Older Nintendo video game systems are now cut off from digital consumers, as the Nintendo eShop for the Wii U console and Nintendo 3DS portables shut down for good on March 27.
“We currently have no plans to offer classic content in other ways,” reads the recent announcement from Nintendo, which points gamers instead to its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service on the Switch hybrid handheld console, a service that includes access to a curated selection of NES Super NES and Game Boy titles (and its more expensive cousin, Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which offers N64, SEGA Genesis and Game Boy Advance titles for a hefty upcharge).
The problem with this is that it leaves out an entire catalog of content that was unique to the Wii/Wii U and 3DS ecosystem, not just the Virtual Console releases of those older titles (many of which are still left in limbo). On the unheralded Wii U side of things, ZombiU, Star Fox Guard and Dr. Luigi can’t be found anywhere else, for example. Then there’s The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD … Nintendo 3DS games you can’t play on any other hardware include The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Super Mario 3D Land and the original Bravely Default — and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. And there’s a whole universe of Virtual Console titles that haven’t yet made their way to Switch’s membership-based classic library.
In 2019, the Wii Shop Channel for the Wii U’s more popular older sibling similarly closed its virtual doors, raising red flags among gamers concerned then, just as now, about the preservation of video game history, big and small.
Just as there was then, there was a sunset period here: While the Nintendo eShop storefronts for 3DS and Wii U remained open through March 27, 2023, May 23, 2022, was the cut-off for credit card purchases to add funds to eShop accounts necessary to buy games there. As of Aug. 29, 2022, Nintendo said, it was no longer possible even to use a Nintendo eShop Card (i.e, gift cards) to add funds — but Nintendo let you redeem download codes until March 27, 2023, when all eShop service for the Wii U and 3DS ended.
But, “even after March 27, 2023, and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to redownload games and DLC, receive software updates and enjoy online play on Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems,” Nintendo said.
If you’re confused by this, Nintendo emphasizes that “no changes are planned for Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo Switch family of systems.”
3DS, Wii U eShop code redemption deadline extended
According to Nintendo Everything, the deadline to redeem eShop codes for the Wii U and 3DS was briefly extended into April due to Nintendo mistakenly shutting things down “a few hours early.” However, new purchases or downloads of free items such as game demos are suspended permanently:
