Glad to see something like this, I mentioned in another thread that I was hoping we could get this list written.

A few questions/comments:

The extra missions in both Pokémon Ranger games were limited-time offers and were finished a while ago. This may also be the case for most/all of the content from Conquest. I have nothing against mentioning it for people who see the games in the list of games losing features and wonder what they're missing out on but then you might have to mention events from the main Pokémon games or even the Guitar Hero DLC which have also been discontinued. If nothing else, I'm sure posterity would appreciate as complete a list of Wii/DS DLC.

Also, I think there was stuff you could unlock in Final Fantasy III by sending messages to other players. Is that not included because (I think) you can also get it through local wireless? Because that might be harder for people to organise.

Related to that, I thought I heard that the Dragon Quest stuff could also be unlocked through local interaction. Worth noting?

The puzzle DLC for the Laytons, and I think the books in 100 Classic Books, are all on cartridge, so if you're willing to cheat later on down the road they're not lost forever. Still, good enough reason for me to pick them up.


Sucks to hear that Picross DS/3D won't be able to hold all their DLC on one cartridge. :( Not sure if it's worth $5 to pick up another Picross 3D just for that...


Pokemon Conquest: The episode distribution ended long ago, but you can use an odd password system to unlock them now.


Pokemon Rangers: Both Shadows of Almia and Guardian Signs still have two missions each up for download. Like Layton, though, these are all on-cartridge, so you could cheat them in later.


Dragon Quest IX: Yeah, MisterE13 is right, if you connect locally with someone who's already downloaded the quests, you'll get them, too. I wouldn't risk the chances of that happening, but it is possible.


Also: GTA: Chinatown Wars. It took me a while to confirm this, but there are two missions that only be accessed by connecting to the Rockstar Social Club and playing some minigames. The missions are only going to last you 15 minutes or so compared to dearth of puzzles in Layton, though, so I wouldn't get the game NOW if that's all you want it for.


Last bit, Pokemon. There's not really much in Pokemon that could be considered DLC (not counting Mystery Gifts, but those are all over, anyway), but there are medals (achievements) in Black 2/White 2 that are fairly exclusive to online play: Do a trade with someone internationally so you can visit Union Tower, and fill up your Pal Pad. Trading "internationally" SHOULD be fairly easy down the road if you have two copies of the game--just register your location in one copy as being in a different country, and that should work. The Pal Pad one is also possible to get after the shutdown, but since Friend Codes won't be handed out after that date, I implore you to find 31 other copies of BW/BW2 that have connected to the Internet at some point. Good luck.


Also in Pokemon: Female Pokemon with their Hidden Abilities. Most of everybody who knows what that means has moved on to X/Y at this point, but there is still some reason to collect all the HAFs/DWFs in Black/White (RNG abuse, mainly). After the shutdown, the only way to legally get these Pokemon will be through local trading with someone who got them from somewhere else. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then just ignore this part.

How about Friend Vouchers in Metroid Prime 3 and Trilogy?
I still can't believe that they actually tied bonus content to those stupid things.

I think that stuff became unavailable last June when the Wii Message Board was shutdown. Not as huge of a deal since saves are sort of easy to import on Wii; GameFAQs has a nice save file that has no progress, but all the necessary credits.

Ohh, that's good to know. Thanks!

Was just about to suggest Metroid Prime: Trilogy for your list.


I think you're right about the Message Board stuff. I remember being bummed, having JUST bought the game. Well, guess it's time to go back to Corruption and not worry about the purple (?) credits...

Another thing I'd like to know is how much of a game needs to be played before the content can be accessed. Take Dragon Quest IX for example, how far in could I start downloading everything? That's a pretty big game and I don't know if I want to undertake that right now.

There are about 300 songs, but i could barely find 50 good ones among them. 50 is the limit of songs you can download per cart.

Time to go buy 6 carts.

Thanks for the heads up guys! I did not know that The Last Story had online only weapons or that Mario vs. DK Minis March Again had downloadable levels so I will definitely try to jump on those before the May 20th deadline.

A lot of theses games have been disappointingly hard to find around these parts

My DS games refuse to connect to the internet. I've been trying to download the weekly puzzles for Professor Layton and have tried to do so on 3 different internet Wi-Fi connections and it has failed to do so all 3 times. I even popped the game into my 3DS to see if that would make a difference but it doesn't. Anyone else with issues?

I just wonder if Nintendo will re-release some of these as e-Shop or Virtual Console versions as "Complete Editions" that might make up for some of this right?

The original DS (and most games made for it, even if they're being played on a 3DS) can't be used on connections that are protected by WPA security features. I think that in the last few years its become increasingly likely that your connection would use those instead of WEP, which the old DS could connect to.

Makes sense. It keeps asking for a WEP key which should just be the password on a two of the other spots I tried. With my home internet connection, it won't even allow me to select it as an option. If I unlock my home network, will that make much of a difference or will the WPA just cause the DS to reject it no matter what?

You could always try that, I don't really know enough about the technical aspects of it to know if it will work. I've been lucky enough to know some people that don't have protection on their Wi-Fi that I can use when I need to download something like that.

Yeah, the DS will connect to WEP networks and open (unlocked) networks.

Indeed. I've found that out and have been downloading puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

Doomsday hath come. Weep and dispair.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2 just arrived today. :(

Yup.  Planned to get on MKWii tonight and close down the service - it's already dead and gone.  Lame. :(