Guide: How to get free plays on Nintendo Badge Arcade after March, 2023

Important: I am not affiliated with any of the manufacturers, brands, services, or websites listed on this page and this is my personal experience.  If you find this helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!

Nintendo 3DS Badge Arcade

Nintendo shut down the Nintendo 3DS eShop as of March 27th. As part of the shutdown, Nintendo Badge Arcade on the 3DS stopped giving away free plays on or around March 23rd, 2023. BUT!

Don’t despair!

As of writing, you can still get free plays on Nintendo Badge Arcade on your 3DS There’s no need to hack or jailbreak your Nintendo 3DS, just follow these steps.

  1. Launch Nintendo Badge Arcade
  2. Press the Left shoulder trigger button until you reach a screen called “Practice Catcher.”
  3. In practice catcher, you get 5 attempts to catch the wooden practice badges. If you catch them all in less than 5, it just loads more badges, and you keep catching.
  4. You will get free plays if you catch the ‘lucky’ badge, revealed after you use all your plays! In my tests, it varies between at least 1 and at most 3 free plays.
  5. Enjoy your free plays.

I’m not sure how long this will continue to work, but it works for me (in the US) as of March 2023. I’m not sure if it’s just “me,” but the badge arcade items to collect don’t change, so when you use your free play, you won’t get a set of new badges to select from – but you can at least try to round out your collection.

If this changes, I’ll update this post.

Tip: There’s no pattern that I can see in what determines the ‘lucky’ badge. As a rule, I just try and catch everything and hope for the best.

I hope this helps someone else.

PS. I still use my 3DS daily. I know there are better, newer, faster, cooler portable consoles. But the portability and playability of the Nintendo 3DS games are hard to beat.

Important: I am not affiliated with any of the manufacturers, brands, services, or websites listed on this page and this is my personal experience.  If you find this helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!

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