StarTopic Wii U and 3DS Virtual Console Essential Purchases and Discussion Thread - Eshop Closing March 2023

[Barely Able]

Got fantasy life yesterday digitally. I was interested in the physical game for the great box art alone, but not 100 dollars interested. The reason im buying so many 3ds games now is because i kind of abandoned the system, along with the wii u around 2015. I fell out of love with nintendo but the switch brought me back in. I now realize what an excellent library the system has and am trying to get as many of those games as possible. When i owned a launch model 3ds i only had a small hand full of games for it, now i have a new 3ds xl, and basically every 3ds game ive ever been interested in. Just a few more left now…i still need

Mario tennis open
Mario sports superstars
New super mario bros 2
And hey pikmin

Is yoshis new island any good? Looking at screenshots its one of the ugliest games
Ive ever seen. Plus i already own the excellent woolly world on 3ds

It’s better than DS but not great. Woolly World is significantly better.

 

[KingOnion]

Is yoshis new island any good? Looking at screenshots its one of the ugliest games
Ive ever seen.

Lol, wait until you hear it.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Is yoshis new island any good? Looking at screenshots its one of the ugliest games

It's one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.



Gotta disagree strongly with the post above about the yoshi island DS comparison too, Yoshi's Island DS is significantly better than the 3ds game. While all the additional babies aren't particularly exciting as a driving mechanic, it's still functional as a game and a game that looks and sounds pretty good. The same can't be said of Yoshi's new Island

There's a reason the DS has a 81 metacritic while the 3ds game is 64.

 

[julian]

Got fantasy life yesterday digitally. I was interested in the physical game for the great box art alone, but not 100 dollars interested. The reason im buying so many 3ds games now is because i kind of abandoned the system, along with the wii u around 2015. I fell out of love with nintendo but the switch brought me back in. I now realize what an excellent library the system has and am trying to get as many of those games as possible. When i owned a launch model 3ds i only had a small hand full of games for it, now i have a new 3ds xl, and basically every 3ds game ive ever been interested in. Just a few more left now…i still need

Mario tennis open
Mario sports superstars
New super mario bros 2
And hey pikmin

Is yoshis new island any good? Looking at screenshots its one of the ugliest games
Ive ever seen. Plus i already own the excellent woolly world on 3ds

$100 for Fantasy Life? I got it CIB for $55 off eBay just a few weeks ago. Have prices gone that crazy already?

 

[Brock Reiher]

Is yoshis new island any good? Looking at screenshots its one of the ugliest games
Ive ever seen. Plus i already own the excellent woolly world on 3ds

it basically just more yoshi's island. wooly world is already more then you need imo

 

[Barely Able]

It's one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.



Gotta disagree strongly with the post above about the yoshi island DS comparison too, Yoshi's Island DS is significantly better than the 3ds game. While all the additional babies aren't particularly exciting as a driving mechanic, it's still functional as a game and a game that looks and sounds pretty good. The same can't be said of Yoshi's new Island

There's a reason the DS has a 81 metacritic while the 3ds game is 64.

I think the DS got a higher score because people were longing for that type of game. New Island was more of the same so people were less favorable. Worst part of DS is getting caught by enemies in the screen transition. Just so stupid stuff can hide in there. Admittedly I haven’t played these in forever so might be conflating some of the games. Either way, new island isn’t essential at all.

 

[Beanstar40]

$100 for Fantasy Life? I got it CIB for $55 off eBay just a few weeks ago. Have prices gone that crazy already?

Oh lol i was looking at sealed copies, its okay though, i dont mind having it digitally. Im excited to jump in!

 

[Beanstar40]

It's one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.



Gotta disagree strongly with the post above about the yoshi island DS comparison too, Yoshi's Island DS is significantly better than the 3ds game. While all the additional babies aren't particularly exciting as a driving mechanic, it's still functional as a game and a game that looks and sounds pretty good. The same can't be said of Yoshi's new Island

There's a reason the DS has a 81 metacritic while the 3ds game is 64.

Yeah the reviews were not good, its only 20 bucks on the eshop, part of me wants to have it just because its going to dissapear forever. But man, its truly hideous, what in the world were they thinking with that garish art style?

 

[Brock Reiher]

I think the DS got a higher score because people were longing for that type of game. New Island was more of the same so people were less favorable. Worst part of DS is getting caught by enemies in the screen transition. Just so stupid stuff can hide in there. Admittedly I haven’t played these in forever so might be conflating some of the games. Either way, new island isn’t essential at all.

game reviewers were much less kind to 2D platformers when new island came out

 

[Bulletbill10]

I jumped back in to Rusty's Real Deal Baseball today to finish the purchasing aspect and to play around. For better or worse, I don't think there is an experience anything like this game. If you're unfamiliar, it's a pretty wide range of arcade style mini-games themed around baseball. I will also say that it is a surprisingly great demonstration of the 3d effect, and the sound design on it is sublime and really keeps you engaged.

If the haggling aspect turns you off, just know that it's pretty well free to re-haggle until you get the best price, as long as you're willing to play games enough to get the necessary free currency to "start" the process. For non-haggleable games there are discount tickets where you want to shoot for the minimum price of 1.50 each. I finished purchasing everything with plenty to spare.

 

[carlosfilho]

I think i'll jump right into FE Awakening soon, my Three Houses playthrough has been awesome. Lots of FE i still got to play on my 2DS

 

[xghost777]

I’ve been playing and beating a ton of Virtual Console games since this started so I figured I’d share some quick one sentence reviews.

F-Zero Maximum Velocity: pretty neat and it grew on me, but F-Zero X is right there.

Zack and Wiki: pretty good, I think some people would really enjoy this, but it didn’t connect with me much. (Johnny Style is the best)

Super Mario Advance 4: world e is 40 stages of post game Mario levels that break the rules of Mario 3 in awesome ways - it’s absolutely incredible and a must play.

Affordable Space Adventures - what a cool game that takes full advantage of the Wii U that I wish I had played sooner.

F-Zero X - had no idea this was just like GX, it’s supremely good, but too much for me on expert.

Kirby’s Dream Course - such a fun twist on golf (well more mini golf) that still holds up well today (on NSO).

Kuru Kuru Kururin - just a great gamey game about navigating a helicopter (rotating stick) through mazes.

River City Ransom - super simple brawler that’s super duper fun with cool RPG mechanics. (On NSO)

Ufouria The Saga - if you like NES games and Metroidvanias check this out since it’s both fun and impressive, otherwise it’s ok to skip.

Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water - cool setting undermined by unique, but meh gameplay, a weak story, and not being scary at all. (So weird Nintendo is attached to this game given its content lol) (also it’s been ported, but you can’t capture the Wii U game pad gameplay on other consoles)

 

[Schlubotipelto]

It's one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.



Gotta disagree strongly with the post above about the yoshi island DS comparison too, Yoshi's Island DS is significantly better than the 3ds game. While all the additional babies aren't particularly exciting as a driving mechanic, it's still functional as a game and a game that looks and sounds pretty good. The same can't be said of Yoshi's new Island

There's a reason the DS has a 81 metacritic while the 3ds game is 64.

I actually prefer 3DS one to DS. It was short and to the point.

Levels in DS just never. Ended. I absolutely hate levels in 2D platformers that go on forever. Not to mention the baby swapping was one of the biggest chores ever.

That said, neither are good games. Woolly World is incredible though and the only worth follow up to the first one. Too bad Crafted World, while a decent game, was a big step down to Woolly.

 

[Clix]

$100 for Fantasy Life? I got it CIB for $55 off eBay just a few weeks ago. Have prices gone that crazy already?

Same! Got it for 40 cib! Lol been on my list for ages but decided may as do it now before it jumps in price.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

I hate the Artoon / Arzest Yoshi games and I like to pretend they never existed. The same team made Hey! Pikmin which was surprisingly good, though (although no near the level of quality of the main series).

 

[Barely Able]

Get on these now. $5 bucks for each game in the second trilogy. Also $12 for the original ($15 on switch).


This is so cheap.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Ah excellent, another chance for me to get mad that apparently publishers have just... forgotten the EU 3DS eshop exists. I hope I'm wrong and capcom remembered to give us a sale too this time .

I doubt it though, Apollo justice 3DS in NA has been on sale around 16 (not a typo!) times since it last was in the EU eshop. Bloody capcom.

 

[Yoshifan31]

It took the 3DS eshop closing in order for Capcom to put deeper discounts on their sales after years. Hopefully they don’t do the same for their Switch games

I don’t care about Monster Hunter so won’t bother with those, I liked AA Trilogy so I guess at that price I could grab the rest of the series because why not? I heard they were skippable but idk, I have a big SD Card so I have space for pretty much every game I don’t own that I have mild interest in. Even if they end up remastering them for Switch I’d rather play those on 3DS anyway. Also I get I could grab Revelations there for 2$, it’s the way it was originally intended to be played after all

So far only Capcom and Sega/Atlus had this kind of deep sale. I’m not counting on Nintendo to follow suit, which is disappointing considering that they published a bunch of third party games

 

[MP!]

that was the hardest poll I've ever voted on

 

[Chie]

Do we know how long the Capcom sale will be on for?

 

[Barely Able]

Do we know how long the Capcom sale will be on for?

March 27

 

[Common Knowledge]

I was literally considering on buying those AA games at full price just yesterday lol. Glad I waited a day!

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

I was literally considering on buying those AA games at full price just yesterday lol. Glad I waited a day!

I suspect this will be a common theme over the coming months, as i'm pretty sure both the Wii U and 3DS eshops let devs create sales whenever they want without Nintendo having to approve it..
You can mainly see it by checking the "all sales" section, which is filled with obscure indie games that. From what i can tell, have been on sale for almost a year.

I'd be worried about the 1st-party (including Virtual Console, even 3rd party stuff.) games though. I don't think there's been a sale on those outside of the My Nintendo coupons in quite some time.

 

[EmptyWarren]

Just a reminder that the Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice both have DLC cases and outfits that can only be accessed once you have:
1. Started a New Game. - Only applies if you never played before.
2. Saved and went back to Main Menu.
You can only access them on the store via the in game selection. Unfortunately, the cases are currently not on sale and are more expensive than the games themselves!

 

[Mandos]

Definitely considering the AA second trio

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

As expected, more devs are dropping sales. With Shin'en being the latest.

Here in the states, the 3DS eShop sale is live today, and runs until April 4th, 2022. In Europe, the 3DS eShop sale is also live today, but it’s sticking around until April 14th, 2022. As for the Wii U, the U.S. sale doesn’t start until March 18th, but it’ll last until April 7th. Finally, the Wii U eShop sale in Europe starts today, and runs until April 14th, 2022.

This is the full list of games.

• Nano Assault EX (3DS) $1.99
• Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH! (3DS) $1.99
• Jett Rocket 2: The Wrath of Taikai (3DS) $1.99
• Art of Balance TOUCH! (3DS) $1.99
• Fast Racing Neo (Wii U) €2.99
• Art of Balance (Wii U) €1.79
• Nano Assault Neo (Wii U) €1.99

Jett Rocket 2 and Fun Fun Minigolf are the most important ones here, they're basically locked to the 3DS currently. and are both successors to Wiiware games.
Everything else is either on PS4 or Switch depending on the title.

 

[Irene]

Has, uhm, anyone been able to add funds to their balance recently? I get an error code when I sign in to my Nintendo Account and try to access the add balance page.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

As expected, more devs are dropping sales. With Shin'en being the latest

Capcom: "What's a Europe? Never eaten one of those before."

 

[Brannigan]

Has, uhm, anyone been able to add funds to their balance recently? I get an error code when I sign in to my Nintendo Account and try to access the add balance page.

i was able to add an eshop card through my wii u on sunday.

 

[xghost777]

Has, uhm, anyone been able to add funds to their balance recently? I get an error code when I sign in to my Nintendo Account and try to access the add balance page.

The eshop was acting up last night. Wouldn’t let you buy anything. Might still be having issues.

 

[Vito]

I can't recommend Revelations and Mercs 3D enough for 2 dollars each.

Get them people.

 

[Beanstar40]

I bought hey pikmin and to my surprise…its actually kind of rad? I should preface by saying i dont like the pikmin games all that much. Ive never gotten good at them, and i find them very overwhelming, especially with the strict time limits. What i like about hey pikmin is that its the fun pikmin gameplay, but condensed to bite sized puzzles rather than large rts like maps that can be confusing to navigate.

 

[Barely Able]

A little last minute, but Gurumin 3D is on sale through the end of today for $2.99.

Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure for Nintendo 3DS - Nintendo

<p style="margin-top: 0"> From legendary Japanese developer Nihon Falcom (creators of the highly popular Ys game series), comes Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure. Get ready to embark on a monstrous adventure created by masters of the …

www.nintendo.com

 

[PK_Wonder]

I better finally not procrastinate on the next Atlus 3DS eShop sale.

 

[Barely Able]

All of the Sega/Atlus games are on sale on the 3DS eshop, so get those while you can. Looks like $10 or less for everything.

Search Nintendo.com

Search Nintendo.com for games, products news and information.

www.nintendo.com

 

[Barely Able]

I better finally not procrastinate on the next Atlus 3DS eShop sale.

It’s here now!

 

[Clix]

Gonna grab Persona Q. I have a launch cart which are the ones that stopped working two years later due to faulty production and Atlus customer service told me to fuck off.

 

[shoptroll]

Gonna grab Persona Q. I have a launch cart which are the ones that stopped working two years later due to faulty production and Atlus customer service told me to fuck off.

They didn’t even give you an eShop code for it?

 

[Clix]

They didn’t even give you an eShop code for it?

Nothing! Like maybe if I did it as soon as it borked, but in this case they shuld have at least given me a code since it wasn't normal wear and tear. My serial number is one of the affected batches.

 

[shoptroll]

Nothing! Like maybe if I did it as soon as it borked, but in this case they shuld have at least given me a code since it wasn't normal wear and tear. My serial number is one of the affected batches.

Weird! I contacted them about 18-24 months ago about my launch copy which was dead. Had to send it in and they came back and told me they couldn’t send a replacement cart but they gave me a DL code for the eShop.

 

[Barely Able]

Reminder to everyone that the Sega/Atlus sale ends tomorrow in NA. No guarantee this will come again so don’t wait if you want some of these.

 

[shoptroll]

Just a heads up that Capcom is doing another fire sale currently

 

[Barely Able]

No clue if this means the 3D Classics versions will go away, but if anyone wants those, maybe get them now. They aren’t listed on the exceptions portion of the press release, but sega might not even consider 3DS a thing for this.

 

[Nabbit]

Apologies if this has already been covered but I've been saving a full read of this thread for a rainy day.

I was reading today on another site about people's Wii Us failing and something about an internal component (related to memory or storage) that would be expected to go bad for everyone's console.

This kinda concerned me because I have a 2013 Wii U and I was planning to buy a bunch of things before the eShop closes. Sounds like that's not the best bet apart from exclusives I'll play in the near future or something. I don't have a backup Wii U and it sounds like those are just as likely to fail and then there's that report that Nintendo may not offer continued downloads for long post-closure of the shop.

Seems like at least if I get 3DS eShop games the system is less likely to fail and in that case I do have a backup 3DS.

Anyway, just was hoping for some feedback about this and whether it's a significant concern. Sorry for my woeful tech-unsavviness...

 

[xghost777]

Apologies if this has already been covered but I've been saving a full read of this thread for a rainy day.

I was reading today on another site about people's Wii Us failing and something about an internal component (related to memory or storage) that would be expected to go bad for everyone's console.

This kinda concerned me because I have a 2013 Wii U and I was planning to buy a bunch of things before the eShop closes. Sounds like that's not the best bet apart from exclusives I'll play in the near future or something. I don't have a backup Wii U and it sounds like those are just as likely to fail and then there's that report that Nintendo may not offer continued downloads for long post-closure of the shop.

Seems like at least if I get 3DS eShop games the system is less likely to fail and in that case I do have a backup 3DS.

Anyway, just was hoping for some feedback about this and whether it's a significant concern. Sorry for my woeful tech-unsavviness...

I can’t really speak to specifics, but I definitely have fear of part failure more with HD consoles than I do with SD ones because they do so much more. Wii U seemingly has more points of failure than most consoles which is concerning. Before this particular debacle kicked off, I’ve been making an effort this year to play all of my Wii and Wii U games to fully wrap up both consoles in case the worst happens to either of them. I’m all done with with my normal Wii and Wii U disc games, but I discovered separately I actually do have one GameCube memory card that still works, so I’m planning to do more GameCube replays too. Including those, I have 28 games left to play before I’m all done. I guess what I’m saying, I’m really feeling it’s now or never for these.

My 3DS, Vita, and PS3 are next in line. Thankfully Xbox has, not perfect, but great backwards compatibility. I realized at the start of this month when I got a Series X I could fully retire my Xbox 360, so I packed it up. Nintendo swapping storage formats makes no BC understandable, but I really wish Sony could figure out PS3 BC for PS5.

Edit: Wanted to add, always remember to charge your unused devices once in a while! My PSP battery definitely died because I forgot about it for years! Also don’t leave disposable batteries in controllers. I embarrassingly lost two Xbox 360 controllers and really damaged a Wii Remote with leaking batteries.

 

[Nabbit]

Thanks so much @xghost777 for the detailed and thoughtful reply as always! I'm definitely going to prioritize the Wii U games I already have and sticking to anything exclusive to that system that I'm still interested in playing. And then for 3DS I won't sweat it as much and probably pick up a good amount of VC/eShop I'm interested in. I'm still optimistically skeptical about that report of Nintendo sunsetting the download function post-shop closure.

Focusing on digital over physical kinda backfired for me here but I really prefer minimalism over physical items when it comes to games. So I'm hoping and again being optimistic here that Switch games are seemingly better future-proofed. I really appreciate what you said about Xbox, too. Their account system and BC are really the gold standard. Seeing my games from like 2008 on my Series S is really rad.

It does make me a bit sad to think of the Wii U eShop in particular closing. I just have more distinct memories of it than the 3DS one because I spent more time browsing that particular shop. The music was extra memorable for me, too. I miss Miiverse especially, though. Nintendo Land is just not the same without real Miis... The park is filled with artificial Mii ghosts now...and I don't mean the Boos...

 

[Red Monster]

I bought some Wii U VC stuff for the first time in a while tonight. I got Super Mario Advance 4 because everyone hypes up those e-Reader levels. Then I got Excitebike 64 because I kinda doubt it’ll show up on NSO and I’ve got mad nostalgia for it. I played it for about thirty minutes, and yeeeeeeeah.. this isn’t as good as I remember. Maybe it’s the fact i was playing on the gamepad, maybe it’ll feel better with the classic controller. I hope so anyway. Also damn, N64 games look like crap on Wii U compared to Switch.

 

[Nabbit]

I bought some Wii U VC stuff for the first time in a while tonight. I got Super Mario Advance 4 because everyone hypes up those e-Reader levels. Then I got Excitebike 64 because I kinda doubt it’ll show up on NSO and I’ve got mad nostalgia for it. I played it for about thirty minutes, and yeeeeeeeah.. this isn’t as good as I remember. Maybe it’s the fact i was playing on the gamepad, maybe it’ll feel better with the classic controller. I hope so anyway. Also damn, N64 games look like crap on Wii U compared to Switch.

Yeah, the 720p for N64 is an enormous difference. Plus no dark filter. SNES, GBA and IIRC DS games look good on Wii U though. The dark filter on the GBA works much better because the games were artificially bright to begin with (due to no backlight on the OG GBA).

 

[Barely Able]

I bought some Wii U VC stuff for the first time in a while tonight. I got Super Mario Advance 4 because everyone hypes up those e-Reader levels. Then I got Excitebike 64 because I kinda doubt it’ll show up on NSO and I’ve got mad nostalgia for it. I played it for about thirty minutes, and yeeeeeeeah.. this isn’t as good as I remember. Maybe it’s the fact i was playing on the gamepad, maybe it’ll feel better with the classic controller. I hope so anyway. Also damn, N64 games look like crap on Wii U compared to Switch.

Yeah, the 720p for N64 is an enormous difference. Plus no dark filter. SNES, GBA and IIRC DS games look good on Wii U though. The dark filter on the GBA works much better because the games were artificially bright to begin with (due to no backlight on the OG GBA).

Filter is so bad on N64. I think NES has a bad one as well. M2 made the GBA emulator, so that’s why it is so good. TG16 is also excellent, but not sure if M2 made that.

 

[Nabbit]

Filter is so bad on N64. I think NES has a bad one as well. M2 made the GBA emulator, so that’s why it is so good. TG16 is also excellent, but not sure if M2 made that.

Yep, you're totally right - I meant to mention NES as the other weak one. If only the games looked like they do in NES Remix ...