PS and PS2 games on high-definition display devices
Sony finally made a compromise, and finally did not completely shut down the PS3 and PSV online stores, but only closed the corresponding web pages and App services, and could buy games on the console and handheld. But will Nintendo give in like Sony? To be honest, it's unlikely. Nintendo has configured a member bonus service on the Switch, and although the game library is far less than that of 3DS and Wii U, according to Nintendo's statement in various interviews, this seems to be their final solution to the digital version of the old game - Nintendo is not ready to list a large number of cheap and self-selectable official simulation games as in the past, and the member bonus game library is all that can be played. Maybe Nintendo will have more member bonus simulation games on the shelves in the future, and maybe the GB and GBA game libraries will also be on the shelves, but before the new news is announced, who knows if players who want to play old games can really rely on the Switch platform?
While the foundation and many players' appeals don't necessarily work out in the end, their efforts to preserve the legacy of video games are still worthy of recognition. As a small player, all you can do now is to buy the old games you want to play to curry before the 3DS and Wii U eShop shut down. Until the online store service ends, at least don't let yourself regret it.