I hacked my Nintendo 3DS

You can do a lot with a hacked 3DS, but I'll figure out what later.

Published February 2, 2026

I have to admit, I’m not really sure what all I can do with a hacked 3DS. My basic philosophy is that all devices should be hacked, jailbroken, or rooted, especially when they’re no longer supported by the manufacturer.

My main reason for doing it is that I heard that aging 3DS cartridges are becoming unplayable. And I’d like to back up my games so I can keep playing them if the cartridges should fail. I’m pouring a good amount of money into buying 3DS games (though not half as much money as if I were buying Switch or Switch 2 games). It would be nice to protect that investment a little.

I followed this guide on YouTube to hack my Nintendo 3DS and it worked perfectly.

So I’ve taken one of my recent favorite things and now I can do more with it, though the more that I can do seems fuzzy. That might mean its piracy given how litigious Nintendo is about piracy. I’ll figure it out later. In the mean time, I downloaded a cool Mario theme.