These Are The Games To Buy On Wii U And 3DS Before Their EShops Close

When the Wii U was discontinued, there was no fanfare or memorial for the end of Nintendo’s console. While it certainly has its defenders — I am one of them! — the console underperformed in comparison to all of its competitors. It only lasted five years before Nintendo had already moved on to the Nintendo Switch. The Switch has been the company’s highest-selling console ever so let’s just say that it was a smart move by Nintendo to move on from the Wii U. Eventually, due to age, the very popular 3DS would join the Wii U, but fans had much fonder memories for Nintendo’s final handheld-only console.

As consoles fade away, so do the services associated with them, and on Tuesday, Nintendo made a sudden gut-punching announcement: The Wii U and 3DS eShops were no longer going to allow purchases in March 2023. Players would only be able to re-download previously purchased titles and nothing else.

This is terrible news for anyone that is a fan of many of the digital-only games that were released to both the Wii and 3DS. Hundreds of games are going to no longer be available to players and some of them might not have any alternative at all. There are even a handful of physical games that are either incredibly difficult to find, or have expensive physical copies, and haven’t received a port. Say what you will about the Wii U or the age of the 3DS, but not letting anyone ever have access to that library of games is not good for anyone.

This is why we wanted to point everyone in a direction. While nobody can possibly buy every game that is available on the digital stores, we have a few games that we think most people will be interested in getting before they shut down for good.

Virtual Console, 3DS/Wii U

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way early. The biggest reason this news is terrible is that the Wii U virtual console, and in some ways the 3DS one, was the best source for Nintendo retro games out there. For all the faults of the Wii U, anyone that was a fan of previous Nintendo games could buy them on the console. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it had an expansive library of options that we haven’t seen anywhere else even come close to matching. It even had Turbo Grafx 16 games! Don’t know what that is? That’s okay, because the Wii U is there to let you experience it.

All of this is an even bigger bummer when we look at how Nintendo has chosen to handle retro games since the launch of the Switch. While it’s very cool that we get unlimited access to NES, SNES, N64, and SEGA Genesis games for a monthly subscription price, the library pales in comparison to that of the Wii U. We can’t even give the excuse of age, because the Switch will turn five in March and the Wii U virtual console options are still far deeper than the Switch ones. Even worse is that Nintendo made it abundantly clear in a now-deleted Q&A answer that it doesn’t feel it’s the responsibility of the company to maintain game preservation.

If anyone has a retro game that they want to make sure they own before it’s too late, and happen to own a Wii U, we strongly suggest exploring the expansive library of games on its virtual console.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, 3DS

The fifth mainline game in the Ace Attorney franchise, Dual Destinies took the franchise in a new direction. As an at-the-time 3DS exclusive, Dual Destinies made heavy use of the handheld’s capability of providing higher graphics and more power. It was the first mainline game in the series to feature voice acted cutscenes and it moved away from sprites to 3D animated models. It even made itself a great entry point for newcomers to the series with a fairly self-contained story.

Unfortunately, this game and its DLC were released as a digital-only title for the 3DS. There is no possible way to get this game for 3DS other than the eShop. Once the eShop has officially shut down, the only way to play it will be to purchase the game on mobile through your phone’s app store. This is a perfectly viable way of experiencing it, but not everyone wants to play a 25-to-30-hour game on their phone. If you’re one of those people and have always wanted to experience this series, then make sure to buy Dual Destinies before the deadline passes.

As an aside, all of this can be said for the sequel, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Spirit of Justice, which was also a 3DS only digital title that has since been released on phones.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, 3DS and Wii U

The Mario vs. Donkey Kong franchise is a series of puzzle games primarily made for handhelds since 2004. It was a spiritual successor to the original arcade game Donkey Kong, and while it wasn’t the most popular franchise Nintendo made, it had enough support behind it to get six different games. Two of the final games, Minis on the Move and Tipping Stars, were digital-only releases unless you wanted to import a Japanese copy of Tipping Stars.

This is an example of the kinds of games that are going to disappear with no way to play them unless they’re eventually ported to the Nintendo Switch. This is a franchise that received enough support from Nintendo to get six different games, but soon, two of the, will not be accessible to anyone, and these aren’t just one off-budget titles. They’re Nintendo-published properties with Mario on the box.

Xenoblade Chronicles X, Wii U

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a spin-off of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii. Unlike Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it isn’t an official sequel and the plots are essentially unrelated to one another. Since it was also released late in the Wii U’s lifespan, it is one of those forgotten titles for the console that only fans of the franchise really played. As a result, finding physical copies of the game these days can be extremely difficult and very expensive. It’s not impossible, but compared to other games currently exclusive to the Wii U like Star Fox Zero, it’s one of the least accessible games on the console.

That accessibility is going to become even more difficult when the eShop is shut down for good. The Switch currently has Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is on the way. The only odd game out? X, which currently hasn’t been ported and there hasn’t been any indication of a plan to do so yet. Fans of the franchise, or of gigantic JRPG worlds, might wanna pick this up before getting a copy of the game becomes even harder when the eShop closes.