Nintendo 3DS Ambassador programme for early adopters

In a move that echoes the price drop of the N64, due to poor consumer demand, only weeks after release, Nintendo is offering free bonus content for customers who purchase a 3DS prior to August 11 and register the console with eShop. This maybe a preemptive strike against Sony's PS Vita, prior to the lucrative holiday season, but the announced games are AAA titles.

Since Nintendo 3DS launched in the United States on March 27, more than 830,000 people in the U.S. alone have purchased one to enjoy 3D visuals without the need for special glasses. These Nintendo 3DS owners represent some of Nintendo’s most loyal customers, and Nintendo is rewarding them for getting in on the action early 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 contains two elements:

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.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

The package is available in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.

Did you buy a 3DS at full price? Is this incentive enough to compensate? For the record I bought my 3DS during the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend sales for £160; 20 free downloadable games and a copy of 3D Classics Excitebike; I'd be churlish to complain.

Read Nan Braun's insightful 3DS review here.

Review: 3DS – 3D is the Key

Guest post by Nan Braun

Although brewing much controversy, 3D is the key killer feature for the new Nintendo 3DS. The hardware is beautiful and shiny (I got the Aqua), and the curved edges sit comfortably in your hands - but that is not a reason to upgrade. The real joy in my 3DS has been 3D, especially the 3D Augmented Reality. I have to admit that in my family of geeks, the new system has gotten mixed reactions - some of which surprised me...

My youngest step-son (11) - the biggest gaming enthusiast - was won over slowly. His first reaction was “Whoa, this is weird!” and he almost put it down. But he was just as intrigued and he was soon shooting dragons that were popping out of his knee and bargaining for more time on the system. He moved to Ridge Racer3D and thinks he can actually drive now. His older brother (13) was sold immediately and took the Street Fighter IV game for a wild run. My second daughter (16), a purposeful non-gamer, who retired her DS and her PSP years ago, picked it up and played for hours. She is enthralled with the 3D effects. Her favorite games are Face Raiders and Pilot Wings Resort, although she has put in some good time with the Ridge Racer3D game as well. My oldest Daughter (19), a long time DS and Mario fan picked it up and almost immediately put it back down again, declaring that she “hates it”. None of the other kids were too heartbroken to find out they would have more time to split amongst themselves.

Me? I am still boggling at the possibilities: both for gaming and real world application that the 3D AR brings to the table. I am not an AR newbie by any measurement, but had never found an AR application that really “hooked” me (Weather Reality on my Android probably comes the closest). The combination of 3D and AR is immediately engaging and Nintendo has done a great job of building example applications of how this could be leveraged for other games and applications.

Face Raiders gets users up and active. It surface maps pieces of the immediate environment onto game pieces in addition to a simple AR overlay approach. The AR Games, that are "?" card triggered, do the best job of showing off the full possibilities for game developers. They require full 360 interaction with the 3D AR images (targets behind or underneath part of the view). I am especially hoping that designers of puzzle and RPG type games are taking notes, as this could potentially push those genres to levels of interactivity that users had not previously dreamed of.

In the real world, I see potential for businesses (can you image a business card that launches an AR game or 3D view of a product?). As a bonus, the 3DS can be used as a pretty decent (although awkward) 3D camera in well lit environments. I have used it in my gardens as well as at a recent art show.

Summary? Thumbs up for great potential and immediate fun. Holding my breath with hope that Game Designers leverage this the way it deserves.

Buy Nintendo 3DS today.

Nan Braun has been working in the IT industry for over 2 decades, but has been a geek all her life. She attributes part of that to watching moon landings as a child, and part to the librarian who first pointed her in the direction of the science fiction section. She enjoys gadgets (OK, she is addicted), gaming, science fiction (in all media formats), beta testing and general tinkering. One of the highlights of 2010 for her was spending time at the Maker Faire in Detroit.

Nan has been an active blogger on different sites for nearly a decade and loves social media platforms. You can find Nan on twitter @roguepuppet and her current blog is at http://roguepuppet.blogspot.com.

3DS breaks Nintendo UK pre-order record

Speaking to trade mag MCV, Nintendo UK sales director, Andy Yates revealed the handheld is fast approaching 100,000 pre-orders in the UK.

"We're very encouraged that it's going to be a big launch," he said. "Our target was to get over 100,000 pre-orders - and we're in line with that. So far, we've already beat our personal best for a console launch. With three weeks to go, we're in a great position, as pre-orders are still building."

He added: "Retailers tell us that things are good, and they're pretty relieved to have a big launch in March; they need something of that magnitude."

Nintendo UK Marketing director Dawn Paine added that Nintendo's gunning for a "Wii-style" launch for 3DS, something the pre-order numbers certainly suggest it will do.

"I don't think you can underestimate peoples' hunger for new technology - the performance we're expecting comes from the quality of the product. The pre-order numbers are a testament to that," she told MCV.

"We are building towards Wii-style launch proportions. That has been our ambition all along: to get the UK into a 'feeding frenzy' situation. We feel we've picked the perfect time to launch the 3DS."

This claim is backed up by Amazon.co.uk's statement which asserts that the 3DS is the highest selling games console pre-order in the company's history.

Earlier this week reports claimed that 185,000 3DS units will be ready for UK launch on March 25. Get your pre-orders in.

Nintendo 3DS challenge to Apple triumvirate

With only days before the iPad reaches retail stores in the US, Nintendo is clearly concerned about Apple and its App Store dominating the mobile gaming space in the future!

Today the company announced another iteration of its highly successful DS (Dual Screen) platform. Not content with DS, DS Lite, DSi and, most recently, DSi XL. 3DS will be released in the next 12 months and will not require 3D glasses! How Nintendo will accomplish this technological feat is unknown at time of writing.

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that Nintendo will continue to lose market share to Apple's triumvirate - iPhone, iPod touch and iPad - irrespective of any new hardware. However, I can't see Mario Bros. for iPhone any time soon.