Homebrew isn’t back, though
The 3DS hacking community keeps fighting back every time Nintendo thwarts their efforts. Late last year, “reverse engineer extraordinaire” Smealum found an exploit in the obscure game Cubic Ninja which enabled any homebrew code to run on the 3DS. Nintendo quickly shut that down.
Then, earlier this year, Smealum unlocked the 3DS so that it was region-free. Players who took advantage of it could use any cartridge on any 3DS hardware, eliminating the need to import both if they really wanted to play a game.The initiative was called “regionthree,” and again, it was squashed rather rapidly.
Now, Smealum has yet another region-free exploit, and just like the homebrew solution, it requires a copy of Cubic Ninja. “RegionFOUR” as he’s calling it, works on firmware versions 9.2 and 9.7 on 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, and New 3DS XL. This video walks you through the steps, but Smealum also outlines the process of obtaining the region-free loader in detail on his site.
If history’s taught us anything, it’s that Nintendo will probably patch this exploit rather quickly. But, Cubic Ninja owners who act quickly will be able to stick to a single handheld when importing the newest game from Japan. Well, that’s provided that they don’t ever update the firmware.
RegionFOUR [Smealum]
