The 2DS

The 2DS (and why I still use it in the big 25)

22 January 2025

If you spend enough time in Nintendo spaces online you might've heard about homebrew and custom firmware. I still use my 2DS in 2025 because even though it stopped being supported officially, the modding and homebrew community have turned it into one of the most fun and convenient handhelds to use, even standing it's ground against the switch in some aspects.

When I say 2ds i’m referring to my console which is functionally identical to a 3DS except it only has 2D screens. When i mention 3ds i refer to the broader family of systems which includes the 2ds as well. Also, this isn’t a tutorial on how to hack your 3DS. For that, 3ds hacks guide is the best resource i know of.

I have the black and turquoise new 2DS. I was a bit of a late adopter and got it at the very end of 2018, when it was already well on its way to the grave but at that point for 200 dollars I was able to get the second best version of the system when the games were becoming relatively cheap compared to the switch.

Other reasons I like carrying around a 2DS rather than a switch is that in shutdown mode, the 2DS battery tends to last much longer (not as good my ds lite though) and the playtime statistics screen is much more detailed, giving statistics down the the minute and even a little calender to view what you've played over time. It also fits in your pocket so you don't have to look like a dork with an ipad in your pants. The only hardware related thing I don't like is that the charger is unnecessarily wide and decides to take up the space of the adjacent power slot.

There are plenty of reasons you might want to hack a 3DS. For me, I was mostly just interested in getting the most functionality as possible out of the console. I won't discuss piracy stuff here for obvious reasons but just make sure to always stay safe online.

Themes

Here you can find heaps of user-generated themes with new ones being made all the time. My current one is this miku x cinnamonroll one.

Badges

Back when online was still a thing, there was this app called Nintendo Badge Arcade where you could play virtual claw machines to earn decorative badges to put on your homescreen.

In hindsight, the monetisation on this thing was insanely predatory for what boils down to home screen pngs. It used to give you a few free pulls each day but you could pay for more with real money. I wonder how many kids went broke trying to get some kirby png to put on their home menu.

I played it quite frequently when it was still around but now that it's down, I've found hacking the badge system is very easy. Some homebrew apps let you install any image you'd like onto your 3DS badge collection and there are various premade collections that users have compiled. I'm using a bunch of Ace Attorney portraits to represent all of my folders, plus some kirby and miku ones.

Game recommendations

Ocarina of Time 3D

An excellent port of the n64 classic that brings the art style much closer to original concept art.

Ace Attorney Series

Every Ace Attorney game is playable here. Well if you know Japanese the Great Ace Attorney games are playable but everything is perfectly playable in English. Don’t make the same mistake I did and play the DS version of the original 4 games when they have remasters with nicer graphics for 3DS. I replayed half of Apollo Justice just to get the 3DS graphics :/

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove

Support the devs by buying an actual copy of this collection because these are some of the most consistently good indie 2D platformers. In one bundle you get 4 full length campaigns. Full review might come some day so I won't write anymore here for now.

Super Mario 3D Land

The most stock standard possible Mario experience, second to only the new super mario bros games. For what it aims to do, it executes the 3D-2D Mario formula pretty well.

Minecraft!?

Somehow Minecraft got ported to the 3DS at some point. This version is only compatible with "new" 3DS models and is extremely jank but a very impressive feat to have running on here.

Rhythm Heaven

I'm so bad at this game but it's so fun.

Kid Icarus Uprising

Admittedly, I haven't played too much of this game, however this is a quite impressive 3D action game made by legendary director of (og) Kirby and Smash Bros, Masahiro Sakurai who also has a very good youtube channel on his game development career.

Other tips

• You can turn off the camera shutter sound using an app on the universal updater
• The pretendo network is a revival of the online services bringing back some online functionality like miiverse but it doesn't show all of my beautiful badges when I turned it on to check it out for this article :(
• You can take screenshots with cfw by pressing L+D-Pad Down+Select. I used it to take the photos for this article.

Conclusion

There's still plenty more to talk about in 3DS homebrew, but this is just some of my experiences.