The player purchases every Wii U game and 3DS eshop before the store closes

A player bought every Wii U game and 3DS eShop before both stores closed.

Famed content creator Gerard “The Completionist” Khalil claims the entire collection amounted to 866 Wii U games and 1,547 3DS games.

That equates to 1.2TB of Wii U games and 267GB of 3DS games, DsiWare and DLC. The entire set cost Khalil $22,791 / £18,715 and took about a year to complete.

Starting March 27th, it will no longer be possible to purchase games on Wii U or 3DS eShops. As evidenced by VGC’s analysis, up to 1,000 digital-only eShop games will virtually disappear forever once the 3DS and Wii U eShop transactions end.

Nintendo confirmed last year that while no more transactions (including downloads of free demos and content) could take place after March 27 of next year, the online service would not be shut down completely.

“Even after March 27, 2023, and for the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to re-download games and downloadable content, receive software updates, and enjoy online play on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS family of systems,” the company said.

Khalil used eShop credit cards to add money to their account, as they had concerns that their bank would flag the huge number of transactions. This means getting 464 eShop cards and redeeming them one by one on each system.

However, the group ran into an issue where the eShop would only allow one digital wallet to hold $250 at a time, meaning they would have to constantly buy games, then redeem cards, then repeat the process about 72 times. “This is the reason for the stupidity!” Khalil jokes throughout the video.

Some of the most popular Wii U download exclusives set to disappear forever when stores close include Affordable Space Adventures, Amiibo Tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits, Chasing Aurora, Dr Luigi and The Letter, Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge, Pokémon Rumble U, Pushmo World (Pullblox World in Europe) and Shut the Box.

On the 3DS, the list of games that are set to disappear is even larger. This includes enhanced 3D re-releases of a number of classic games, including the Nintendo 3D Classic Collection, which introduced stereo versions of games like Excitebike, Kid Icarus, and Kirby’s Adventure.

Finally, the closure of the Wii U and 3DS eShops will also mean the end systems end of support for the Virtual Console service. Once that happens, the only older games Nintendo will have available will be those on the various Switch Online apps.