Nestalgic

Finally something I want to get.

@rayword45 Very much agreed.

Interesting that they would target the non-piracy homebrew and leave the piracy flashcarts alone. People that had been using Cubic Ninja for homebrew are now just going to turn to flashcarts which is going to reduce sales. Yet another questionable move by Nintendo this decade.

Thanks for the update. I was finally able to unload my copy on ebay. Got $35 for it!

Some of these would have been great if we hadn't already had them 2-3 times already.

CN is supposed to be Nintendo's way to get us to buy games new. Since we can count the number of good titles on 3DS released this year on just one hand, they have little incentive to offer us bonuses. And so I have little incentive to buy anything new,

I think it is telling that they are still expecting a half million Wii sales 3 years after any software releases for it. And meanwhile in the prime of the Wii U they are only looking at 150k sales per month on average. You'd think that would teach them about product differentiation, but no... They're sticking with the new model New Nintendo 3ds. If I was a Nintendo investor I'd be very wary of the future for this century-old company.

Is it still backwards compatible?

I'll probably wait on buying this until there are at least 10 games I want that are unique to the new model.

So, anyone else just the tiniest bit disappointed?

Since this appears to be in line with the EU prices, it also indicates that US prices will be $179 and $219.

If I recall correctly, the dsi was the same $169 at launch as the ds lite. So the $179 seems right since that's the post-ambassador price. And since xl versions are $40 more, voila.

@Webby-sama thanks. I'll probably go for those two over UB and then just save my remaining $12 for another sale.

Gotta remember to switch my region to Montana to avoid sales tax.

I've got a $20 card that I was planning on using on Unchained Blades. But do I go with the two Oracle games and The Keep instead?

Looking forward to this one coming State-side...

...I can dream, can't I?

Alright I can see what they're doing. Clearly the hackers have won with the original 3DS (see the homebrew development). The new 3DS must have a brand new security that is proofed against what's currently out there. And now Nintendo wants us all to switch.

Since the CPP works with the old 3DS and they are trying to reduce support for the old 3DS in favor of the new one, Nintendo is basically using collective punishment against all of us to punish the hackers.

I, for one, am gong to cancel my pre-order. I'm going to wait to buy this and any other "new enhanced" game and the system until there's a solid library. I want this game. And I want Xeno. But if the list stops there, I'm not shelling out $300 total just to play those two games.

You'd think they would have learned with the WiiU and DSi. People don't understand what those extra letters mean. "New 3DS" sounds like a marketing campaign from 2011.

So... version 9.0.0 around the corner?

3DSi... $179.99 in US$

So probably $219 for Xeno edition.

Probably get $100 for my XL... yeah I'll bite for Xeno.

You had me until subscription.

@JoostinOnline Thanks for sharing.

Finally! I'm really looking forward to buying out of region games. I wonder if this will work for eshop as well — give us access to the Japanese eshop.

Other than that, I don't really care. Homebrew stuff is cute. Like tablet games or a lot of dsiware-shovelware. It still doesn't replicate a real retail game.

Are the hackers really moving that quickly?

Getting DKR3D and trading my physical copy in at BestBuy for a $10 GC. Then using that on Sunday during their B1G1 promo to get Kirby and Mario Golf for what becomes $27 including tax. That's not a bad elite gift

Kirby for $34.99 and Mario Golf for $29.99... together about $38 including tax. I'm good with those at $19 a piece.

Next step would be to link our purchases with our account so we can redownload when our devices fail or are stolen and need to be replaced.

Clearance sales?

I really don't understand how the 3DS can't handle NES Remix. If they want more fan support they should release it on both systems — that would increase the sales.

Oh joy. Thanks NoA. Instead of giving us a new free game like Europe and Japan got (SMB Deluxe), you rehash a game you already gave us. Why not just hand us Urban Champions again while you're at it?

The problem is that sites like this one are all in the echo chamber where everything looks like it's going well. Nobody wants to admit it, but tablets and phones are the future of gaming. This generation has moved on from traditional consoles. It's not that the WiiU is a bad product — it's that the traditional way of marketing consoles just doesn't work any more. Look at the PS4 and XBox One. Those aren't really doing any better. So you can't blame Nintendo, you need to blame the entire industry for not reading the tea leaves. Square Enix has moved on and embraced the new platforms. I bet we see Mario on there soon enough.

Hello repeats!

Well if any of you don't have MvDK yet, that's a must grab. Otherwise boring as usual.

Rerelease of the soundtrack? So it's not even an original? Guess I'm going with a download

Anyone know if there will be a pre-order bonus in the States?

Surprise, surprise. Rehashes. Thanks NoA. /sarcasm-rant

@mullen

A self-published smartphone game means the maker collects almost all the revenue. For a self-published eshop game, the game has to hit a critical mass of sales before the maker gets to collect any revenue. Someone making a marginal or bad game will probably look to the smartphone market first. And someone making a good game may do that as well. The probability for profits are just greater.

Compare it to the book market. A physical hardcover sells for $30. An ebook of the same title may sell for $10. But you only collect 15% of sales on your hardcovers. Meanwhile you collect 70% on your ebooks. So it's $4.50 per hardcover sale or $3 per ebook sale. On paper that looks like hardcovers (think 3DS) sounds better. Then then when you factor in quantity sold, ebooks are better (think smartphones) because they are cheaper and thus sell far more.

@bassoongoon

You're an undergrad student but you make up a very small percentage of the global population. Right now more than 50% of phones in use in the States are smartphones. And any white or pink collar working adult pretty much has to have one. I'd imagine a lot of blue collar working adults probably have one as well.

Clever but it looks massive. It would be better as a tablet. Hopefully it would have real browsing and email capabilities too. Otherwise it's basically a pseudo-detachable WiiU gamepad.

I'll say it again, as more people switch to tablet/phone gaming because the games are more casual-gamer-friendly and much much cheaper, we're going to see fewer sales for traditional handheld consoles. That's going to mean fewer titles being offered and hence, higher prices as retailers have to figure out ways to cover their costs via higher margins on a per unit basis because they just can't come up with the quantity numbers they had in the past.

You'd be foolish to believe that tablets and smartphones are a fad. They are easier to access and always on hand. I could see Nintendo working with Google to put out an android handheld (like the Nexus 4, 7, or 10) but that also has access to the eshop. Or it could look like one of those Chinese-made WiiU gamepad clones. That would probably sell amazingly.

Let's reevaluate here for a minute and try to look outside of the echo chamber:
1. You are all here on a video game blog site because you are all really into video games.
2. How many unique users are there on this site and others like it? Maybe 1 million? 2 million?
3. How many people bought a Wii? In the first 4 years of its existence, 30 million wiis were sold. I would venture to say that anyone who bought a Wii after December 2010 would be considered a very late adopter.

So we're looking at between 1-2 million "hardcore" gamers and maybe another 56 million "regular" gamers (2 times the 28 million other wiis sold to account for PS3s and XBox360s as well). And then, assuming nobody who isn't a regular or hardcore gamer bought a PS3 or XBox, we're looking at probably an equal number of casual gamers who bought a Wii for Wii Sports type of games.

So right there you're looking at a 50/50 split. But wait. What about all the people that didn't buy a console but do play games on their phone or tablet? Anyone and everyone between the ages of 6 and 106 are potential buyers of games on those devices. Looking just at the industrial world and wealthy of the developing world:

We're looking at 60 million potential serious or hardcore gamers versus nearly 3 billion potential casual gamers.

Now ask yourself which market you'd rather be in if you were the one selling games. Even if the hardcore gamers are paying $60 a game and the casual gamers are paying $3 a game, that's still not even close when you consider that the casual gamers outnumber you 50 to 1.

Nobody is saying there won't be consoles any more. It's just that they are going to take a back seat. I imagine that means we will see heavy price hikes to traditional console games over the next generation.

@ferthepoet Bingo. That's exactly right. The Wii U just doesn't appeal to a casual gamer. If you look at its sales numbers, they aren't too different from the sales numbers of the PS3 or XBox 360. The Wii was an aberration and the Wii owners who bought it solely for Wii Sports and maybe Mario Party are the people that are switching over to tablets. Those buyers are not going to come back until a virtual reality system (or some other new concept) comes out. To most people, the Wii U is just a Wii with a tablet. And if they already own a Wii and they already own a tablet, why bother spending another $300-$400?

I agree with this assessment. A lot of people purchased the Wii because it was a more accessible way to get into video games. But tablets and phones serve that same purpose. You aren't going to be able to crack into that segment of the market once they start getting into their tablets. In the end you're going to see only the "hardcore" gamers buying systems (as we're seeing with the Wii U already). My 3DS XL will probably be the last pure video game system I buy. I'm not someone who goes gaga over new graphics or play control. And if I can hook up a bluetooth wiimote or ps3 controller to my tablet and play, I could see that as the future of gaming for me at some point.

So we won't be able to use then but will we be able to finally delete them?

What a joke. Is this the biggest story today? Let's put 2 and 2 together:
1. Amazon is SOLD OUT of Nintendo products. That bodes well for the 3DS and WiiU.
2. Amazon has to have 3rd party sellers fill that void.
3. Amazon makes less money off 3rd party sells.
4. Amazon would rather you buy stuff directly from them, hence the push for other consoles.

Case closed.

Awesome. I'm so glad I waited to register. Now granted I was waiting on it so I could secure gold/platinum for next year, but I'll take a free game. Unfortunately I have the 3 of those I'd want on cart already. I guess I'll get Mario 3D and sell my cart on ebay. That'll basically pay for LM2 for me Not too shabby!

If you have to swipe to roll, I'm out. Why can't they just make use of the physical buttons for once?

One word: preorder.

Are we supposed to pretend that these 3DS games aren't total crap? Or aren't rehashes that nobody redeemed coins for the last time around? Guess I'm waiting another month. Though for those of you that don't have Paper Mario, I guess something good did come this month along with the rehashes.

If Nintendo wants us to buy their old crappy games, they need to 3Ditize them. I mean I love classics, but this is not a classic in anything but the age.

Sounds pretty good actually. Hopefully this forces Nintendo's hand and we finally get video output for the DS and 3DS lines.

If NoA did this, I'd get an XL. Otherwise, I'm not going to bother upsizing.

Photoshop anyone?

I bought it and beat it 100% with all 4 characters in less time than it takes to get through a final fantasy or dragon quest game. I really want to like it and even popped it in yesterday but couldn't get myself to want to play beyond completing a daily challenge.

There just isn't enough to the game. The whole thing feels like a demo.

Sadly I give it a 5/10. It's just plain average.

I'm holding out hope that DLC does emerge at some point so that's why I'm not trading it in. But otherwise I would have swapped it out when I got Code of Princess.

I wonder how many blocks this will take up.