The 3DS launched badly enough that Nintendo cut the price by a third within six months and apologized to early adopters. What followed was one of the best handheld libraries ever assembled, including the game that saved an entire franchise from cancellation. These are the 12 best Nintendo 3DS games of all time.
12. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
Next Level Games’ 2013 sequel restructured the original into mission-based chunks that suit handheld play perfectly, and added a superb multiplayer mode. Its ghost designs and animation give Luigi more personality than he gets anywhere else.
11. Kid Icarus: Uprising
Masahiro Sakurai’s 2012 revival has famously awkward controls (many players used the included stand) and one of the best scripts Nintendo has ever published, with constant, genuinely funny banter. Its on-rails flight sections and difficulty-betting system are unlike anything else.
10. Super Mario 3D Land
The 2011 platformer solved the problem of putting 3D Mario on a handheld by borrowing the linear structure of 2D Mario, creating a hybrid that Nintendo has used ever since. It is also the best argument the stereoscopic 3D effect ever made, since depth genuinely helps you judge jumps.
9. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
The 2012 entry made you mayor, which finally let players reshape the town rather than just decorate a house. For many fans it remains the series’ peak, and its StreetPass features made carrying the console around genuinely rewarding.
8. Metroid: Samus Returns
MercurySteam’s 2017 remake of Metroid II added a melee counter that reshaped the series’ combat, and it arrived after a seven-year Metroid drought that had fans fearing the series was finished. It led directly to Metroid Dread.
7. Pokemon X and Y
The 2013 games brought the series into 3D, introduced Mega Evolution, and made online trading and battling effortless for the first time. Their character customization was a first for the series, and their launch was the biggest in Pokemon’s history to that point.
6. Mario Kart 7
The 2011 entry added gliders and underwater driving, both of which stuck permanently, and its online play was remarkably stable for handheld hardware of the era. It sold over 18 million copies and remains one of the tightest entries in the series; the newest is covered in our Mario Kart World guides.
5. Monster Hunter Generations
The 2016 celebration entry pulled monsters, villages, and mechanics from across the series and added Hunting Styles that changed how every weapon played. Monster Hunter on 3DS built the Western audience that Monster Hunter: World would later explode.
4. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
The 2017 expanded versions closed out the handheld’s Pokemon run with the Alola region’s island trials replacing traditional gyms, one of the series’ best stories, and a postgame that dwarfed anything before it.
3. Fire Emblem Awakening
The 2012 game that saved the series. Nintendo told Intelligent Systems that if it did not sell 250,000 copies, Fire Emblem was finished, so the team built everything they wanted into what they assumed was a farewell: casual mode without permadeath, relationship systems, and child units. It sold nearly two million and made the franchise a pillar, leading directly to Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave this month.
2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The 2013 sequel to A Link to the Past lets you rent every item from the start, which quietly demolished the series’ rigid dungeon order and let players solve Hyrule in nearly any sequence. Its wall-merging mechanic is a perfect use of the 3D screen, and its structure directly influenced Breath of the Wild, which appears on our best Wii U games list.
1. Fire Emblem Fates
The 2016 follow-up to Awakening split into three campaigns: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation, each a full game with its own maps, cast, and difficulty philosophy. Conquest in particular has the finest map design in the entire series, with objectives that go far beyond “defeat everyone” and challenge you to think three turns ahead.
It takes number one because it is the most game on the system by a wide margin, and because its tactical design has never been bettered by the franchise, not even by this month’s Switch 2 entry. Its story is messier than Awakening’s, but nobody plays Conquest for the plot; they play it because every map is a puzzle box built by people at the absolute top of their craft.
Honorable Mentions
Bravely Default, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Etrionis Odyssey IV, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Pushmo, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Ocarina of Time 3D, and Majora’s Mask 3D round out a library deep enough that a top 20 would have been easier to write than a top 12.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best 3DS game of all time? Fire Emblem Fates for its map design and sheer volume, with A Link Between Worlds the best pick for anyone who wants a single, perfectly paced adventure.
How can I play 3DS games today? The 3DS eShop closed in 2023, so physical cartridges and original hardware are the main route. Some titles have Switch remasters or sequels.
What was the best-selling 3DS game? Mario Kart 7, at over 18 million copies.
What came before this? The Nintendo DS, whose library we rank in our best DS games of all time.