After years of having the guide in my bookmarks.. I finally modded my New 3ds XL!! The jokes about it being alarmingly easy to mod is 100% accurate. I was able to do it in under an hour with the most idiot-proof guide in the world (LINK in case anyone wants it).
PREPARATION
Firstly.. the difference between my new SD card and the 3ds' card. As far as I know the card on the left is the stock SD card that comes with the console and is only 4GB. The new one I bought specifically for modding is 64GB, which is a liitle overkill.
Generally, 64GB is the highest someone should go, as even now it makes the console take a bit longer to boot than normal, but I don't really mind. This is all the storage I'll ever need.
Secondly... this goddamn thing. My dad gave it to me so I could actually connect the Micro-SD Card to my computer. I took it to my room and set it on top of my PS4.... and then promptly completely forgot all about it and later tore up my entire room looking for it. I so so ridiculous when I finally spotted it (but hey, at least I cleaned up my room).
My computer can only take USB-A through a port hub, meaning this thing has 3 connections to go through to write/read data (I guess). This means because it can't handle a lot going on at once, I had to break every big folder down and transfer a fraction of them at a time. This isn't really an issue after I backed up my original 3DS data onto my computer. I also went ahead and kept the original SD for safe keeping as it has a lot of data I'd be devastated if it got lost or corrupted.
SETUP
After a little bit of going back and forth.. success!! The setup was incredibly streamlined. I also was able to download a super adorable custom theme and even a few badges later on. Link to the theme HERE.
GAMES
太鼓の達人
I downloaded Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon! (太鼓の達人DS タッチでドコドン！) and Taiko no Tatsujin: Dokodon! Mystery Adventure (太鼓の達人 ドコドン！ ミステリーアドベンチャー)immediatly. I lovelovelovelove Taiko no Tatsujin so much, I was so excited!! It's relatively easy to navigate the menus despite not understanding Japanese (I know the very basics and can read hiragana/katakana, that's about it).
I tried out the 3DS game first (Mystery Adventure), and it was pretty was standard Taiko, pretty fun! It definetly took up quite a bit of storage space. I didn't play this one too much, as it felt too similar to the Switch releases, and I could just play those if I wanted a modern Taiko game.I moved onto the DS game a bit after. It's original packaging originally included dual stylus to use as bachi on the touch-screen drum, but since I obviously didn't have the original, so I used my own stylus and a random pen (it worked fine). Gameplay feels great, even if it's a little hard to aim on the correct areas on such a small screen. The pixelized graphics are very charming.
Coraline
This one was prime movie tie-in game and also exceedingly camp. I finished it in 2 days and (embarassingly enough) had to use a guide for some parts.. all of it was just Coraline running around the Pink Palace aimlessly looking for random shit with a few mini-games thrown in and some collectables for extra funsies. The soundtrack was pretty alright, but oh my GOD it got sooo repetitive. I will never forget the in-house theme O_o
I wanted to get it since I loooooved Coraline as a kid. I even vaguely remember a dream I had where I got a Coraline-themed Wii from Wal-mart and played the Wii version... speaking of which I'm totally gonna watch a playthrough and compare lol
OFF
ok... so when I was about 13-14 I was fucking OBSESSED with OFF, and haven't played it since that phase. I was thrilled when I saw that it got ported to the 3DS!! You're telling me I can replay this life-changing game anywhere I want wherever I want?? god its SO nostalgic!!
As of writing I've already beaten Zone 1, and so far the port's stable so far. It's running on EasyRPG, which I've used in the past to play RPG Maker games on my Mac (shouting out Answered Prayers and Space Funeral).
I can't write all I want to say about this game in a blog post about the 3DS, so I may save it for a later time.. for now I'll move on.
Terraria
THIS PORT ROCKSSSS!!!!!
I've been playing on my computer consistantly on a world with my friend for about a year now, and it's so much fun. I love Terraria and was so curious about how it would work on the 3DS.. and to my delight its so so good. Terraria feels like it was made for the 3ds in mind, I'm just so in love. It also just feels like the perfect game to be portable.
I also tried Minecraft beforehand, and it crashed only a little bit into walking around a newly-generated world so I deleted it immediatly. I just felt like my 3ds would explode at any minute, but it was cool to use the little grey nipple in the corner for the first time.
Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends
As a certified weenie lover, I had to try out the virtual dachshund experience. I named her Mango and later pulled my hair out as the game wouldn't let me progress after teaching her to sit for about 10 minutes. After some miracle it worked and later I even took her to the park where she promptly got her shit rocked by two larger dogs who wouldn't let her catch the damn ball.
ゆめにっき
aw man where do I begin with this one... Yume Nikki + OFF made me obsessed with wanting to make my own RPG Maker game for years, and honestly that never really went away. I even recently got the spark back after being able to play Yume Nikki properly for the first time.
Like OFF, the game runs on EasyRPG, but for some reason this game is faaar less stable. When playing the flute in front of a certain NPC the game just straight up crashed, and when the game only lets you save in-between adventures I'm being extra cautious lol. I even managed to reach the Pink Sea! I had a little bit of trouble actually making it to Poniko's house and...
Oh wow, here she is! For some reason it's still snowing from when I was in the Snow World...
I wonder how long it'll take me to actually trigger Uboa!
*click*
......oh!!
CONCLUSION
I'm so excited with just how much of a success this little project was!! I highly reccomend if you're thinking of modding your 3ds.. just do it. If you want to be safe, SD cards are fairly affordable as well. This sucker can run not only the entire 3DS library, without region lock, but also the entire DS library, a plethora of GBA/GBC/GB games, multiple SNES and NES titles, and even other random consoles are able to be emulated.
Also, doing it makes you feel like a le epic haxxor
Thanks for reading ♥
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AUG.18.2024