Rumor: Nintendo Might Add Game Boy Advance games to the 3DS eShop

There might be some new hope for those itching to play The Minish Cap and other Game Boy Advance games on the 3DS. Zelda Dungeon’s sister site, GenGame has reported a Natsume community manager saying that Nintendo is working on adding Game Boy Advance titles to the 3DS eShop.

In a Q&A posted on her Tumblr account Thursday, Natsume Inc Community Manager CeeCee included this little tidbit when responding to questions about porting classic Harvest Moon games to the 3DS:

“No, Nintendo does not put recent console games on the 3DS eShop, and sadly that means we cannot either. The same goes with GBA (outside of the ambassador games) — though they’re working on this and we look forward to the day it’s possible. But until that day comes, we aren’t actively working on porting any specific GBA or GameCube games.”

Although this is far from direct evidence that Nintendo is working on adding Game Boy Advance support to the 3DS, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if CeeCee’s claims turned out to be true. After all, Nintendo recently announced that it will be adding DS games to the Wii U’s Virtual Console. Putting Game Boy Advance games on the 3DS seems like a logical next step to take after this, especially considering Nintendo has already ported a number of the system’s classic titles, including The Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion and Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, as part of its 3DS Ambassador Program.

If Game Boy Advance games are added to the 3DS eShop, The Minish Cap should definitely be among the first batch. It was an exceptional Zelda game, due in large part to the size-changing gameplay hook. Even though I still own a cartridge copy of the game, I’d love to see Link’s charming microscopic adventure made available to a wider audience of 3DS owners.

Source: CeeCee’s Musing (Natsume) via GenGame