15 Best 3DS Multiplayer Games

Federation Force is a co-op shooter for a four-player squad, local or online. It is the first Metroid game where the player controls a Marine of the Galactic Federation, so Samus stays mostly out of the way. Each player pilots a Mech and picks gear for the mission. Some of it is plain firepower and some is support, like a healing first aid device that lets one Marine hang back and aid the others. Next Level Games made it, the studio behind Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.

Its timing did it no favors. It was announced while the series had been quiet since Metroid: Other M, and fans wanted a real Metroid instead. The game was a commercial failure and was met with a mixed reception. With three friends and a headset it plays a lot better than its reputation.

Mario Tennis Open lets you jump into a match locally or online as your Mii or a Mushroom Kingdom character. It was the first game in the series with online play, and the touch screen gives you a simple set of shot buttons if you don't want to learn the face buttons. Coins from every match buy gear for your Mii.

Unlike the older handheld games, it has no RPG elements or story mode. Critics liked the gameplay and the presentation and complained about lag online, the missing story and the focus on Miis over Mario characters. It still sold 1.11 million copies worldwide by March 31, 2013. The coloured circles on the court tell you which shot to use, so a match against a friend comes down to reading each other more than the ball.

Terraria is a 2D sandbox game where you create a character and drop into a randomly made world. You mine resources, craft equipment, build houses and fight whatever crawls out of the caves at night. Beating bosses unlocks new tiers of items and new parts of the world, and NPCs move into the houses you build once you meet their conditions.

It plays alone or with friends, and a shared world is where it shines. One player digs while another builds a base, and someone always falls into lava. The game has sold over 70 million copies across every platform, and the 3DS got its own version years after the PC original. Players who own the system keep recommending it, and it is one of the few deep sandbox games you can fit in a pocket.

Heroes of Ruin is an action RPG built for the 3DS by Square Enix London Studios and n-Space. It came out on June 15, 2012, in Europe and July 17 in North America. You pick a hero, crawl through dungeons and loot gear, and friends can team up with you in-game.

Square Enix producer George Wright said the team "were excited to make a game specifically for [the 3DS] that makes use of its great connectivity and social features." That shows. StreetPass feeds a Traders' Network where you buy and sell rare items picked up by players you passed in public, and SpotPass sends extra challenges. For a group of friends looking for a handheld Diablo, it was the only one on the system.

Island Tour was the third handheld Mario Party and the first one on the 3DS. It came out in North America in November 2013. Each board plays a little differently, and some are races to the end where the stars matter less than luck and timing. Friends without a copy can join through Download Play.

It got mixed reviews. Critics praised the variety in its game boards and minigames and criticized the lack of an online mode. None of that stopped it from selling 2.95 million units worldwide, which makes it the 24th-best-selling game on the 3DS. It also became a Nintendo Selects title. It is the easiest game on this list to hand to someone who doesn't play games, because the minigames explain themselves in a few seconds.

Code of Princess mixes the combo-heavy fighting of a beat 'em up with the stat-boosting character customization of an RPG. It plays very similar to the Sega Saturn game Guardian Heroes, and that is no accident. The director and character designer of Guardian Heroes, Tetsuhiko Kikuchi, worked on it along with that game's lead programmer, Masaki Ukyo. You fight across three lanes, and friends can join for co-op or fight each other in versus.

Atlus USA gave it a full localization with English voice acting, which the later PC release dropped. The story is silly and the cast is long, with plenty of odd characters to unlock for free play. The fights get a lot better with friends sharing the screen.

Mario Golf: World Tour gives you simple controls for new players and a deeper game for golf fans. The courses go from traditional ones to courses inspired by the Mushroom Kingdom. It has a story mode called Castle Club, where your Mii works up through club tournaments.

Critics praised the gameplay and the online functionality. They criticized Castle Club for its short length and for only letting you play as a Mii. Online is where it lives anyway. Golf also suits a handheld better than most sports, since there is no time limit when taking a shot and nobody minds if you put the system down for a minute. Players who name it often put it right next to Mario Kart 7 as a 3DS game to play with others.

Final Fantasy Explorers is a co-op monster hunting game built around classic Final Fantasy jobs. You can master over 20 jobs, including Dragoon, Dark Knight, Black Mage and White Mage. Big fights call in eidolons like Ifrit and Bahamut, and the Trance feature turns you into Cloud, Squall or Lightning for a while. You can even recruit monsters to fight with you.

It came out in Japan in December 2014 and reached North America and Europe in January 2016. It holds a 69/100 on Metacritic from 57 reviews. IGN called it "a charming little adventure that's fun to play alone with your monster buddies or with real-life friends." That is the right way to see it. It is lighter than Monster Hunter, and that makes it a good first hunting game for a group of Final Fantasy fans.

Tri Force Heroes is the direct sequel to A Link Between Worlds, and it is built for three players. Each Link has a colour, and puzzles need all three of you. Links stack up in a totem pole to reach high switches or throw bombs at things the bottom Link can't touch. Solo players control dolls they swap between. Director Hiromasa Shikata got the idea from Spirit Tracks, where Princess Zelda can possess phantoms.

Tri Force Heroes received mixed reviews from critics. The presentation, soundtrack and multiplayer were praised, and the single-player mode and online matchmaking took the blame. It sold over 1.36 million copies worldwide. With two friends in the same room it is a great time, and plenty of shouting about who threw whom off a ledge.

Minecraft on the 3DS is the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, a legacy console edition made by 4J Studios. It only runs on the New 3DS and New 2DS XL, so check your model before you buy it. The game itself is the one everyone knows: worlds of blocks you dig up, craft with and build out of, from dirt and stone to ores and lava.

Friends with their own copy can join your world over local wireless and build together. The 3DS version stopped getting updates long ago, so it has less content than other versions, and the controls take some getting used to with the C-stick. Players still pick it for one reason. A Minecraft world you can carry around and share with a friend at the next desk is hard to beat.

Monster Hunter Generations came out in Japan as Monster Hunter X in November 2015 and everywhere else in July 2016. It is the fourth major portable title in the series. The big additions were special attacks and new combat styles. You can also play as a Felyne, one of the cat companions who had always been helpers before. It pulls monsters and towns from older games, which makes it a greatest hits of the series.

In Japan, it made up over 75% of all software sales in its launch week. The game has sold more than 8 million units worldwide. For players it is the hunt that eats a whole summer, and a group of four with fixed roles and different combat styles is how the game wants to be played.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is an enhanced port of Monster Hunter Tri. The 3DS version came out in Japan in December 2011 as Monster Hunter Tri G, and in North America and Europe in March 2013. Up to four players can hunt together through local wireless, and Wii U owners could join 3DS players the same way. Save data moved between the two systems, so you could hunt on the TV and keep going on the bus.

It kept Tri's underwater combat and the Switch Axe, which changes between axe and sword forms. The touch screen holds the field map and your in-game books. Players put it close behind 4 Ultimate, and with a full party it still holds up today.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is the fourth game in the main series and the second on the 3DS. It was originally released in Japan on September 14, 2013. It was the first Monster Hunter game on a handheld to feature fully integrated online multiplayer. Before it, the PSP and 3DS games only allowed local connections unless you linked them through a PlayStation 3 or Wii U.

Director Kaname Fujioka gave it a bigger focus on adventure and story. You join a traveling caravan and unlock several base camps along the way. There are hundreds of quests and monsters whose parts become weapons and armour. Players call it a must-have on the 3DS and say it feels like a console game on a handheld.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was the first portable game in the series. Up to four players battle each other locally or online. Online has two modes. For Fun has random stages and items, and For Glory has stock matches with no items, where your wins and losses are recorded. An update on July 31, 2015, added an online tournament mode.

The roster grew to 58 characters with downloadable content, shared with the Wii U version. The Ice Climbers were removed due to the technical limitations of the 3DS. Critics applauded the fine-tuning and criticized some issues with online play. The 3DS version sold over nine million copies worldwide by September 2022. Players who share their 3DS play time often find it at the very top, sometimes by hundreds of hours.

Mario Kart 7 added hang-gliding to karts, which gave the series aerial sections for the first time. You also drive underwater, race in first person and build your own kart from parts. Producer Hideki Konno compared that kart customization screen to a slot machine. Development began in early 2010 as a port of Mario Kart Wii, and Retro Studios helped build the retro tracks.

Konno called finishing it an "act of emergency" due to low 3DS sales at the time. The emergency worked. It became the best-selling game on the 3DS with nearly 19 million copies sold. One player put it simply: "This is still the best multiplayer game on 3DS." Players recommend it more than any other multiplayer game on the system, and they keep it in the cartridge slot for a quick race whenever someone has a 3DS nearby.