Frustrated at the sky-high prices of Cubic Ninja? It seems Smealum might have a solution for that.

Smealum’s twitter feed is just an explosion of announces lately, for those of you who have been following the 3DS scene, and the Ninjhax exploit.

What is Ninjhax?

Ninjhax 2.0 is a piece of software that allows you to run unsigned code on your 3DS. In practice, this means being able to run homebrew applications such as games, tools and emulators! Additionally, ninjhax 2.0 allows you to run many out-of-region gamecards, as well as use custom themes on your console. What’s pretty awesome is that this runs on firmware version 9.9, the latest one.

Smealum released Ninjhax several months ago, then recently updated it to the latest 3DS firmware.

Why is Cubic Ninja so freaking expensive?

Because Ninjhax relies on a single game (Cubic Ninja), and you need a cartridge of that game in order to run Ninjhax, the prices of Cubic Ninja literally multiplied by 10 since the first announce of Ninjhax last year.

Some people have been buying multiple copies of the game to resell it at higher prices, frustrating legit homebrew enthusiasts (as well as pirates) in the process.

Smealum apparently has a solution going on, actually potentially two solutions.

Freehax

Smealum heavily implied on twitter that he has a solution where one would need the Cubic Ninja game only once to install the hack. Once installed, further launches of the hack would not require the game.

wouldn’t it be cool if you only needed cubic ninja the first time you install ninjhax ? if you think so, stay tuned ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

— smea (@smealum) July 26, 2015

He however seemed to emphasize on the fact that people would need to act quickly when he announces the technique. This seems to indicate Nintendo might have some way to counter the hack pretty quickly. Possibly, the trick involves a free application downloadable through Nintendo’s eShop. If that is the case, Nintendo could easily remove whatever app is involved from their store as soon as the technique is made public.

when it is announced I suggest everyone get in on it as soon as they can, and tell everyone else to do the same. or not, your call I guess. — smea (@smealum) July 27, 2015

Smealum mentioned however that he “as a plan”

Ocarina Of time 3D Support for the homebrew launcher

3DS homebrew Launcher running on the Ocarina of Time 3D exploit

We on the PSP/Vita scene know that many, many games have vulnerabilities. Game developers have very minimal concern for security in general, and trust the underlying platform (in this case, the 3DS) to prevent any hacking attempt. The PSP scene, with approximately 100 game exploits known, is proof that the platform cannot do everything.

So in a way, it is not surprising to discover that more games are vulnerable than “only” Cubic Ninja on the 3DS, and that Smealum’s homebrew launcher can be ported to such games.

(*☉д☉)☞ミ匚___ https://t.co/IPYv6ig11O

— smea (@smealum) July 29, 2015

Smealum mentions that the exploit on Ocarina Of Time 3D is mostly the work of yellows8, while Smealum “only” handled the port of the Homebrew Launcher.

This means that soon, 3DS owners on the latest firmware willl be given two additional options to run Homebrews. One through the “yet to be announced” freehax, and the other one through Ocarina Of Time 3D.