Tonight Nintendo has revealed unfortunate news: they are slowly ceasing support for purchases from the Nintendo eShop on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in March 2023 (the Switch eShop is unaffected). After May 23, 2022, you will no longer be able to use a credit card to add funds to your account on either eShop, and after August 29, you can no longer use an eShop Card to add funds. Finally, in late March 2023, it will become impossible to purchase any games or demos on either eShop. These are likely to lead toward a full closure of the eShops at a later date, but you can still download games you’ve purchased after March 2023 and play online.

This is particularly disappointing to hear as Metroid fans, as with the exception of the original Metroid, Super Metroid and Metroid Dread, the vast majority of Metroid games cannot be played on Nintendo Switch. After these dates, it will no longer be possible to purchase Metroid II: Return of Samus or the Metroid Prime: Blast Ball demo on the 3DS eShop, or Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid: Other M through the Wii U eShop.

For new fans of the series who do not have the original games and consoles, which are now sold for extortionate prices online, the sunsetting of the eShops will reduce their access to legal copies of past Metroid titles. We do not support this decision, and strongly urge Nintendo to consider porting all other Metroid games to the Switch.

Source: Nintendo Support

This post has been updated to add that online play and downloading of previously purchased games on the Wii U and 3DS eShops will still be possible after March 2023.