Good news, Virtual Console fans. Starting on March 3rd, a slew of Super Nintendo games will be hitting the new 3DS.
March 3rd: Pilotwings, Super Mario World, F-Zero.
March 24th: Super Mario Kart, Earthbound, Donkey Kong Country.
April 14th: A Link To The Past, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country 2.
It’s kind of strange that the Virtual Console games are console-specific, but Nintendo says that you’ll be able to play them on Perfect Pixel mode, which will let you see the games in their original resolution.
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35 responses to “Super Mario World And Other SNES Games Coming To New 3DS”
ANOTHER DS? Nintendo release them like they’re DLC.
New 3DS has been out for a while now…..
Yeah i know. There’s only a handful of them. I’m still bitter about buying all their gameboys.
New 3DS? Not old 3DS?
Yep, just New 3DS by all accounts. Pretty annoying for all the regular 3DS owners.
It must be the hardware holding it back.
It can play Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, but can’t play a SNES game…
Doesn’t seem to add up does it …
Here’s hoping that it’s all a miscommunication issue, and they’re simply saying “NEW 3DS” because they’re advertising their new baby.
Something about the old 3DS prevents them from running 16-bit emulation, like it can run 16 bit games but without any of the features (like save states) that you would see with VC
At least that’s what I read a few years back
Mum was gifted a 3ds which she gave to me about a year ago because she never used it. I never use it either but depending on the price of these games it may get some significant use.
Pricing was in pounds in the presentation, I would expect them to be about $13 though.
The firs two are up for sale today, so I’ll report back later when I buy one.
It probably won’t run these. These releases are for the “New 3Ds”
Super Mario World – $10.40
Earthbound – $13.00
Gah I’d pay for them but if its purely just for the new 3DS I’m out of luck, only have a 3DS XL and I’m not buying another DS just to play these
Yeah, it’s tempting, but might wait and see what all this NX business is about.
See what I don’t understand is why Nintendo are making this decision. Surely the 3DS platform apart from minor differences are all essentially coded the same. How hard could it be to port SNES games for older generation 3DS’s too? They’d make a killing in the market. I’d pay through the roof to be able to play SNES games on the go, especially Super Metroid, A link to the past, the entire DKC series, SMW and F-Zero
I agree. It’s strange isn’t it, but I guess Nintendo are no strangers to strange decisions!
The way I see it is there are 2 possible reasons for the decision:
1) The regular 3DS genuinely can’t run SNES games (which I find difficult to believe)
2) Nintendo are pulling their ‘Ace in the hole’ to move some more New 3DS units before the announcement of the NX.
In the case of reason 2, I would guess that the objective of moving more New 3DS units must outweigh the revenue they would get from releasing it across all 3DS (and 2DS) models.
I don’t see 1 even being possible these days given the advances in computing since the SNES was released.
I can see 2 being a purely marketing decision, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Oh well, Nintendo’s loss.
A friend of mine (who is definitely not me) used to play SNES games on the DS Lite when it was fairly new via ZSNES and an M3. The hardware is not a limiting factor so I’d say it’s to move consoles.
Virtual Console on New 3DS only?? It’s not a hardware limitation right, it appears to be road-forking to the newest console, which is going to be superseded (likely) by NX in the next 2 years. Stinks of marketing execs. Boo!
I feel like marketing execs unfairly cop a lot of the stick for decisions like this. They’re merely doing what they can to meet business objectives. If the Nintendo director(s) set the objective of moving more New 3DS units, why should the marketing department be blamed for trying to meet those objectives?
Touché good point
Just to be clear I wasn’t aiming that comment just at you! More commenting on the general industry perception.
I completely agree with you that is a stinky move wherever it came from!
??
Yay, now i can buy these for the third time.
Wii, wiiu AND new3ds.
:/
*why no discounts for these why*
Oh so NOW everybody says they own a Wii U AND they even bought stuff for it 😀
I kind of want to play Link to the Past on the go, but I’ve already bought it and rebought it for Wii and WiiU so you’d think they could link up purchases between consoles and at least offer a discount.
Can I just note if you use the System Transfer tool from your Wii to you WiiU you do get a pretty good discount on your Virtual Console games that you had on your Wii. I only paid $1.10 to redownload Super Castlevania 4. I don’t mind paying a little bit to get back what I had.
Since I already brought some of these games on the Wii U, would I be able to redownload them to the 3DS for free or does Nintendo expect everyone to re-purchase them all over again?
I swear my 3DS and Vita are used more as portable retro machines than to play the actual games released for them.
So can someone clarify, can you buy these on a 3ds and play them?
Soooo where’s F Zero? I had a look and couldn’t find it.
As per the information in the article, games will be released at set dates. The currentAU release is Super Mario World and Earthbound. The next round of games will be released in 2-3 weeks.
So is the article wrong?
Whoops, my bad. I meant to imply that the nature of the gradual release schedule is detailed in the article, but the Australian and US releases are in a different order.
I haven’t found the Australia schedule anywhere, so we’ll have to be patient for now.
It’s unfair, in my opinion. I mean, if the first gen model of 3ds can play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 3D, and with updated graphics (a game originally for n64) Then why can’t us old 3DS users have games that were originally for SNES?!
Remakes and Emulation are completely different things, but there definitely is some skeezy stuff going on at Nintendo. The DS was capable of (admittedly poor) SNES emulation via homebrew, but it was possible to get some games working perfectly. The old 3DS is far superior, and SNES emulation via homebrew is much more efficient this proves that many SNES games can run perfectly on an old 3DS.
This move was just a cheap marketing scheme. If there were any SNES games that the old 3DS couldn’t emulate, perhaps something FX chip heavy like Star Fox or Mario Kart, than Nintendo could still be respected by making them New 3DS-only. But making all SNES Virtual Console exclusive to the New 3DS is a poor move that divides the market.
They’re hoping a couple of 20-year old games will get people to upgrade to a New 3DS, but anyone with a brain and knowledge of Nintendo’s marketing schemes would know that the New 3DS was always a cheap grab for cash just before the next handheld console. When the next one comes along, it won’t just blow the New 3DS out of the water, it’ll be capable of much more than SNES VC.