3DS eShop Recommendations

hammy

With news of the Japanese 3DS eShop ending credit card support soon, it probably won’t be long till similar measures hit other regions.

I recently went on the shop to pick up SMT IV for a rainy day and wondered what other games on the storefront are worth picking up before it shutters. If you had to load up a 3DS with eShop games, what would be your top picks?

Punzai

The 3 Pullblox (Crashmo in US, I think?) games are all great.
Dragon Quest VII and VIII
SEGA 3D Classics Collection
Any of the 3D Classics; Kirby, Xevious, Kid Icarus etc
Kirby’s Blowout Blast
Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (also nets you the WiiU version if that’s your thing?)
Persona Q2
Any of the Etrian Odyssey games or just Nexus as that’s a greatest hits kind of game
Super Mario 3D Land
Link Between Worlds

As you can see, my tastes skew light and Nintendo which might not be your thing.

I’m sure there’s loads of ones I’m forgetting now…

GigaSlime

Speaking of SMT IV, I feel I should mention Atlus is having an incredible sale on 3DS eshop right now, everything is like 60-75% off. I just bought Radiant Historia for $9.99. Would’ve been a great time to buy up all the SMT games if I hadn’t already done that several months ago back when Nocturne Remaster came out!

LeFish

I would add the original Phoenix Wright trilogy, Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, Spirit of Justice to that list too. Excellent stuff.

◉◉maru

It was not specifically about the eShop but good idea to also check the secret best 3DS games thread and the the 3DS appreciation thread thread, previously on the Insert Credit forums.

Tradegood

Just want to pop in and say - The 3DS was a fantastic system for JRPGs, and if you consider the remakes and ports from the DS it’s probably one of the best libraries of any system alongside SNES, PSP, and Switch.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is for my money the best game on the system, There’s also Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia, and the oft maligned Fire Emblem: Fates which is better than people give it credit for
Radiant Historia: First Chronology is a remake of one of the best DS games and a super unappreciated RPG.
Bravely Default is a lovely breezy job class-based JRPG - The Alliance Alive is one too, though the HD remake available on Switch might be preferable.
Dragon Quest VII and VIII (and IX on DS)
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire is actually a really excellent and balanced feeling Pokemon game. Pokemon X/Y was alright and Sun/Moon has its fans.
Tales of Abyss had a very good port of a solid PS2 game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS might be the worst way to play the game, but the audacity behind it and the fact that it is totally serviceable port kinda makes it worth buying just to check it out, even though the Switch definitive edition is much better.

I personally haven’t played these, but SMT IV, Apocalypse, Strange Journey Redux, Devil Survivor 1 & 2, and SMT Devil Summoner are all apparently great. Stella Glow and Ever Oasis are ones I still have in the shrink wrap, but I’ve heard very good things about them.

I’m going to pick up Crimson Shroud (created by the great Yasumi Matsuno) and Culdcept Revolt during this sale, since they’ll probably never get ported to another system and seem like interesting concepts for JRPGs.

The 3DS eshop also has retro games you can’t find easily other places like:
Earthbound
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Shining Force: Sword of Hajya
The Legend of the River King

◉◉maru

Tradegood The 3DS eshop also has retro games you can’t find easily other places like:
Shining Force: Sword of Hajya

That’s a great point, there is a bunch of cool Game Gear ports by M2 like Shining Force, The GG Shinobi and Master of Darkness available on the eShop.

Speaking of M2, they of course delivered the incredible Sega 3D Ages / Sega 3D Classics series that not only make great use of the stereoscopic screen but also add some cool features to each game, and will most likely never reappear elsewhere officially. Already mentioned by @Punzai but Nintendo’s own 3D Classics will also most likely stay 3DS exclusives and, unlike Sega’s series, they never had a physical release anywhere. You can check both lists of games (with helpful annotations detailing availability) on this Wikipedia page.

I am also trying to think of DLCs you might want for retail games:

I believe in the West, the gray (third) route for Fire Emblem Fates, which is basically the “true” ending, is only available via DLC. (In Japan, there is a limited physical edition with the third route on the card.)
Fire Emblem Awakening (which is a much better game than Fates) had a bunch of DLC that I did not regret paying for. In fact, it was the very first 3DS game with paid DLC.
I thought the additional DLC level packs for New Super Mario Bros. 2 were the most memorable levels in the game, with some bizarre and fun ideas.
Mario Golf World Tour had a Season Pass which provided additional courses and stuff. I haven’t played it but apparently the full game with DLC contents is really robust. In fact, @hammy ’s timely question has me pondering its purchase during the holiday break.
Not sure why you’d pay for this if you can access the Switch version but I’ll remind you Super Smash Bros. for 3DS had characters such as Cloud, Ryu and Bayonetta sold as DLC.

andrewelmore

Strongly seconding Crimson Shroud and also recommending the delightfully weird and insert-credit-y Liberation Maiden

KennyL

Link to all the games on sale right now.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/game-guide/#filter/:q=&dFR[generalFilters][0]=Deals&dFR[platform][0]=Nintendo%203DS

Bounty full of goodies BUT Crimson Shroud is not on sale…. I’ve been waiting for years for it to get on sale. Heard it went on sale all the time back then but I’m keep missing it. Guess I’ll just buy it.

Chopemon

Attack of the Friday Monsters is an absolute gem. Kind of a Boku no Natsuyasumi like and a charming little adventure.

I enjoyed Tokyo Crash Mobs quite a bit as well as Liberation Maiden (mentioned already in this thread).

Punzai

Chopemon oh yeah! I loved AOTFM! I knew I’d forget some great ones!

exodus

Since we do have those other “secret best” lists I won’t get into too much, but I will say that if you like picross, the zelda picross is decent and you can only get it on 3DS by doing a bunch of nonsense, because you can’t buy it - you need to spend platinum coins on it. You get these coins by doing things like:

downloading various nintendo phone games and playing them until you’ve earned a coin by doing things like “connect to twitter”
linking your account to various things
various other nonsense

you can then delete all that stuff. It took me about an hour of downloading and messing around to get enough coins to get zelda picross, but now I have it and it doesn’t look like it’s coming to anything else, so… yeah, try to get it.

Punzai

exodus agreed. My favourite Picross game. I’m not even sure why.

dylanfills

I bang on about this game enough in any thread I can fit it in, but Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is a top ten game for me. It got me really into visual novels, and it has some really great puzzle design as well.

The sequel, Zero Time Dilemma, is also on 3DS. I haven’t played this one yet (but I do own it), so I can’t speak to that one as strongly. The first game in the trilogy, 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, was on the DS, so isn’t available on the eShop (although it is excellent).

sabertoothalex

dylanfills ZTD is divisive but for better or worse it is the conclusion of the trilogy so if you liked the first two you gotta play it!

Nemoide

As I’ve said in other threads, the 3DS never really clicked with me, so I’m hesitant to make recommendations. But I was inspired to pull the trigger and finally get two games I’ve had my eye on for a while:

Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball - this was described as “Warioware but with a sad divorced dad as the main character” apparently you don’t actually play baseball. It’s free to play and you can buy more games but you can haggle with Rusty and talk down his prices so it isn’t too expensive.

Gotta Protectors - developed by Ancient Corp. as some sort of 8-bit throwback/tower defense type game. It’s a sequel to Xbox Live indie game Protect Me Knight which IIRC was on the IC podcast’s Xbox 360 episode.

I haven’t played them yet, so no real opinions from me, but other folks might want them on their radar!

I definitely like the Ace Attorney and Zero Escape games and I’m pretty sure Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice are still only on 3DS and phones. Zero Time Dilemma is good but isn’t really designed for 3DS the way Virtue’s Last Reward was, so if you have another platform you might prefer playing it on (ie Vita, PC, or PS4). IMO they’re all worth playing though!

Punzai

Nemoide Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball - this was described as “Warioware but with a sad divorced dad as the main character” apparently you don’t actually play baseball. It’s free to play and you can buy more games but you can haggle with Rusty and talk down his prices so it isn’t too expensive.

Such a shame this never showed up here in the U.K. Been recommended this so many times.

gsk

Gotta Protectors is only really a tower defense game in the sense that you can construct towers and you’re literally defending a princess; I’d say “8-bit musou” is more accurate. (RE: DLC, it also comes with the option to buy FM arranges of all the FC-style music, composed by Koshiro, OGR, Shinji Hosoe, Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Motoaki Furukawa, and the Japanese version has an additional DLC themed after a let’s-play channel that never came overseas.)

One annoying thing about Sega 3D Classics, aside from the fact that we only got one of the three collections overseas and didn’t get all the standalone digital releases, is that some of the Japanese versions have updates or improvements that are exclusive to either the physical compilation or the digital versions, so if you really want to be thorough you have to do a little research on which versions require double-dipping. (The short answer is that the standalone versions of Power Drift and Puyo Puyo Tsu are superior, and the compilation versions of the other games tend to be improved over the standalones.)

treefroggy

Just Crimson Shroud

TracyDMcGrath

Summer Carnival 92 Recca is on the 3DS virtual console. It’s the best shooter on the Famicom, the best OST on the Famicom, and heck I’ll say it, the best game on the Famicom.

captain

TracyDMcGrath Do you estimate the 3DS as up to snuff to play Summer Carnival ’92 Recca?