Okay so I bought the smash game awhile back, played it on my 3ds. Cool. Very Cool. My 3ds got a big black scratch across it, so on Black Friday I went out shopping (of course) for a New Nintendo 3ds XL. Got it in Red, my favorite color btw. Anyway, if I were to play the smash game that I'd already have played on my old 3ds on my New 3ds XL, would I be able to unlock dlc characters like Ryu, Lucas, or Mewto for free now? Or will I still have to pay for them.

I posted the exact Same question on the Super Smash Bros Discussion thread but decided to make my own thread about it for more answers.  

I'm not really familiar with Nintendo downloads purchases but if you already made a purchase on it within your Nintendo account, simply go to the downloads list and go from there. Hopefully that works if not, others can help you or Google  

They save on your Nintendo shop account AND on the game cartridge so they'll be there