StarTopic Wii U and 3DS Virtual Console Essential Purchases and Discussion Thread - (Update: Wii U /3DS eShops Officially Closed)

[Beanstar40]

I nabbed sticker star (used), detective pikachu (brand new), federation force (brand new) and triforcr heroes (brand new) on ebay all for only a little over 100 dollars. I also grabbed tomodachi life, sonic generations, and mario tennis open recently. Brings my total of 3ds games to a little over 50. Last things im gonna grab are dragon quest 7 and 8, kirby battle royale, and pilot wings resort then ill essentially own ever retail 3ds game i was ever interested in. I also have a small list of gameboy and eshop games i want to grab.

I also grabbed an official nintendo replacement battery for my new 3ds xl, just in case.

My games are a mix of physical and digital. Some games, like dragon quest and luigis mansion were worth downloading because they were far cheaper on the eshop then they were physically. Other games like federation force or sticker star were more expensive on the eshop then a physical copy would cost

 

[Barely Able]

I nabbed sticker star (used), detective pikachu (brand new), federation force (brand new) and triforcr heroes (brand new) on ebay all for only a little over 100 dollars. I also grabbed tomodachi life, sonic generations, and mario tennis open recently. Brings my total of 3ds games to a little over 50. Last things im gonna grab are dragon quest 7 and 8, kirby battle royale, and pilot wings resort then ill essentially own ever retail 3ds game i was ever interested in. I also have a small list of gameboy and eshop games i want to grab.

I also grabbed an official nintendo replacement battery for my new 3ds xl, just in case.

My games are a mix of physical and digital. Some games, like dragon quest and luigis mansion were worth downloading because they were far cheaper on the eshop then they were physically. Other games like federation force or sticker star were more expensive on the eshop then a physical copy would cost

You could find an official battery? Mine was wiped and to go with a third party version. Seems to be working fine which was a concern.

 

[shoptroll]

I'm about to start getting serious about picking up stuff I missed on Wii U and 3DS. 3DS I'm all set storage wise, but Wii U is a much bigger problem. I don't think I'll end up needing a lot of extra storage since most of my collection is physical and a number of the eShop titles I'm interested in were ported to the Switch.

Does anyone have recommendations for a good external drive for a Wii U? Preferably something solid state, which I know won't confer much in the way of performance but not having to worry about all the extra spinning parts in that would give some peace of mind.

Also, Wii VC was superior to the Wii U version right? I'm thinking I should clear any of the VC titles I got as part of the heavily discounted rebuy promotion to free up a smidge more space.

 

[Leo]

I'm buying a lot of of GBC games on the 3DS. They look absolutely gorgeous with the 3D effect on, they scale perfectly (at least on the XL). Since the pixels are more or less as big as they were on the GBC screen, it's the closest I've seen these games look to the actual hardware (and might even look better because of the backlight). Very nostalgic playing this way.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

I'm buying a lot of of GBC games on the 3DS. They look absolutely gorgeous with the 3D effect on, they scale perfectly (at least on the XL). Since the pixels are more or less as big as they were on the GBC screen, it's the closest I've seen these games look to the actual hardware (and might even look better because of the backlight). Very nostalgic playing this way.

The only downside of GBC games on 3DS is the colors - you are getting highly saturated colors, but the games were made keeping in mind the GBC screen would have reduced the contrast.

Even with homebrew, this is something which can not be fixed, unfortunately.

I know a lot of people aren't bothered by it, but I can personally feel something is "off".

The 3D effect is indeed very good, though!

 

[Barely Able]

I'm about to start getting serious about picking up stuff I missed on Wii U and 3DS. 3DS I'm all set storage wise, but Wii U is a much bigger problem. I don't think I'll end up needing a lot of extra storage since most of my collection is physical and a number of the eShop titles I'm interested in were ported to the Switch.

Does anyone have recommendations for a good external drive for a Wii U? Preferably something solid state, which I know won't confer much in the way of performance but not having to worry about all the extra spinning parts in that would give some peace of mind.

Also, Wii VC was superior to the Wii U version right? I'm thinking I should clear any of the VC titles I got as part of the heavily discounted rebuy promotion to free up a smidge more space.

Not sure I’m hard drives but I know for my external it needed to be separately posted so had to get a splitter and connect to two USB jacks.

Wii VC is better, but really only on the original Wii since the aspect ratio can be correct to the original hardware. Would be better for NES and N64 games though.

 

[Leo]

The only downside of GBC games on 3DS is the colors - you are getting highly saturated colors, but the games were made keeping in mind the GBC screen would have reduced the contrast.

Even with homebrew, this is something which can not be fixed, unfortunately.

I know a lot of people aren't bothered by it, but I can personally feel something is "off".

The 3D effect is indeed very good, though!

This is true, but did you try playing with the brightness down to 1 or 2? It looks closer to an actual GBC screen that way. I prefer to sacrifice some fidelity for the visibility, but that's an option.

Another thing that bothers me is that you can't play GB games with the GBC color preset palettes, they're black and white only, unfortunately. Some games like Pokemon Red looked very nice with the GBC colors.

 

[Beanstar40]

You could find an official battery? Mine was wiped and to go with a third party version. Seems to be working fine which was a concern.

Yeah i found one on walmarts website

 

[Symtendo]

Not sure if this has been posted but just in the Wii U eshop Europe and there are a fair few N64 and SNES Nintendo published games on sale

 

[Barely Able]

Not sure if this has been posted but just in the Wii U eshop Europe and there are a fair few N64 and SNES Nintendo published games on sale

Thanks for posting. I looked it up on the website and compared to new 3DS prices to see what was different. I don’t have a PAL console so can’t hop on, but appears that most Nintendo, Capcom, and Konami published games have sales right now. I think there are a few others as well besides those.

 

[Symtendo]

No worries. Anything I want isn’t on sale sadly. I’m only about 10 games off owning all of the Nintendo published VC games across all the Wii U systems so am tempted to just get them to complete my collection, but would love a sale.

Is there anyway to add them to a wish list to get notified Of a sale (like the Switch eshop)?

 

[Ayron]

I’ve bought quite a lot of Wii U and 3DS games already — pretty expensive, it really adds up! 10 GBA games, and 70 € are spent. And that‘s just one VC system, next to all the eShop exclusives.

Not sure if this has been posted but just in the Wii U eshop Europe and there are a fair few N64 and SNES Nintendo published games on sale

This sounds very interesting! I can‘t find VC games with discounts, though — having checked Nintendo‘s website and psprices, but not directly on Wii U. Could you give an example of one of these discounts (game title and the current price)? That would be really helpful.

 

[Barely Able]

I’ve bought quite a lot of Wii U and 3DS games already — pretty expensive, it really adds up! 10 GBA games, and 70 € are spent. And that‘s just one VC system, next to all the eShop exclusives.

This sounds very interesting! I can‘t find VC games with discounts, though — having checked Nintendo‘s website and psprices, but not directly on Wii U. Could you give an example of one of these discounts (game title and the current price)? That would be really helpful.

I don’t have a European Wii U but in their website Demon’s Crest for example is something like £7 and the same game on Wii U is £5.50 or so. I know in NA the prices on both systems are the same. Maybe it was different in the PAL territories. When I did a quick glance it applied to a lot of Capcom, Konami, and Nintendo Wii U SNES VC games.

 

[Ayron]

I don’t have a European Wii U but in their website Demon’s Crest for example is something like £7 and the same game on Wii U is £5.50 or so. I know in NA the prices on both systems are the same. Maybe it was different in the PAL territories. When I did a quick glance it applied to a lot of Capcom, Konami, and Nintendo Wii U SNES VC games.

Thanks! Found it with your info — strangely, these games seem to be discounted only in UK, not in other parts of Europe (which was the reason why I couldn‘t find it).

 

[DistractedByPixels]

I've been picking up carts here and there. I just picked up Pilotwings Resort, MM 3DS, Mario Tennis Open, and HHD.

What I'm regretting is not getting some stuff that was still on shelves until maybe a few weeks ago. I never got Luigi's Mansion N64 for 3DS; by the time I started to add to the collection, it was off shelves. Had I just moved to purchase it a few weeks before I started looking, I could have got it from a local retailer. Now that retailer is pretty much out of new 3DS games at all locations except for Smash.

Oh, well. I am kinda regretting not also just buying OoT 3DS since I saw it this weekend used (19 CDN for just the card, which was probably a perfectly good deal), but otherwise, I'm not spending as much as I maybe thought I would on the stuff that I'm interested in playing/getting physical media for.

 

[Beanstar40]

Well i bit the bullet and grabbed dragon quest 7 and 8 on the eshop. I wanted the physical versions, but theyve gotten pretty pricey, even used. I also grabbed 11s on xbox because it was on sale

 

[Symtendo]

I’ve bought quite a lot of Wii U and 3DS games already — pretty expensive, it really adds up! 10 GBA games, and 70 € are spent. And that‘s just one VC system, next to all the eShop exclusives.

This sounds very interesting! I can‘t find VC games with discounts, though — having checked Nintendo‘s website and psprices, but not directly on Wii U. Could you give an example of one of these discounts (game title and the current price)? That would be really helpful.

I’m not with my Wii U right now, but from memory, it was games such as Super Mario Bros, Mario World, Mario 64, OOT and Majora.

I do remember thinking to myself that it only seemed to include games that are currently on the expansion pack of NSO

 

[Beanstar40]

Should i grab captain toad on 3ds if i already have it on switch, id have to imagine the second screen on the 3ds more closely emulates the way it was meant to be experienced on wii u?

 

[Barely Able]

Should i grab captain toad on 3ds if i already have it on switch, id have to imagine the second screen on the 3ds more closely emulates the way it was meant to be experienced on wii u?

Probably not unless you really want touch screen (not sure if microphone support for blowing is in the 3DS version). Digital Foundry has a video on the differences if you want to search for it

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Should i grab captain toad on 3ds if i already have it on switch, id have to imagine the second screen on the 3ds more closely emulates the way it was meant to be experienced on wii u?

It is overall a good port, but the lower resolution really damages the game and the microphone + dual screen adds really little.

I played the game on all three platforms and the Switch version is the best one IMHO.

 

[Barely Able]

Reminder: 10 Days (May 23) before credit card purchasing is no longer possible from the eshops. Will still be able to add gift card balance until August. If you linked your NNID to a Nintendo account and share a wallet, you can add funds through switch up until closure.

 

[Red Monster]

I’m gonna take one last look, but I’m pretty sure I have everything I want from both eshops. The only game I might get is Planet Robobot, which is like to get physically but prices are outrageous.

 

[shoptroll]

I still need to go through my list and start figuring out what things I missed can be still acquired physically without paying stupid prices. Then there's all the DSiWare I missed (which doesn't seem to ever go on sale) since I didn't have a DSi. And DLC.

If anyone is interested, Retronauts did an episode about the shutdown about a month ago.

Retronauts Episode 449: 3DS and Wii U Deathbed Recommendations

The

retronauts.com

 

[Beanstar40]

Well i did it. I was a part time 3ds owner, had the console in 2013, played zelda and traded it in. But as time went on and more games came out, i always wanted to get another one. Well almost a year ago i said fuck it and bought a new 3ds xl on ebay. And in that time ive managed to get ever 3ds game ive ever wanted to own for the system. My own personal collection is complete

Digital:
Mario and luigi: paper jam
Mario and luigi: dream team
Mario tennis open
Mario golf world tour
Luigis mansion
Yoshis new island
Yoshis wooly world
Starfox 64 3d
Link between worlds
Dkc returns
Pokemon alpha saphire
Pokemon ultra sun
Pokemon x
Hey pikmin
Kirby battle royale
Kirbys extra epic yarn
Kirby triple deluxe
Tomodachi life
Pilot wings resort
Wario ware gold
Rusty’s real deal baseball
ever oasis
Dragon quest 8
Dragon quest 7
Fantasy life
Resident evil revelations
Sonic generations
Kid icarus uprising
Animal crossing happy home designer
Pushmo
Mario vs dk minis on the move
Attack of the friday monsters

Lol im not even gonna list all the virtual console snes, and gameboy games i bought. Im a very happy camper and even though nintendo has sunset it, my 3ds will keep me busy for years to come. I missed so much

 

[Red Monster]

Well i did it. I was a part time 3ds owner, had the console in 2013, played zelda and traded it in. But as time went on and more games came out, i always wanted to get another one. Well almost a year ago i said fuck it and bought a new 3ds xl on ebay. And in that time ive managed to get ever 3ds game ive ever wanted to own for the system. My own personal collection is complete

Digital:
Mario and luigi: paper jam
Mario and luigi: dream team
Mario tennis open
Mario golf world tour
Luigis mansion
Yoshis new island
Yoshis wooly world
Starfox 64 3d
Link between worlds
Dkc returns
Pokemon alpha saphire
Pokemon ultra sun
Pokemon x
Hey pikmin
Kirby battle royale
Kirbys extra epic yarn
Kirby triple deluxe
Tomodachi life
Pilot wings resort
Wario ware gold
Rusty’s real deal baseball
ever oasis
Dragon quest 8
Dragon quest 7
Fantasy life
Resident evil revelations
Sonic generations
Kid icarus uprising
Animal crossing happy home designer
Pushmo
Mario vs dk minis on the move
Attack of the friday monsters

Lol im not even gonna list all the virtual console snes, and gameboy games i bought. Im a very happy camper and even though nintendo has sunset it, my 3ds will keep me busy for years to come. I missed so much

Do you have all those downloaded? How many SD cards is that?! Isn’t there a 32gb limit?

 

[Blue Monty]

Do you have all those downloaded? How many SD cards is that?! Isn’t there a 32gb limit?

If you format the microSD to FAT-32 you can use 64/128GB cards, higher size cards also work but they tend to have more issues (and you dont even need that much storage lol).The biggest games are around 3.3-3.8GB but almost all games are not even close to that

 

[Shadow]

Wish Atlus would put up a sale in Europe already, I want SMT4A for a normal price, and not what people are asking for it online...

 

[Barely Able]

Wish Atlus would put up a sale in Europe already, I want SMT4A for a normal price, and not what people are asking for it online...

I think some of their games were published by Deep Silver or some other publisher in Europe, so the sales might not be dependent on Atlus/Sega. Can’t remember which ones were.

 

[Beanstar40]

Do you have all those downloaded? How many SD cards is that?! Isn’t there a 32gb limit?

I have a 128 gb card, its a little finnicky some times (system takes a long time to turn on) but it works

 

[Sailor Moon]

Yeah I use a 64GB card, you need to use a tool called guiformat if you’re on Windows which will allow you to format cards larger than 32GB to 128GB

 

[Beanstar40]

Yeah I use a 64GB card, you need to use a tool called guiformat if you’re on Windows which will allow you to format cards larger than 32GB to 128GB

I didnt format mine, i just popped it in and its worked (i dont have a pc or a micro sd card reader). Ive had it in for almost a year and no major issues.

 

[Red Monster]

I need to get a bigger card then. I have a few retail games that I know aren’t downloaded, I cleared them to save space.

Anyway just tonight I bought the 3D Classics versions of Kirby’s Adventure and Sonic the Hedgehog. Both are games I’ve played before, but I really wanted to get the 3D versions for the novelty.

I think that should just about do it for me. My backlog for both the Wii U and 3DS is massive.

 

[Barely Able]

I need to get a bigger card then. I have a few retail games that I know aren’t downloaded, I cleared them to save space.

Anyway just tonight I bought the 3D Classics versions of Kirby’s Adventure and Sonic the Hedgehog. Both are games I’ve played before, but I really wanted to get the 3D versions for the novelty.

I think that should just about do it for me. My backlog for both the Wii U and 3DS is massive.

If it’s as simple as just throwing in a 64 gb or something then I’ll probably do that. Have a list of digital I wouldn’t mind having that are prohibitively expensive physically.

 

[xghost777]

The other day after light googling I made what I think is the full list of my 3DS games with DLC that I haven’t played. I don’t know what they all consist of or if I want the DLC or not but 19/20 of the games are RPGs and we only have 10 months left. The non RPG is Puzzle and Dragons which I barely played any of and I’m not sure what the DLC is for it.

 

[Barely Able]

Last Day for credit card purchases. Just FYI.

 

[HockeyBird]

I forgot that the Wii U requires free space before you can even purchase something. I can't remember if the 3DS was the same way.

 

[Mekanos]

Last Day for credit card purchases. Just FYI.

If you have a linked account, isn’t there another way to add money after today?

 

[HockeyBird]

If you have a linked account, isn’t there another way to add money after today?

I think you can just add funds to your wallet through the Switch or the website.

 

[Mekanos]

I think you can just add funds to your wallet through the Switch or the website.

See, I thought it was the opposite, I thought you couldn’t add funds after today and it was only credit cards that stopped working. Now I’m confused lol

I need to actually look over the game list. I know for 3DS I want New Leaf. Might as well buy it today.

 

[Barely Able]

See, I thought it was the opposite, I thought you couldn’t add funds after today and it was only credit cards that stopped working. Now I’m confused lol

I need to actually look over the game list. I know for 3DS I want New Leaf. Might as well buy it today.

• As of May 23, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a credit card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
• As of August 29, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a Nintendo eShop Card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. However, it will still be possible to redeem download codes until late March 2023.

Users who link their Nintendo Network ID wallet (used with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems) with their Nintendo Account wallet (used with the Nintendo Switch family of systems) can use the shared balance to purchase content on any of these systems until late March 2023. After that, the balance can only be used to purchase content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems.

That’s from the Nintendo website.

 

[HockeyBird]

Anyone got a good recommendation for an SD card for the 3DS?

 

[Arrietty]

That’s from the Nintendo website.

Okay so... esentially as long as you have your NNIDs linked between the WiiU/3DS and Switch, it is still possible in some way to keep buying games until March? Not too bad, just have to deal with the workaround.

This does beg the question though. With the credit cards ending after today, I wonder if companies are still willing to do sales before August or even March.

 

[DecoReturns]

I’m so confused and I unfortunately don’t have access to my 3DS for a few days so I guess I’m stuck without using my credit card unless I can somehow link my 3DS to switch online. This sucks especially since I didn’t have a card due to some bastard trying to steal my info and my card got blocked for a couple weeks.

I think my Wii U is link so maybe I can at least try those VC games I’ve been meaning to get

 

[juuso]

I’m so confused and I unfortunately don’t have access to my 3DS for a few days so I guess I’m stuck without using my credit card unless I can somehow link my 3DS to switch online. This sucks especially since I didn’t have a card due to some bastard trying to steal my info and my card got blocked for a couple weeks.

I think my Wii U is link so maybe I can at least try those VC games I’ve been meaning to get

You can link the funds in browser as well. First link the NNID to your Nintendo account here https://accounts.nintendo.com/federation and then click "Merge funds" here https://ec.nintendo.com/my/#/.

Edit: I may have misunderstood your post. If so, please just ignore

 

[shoptroll]

I really wish we had a better idea of when/if GB and GBA were coming to NSO. I don't want to plunk down a wad of cash on some of the games I grew up on if they're going to be available on NSO in like 3 months.

 

[Weebos]

I really wish we had a better idea of when/if GB and GBA were coming to NSO. I don't want to plunk down a wad of cash on some of the games I grew up on if they're going to be available on NSO in like 3 months.

If we hear about it this year, I would guess we hear about it in September like the other consoles.

Makes sense to at least wait for the June Direct though if you're eyeing some games.

 

[Kevin]

Is there an accurate list of Wii U disc based games that received patches in North America?

Do any of the following titles have software updates for the disc versions of the games:

Star Fox Zero
Star Fox: Guard
Captain Toad
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Mario Party 10
James Bond 007 Legends
WiiSports Club
Giant Sisters: Twisted Dreams Director's Cut
Wii Fit U
NES Remix Pack

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[xghost777]

Is there an accurate list of Wii U disc based games that received patches in North America?

Do any of the following titles have software updates for the disc versions of the games:

Star Fox Zero
Star Fox: Guard
Captain Toad
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Mario Party 10
James Bond 007 Legends
WiiSports Club
Giant Sisters: Twisted Dreams Director's Cut
Wii Fit U
NES Remix Pack

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Purchases will be ending next March, but downloads and patches should still be up for a while. I’m curious though, if you are worried about it why not just insert the discs and download them now? Note the file sizes if space is an issue.

From your list, I think Captain Toad at least has a patch.

 

[Kevin]

Purchases will be ending next March, but downloads and patches should still be up for a while. I’m curious though, if you are worried about it why not just insert the discs and download them now? Note the file sizes if space is an issue.

From your list, I think Captain Toad at least has a patch.

A lot of these titles are not opened and I didn't want to open them unless there are patches I should be getting.

 

[Stopdoor]

A lot of these titles are not opened and I didn't want to open them unless there are patches I should be getting.

007 Legends had Skyfall DLC, no? I assume that would've needed an update to support?

I've heard contrary to common sense that the Wii Sports Club disc actually doesn't work offline without a download first, but have not tested this.

Most of the other games I don't recall any history of patches or updates except maybe Captain Toad yeah, but that also may be confusing it with the Switch updates?