<p><span style="font-weight: 400">It’s a great time to be a portable gamer. From great remakes like<em> Ocarina of Time 3D</em> to hit soon-to-be classics like <em>Pushmo</em> to the already awesome classics from the years before, like Link’s Awakening DX, the 3DS is a great platform. You can even play beloved classics like Super Metroid or Super Mario World on your 3DS &#8211; that is, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">IF</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> you own a ‘New Nintendo 3DS’. Therein lies the issue that has angered many gamers across the internet, and I can understand why. It’s a tricky issue, but it boils down to two major points; firstly, gamers simply just don’t understand how emulation works and, second, Nintendo’s quality standards are incredibly high. Normally Nintendo’s high standards result in epic masterpieces like <em>Ocarina of Time</em> or <em>Super Mario 64</em> but not this time; this time it has resulted in angry fans. In one corner. we have a company that doesn’t always do the greatest job at communicating with its fans and, in another corner, we have a large base of gamers who don’t understand how emulation works or Nintendo’s intentions. I’m in the middle of it all and intend on setting the record straight. </span></p>
<p>I’d like to go back to Nintendo’s Ambassador Program. This is where it begins even though it was years ago. In short, ten of the free games that ambassadors received were Game Boy Advance games and while they may not run perfectly. they certainly run good enough for most gamers (myself included) and this certainly begs the question: Why can’t SNES games be on the original 3DS too? I mean the GBA was similar to the SNES but also more powerful in many ways, right? Well, it’s simple; the GBA Ambassador games do not emulate as well as Nintendo would like them to and they also lack the features of regular Virtual Console games. All of the other Virtual Console games that can be purchased and played on 3DS have a few features that the GBA games do not have; a few of these big features are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">The ability to suspend gameplay by returning to the Home Screen but leaving the game running. This allows ‘Game Notes’ to be accessed as well, which can be used for notes and also capturing screen shots. </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Restore Points are available to use at any time so you can stop and save whenever you want to. Whether this is to add saving to a game that lacks the feature, save right after brutal parts of a game, or just make games even </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">more</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> portable is up to the game. In short though, they&#8217;re great.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400">Play and view a game in its original resolution and, in the case of GB/GBC games, with the border of the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">actual</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> system. You just hold ‘Select’ while booting up the game to enable this neat little feature.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-112464 size-full" src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/02140156/3DS-SNES.jpg" width="885" height="494" /></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">In addition to the GBA Ambassador games not having these or other special functions, the games are also not emulated one hundred percent. Again, Nintendo has </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">extremely</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> high quality standards, so it may not be something that concerns most gamers but it <em>is</em> important to Nintendo. Nintendo has stated <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/03/09/nintendo-explains-why-snes-games-will-only-run-on-new-3ds.aspx">in a statement to Game Informer</a> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">that “[the] New Nintendo 3DS has an improved CPU, which enables Super NES games to run on the system with quality results.” They also explained that, “the Super NES games also include [a mode] which allows players to see their games in their original TV resolution and aspect resolution”. Emulation requires more resources than many gamers realize and it really is a bit frustrating that this is lost on the general public.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Emulation is something people do every single day on their smart phones and while they may think that it is fine, many snobs such as myself would argue that they are missing out on a full and rich experience. Emulation requires a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">lot</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> of attention to detail and a lot of power is required to achieve this, which is exactly why emulators for the 3DS on computers are still a bit fragile and have some issues. This is despite the fact that current high end gaming computers can run games that look and play better than anything that current consoles can even imagine. Again, emulation takes a lot of resources, time, and the power to pull it all off. The 3DS being able to run a stellar remake of <em>Ocarina of Time</em> is not the same thing as it running a high quality and Nintendo produced Super NES emulator in the background and the game itself. <em>Ocarina of Time </em>3D was built from the ground up for the 3DS, and it was designed to be played </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">on</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> the 3DS. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">A Link to the Past</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">, however, was not; despite it seeming hard to believe, it requires more power to accurately portray the world of </span><span style="font-weight: 400">ALttP</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> then it does to portray </span><span style="font-weight: 400">OoT</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400"> 3D</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> in its stunning remaster. Furthermore, Nintendo enjoys putting extra features for gamers to gain further enjoyment from these classics. There simply isn’t enough power in the original 3DS to pull this all off at Nintendo’s desired level of quality. I personally feel that rather than berate them for not wanting to sacrifice any quality, we should respect their intentions.</span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-112465" src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/02140301/0000000000000000000000.jpg" width="691" height="389" /></p>
<p>It is very easy to take on cynicism and believe that Nintendo is just using their classic library to sell their newest iterations of the 3DS, but I firmly believe Nintendo’s stance on this matter. After all, we don’t know anything about how the 3DS works, the inner workings of emulation on the 3DS, and everything in between there. If Nintendo believes these Super NES classics are best enjoyed on the New 3DS, then I’ll take their word for it. I have no reason not to believe them. They’re not having any issue selling anything 3DS related; I’d believe this theory a lot more if it were the same story but with the Wii U instead of the 3DS family. They may be having trouble selling the Wii U but ever since they did a price drop and built up a solid game lineup, they haven’t had any issues selling 3DS units. In the meantime, I’d suggest you all do as I’m doing; I’m dusting off my Super Nintendo and playing SNES classics the old fashioned way. I’ll buy a New 3DS when I feel compelled for reasons other than Virtual Console games &#8211; and that will be the day I play a Nintendo approved <em>Super Metroid</em> on the go!</p>
<p> ;</p>

Bago Rant – Nintendo and the SNES Virtual Console Controversy
-
By Josh Nichols
Super Nintendo
- Categories: Opinion
- Tags: GamesMetroidNintendoTop Stories
Related Content
When Games Started to Gamble
By
Trevor Kincaid
December 3, 2025
The Lag Factor: Why Network Latency and Pings Can Swing Esports Bets
By
Trevor Kincaid
November 6, 2025