3DS eShop games to get before closure March 27th

[Wayler]

Looks like there's now huge discounts on some Atlus RPGs, atleast in the EU shop. Gonna get me some Stella Glow, although I have to get a bigger SD card first. It's weird that you have clear up space first before making a purchase, I would like to download later thanks.

[Ninjabba]

3 hours ago, Wayler said:

Looks like there's now huge discounts on some Atlus RPGs, atleast in the EU shop. Gonna get me some Stella Glow, although I have to get a bigger SD card first. It's weird that you have clear up space first before making a purchase, I would like to download later thanks.

Oh wow some games from 40 to 4, now that's a deal!

I'm also dealing with a full sd card. It was pretty much empty at the beginning of this thread 

[+jgkspsx]

I think you can buy games from the online store without being able to download them, right?

 

Beware - the 3DS has a limit of 300 installed 3DS games. DSiWare doesn't count against the limit. If it tells you you ran out of space but your SD card still says it has plenty, that's what happened.

 

OK, here are my favorite games you hear nobody talking about:

 

DSiWare:

ArtStyle games - Boxlife, Pictobits, and Digidrive are best, but get them all. Except maybe Zengage. That one is pretty dry.

Dodo go - this Lemmings/Mario Minis style game is very, very hard, but very, very good. We may never see it again. All of them are good but there's one real game and a bunch of mini spinoffs.

Electroplankton - the only middling one is the voice recorder Rec Rec. Everything else is great. If you only get one make it Luminarrow or Hanenbow. Sunanimalcule and 

Flametail - amazing puzzle game that is like nothing else I've ever played except its predecessor on Maboshi's Arcade on WiiWare.

Metal Torrent - it's a danmoku that is short and kind of easy but fun and you will never see it again

Mighty Flip Champs / Mighty Milky Way - some of my favorite WayForward games, these puzzle platformers will probably show up again somewhere. Or will they.

Pinball Pulse - if you like pinball at all, you need this on your 3DS. It's by the people who made Metroid Prime Pinball and it might be even better.

Starship Defense - If you like tower defense games, this one is great! I don't even like them and I like this.

Trajectile - sheer genius projectile puzzler

X-Scape - the sequel to X on the Game Boy and what would have been the best game on the Virtual Boy. It's very Atari Jaguar-y.

GG Series - lots of games here, lots of good ones and lots of bad to middling ones. There is a physical Japanese compilation of all of them but you have to unlock everything and it's pretty hard. also they're not translated.

 

3DS:

I will sort these more later.

Picross 3D Round 2 - if you like Picross at all just get this.

Ace Attorney - if you like this genre, get them all. If you want to try it get the Apollo Justice games including Spirit of Justice, which may be the best of the series. It helps to know the whole story from the beginning, though.

Elliot Quest - this has been ported to Switch etc. but I will always think of it as a 3DS game.

Chase Cold Case Memories - this detective game, Cing's last, was the final chapter in the Hotel Dusk / Another Code arc. It's much more gritty and violent but it's still pretty mild. If you like adventure games do not miss it!!!

Boxboy - buy them all if you like the demo. They're wonderful from start to finish. I guess they're on Switch, though.

Pokemon Picross - Put $10-$15 in and don't waste it and you will really enjoy the game.

Steel Diver - Sub Wars - If you liked Steel Diver, this is more streamlined but still slow, strategic, and fun. Buy a couple historical subs and the Premium version for more single player content and then go to town.

Puzzle Labyrinth - the best of a series that includes Dot Runner and Picdun, this is a dungeon crawling adventure with a lot of content and a lot of fun. Consider Picdun and Dot Runner (both the DSiWare and 3DS installments) too. 

Quest of Dungeons - still available on phones, but a ton of fun on 3DS and awesome music.

Pushmo - I liked the original a lot more than the sequels, so at least get that.

3D Sega games - get the ones not on the physical compilation. And maybe get the digital version of the physical compilation.

3D NES classics - at least get Kid Icarus, since that is by far the best version of the game, but everything except Urban Champion is worth having.

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove - there's so much game for so cheap, and it's so good, that you really ought to have it on your 3DS.

Bit Trip Saga - this got a physical release but I just love having these with me all the time.

Ambition of the Slimes - this is not the deepest tactics game but it's hilarious.

Everything by Flyhigh Works - Fairune 1 and 2, Drancia Saga, etc.

Urban Trial Freestyle - are these budget clones of Trials? Yes. Are they as good? No. Are they awesome and amazing on the 3DS? Certainly!

Game Gear games - Sega was massively disappointed by how these sold, so they may never come around again. Get GG Shinobi, Vampire, Sonics except Blast, Shining Force, Defenders of Oasis at least.

The Delusions of Von Sottendorff - it's expensive and nobody talks about it, but if you like 3D puzzle platformers, they don't make them like this anymore. Peak 2013 vibe too.

Robot Rescue 3D - this anthology of all three Robot Rescue games is full of incredible challenges. You will never finish it. But you will enjoy trying.

Kokuga - if you like tank shmups like Granada and Metal Stoker, this is another one that is mission based. It's not perfect but it's very good.

Legend of Dark Witch - great little Mega Man-inspired series. Also the Brave Dungeon spinoff.

Nostatic games - Quarters Please 1 & 2 are fun arcade clone anthologies, most of their games are point and click minis, and they also have a couple more ambitious games. Very handmade.

Gurumin 3D - awesome, cheap puzzler

Smile Basic - look, you need a way to program your 3DS with the stylus, don't you??

Chain Blaster - naked clone of Every Extend Extra, but that isn't exactly easy to find. This looks great and plays well. Get it!

Silver Falls series - all of these games are janky and all of them have fun to find. Mostly I admire the author's determination. It's a one person project start to finish.

Ketzal's Corridors - like an evolution of Blockout, this has amazing presentation and very hard levels. It's a truly beautiful game and the only thing wrong with it is that it doesn't work for some people's brains.

Kersploosh - a fast-action and less content-full tunnel racer with nice presentation.

Pirate Pop Plus, Woah Dave - great little modern arcade classics

Summer Carnival 92 RECCA - I mostly avoided Virtual Console games, but this is a very rare game and worth having.

Bloody Vampire - Castlevania meets Ys's bump combat. If you can deal with bump combat it's very fun and well presented.

Severed - beautiful dungeon crawler with good 3D. The Vita version might be better, but this is great.

IRONFALL Invadion - Gears of War on your 3DS. The demo is very substantial and fun. Play through it and see if you don't want to buy the whole thing. I can't believe a tiny company made something this polished.

Thorium Wars - fairly deep mission flight shooter, similarly polished to Ironfall and similarly completely not discussed. I don't remember if it has a demo but it's worth picking up even if not.

Pazuru - fun and simple (but hard) reflection puzzle

Fluidity Spin Cycle - the second Fluidity game and if you can take the motion controls it's a lot of fun. Similar to Locoroco.

Steel Empire - amazing 3D version of the classic Genesis shooter. This will never show up again so don't miss it!

Harold's Walk / Automaton Lung - more outsider art, these are an acquired taste but if you like outsider art you will like them

Siesta Fiesta - not the best Breakout game but it's pretty fun.

Radiohammer - fun rhythm game, unlikely to pop up again

Moon Chronicles - the best version of the classic DS FPS.

Rhythm Thief - one of the most expensive DS games, this is great except the ridiculous challenge level. Worth having for sure just for the art even if you will probably never finish it.

Mighty Switch Force - these aren't as good as Mighty Milky Way and Mighty Flip Champs on DSi, but they're pretty good.

Toki Tori - the 3D version is more unique than the GBC version. It's too hard but it's fun until you get totally stuck.

The Keep - very solid dungeon crawler RPG with good 3D

Ninja Usagimaru games - very fun platform combat games

Ikachan - the predecessor to Cave Story is wonderful squid adventure

Steamworld Dig 2 - a great Metroidvania for $2

Witch and Hero - fun strategic action

Colors 3D - it's on Switch but it's only 3D on 3DS.

Puzzler World 2013 - an immense quantity of solid pen and paper style puzzles

Classic Games Overload - the final iteration of the Telegames Ultimate Games series.

Love Hero/The Queen TV Game 2/Gal Galaxy Pain - bit trip but horror-tinged. They're really hard. There's a Wii U installment too that's free.

IFO - very simple game with LCD stylings but Time Pilot gameplay. It's fun.

Tokyo Crash Mobs - everyone mentions this but it's probably Mitchell's final game so get it in their memory and also for the weirdness.

AiRace Xeno - not the best game but it has nice 3D.

Sketchy Snowboarding - if you want a handdrawn Skifree on your 3DS this is the one.

80s Overdrive - hey, it's not great, and you should absolutely get 3D Out Run first, but if you need more it's not too bad.

 

Games to avoid:

Vector Racing - it looks amazing but it is just no fun.

Infinite Golf - it's super boring.

[+jgkspsx]

Oh!! Dark Void Zero (DSiWare)! It’s amazing if you want yet another Metroidvania! But it did it before they were cool.

 

Look how neat this is:

 

 

[roots.genoa]

I bought Liberation Maiden today but I think it will be the last. I've already plenty to play now.

[+jgkspsx]

This is a pretty decent overview of DSiWare highlights:

 

https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/31-best-dsiware-games-you-should-get-before-theyre-gone-forever

[+jgkspsx]

The Keep is on sale for $3 now. If you like dungeon crawlers with solid adventure/puzzle elements you should get it. It’s really good!

[Wayler]

4 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

The Keep is on sale for $3 now. If you like dungeon crawlers with solid adventure/puzzle elements you should get it. It’s really good!

That was one of my picks. I also got Stella Glow for 4€ and one of the Japanese Rail Sims for 2€. I think I am done now, barring a miracle last minute fire-sale.

[Ninjabba]

This is it folks, eShop is closed now. It was fun while it lasted.

 

I'm not even sure how to re-download games at this point since it just shows an error when I try to open it. Hopefully this will change in the near future as was promised

Edited March 27, 2023 by Ninjabba

[+jgkspsx]

14 hours ago, Ninjabba said:

This is it folks, eShop is closed now. It was fun while it lasted.

 

I'm not even sure how to re-download games at this point since it just shows an error when I try to open it. Hopefully this will change in the near future as was promised

I think that was a fake ending. It closes at midnight UTC tonight, so they say.

[Wayler]

So, now that the patient is out of life support and the monitor shows a flatline, what is the appropriate amount of time for mourning vs feasting yourself with the inheritance of the 3DS library of games?

 

I'm talking about piracy of course. Where does your moral compass point to in the case of the 3DS? I now have plenty of unplayed and paid stuff to keep me entertained for the rest of the year but after that I have no qualms in venturing into the grey side.

[TheGameCollector]

8 minutes ago, Wayler said:

So, now that the patient is out of life support and the monitor shows a flatline, what is the appropriate amount of time for mourning vs feasting yourself with the inheritance of the 3DS library of games?

 

I'm talking about piracy of course. Where does your moral compass point to in the case of the 3DS? I now have plenty of unplayed and paid stuff to keep me entertained for the rest of the year but after that I have no qualms in venturing into the grey side.

People who feel guilt over such things could just purchase one downloadable Switch title every time they download a 3DS or Wii U rom I guess. I think that would be a fair compromise to game developers.

Edited March 28, 2023 by TheGameCollector

[+jgkspsx]

I sure hope some of the indie creators can find a way to make some money on other platforms. My understanding is that the Gunman Clive games were still making more on 3DS than they were on Switch since they were heavily recommended on the eShop.

 

I wouldn’t feel any remorse about first party titles, but definitely look for a way to throw some money in the direction of the creators of indie games. A fair number of those seem to have left the industry, though.

 

In any case I have more than enough backlog to last me another two lifetimes so I don’t think I’ll be dipping into illicit means unless someone finally releases a Virtual Boy emulator.

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

since they were heavily recommended on the eShop.

The recommending system is one of the many things that were unfortunately removed on the Switch. 😩

(that being said, I find the Gunman Clive games completely overrated)

[Tempest]

5 hours ago, Wayler said:

So, now that the patient is out of life support and the monitor shows a flatline, what is the appropriate amount of time for mourning vs feasting yourself with the inheritance of the 3DS library of games?

 

I'm talking about piracy of course. Where does your moral compass point to in the case of the 3DS? I now have plenty of unplayed and paid stuff to keep me entertained for the rest of the year but after that I have no qualms in venturing into the grey side.

Not that I endorse piracy, but morally I would wait until the games are no longer being sold in stores or are otherwise unavailable for purchasing in a legitimate way.  Once a company can't (or refuses to) make money off of it anymore then pirating something won't hurt their bottom line.

 

I wonder if in the future Nintendo will release emulated versions of 3DS games on the Switch or their next console like they did with the DS.  I can't believe they'd let these games go unemulated since there's money to be made.

[Tanooki]

@Wayler The gloves were off the moment the service went down to be fair, at least on anything that didn't have a physical copy in existence.

 

That's the failing on crap services like this where you get pitched the big lie "BUY" button, you're not buying shit, you're renting time.  Now it's black and white clear, if your system fails, the network is out, there is no recovery.  Best hope that hardware never craters beyond transferring between systems or it's iced, done, finished, outside of piracy with hacking the system.

 

This is the new frontier with these modern systems from the PS3/Wii/3DS eras forward.  When it's gone, outside of theft, it's gone.  Maybe new doors will open to idiot easy (hakchi infallible) easily done click based menu hackery where you can just fire up the app, click the stuff you want, and you (or the app) fetches it off the archive(or wherever) and it's click click, setup and popped on your device.  I think this is how it should go or similar, needs to, because the losses now will grow as the years tick by.

 

Look at that fun stuff Wii had like the remastered Castlevania Adventure and the unique Gradius game, they don't even include that shit in those Konami collection packs which is disturbing.  Theft or forget it, they'll end up real forgotten gems, unlike the clowns who call NES carts this to get three to four figure profits out of simps on ebay for a loose cart.

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

you're not buying shit, you're renting time

And? Usually, after I beat a game, I never play it again. I don't have time for that. People need to grow up and move on imho. Nothing is eternal, especially them. I mean, even if you had your whole collection in physical form, a natural disaster could make it vanish in a few seconds anyway. 🤷‍♂️

[+jgkspsx]

12 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

(that being said, I find the Gunman Clive games completely overrated)

Name a duck-based Mega Man clone half as good! 😜

[Tanooki]

Agreed to disagree, I'm fine both moving on and not.  Some stuff I do return to, some I've just had since it came out and retained.  Yet there's far more from a decade to three decades back that hold up well I have yet to get to so it's nice being able to get that, plug it in there and go at it.  I don't trust digital, it has no financial or personal value because it's just borrowed time.  I look at it barely as any better than just downloading roms, no value, no serious use because other things money was spent on comes first always.  And if it all went up in smoke, fine...always start over, and if I just had 10 things to choose from, perhaps all the better as I'd be more focused to use it.   Win-win.

[+wongojack]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:21 AM, jgkspsx said:

Oh!! Dark Void Zero (DSiWare)! It’s amazing if you want yet another Metroidvania! But it did it before they were cool.

 

Look how neat this is:

 

 

Went hunting for comments on Dark Void Zero, as I recently started playing this one from my Steam Library.  I played the first 2 (of 4) levels this week.  It is like a NES game that makes sense and doesn't hate you.  Anyone who is a fan of the old Capcom games should play this.  Jetpacks are fun.

[Ninjabba]

I got Dark Void Zero as one of the last before the shop closed. Interestingly enough it's the only game that has an animation in the icon on my homescreen.