The Big Guide to Pokemon 3DS Game Variants

With Nintendo 3DS online services coming to a close in the coming months (March), the popular console will almost certainly see a surge in purchase activity over the coming years. If you're like me, you played the Pokemon games to death and they're near and dear to your heart!

As it inevitably happens, over time collectors become focused on print variants of the games. Some are early print, some are late print. In North America, you might also prefer Canadian over USA! In this case, I compiled a list of every North American variant I could find. There might be some missing, or some that I think should exist but are unconfirmed.

This essay includes variants for the following mainline Pokemon games:

• Pokemon X
• Pokemon Y
• Pokemon OmegaRuby
• Pokemon AlphaSapphire
• Pokemon Sun
• Pokemon Moon
• Pokemon UltraSun
• Pokemon UltraMoon

Like the other variant lists I've posted, I've covered the manufacturing data prevalent in Nintendo titles in another essay, which I highly recommend reading if you're new to this information.

A quick pre-word on the below variants. The 3DS era saw a huge number of special release bundles. There were nine in total - four for Sun and Moon, one for OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, and another four for UltraMoon and UltraSun. These are particularly collectible as they bring back our beloved cardboard box games! Nintendo often does this, and has since even the GameCube era when standard retail copies switched fully to plastic cases.

I've split these bundles into a separate list - at least the ones that are 2-packs. If you're after those, skip to the end.

Without further ado, here are the print variants.

*Update 02/15/2023: Corrected Canadian MPN codes to use "CAN" suffix.*

Pokemon X

Black ESRB indicates early prints, where 80773A is first, and 82195A is second.

Pokemon Y

Like X, black ESRB indicates earlier prints. 80781A is first, 82198A is second.

Pokemon OmegaRuby

83666A is the earliest print.

Pokemon AlphaSapphire

83667A is the earliest print.

Pokemon Sun

All of the above, except for 104788A, are the earliest prints as they were released simultaneously. The NFR version is the same in each bundle (see also bundles at the end of this post).

Pokemon Moon

All of the above, except for 104790A, are the earliest prints as they were released simultaneously. The NFR version is the same in each bundle (see also bundles at the end of this post).

Pokemon UltraSun

All of the above, except for 106567B, are the earliest prints as they were released simultaneously. The NFR version is the same in each bundle (see also bundles at the end of this post).

Pokemon UltraMoon

All of the above, except for 106570B, are the earliest prints as they were released simultaneously. The NFR version is the same in each bundle (see also bundles at the end of this post).

Bundles

All boxed 2-packs are launch editions.

Why should you care about this information?

Truthfully, you probably don't need to. My logic is, as someone who tends to be picky about which copy of a game I own, I figure there's at least one other person out there like me who cares too.

Also, some prints are cooler to see & hold than others; a good example is the boxed figurine bundles for the both Sun/Moon and UltraSun/UltraMoon. The standard plastic cases feel a bit generic, but those bundle boxes give a touch of something special.

Thanks for reading!