Pikmin 3, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D among planned Nintendo reprints

By Danny Cowan February 29, 2016

nintendo to reissue wii u 3ds rarities at a lower price pikmin3 header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nintendo of America announced that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Pikmin 3 are among the out-of-print rarities that will soon be reissued at a lower price as part of its Nintendo Selects program.

Disc and cartridge reprints for twelve featured Wii U, Wii, and 3DS games will be available at retail in North America for $20 each starting on March 11th.

Among Nintendo’s upcoming slate of reprints is Pikmin 3, a Wii U title that was once a rare find in a physical format. The game sold out quickly upon its launch in 2013, leading to inflated aftermarket prices on Amazon, eBay and other online retailers. Prior to Nintendo’s announcement of a reissue, secondhand copies of Pikmin 3 commonly sold for upwards of $80 in online auctions.

Other Wii U titles joining the Nintendo Selects program in March including the side-scrolling action game Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, retrogaming compilation NES Remix Pack, and multiplayer platformer Super Mario 3D World.

A number of popular 3DS games are also due for reprints by the end of March, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Though the game was a popular pick for Nintendo 3DS early adopters in 2011, Ocarina of Time 3D soon became impossible to find at retail due to its initial print run selling out. Nintendo never released a second shipment of cartridges in the years afterward, and as was the case with Pikmin 3, aftermarket prices surged as a result.

Additional copies of Ocarina of Time 3D will hit retail in March alongside 3DS reprints of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Mario Party: Island Tour, and Yoshi’s New Island.

Nintendo will also print more copies of some of its most popular Wii games in March, including Super Mario Galaxy 2, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Super Mario All-Stars. All Wii-formatted discs are playable on Wii U consoles via the platform’s backward compatibility feature.

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More significant Wii U games and a handful of 3DS titles were ported to Switch, but many titles are still stuck on those systems and can’t be ported. Once the digital storefront shutdowns, digital-only titles will be gone forever, and physical copies of these titles will get more expensive and harder to experience. Fans and game preservationists have not been pleased by this decision, with the Video Game History Foundation giving the most candid response.
https://twitter.com/GameHistoryOrg/status/1494398068346654720
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Why is Nintendo shutting down the 3DS and Wii eShops?
Officially, Nintendo’s FAQ on the eShop closures says “this is part of the natural life cycle for any product line as it becomes less used by consumers over time." The answer doesn’t get into specifics and might confuse those still playing games on the system or fans of games only available on Wii U or 3DS. Omdia Principal Analyst Matthew Bailey explains Nintendo’s user base argument in more detail, highlighting the massive gap between the number of people playing the Switch as opposed to the Wii U.
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If one is going off just the numbers, it’s sensible that Nintendo would want to focus on the majority of its players. Bailey admits that “Switch users are already reaping the benefits of Nintendo’s singular first-party development focus on one platform.” Still, one might argue that Nintendo should just let the eShops remain up even if it isn’t actively updating or maintaining them.

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“As these systems age, they require patches, security, special contracts, updates, and personnel that know how they were built (and maintained),” his Twitter thread explains. “As time goes on, there are security holes, servers, code, infrastructure, etc., that can’t be brought up to modern standards. It becomes a constant struggle between maintaining legacy systems, paying people to do so, and trying to keep up with global regulations. It’s not cheap by any means. They can’t just ‘leave the lights on’ and stop supporting them. What if someone hacked the payment processor?”
With every passing year, the Wii U and 3DS eShops likely became more expensive to maintain and an increased security risk for the video game publisher. Instead of investing the time and resources into pleasing a smaller amount of players, the easier option is to turn everything off entirely. While he isn’t affiliated with Nintendo, Game Over Thirty’s assessment aligns with what we’ve heard from Nintendo and Omdia.
"The Wii U’s global active installed base will drop under one million in 2022."