I love my 3DS and proudly show it off to anyone who asks and the reactions usually start with “wow, cool” and quickly end with “I MUST have one”! When people ask me if they should buy one, I always respond that because of the $250 price tag, I wouldn’t recommend replacing a perfectly good DSi until you need to. But now Nintendo is lowering the price by almost $100 from $249.99 to $169.99 so… go get one!
The new price goes into effect on August 12, and will price the 3DS at the same amount as the DSiXL (the extra large version of the DSi). For everyone who purchased the 3DS at the original price of $250, these users will be rewarded with 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop. These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program will include the following two elements (from Nintendo):
Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.
By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.
After attending E3 in June and visiting with many game companies over the past few weeks, I can tell you that there are a lot of great 3D games coming out as the summer winds down and the holiday season ramps up. If you have been thinking about buying a 3DS, hang on until August 12 and then go get one! Maybe the next time we pass each other on the street, our 3DS Mii’s can meet up in the plaza (yes, that’s something that really happens on the 3DS) and we will be Mii friends for life!