Fans who are still using their Nintendo 3DS have been alarmed to find select DSiWare games vanishing from the eShop. Nintendo's classic handheld console was officially discontinued in 2020. Rather than replacing it with a new handheld console, Nintendo has been eschewing the format entirely with the Nintendo Switch, which combines the power of a home console with the portability of a handheld device.
Nintendo has been making a habit of shutting down old services. It's already announced, for instance, that the Wii U version of Super Mario Maker will be shut down this March. Super Mario Maker is broadly considered one of the Wii U's best games, allowing fans to create their own levels and share them with friends. The overwhelming creativity displayed by brilliant Mario fans reshaped the internet for some time, and even after the release of Super Mario Maker 2 on the Switch, the original game is still viewed as a treasured gem in what is generally considered one of Nintendo's worst consoles. The news of its imminent demise was met with widespread dismay.
Nintendo might have already implemented a new means of burying the past. Twitter user Come Out Punching (via Nintendo Life) has reported that the company has removed every DSiWare game from before May 2011 from the 3DS's eShop. DSiWare games were released for the 3DS's predecessor, the DSi, so it might not be too surprising to see them go, but there are still some classics in the lot. Titles like Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Dr. Mario Express have found themselves on the chopping block thanks to this alarming purge. Nintendo has yet to comment on these removals.
Thanks to that very lack of communication, it's unclear whether or not these removals are actually intentional. Nintendo has made mistakes on that front before. Shortly after the Switch port of Pikmin 3 Deluxe was announced, for instance, the original Wii U version vanished from that console's eShop. It was relisted some time later, to the great relief of Pikmin fans who hadn't yet made the generational leap. It's possible that this DSi purge is a similar error, but given the broad scale of the removals, it seems unlikely.
Assuming that these classic games are indeed gone for good, this is a major blow not only to the 3DS but to the history of video gaming. Gamers are rarely inclined to forget the past, and nostalgia is a driving force in the industry in a great many ways. These DSiWare games might be two generations old, but there are still lots of fans who made some delightful memories playing them. Those fans had better hope that the games are already safe on their 3DS, because it looks like they've just been lost to history.
Source: Come Out Punching (via Nintendo Life)