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November 6 2025 | last edited: November 6 2025
what can you do with a 3DS in the big 2025/26?
by crazykitty
intro
The 3DS was a console of it’s time. 3D was the hit new technology sweeping TVs at the time, if only we could harness it in a portable game console.
With that small retrospective out of the way there’s a lot you can do with a 3DS in the big 2025 and possibly 2026.
3dsx - this is an application, it can be ran on hardware via the homebrew launcher, can also be ran on emulators without the need for system files
cia - this is also an application, this can be installed to your home menu via FBI or GodMode9
cxi - this is a decrypted cia, mostly used for playing games on 3ds emulators. Can be further unpacked to reveal the game’s files.
nds - this is a ROM file for the DS.
srl - this is identical to an nds file, you usually find these files when unpacking WiiU DS virtual console games or wherever nintendo uses DS emulation. To make it work just rename the file extension to nds.
CFW CustomFirmWare
Before I begin a lot of the things I will yap about is mostly CFW (custom firmware) related. In terms of how to set it up I’m not going to yap about it here since this bit changes all the time for the mostpart, and I don’t want to make this blog post outdated.
This is a good guide for doing just that.
Luma3DS is the main CFW for the 3DS. With this you can run custom programs, things you generally couldn’t do without it, and even bring back lost functionality.
After doing the guide to access some the Luma settings hold select when booting. I recommend checking “Enable loading external FIRMs and modules” and “Enable game patching”.
Once booted into your home menu if you press L, Down and Select the bottom screen should show the Rosalina menu. Here you can do things like take a screenshot in every game, change various settings without exiting to the home menu (changing screen brightness, forcing a wifi connection, changing brightness, toggling airplane mode), the ability to see the exact percentage of the battery, the current discharge voltage, and temps.
Useful Software
- Universal Updater (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- This is a simple homebrew updater, almost all of the programs I’m going to talk about in this section can be downloaded here
- GodMode9 (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- This is a full filesystem, it’s used to back up the NAND in the case of a brick. It can also be used to archive physical 3DS and DS games.
- BE CAREFUL WHEN DOING ANYTHING INVOLVING THE NAND AS THAT’S A 1 WAY TICKET TO A BRICKED SYSTEM.
- FBI (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- This allows you to install .cia files (3ds equivilant of a .exe).
- the Homebrew Launcher (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- This is used to launch 3dsx files on your system
- 3DShell [link]
- This is another file manager for the 3DS. the differences between it and GM9 is you don’t need to turn off your DS to run.
- FTPD (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- it’s a homebrew application that runs an ftp fileserver on your 3DS, this can allow you to manage your 3DS’s filesystem on your PC or phone without the need to turn off your DS
- this is very useful and required if your SD card latch is broken (like mine)
- TWiLight Menu++ [universal-updater]
- this allows you to run DS, GB, GBC, GBA (via GBARunner2), SNES, NES and Genesis roms from the SD card
- Fun Fact: Running DS games here isn’t emulation because it’s just booting into the 3DS’s DS mode.
- Fun Fact x2: running GBA roms here isn’t emulation, it’s the equivilant of running nintendont on Wii U.
- Unfun Fact: there is graphical issues in SNES, and GBARunner2.
- To fix GBARunner2’s repeating screen issue tap the bottom screen and spam reset until it’s fixed (it’s like hitting a crt for a clear antenna signal xD)
- To fix SNES uhh… good luck, I haven’t been able to find a fix for it. In the meantime there’s an snes9x port.
Software that brings back functionality
- Anemone (installed while doing the cfw guide)
- It’s a theme manager, you can get custom themes at Theme Plaza
- to apply a theme first go to theme plaza, next scan your theme’s qr code in the app via pressing R after opening it, hold A, hold dpad up for theme + music, left for adding one theme’s bgm on another theme or right for having no bgm, let go of A to confirm your option, press start (you should now be at the gray power off screen), press home and now you should have your theme applied.
- Can also be used to set and download splash screens.
- First open Luma3DS’s config screen via holding select at boot, then press A on splash once then press start (this will enable the boot splash). Second find the splash you want at Theme Plaza, open Anemone, press L to go to the splashes screen, press R scan the qr code, press A on the splash that was just downloaded, press start to apply it. then reboot your 3DS to see your newly applied splash screen
- Pretendo [link]
- this brings back functionality of 2 things, Nintendo Network (online multiplayer) and Miiverse
Software that unlocks more functionality
- Checkpoint
- A save manager: allows you to back up save files, also works with cartridge games* (for 3DS games only).
- NetPass [link] [universal-updater]
- this allows you to do streetpass over the internet; useful if you want to farm mii plaza.
- Artic Base
- Allows you to connect your 3DS to an emulator so you can play your 3DS library* on your PC. *for 3DS games only
- This also syncs your save files to the emulator. (to do vice-versa emulator -> 3DS, you would have to do it via Checkpoint)
- New Super Ultimate Injector [link]
- It’s a PC program that allows you to use nintendo’s offical virtual console emulator with your own roms.
- Fast Playcoin
- Allows you to cheat in 300 playcoins.
- For Anyone Who Walks A Lot [link]
- Removes ninteno’s play coin daily earn cap of 10 (1000 steps)
Making software and games for the 3DS
Some of these require the 3ds-dev, 3ds-portlibs and 3ds-sdl-libs meta packages from devkitpro.
Higher-Level Languages
If you don’t code or just starting to do programming Scratch, GB-Studio (via NSUI), RPG Maker 2000 are all supported.
High-Level Languages
lua(love2d), godot 4(headless only)
Low-Level Languages
Use C (via devkitpro), C++ (via config and devkitpro), or Rust; be sure to follow docs and look at examples.
if you use C or C++ on linux the examples are found at
/opt/devkitpro/examples/3ds/
or at
if it’s set up correctly.
on windows… i assume it’s where the environment variable DEVKITPRO is but idk I don’t use windows
to test applications on hardware use 3dslink (bundled with devkitpro) or cargo 3ds test for rust.
to test on an emulator, use azahar
if it asks for system files, go to File -> Set Up System Files… and follow the instructions.
The 3DS is also a DS
A 3DS can do everything a DS can do as well all thanks to nintendo caring about backwards compatibility when designing the 3DS.
Compatibility
This means the 3DS is complatible with 90% of DS homebrew and games. The things that aren’t supported are usually full file explorers (like GM9) require a special cartridge (a good example is PS1 emulation as seen here or Guitar Hero: On Tour which uses the GBA port).
Making homebrew for it is very similar to the 3DS except instead of installing 3ds-dev it’s nds-dev and nds-portlibs. Also to run your homebrew you would need to boot it from a DS flashcart (something like an R4) or Twilight Menu++
There are some mods you can use to enhance playing DS games.
- nds bootstrap
- allows you to have a Rosalina menu when you play DS games. This menu can allow you to do things like see the contents of RAM (in bytes), switch CPU and VRAM clock speeds to match DSi for extra performance (only when booting games from Twilight Menu), and take screenshots.
- Twilight Menu++
- allows you to use actionreplay cheats in games, boot games from an SD/microSD card
- allow you to have multiple save files for games that don’t multiple save slots (like pokemon)
- also has many more features. (multiple menus, gbrunner2 compatibility, some basic emulators built-in)
tags: retro