Guide: Nintendo 3DS System Update v. 4.0.0-7

"only the first letter shows up on its Home Menu icon"

What. :/

"only the first letter shows up on its Home Menu icon"
Yeah, that's rather dumb... 3 letters and the ability to choose among 8 or 16 colors would have been great... http://lightbox.com/photo/tJF1ahl
Anyway, that's better than before !

I didn't know about the free levels for Mighty Switch Force! That's awesome !

Super Street Fighter IV will probably get paid DLC characters and costumes.

You only get the first letter on the folders, but when a folder is highlighted the full title is on the top screen.

Just something minor: When you boot a 3DS or head back to the menu with some in-app button, your icons of the stuff on your SD card takes a bit of time to load. These used to be blank spots, but are now blank slates.

@YomeNetSan

Yeah, it's a nice step forward but as per usual with modern day Ninty it's only a half step and not quite perfect

You could however be a bit creative and make words or little sentences just for fun using lots of folders in order with one letter on each of them

@Kirk Yeah I thought about that when I saw my own picture of my folders

I'm really happy for the Mighty Switch Force update

@Bass_X0 If SSF4 3DS did get an arcade edidtion DLC I'd pay for it. But knowing how Capcom is now they'd proly just relaunch the whole darn thing.

I am not sure if it's just my 3ds but after updating my system, I noticed that the L and R buttons won't launch the 3ds camera application when pressed.

@johnrichard07 They do, you just need to hold it down for a moment

I'm really excited about the patching. Hopefully, starting next month, I'll start seeing a little more variety in the courses other online Mario Kart racers select.

Sure it's not perfect, but this has got to be the most pleased with Nintendo I have been in a long time. Too bad it was one year late... Keep up with good work Ninty!

will that mighty switch update be for everyone who buys that game? or just for the ones that already downloaded it.

@Shugo put symbols for the first letter.

@6ch6ris6 I assume it'll be free for anyone who buys the game, either now or in future.

Folders-wise — don't forget you can use upper and lower case letters, plus symbols

Does the eShop now support paid add-on content? You mentioned free, but nothing about paid so I was wondering.

I think it will be the same way as free DLC. You can download it after you bought the game, no matter when you bought it

ALL neat and tidy now. Could've been slightly better, but i am happy

Hopefully we will see patched in support for the Circle pad pro on some existing games in the not too distant future.
Using the triggers in Mario Kart would be awesome, and the bigger controller would save me from a lot of hand cramp.

Really stoked about the MSF update. I'm looking forward to playing it again! The folders aren't perfect but it's nice to have a blue folder with a big X on it for stuff I rarely use like the health and safety notice.

Definitely a step in the right direction. Hope to see a future update withthe abbility to display icons or as suggested above more letter in the folders. But for now, all nice and tidy.

@Guybrush20X6

I honestly wouldn't doubt that,knowing Capcom's desire for money making and milking the franchise.

Don't forget it adds Nintendo Zone for European 3DS's!

I would like some more colors, even if they weren't customizable. It's almost sad seeing a wall of blue on my screen.

I'm perfectly content with our Update. We can't see the full name (or 3 letters) on the folder on the touchscreen, but now I don't have to scroll through 50+ icons to play something.

As for the eShop revamp, I didn't pay attention to the news, so this was a nice suprise.

All I want now is patching for MK7 and Kid Icarus.
MK7: Maka Wuhu glitch FIX
KI: Circle Pad Pro (Dual Analog) compatibility

It's a start. At least my menu looks a lot tidier now.

I just wish when you moved a tile that it didn't replace the one you dropped on, and just added it between the two tiles (like when you move around tiles on an iPhone), if you get what I mean.

It did take me some time to figure to make a folder. But, didn't e shop QR codes already exist?

I hope we get a patch update to Super Mario 3d Land.....It would be cool if they add some more levels to keep the game fresh till agust when the "New Super Mario Bros.2" Comes out

nice update littlebut nice:) and the patchthing is great too!

It's kind of annoying having three side-by-side folders labeled "G" just because I separate my VC games into GB, GBC, and GBA. I was thinking about making them G, C, and A, but I already had a "C" folder for 3D Classics...because if I made that folder a "3", it would conflict with "3DS Games"! Aaaaaugh!

Here's how I named mine:
NES = "NES games"
Game Boy & Game Boy Color = "Game Boy games"
Game Boy Advance = "Advance games"
Game Gear = "Sega Game Gear"
DSiWare = "DSiWare games"
3DSWare = "eShop games"
Demos = "3DS demos"

@clubmini Yep, and still does! Press L or R on the Home Menu to bring up the option. I guess Nintendo figured not many people knew that, so now it's in the eShop settings menu, where plenty more people ca... oh wait.

I labelled mine 3DS Downloads, Advance Games, Game Boy/Gear Games, iWare Games, Demos, Trailers, Videos, NES Games and Zelda Games. Hope this helps if you need folder names! Also, I didn't get Nintendo Zone?

i think nintendo zone autmaticly connects your 3ds if you are near/in a zone

So glad they fixed that nasty trigger issue. So many times I've barely touched the L or R trigger and the camera would start. Colours for folders would be great. Hopefully that will happen on the next update.

The ability to create folders was the first thing I noticed. Hopefully Nintendo makes it better in the near future :3

This update was actually released early; I downloaded it at 8:00 P.M. last night, and I organized my huge pile of apps before I went to sleep. Pretty nifty!

@DeMoN-13ruce
I think that's true
I got Nintendo Zone when I was near a zone

I am so very excited for the Mario Kart 7 patch. Thank you, Nintendo!!

@espinozac7
ah cool:) thats actualy very nice!

I have 3 folders labeled "G" and I'm completely fine with it.

Great update for the 3ds!!! Maybe now I'll actually mess with the QR Code thingy.

Also, is it just me, or did the system menu music change slightly?

Really liking my uncluttered menu now. Its the little things that make my day.

Having folders is nice, but it's a shame nobody at Nintendo felt it was worth giving some very basic customization. Colors or limited number of images would be great. Being able to display more than a single character would be nice, but since we can't I'd rather be able to make it show nothing at all - having multiple folders with big letters on them is so ugly!

Oh well. I guess getting a half-baked feature is better than nothing. (And having folders is a nice idea, even if the implementation is lacking.)

I'm not a fan.

The eShop looked much better before with its large icons, and I don't even need that bottom set. The folders look like something from a PC, and I don't want my little toybox 3DS to look anything like that, so I won't be using them.

Patching? Well, at least that's a plus. The other stuff, not so much.

When I got home last night I was pleasently surprised to see the update. I love the folders since I had close to a hundred icons between the Ambasador games, videos, demos, and paid stuff. I agree they could be better, but as usual it's a step in the right direction. Also, thanks WayForward! I love that they're giving us free levels! That is a great game.

The folders made my screen much cleaner! Kind of like the new look of the eshop too.
I do wish the customization of the folders was a little better...maybe different colors, the ability to change the folder picture to another icon, or being able to see the full name of the folder without clicking on it...but honestly, it's better than it was at least.

@ejamer Can you put a space as the first character to make them blank?

NEW extra levels for Mighty Switch Force??? OH THAT'S UNEXPECTED =D Great! This is a good update The folder were indeed needed !

@chrisy I just tried that, and yep, it'll work.

According to Nintendo Power, the Mighty Switch Force update will be free to everyone who purchases the game. Even if you buy the game after the update, it's still the same price ($6).

Had to come to you guys to find out how to make folders. Thanks Nintendo

I love the folders, but the fact you can't pick an image, make an image with the camera or even have the first app/game in the folder be an image on the 3D folder is kind of dumb.

Why they chose to have it the first symbol/letter/number on the name is beyond my understanding.

It's like Nintendo can't do ANYTHING without doing at least one little thing that makes some people scratch their heads.

be happy you get an update.....hate complaining people....did you get updates with the gamboy color advance or first ds model? no

simple update, but I love it. Only thing I wish is u could but a NES icon as the NES folder etc. etc. instead of just having a "D" or whatever the first letter is.

Nintendo could we patch in more characters into Mario Kart 7? 17 just won't cut it.

Time to start Operation Wartfall.

Our mission? To first get the great Wart patched into Mario Kart 7, and then eventually return him to a place of prominence in the Mario series.

@RevolverLink
hmm. Now that you mention it, really would be cool to see Wart in Mario Kart 7. They had some really odd choices they went with, so why not Wart? If they would add one, I'm sure it would be Waluigi though.

I made three maps: '3DSWare', DSiWare' and 'SmallWare' (for Game Boy games). Put 'em next to each other and you get 3DS! This is a fun little update, and free extra content for MSF! is a very nice surprise!

@James
The QR Code function in the eShop is also an alternative to Download Codes. You'll be able to Scan a QRcode in order to Redeem Gifts like Games, Apps, and Cash Credit. Basically so you can easily purchase content online and then send it to your 3DS. Nintendo has said that they're working on an eShop Website, and also it would make redeeming Club Nintendo Prizes a whole lot easier.

I literally took 15 minutes on how to make a folder. I was dragging icons together like on the ipod/iphone. I even tried updating again than I quit and rebooted the process and I did some other stuff like smashing my 3ds to the floor for not being up-to-date(it had to pay the price somehow).Silly Me.

What's unfortunate is that now I only have 5 columbs of tabs, and yet there are 25 empty ones...why cant we just change how many empty tiles are visible? I'd rather not have all the wasteland of space.

I'm actually pretty satisfied with the update. The eShop update is cool, and while it would be nice to customize folders more, I'm still happy with the folders.

so many good things happenning at the moment,new cave story,awsome sounding club nintendo reward,epic updates

I put numbers in front of folders.

1. 3DS Games
2. Virtual Console
3. DSiWare
etc.

I left "A"pps and "D"emos though.

I organized mine into Action, Apps, Arcade, Platformers, Puzzle, RPG, and Sports & Racing.

Love the new eShop. Looks a lot more professional (like that "Virtual Console" and "3D Games" are now always handily at the bottom).

It was a good update and eShop looks better.

eshop looks much better yeah

I like the ability to organize into folders. But, it'd be nice if in a future update there would be some icons we could choose from like a NES, GBA, GB, some DSiWare and other icons. That would look better than plain blue folders with generic letters on them.

Wasn't Arcade Edition FREE? Would be awesome if older games will be able to be patched and get DLC, then SSF4 3D might be worth the purchase now, if they can patch it to Arcade Edition 2012 for free and also do something about the framerate in 3D.

I had no idea about the Mighty Switch Force update. I'm mightily pleased.

@johnrichard07

Thats awesome! I didn't realize that, I hated the fact that just tapping the L & R button would launch the camera. So this is good.

So for the Mighty Switch Force Update I haven't noticed new levels, do I need to beat the old ones for them to show up?

Wohoo! With these folders, I could fit everything on the first page. Talk about convenient. I named all the folders so that none start with the same letter to avoid confusion. Sure, customization of the folders would of been nice, but currently I have no trouble remembering which folder contains what.

eshop bluegh

Small yet awesome change I noticed:

When you hold your stylus on an icon, it takes less time to become mobile.
Before, it took maybe half a second, now it's probably less than .1 second.
Reorganizing went a lot faster than I expected because of this.

@chrisy
OMG. Genius at work! Well, it's still not ideal but is certainly a good enough workaround.

Kid Icarus: Uprising DLC, please! I'll do anything! Well, almost anything...

And while I sadly don't see the chance of it until Mario Kart 8, I'd join Operation Wartfall. Wart has been such a glaring omission from Mario Kart games, and Mario games in general for decades now

finally nintendo have used thier brain wuhu mountain loop glitch will hopefully be fixed!!! yes now there will be not as much votes for it i hate that track

It would have been nice to see more colours for the folders. I can understand the logic behind the single character on the BOTTOM screen seeing as I'd be looking at the top screen anyways. It seems to be a natural tendency to look at the top screen right after selecting something on the bottom so having the full title name on the top screen works better.

Also, from my observations, the images for each icon whether it's an app, game, etc only expand or contract when changing the number of displayed icons at a time. The 3DS already uses quite a bit of its RAM dealing with the additional stuff installed from the eShop; quite frankly I don't see adding the title expansion being worth the additional hit to loading times on the main menu.

It's nice to see the eShop get a bit more streamlined with its menus but it seems to have lost a bit of its original charm from the change. Personally, I would have liked to see a wheel I could mess around with icons on it, soemthing fun to mess around with.

Ah, a nice little folder to put all the stuff I never use in. Now I don't have to expand my screen to see everything now!

One other change: When you flick the menu quickly to either side, it makes a sort of high-pitch chime that blends in with the background music.

@bboy2970

I noticed that too! I just didn't know if it was me or part of the update.

Some tidbits I noticed:
-eShop can now be navigated using Circle/D-pad
-When you click on a game you wish to download, the options, more details/ratings etc., are now circular.
-When you choose "download later," you are now instructed to exit and close the eshop first

I really love the folder functionality. Very nicely implemented as well, intuitive and smooth.

Loving the new updates out of curiosity what folder has everyone put Zelda 4 Swords in?

@Crafton exactly. where is the circle pad pro patch for existing game to use the shoulder buttons, should be simple rly...at the least that mario kart patch could introduce CPP support for it :0

@PinkSpider: Hehe, I made specialized folder "Zelda" >:3.

Although I also miss icons (last selected software would be fine :3) and/or at least colors on folders, I'm also happy for this update, good work .

While I wish you could change colors like the folders in the sound app, this is really useful. Everything looks better and loads more quickly. Spotpass/Streetpass lights still show up too which is nice.

@Bass_X0 I'm nearly certain they'll leave it. It's down two entire expansions and alot of the costumes that were paid for the other consoles are free here.

Now one thing they SHOULD fix is charge moves on lite mode.

Mighty Switch force update is great, and now I know NoA is full of crap for saying the Mario kart bugs couldn't be fixed without revised retail copies.

my 3DS screen is SOO MUCH CLEANER!! now my ambassador games aren't taking up the entire screen!

The update has also improved overall stability. Before the update, my system would freeze in Colors 3D if I scrolled too fast through the online gallery. That happened two or three times. Pressing the power button would not close Colors 3D - the whole system became unresponsive.

After the update, Colors 3D crashed again, in the same place. But the system did not freeze. Instead, I got a popup saying that the application had a problem and it was closed.

Has anybody noticed the Home Menu getting extra spaces? Before the update, there was no option to scroll left or right on the screen size where the icons are the smallest, but now there is!

@PinkSpider, I filed it under RPG, along with all the other Zelda stuff (and Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones). I know Zelda isn't really an RPG, but I wanted an RPG folder, lol.

I still think you should be able to change folder color and choose between:
single letter label,
up to four-letter label, or
peeking at one of the games inside.

As for the eShop update is great, but shouldn't the "Add to Wish List" button hide when viewing games you already own and games disappear from your wish list when you buy them?

@Robo-Knight i will let you know whats coming out for the next few weeks on the 3ds
april 26-block factory (3ds ware),chuck e cheese arcade room (dsi ware)
may 3-bird mania 3d(3ds ware) amoebattle (dsi ware)
may 10-kirby block ball(vc) pauls shooting adventure 2 (dsi ware)

I really think a good idea for an update would be to add a smoothing filter for DS games because of the blurry resolution issue or whatever. Would make it DS gaming much more enjoyable!

Thank god those MK7 glitches will be gone. Now those cheaters won't get on a lot and go QQ.

For those of you who rant about not being able to see two or three letters on their folders, keep in mind that Japanese 3DS users can use kanji (complex Chinese characters). So, what would happen if the folder were to show more kanji? They'd look like an ugly pile of blob, or 20 English letters squeezed together.
Here's an example I made (highlighted in red):
http://i48.tinypic.com/166lm51.jpg
In short, one-character is the way to go, end of story.
Incidentally, what you're seeing above is some Japanese amateur novelist's genius attempt to compose a story using the folders

Well, this is one of the better updates. Especially the camera thing.

@HADAA I actually prefer the Japanese 3DS' way of organizing

I like the update, I went and made 4 folders, DSiWare, Gameboy, Movies, and Demos.

"Mighty Switch Force! will get five extra levels and a quick-retry button, all for free"

Very cool! Any word on when those 5 levels are available?

I hope that the MSF update adds a few new tracks. That game has fantastic music.

Love it! The eShop looks really cool and I love the folders!

Haven't updated yet but I like the folders!Now I can organize my Ambassador Games!I love my 3DS and I'm proud to own one.Nintendo (maybe once or twice) has never dissapointed me.

I wish you could customize the folders more, but still a nice addition by Nintendo. Ive separated my games/demos/videos into eight folders: 3D Games, DSiWare, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Sega Game Gear, NES, and Videos/Demos. Now i wish Nintendo would just release more GBC games

Thats amazing, they listened to me about Mighty Switch Force?

The Wii needs more desesperatly an update in the Mii Channel, Store Channel, update you can see directly all the downloads like the 3ds general view, the folders update and more.

At last! Folders! I really needed that with my embassador program and 20 or so games hanging around my screen. Thanks again big N.

i updated tuesday night! like 9:00 too! it was really nice. but the folders could use more colors

I'm not sure if anybody has realized this yet or not but you can now also upload pics from your 3ds to Facebook! I've also checked on a couple of other sites that you can upload pics and sure enough you can upload from your 3ds to those sites as well! Unlike Dsi there is no option staright from your camera but you can upload from your gallery

I know this sounds nitpicky, but why doesn't the 3DS have an alarm yet, while the DS and the DSi do? It's not a huge deal, I just don't understand why they would leave that out (coming from a guy without an alarm clock or phone).

Also, it's gonna be funny to see the oblivious people still driving off the bridge in Maka Wuhu and then realizing it doesn't work anymore. I can't wait for that.

"I hope that the MSF update adds a few new tracks. That game has fantastic music"

I agree. What a soundtrack!

there's also the ability to go straight to the e-shop from mii plaza when you check their recent game, at least I think that's new.

@kobe1724,
Actually the shortcut still works I hold the world record for it. My 3ds name is Shy☆Guy and I used that shortcut to make right after the update. So I guess I just proved you wrong. Your answer:
SHY GUY SAY "NO"!

forgot to say my name is oshawottartist on here because Shy-Guy was taken already