Swapnote on the 3DS has been “Remastered”

Let’s be honest. There has been some bizarre news lately in the Nintendo world. From major surprises and announces at Indie World Showcase to Alwa’s Awakening being ported to the NES, nothing can possibly be stranger than that, right? Well, you would be wrong, because the short-lived messaging app for the 3DS known as Swapnote updated recently, and it has officially been “Remastered” (Whatever that means).

Swapnote originally came out for the 3DS at the end of 2012. It allowed players to draw their own messages and send them to friends through SpotPass and StreetPass, two 3DS functionalities. The SpotPass feature was phased out about a year later, which really limited how useful Swapnote could actually be, but that is not stopping the Big N from updating the dated app.

Many years have gone by without much news or even signs of life for the messaging app, but out of nowhere, Nintendo released a 1.2 update for Swapnote, dubbing this update as “Remastered”.

The patch notes simply state that some problems have been fixed (Whatever that means). Some people have looked into the new update and have been unable to find anything changed or added. There is some speculation that the patch has addressed an exploit, though that still does not really explain the “Remastered” naming.

I would be a huge fan of a Swapnote Remastered for the Nintendo Switch, so when I saw that this was an update for the 3DS, I was sorely disappointed. Something the Switch is missing right now is a fun messaging system, and although I know people will abuse it, I hate that I need to use 3rd party messaging apps instead of just using the system itself. Nintendo already has a great program and a fun character to go with it, so why not bring Nikki to a new home?

Thank you for stopping by Nintendo Link for all of your 3DS news in 2020. Is this a surprise for you? Or are you still using the app regularly on your 3DS? If so, please let us know in the comments below. I would love to hear your stories! Happy gaming, everyone.