Interesting fact-- Even it though it never worked when being played on Western hardware, the NES version did include a save feature-- it just required an accessory that never saw a release outside Japan. The original unaltered NES rom was re-released numerous times on various platforms with formats what were capable of saving (as an unlockable in Excitebike 64, as part of the NES classic series for GBA, as an NES game in the original Animal Crossing, etc.), and in all of those releases the save feature did work, just as it normally did in Japan when using the Famicom Data Recorder. Of course, those releases only supported one save at a time... far short from the 3DS's 32, but it was still there.