We knew for a long time this would be coming. A long while back, Nintendo formally announced the closure of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eshops, ending an era of gaming. Good things must always come to an end, but it still feels weird to say that the Nintendo 3DS's life cycle has formally concluded.

(No offense, Wii U fans - I've never played on a Wii U, so I don't have the same attachment to it)

While the Nintendo 3DS servers would remain active for a time, Nintendo also warned us that those same servers would come to an end in April of 2024. Some servers would still be active if they were run by a different company, such as the Pokémon Company's Pokémon Bank servers remaining active for the time being, but eventually those servers will go down as well. Not to mention the features lost by the official servers going down.

So what's next?

Thanks to the Nintendo 3DS modding community, many features and apps will still remain active despite the formal servers shutting down. As such, I have put together a collection of resources I would recommend installing on a Modded Nintendo 3DS should you be interested and have a one yourself.

What this resource is not is a collection of piracy resources. I do not condone piracy nor do I recommend pirating software that you do not have the legal rights to use. While a modded 3DS can, naturally, be used to pirate games, I will not be providing resources for piracy. I will only provide resources that help keep the Nintendo 3DS system alive and relevant for years to come.

This resource is also not a guide for how to mod your Nintendo 3DS system. There are many different resources for how to mod your Nintendo 3DS (see below) and the process will vary depending on which model of system you are using. I am only including resources to use after your device is already modded.

Finally, this list will not include any homebrew apps installed during the process of modding your Nintendo 3DS. For example, Anemone is a custom 3DS theme manager that I love, but it is already installed during the process; I'm not going to be redundant and recommend you get apps you would already have.

Written: 30 March 2024

The biggest concern with the Nintendo 3DS servers shutting down is, naturally, the servers will be shut down. This, naturally, means that any games that use the Internet will have those features, in essence, shut down completely. While local communication should still be possible, this is still a major concern that needs to be taken into account if you ever wish to play multi-player Mario Kart, trade with a friend in Pokémon Ultra Moon, etc.

Pretendo is a homebrew app that seeks to create custom servers for both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. The catch? Pretendo is not currently complete. As of writing, Pretendo currently estimates that they are 72% complete with reverse engineering and restoring these servers. However, it's still worth keeping an eye on Pretendo for when they inevitably have a workable build to download. They also have a Twitter account of their own you can follow for updates on the project.

On a related note, many Nintendo 3DS titles make use of the SpotPass feature, which looks for Nintendo 3DS systems passing by to transfer information. Once the official servers close, these features will be lost as well. Or, at least they would be if not for the SpotPass Archive. While there are not currently any replacement servers set up, the SpotPass Archive hopes to record as much information about individual users' SpotPass information so this information can be revived once those replacement servers begin.

While the Pokémon Transport and Bank servers are currently slated to continue to function past the official Nintendo 3DS closure, these are not currently destined to last either. Is it possible The Pokémon Company will find a way to merge these servers with the Pokémon Home servers? It's possible, but I would rather prepare just in case than not have something if they were to unexpectedly close.

There are a few different Bank-esque apps that can serve as a replacement, but I personally use PKSM. PKSM is a tool that adds plenty of functionality to monitoring and storing your Pokémon collection, more than what is currently possible with Pokémon Bank. For example, PKSM can move Pokémon in and out of games that are normally a one-way ticket once they're moved to a later generation. This includes game cartridges (including base Nintendo DS cartridges such as Pokémon HeartGold), making it much easier to move Pokémon around without the use of Pokémon Transport. This even includes the possibilty to skip generations when moving Pokémon around, such as moving a Pokémon from a copy of Platinum directly into PKSM without the use of Black and moving it into a copy of Alpha Sapphire.

PKSM does more than just store collections, however; PKSM also has a collection of Wonder Cards stored from many different regions, allowing players to inject events from almost any region in any language. Missing out on the Hat Pikachu events from Sun and Moon? Good news: You can still inject those events into your save files directly! Are these events genuine? They're just as genuine as using the DNS exploit to still play Generation IV and V events.

PKSM Website

Pretendo Website

SpotPass Archive Website

Full Guide to Homebrew ANY 3DS for FREE 11.17 (2024 Exploit) by FunkyScott47

This YouTube video has the most modern explanation for how to modify your Nintendo 3DS. While the process is a bit of a tedious process, it is still an easy process to follow as long as you follow along with the video

My personal recommendation: Don't bother fully closing your SD card slot while modding your Nintendo 3DS. When I first modded mine, I thought "I won't need to open this too often." In fact, I did need to open it too often.