9 Best Cheap 3DS Games

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is a port of the well-received Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii. A port for the New Nintendo 3DS was released in 2015, and it needs that newer model to run. The whole game grew from one idea in June 2006, when Tetsuya Takahashi built a model of two giant titans frozen in place, with people living on their bodies. On the Wii, its North American release stayed unconfirmed until a fan campaign called Operation Rainfall drew attention to the game.

Loose carts sold for a typical $19 in 2025. The screen is small for a game this big. Even so, the port was praised for successfully re-creating the game in a portable form. Players who name it praise the story and call the game itself fantastic.

In Gates to Infinity you become a Pokémon yourself, in a world where Pokémon speak. You meet all kinds of them in the towns you visit and in the Mystery Dungeons you explore, and the whole adventure is in 3D. Critics were split, and the game received mixed reviews.

A loose cart sold for a typical $21 in 2025, which is less than most Pokémon games on the system. Fans of the series still tell newcomers to play both Mystery Dungeon games on the 3DS. If a dungeon crawler full of Pokémon sounds good to you, this is the cheap way in. Bring patience for the dungeons, and you will get a long adventure for the price of a pizza.

Monster Hunter Stories is a role-playing game spin-off where you play a Rider instead of a Hunter. You hatch eggs, befriend the monsters that come out and fight next to them in a traditional turn-based battle system. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said the idea came from players' interest in the world and the lives of its monsters. It came out in Japan on October 8, 2016 and everywhere else the following year. The series has had two sequels since, the latest in March 2026.

Loose carts sold for a typical $16 between August 2025 and January 2026. Players call it "very fun in a quirky way". Those who name it love it, and some say it does the Pokémon job better than Pokémon.

Sticker Star is the fourth Paper Mario and the first one made for a handheld. Bowser ruins the Sticker Fest in Decalburg by blowing up the Sticker Comet, and Mario sets out with a new friend, Kersti, to get the Royal Stickers back. You collect stickers and use them in all sorts of ways, including every fight. Shigeru Miyamoto asked the team to use only characters from the Super Mario world. The usual party members were cut because they clashed with the sticker system.

Loose carts sold for a typical $13 in 2025, the same as Mario Kart 7. Of all the games here, this is the one players argue about. Long-time Paper Mario fans mostly dislike it for its thin story and missing RPG parts. Go in expecting a puzzle adventure with stickers and it is a lot easier to like.

Fates is split into three story paths, and Birthright is one of its two base stories. The other is Conquest, the harder one. Your hero, Corrin, is found by Hoshidan soldiers who recognize them as a long-lost member of the Hoshidan royal family. Fates came out in Japan in June 2015 and around the world in 2016. Awakening had been planned as the last game in the series because sales were falling. It sold well instead, and development began on Fates with the Awakening staff back in their old roles.

Loose Birthright carts sold for a typical $24 in summer 2026, about $4 less than Conquest. Critics saw Birthright as a good starting place for new players. Players who love Fire Emblem rank Fates with their 3DS favourites. Turn on Classic Mode if you want fallen units gone for good.

Bravely Default started out as a sequel to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, and it kept elements from the Final Fantasy series while getting its own story. The fights are built on two commands. Brave lets a character take extra actions in one turn, and Default stores actions for later use. Akihiko Yoshida was art director. Revo of Sound Horizon wrote music meant to evoke classic series like Dragon Quest and SaGa. Japan got it in 2012, and Nintendo published it in the West in 2014.

Loose carts sold for a typical $19 in early 2026. Critics liked it a lot but did not like its repetitive late-game stages. Players who love it put it in their personal 3DS top five.

Mario Kart 7 began in early 2010 as a port of Mario Kart Wii and grew into its own game. Karts got hang-gliders, which put aerial sections in the tracks for the first time in the series, and they drive underwater too. You can build your kart from parts, race in first person or steer with gyro controls. Producer Hideki Konno called finishing it an "act of emergency", since the 3DS was selling badly and very few staff worked on it. Retro Studios helped make the retro tracks.

It became the best-selling game on the 3DS, with nearly 19 million copies sold, and that many carts keep the price down. Loose ones sold for a typical $13 in December 2025. Players treat it as the go-to game for a quick race and the best way to play with friends on the system.

Super Mario 3D Land was the first Mario game on the 3DS, released worldwide in November 2011. It mixes the level design of the 2D games with the free movement of the 3D ones. Critics praised how it used the 3D screen. It was also the first 3DS game to sell over five million copies, and it reached 12.88 million by 2024. The Wii U got a sequel, Super Mario 3D World, in 2013.

All those copies make it the cheapest game on this list. Loose carts sold for a typical $12 in spring 2025. Players still call it a great platformer. Short levels make it a good game to play in five-minute bursts.

A Link Between Worlds is an indirect sequel to A Link to the Past, set in the same Hyrule with many areas reworked. Shigeru Miyamoto asked for that setting. Most of the world is open from the start, and you can visit the dungeons in any order. Some puzzles use the 3D effect itself. Development began in 2009, stopped in late 2010 when the core team was moved to other projects, and restarted in 2011. Ryo Nagamatsu arranged Koji Kondo's music from A Link to the Past and wrote new tracks, and he played the flute music in the milk bar himself.

Loose carts sold for a typical $20 in June 2026, for a game that sold over 4.26 million copies by 2022. Players recommend it more than any other game here, and many put it on their list of the best 3DS games.