Nintendo will close its Wii U and 3DS digital storefronts on March 27, 2023. It previously closed the DSi and Wii stores in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Physical copies of many older games are still available, but their prices seem to continue to rise.
The main problem is that classic Nintendo games are exclusive to Switch Online and Expansion Pass addons. There is no way to purchase these games as standalone titles like Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. Certainly not if you want to play them on Switch, and the chances of playing them elsewhere are rapidly dwindling.
One of the GameBoy games coming to Switch is Link’s Awakening DX, a classic remade a few years ago.The cheapest copy I found in English on eBay is $30 plus $7 shipping from Canada. but others were in the $40-$50 range. Plus if you want to receive the original box or cartridge with instructions.
Meanwhile, the same game is just $6 on the 3DS eShop (opens in new tab), while other Game Boy games announced for Switch Online are available at similarly low prices. Metroid II and Gargoyle’s Quest are $4 each, Warioland 3 is $5, and so on.
Alone in the Dark: The new Nightmare doesn’t seem to be available for the 3DS, but it’s a third-party game and you can buy it on Steam for $7.Original Tetris is also missing, but how to play it It is certain that there is a shortage of Of course, buying digitally doesn’t carry the same risks as buying on the second-hand market. You know the game will work right and you don’t want to risk buying an elaborate fake.In my experience, older Pokemon games are particularly bad at this.
Nintendo has to argue that it’s under no obligation to make these games available on newer platforms, and this isn’t the first time a publisher has abandoned his games for functionally obsolete classics. I guess. The company definitely deserves credit for its efforts to keep these games playable long after their initial release.