modding my childhood 3DS
Since Nintendo shut down the e-shop in 2023, I haven't gotten a lot of play out of my 3DS. I found this surprising, especially considering its status as practically glued to my hands since I got it in 2011. I've always taken good care of my 3DS and stayed pretty loyal to the same three or four titles, but after ten years of checking on my Nintendogs every few months or making sure my favorite villager (Gala) never moved out of my Animal Crossing town, I figured it was time for an upgrade.
Around the time the e-shop shut down two years ago, I started getting recommendations on YouTube about people modding their 3DS's (like HamsterButtocks). I was never really interested in doing so for the typical reasons (more games, more storage, ability to region-change, and access to infinite homebrew software), but once I realized you could change your theme to literally anything you wanted, I was hooked on the idea. But it's not like I'm a tech-wiz. I would need someone to mod it for me, right?
As it turns out, it's actually pretty simple! I woke up one Saturday morning after pondering the idea for weeks with a sudden fervor. I jumped up from my bed, sat down at my desk with my 3DS, and an hour later I was done (with all the adorable themes and games I could have hoped for)!
This post isn't really going to function as a tutorial since plenty of amazing ones exist out there already (most people recommend 3DS.hacks.guide which I used and found very helpful, though I would suggest watching someone do it on YouTube first to familiarize yourself with the settings menus), so I'm just going to be going over some of the games I've been playing since modding it!
Like I said, I never really strayed away from the same few titles as a child playing the 3DS because games were expensive, so I really utilized this opportunity to try some of the titles I always wanted to play as a kid but couldn't, and even some titles I had never heard of before! I have few of recognizable IPs in physical cartridges from childhood (Nintendogs, New Super Mario Bros, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Pokemon). In the spirit of trying new things, these are all of the games I have downloaded digitally on my modded console that I had never played before:
- Pushmo
- Pocket Jockey
- Pokemon Picross
- Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
- Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop
- Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appetit
- Ever Oasis
I plan on downloading more in the future, but I prefer to play games one or two at a time before moving on, so this is plenty for now! As for the games I've been playing the most (and I've been playing a lot), I've enjoyed Pushmo and Pocket Jockey the most!
Pushmo is a seemingly simple puzzle game where you, as an adorably chunky creature named Mallo, push blocks in and out to get to the top of the level. Warning, it gets addicting very quickly. I LOVE this game, and I'm sad there aren't any modern installments for Switch (which means no chance of official Mallo plushie merch any time soon).
The Pushmo plush in question.
Pocket Jockey is similarly deceiving in its simplicity. Basically, you play solitaire as you race a horse. The faster you play, the faster the horse runs. Sounds a little boring? Would it sound more interesting if I told you the reason you're playing solitaire is the jockey sucks at racing horses so badly they got kicked off of one, died, and then got resuscitated by an angel invested in place-betting who cursed them to death if they don't become a champion? It's a lot of fun! Stressful, but fun!
I also downloaded a few Cooking Mama games for my girlfriend who swore by the franchise as a child. She's been having so much fun playing, she wants her own 3DS for me to mod so we can play at the same time!
As for the main reason I modded the console in the first place (the cute themes)... I may or may not have gone a little overboard. The themes available to download are made by users, and include custom folders, music, and even borders for your game icons! I never used the built-in Theme Plaza as a child because I didn't really understand what it was or how it worked, but I've really been enjoying messing around with the aesthetics of my console. I already decorated the outside with stickers, a case, and a charm, so it was about time I got to make the inside just as cutesey! I'll link HamsterButtocks again since she made a lot of the themes in my current shuffle (in shuffle mode, every time you turn off the console the theme changes).
A few of the themes in my current rotation.
Playing my 3DS every day for the first time since I was 10 has been amazing! I've been loving checking out titles I didn't get to play as a child, decorating my homescreen, and grinding Pushmo like my life depends on it. I honestly don't know how I went this long without modding my console. It was mostly following instructions and dragging files into my SD card. It was simple, but unlocked some amazing potential in my 3DS! I'm excited to delve further into the homebrew community and find some cool software. If you have a DS sitting in a drawer somewhere, maybe give modding it a try!
And remember: it's not piracy if Nintendo blocked all other ways of accessing the game! ;)