Can You Play DS Games on 3DS? What Works, What Does Not

A Nintendo 3DS plays Nintendo DS game cards. Nintendo’s support pages say most DS games work on 3DS family systems, and the exceptions are a short, specific list.

What Nintendo says works

Nintendo’s American support answer reads in two halves. The first half says most DS games work on 3DS family systems, with the exception of games that depend on the Game Boy Advance slot. The second half lists how DS and DSi software behaves on the newer hardware, and it is a list of things taken away rather than things added.

Wikipedia describes the mechanism as a separate ARM9 processor in the 3DS handling most of the older software, and notes that the system takes both DS and DSi cards. A 3DS game card has a tab at the top left corner that stops it from fitting into a DS, so the compatibility runs one way.

What does not work

The first missing piece is the slot. The Nintendo DS had a second cartridge opening that took Game Boy Advance cartridges and expansion paks such as the Rumble Pak and the Guitar Grip, according to Wikipedia’s DS article. The DSi dropped it, and the 3DS has no such slot either. Nintendo’s answer names the consequence: features or accessories that use that slot are not compatible. Titles built around a plug-in accessory, such as the Guitar Hero: On Tour grip mentioned in Wikipedia’s coverage of the DSi, are the obvious casualties.

Three more limits come straight from Nintendo’s support page. DS and DSi titles display at a lower resolution than 3DS games, and holding START or SELECT while the game loads switches to the original resolution. They do not appear in 3D, which Nintendo’s UK page puts as only 3DS software running in 3D, with DS and DSiWare games shown in 2D. And the HOME Menu cannot be opened while one is running. StreetPass and SpotPass do not apply either. Nintendo suggests checking the software manual that came with a particular game for details.

DSi-only cards and DSiWare

The DS family had a middle generation. Wikipedia explains that DSi-enhanced cards carry extra DSi features but still run on earlier DS models, while DSi-exclusive cards do not run on them at all. Only six DSi-exclusive retail cards are listed in Wikipedia’s DSi game list, and one of them, Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal, is marked as unreleased everywhere. Storm City Games’ System Flaw, released on 27 October 2009 in North America, is among the exclusives, with a later DSiWare version called System Flaw Recruit.

A 3DS handles those cards. The restriction is the other way round: a DS or DS Lite cannot run an exclusive card, but a DSi or 3DS can.

DSiWare is the downloadable side. Wikipedia lists it as backward compatible through download only, and says most DSiWare can be transferred from a DSi to a 3DS while saved data cannot. The DSi Shop closed on 31 March 2017 after funding of DSi Points ended on 30 September 2016, so no new DSiWare can be bought from it. The 3DS eShop followed on 27 March 2023, per Wikipedia, and contemporary reports such as Stevivor’s said redownloading would keep working for the foreseeable future.

Multiplayer between systems

Local wireless is one of the few things that crosses the generations without a catch. Nintendo UK’s answer says that where a DS game supports wireless play, a 3DS can connect with players on a DS, DSi, DSi XL or 3DS. Wikipedia describes Download Play as one-card multiplayer within about 65 feet, available only in certain games and usually with reduced features.

Online play is a different matter. The original Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for DS games had most of its functions discontinued worldwide on 20 May 2014, according to Wikipedia, so a DS game that relied on it for internet matches cannot be used that way on a 3DS or anything else.

Region notes

DS cards are generally region-free, and Wikipedia’s region-lock article puts the Nintendo DS among region-free handhelds. The exception is software that only runs on the DSi, which is region-locked, along with DSiWare. Nintendo UK makes the same point from the PAL side by saying some DSi games bought outside the PAL region may not play on a PAL-region 3DS.

For the full explanation of which cards are affected, see the region-free guide. The Nintendo DS games library lists titles that are ordinary cards and play on any 3DS.