Huge updates for the 3DS today. In the 3DS eShop you can now view the first installment of the Nintendo 3DS Show for previews of upcoming games, info about the 25th anniversary of Zelda and more.
Today also marks the official launch of the 3DS Ambassador Program. For those of us that bought a 3DS during it's first month of release for $250 there's an assortment of new stuff.
First off is the Ambassador Program Certificate. This is basically a 3+ minute video explaining how to turn on spotpass updates for the Ambassador Program. It features a certificate in 3D on the top screen and scrolling instructions in English, Spanish, French and Italian on the bottom screen.
Second, and by far more interesting, the first 10 of the 20 free games "ambassadors" are entitled to download. This list includes 10 classic original 8bit NES games from the mid '80s through the early '90s. The games are:
Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
Metroid
Yoshi
Donkey Kong Jr.
Ice Climber
Wrecking Crew
Balloon Fight
NES Open Tournament Golf
I can't for the love of me figure out why they included that golf game. The rest are pretty much what I expected. As I thought, the original Kid Icarus was not included. I can only imagine that they plan to release that when the new 3DS Kid Icarus Uprising is released. And I honestly don't remember that Yoshi game. It's kind of like Dr. Mario or Tetris. I had always thought Yoshi's first appearance was the SNES Super Mario World. I owned, played and beat 8 of the 10 games in the 1980s so it's kinda fun to go back to them. I was surprised to see I still remember where every level in Zelda is. Still remember what trees to burn, what rocks to push, what walls to blow up, all the enemies weaknesses and where to find and buy everything, just like it was yesterday. Hard to believe it's been 25 years.
One frustrating part that really annoys me is that unlike ALL previously released 3DS virtual console games, both Gameboy and Gameboy Color; these NES VC games do not allow for creating restore points. There's no real time save feature. I mean to save Zelda you have to pause the game, then hold L + R and then hit Y to switch to player 2 controller, then push Up + A to bring up the save screen, then L + R and hit Y again to switch to player 1 controller than Y to select save, then Start. Fairly annoying! Metroid you still have to write down the 24 digit password and when you restart you lose all your extra energy and have to go kill things for 20 minutes before you can really do anything. And Super Mario Bros. still sports no save feature at all! Don't know why they chose to omit the restore point feature from NES titles. Hopefully enough people will complain and they can always patch it in easy enough later via wifi. One of the things that makes the 3DS great, the ability for them to patch and fix stupid stuff they do later on after the fact.
With spotpass enabled on the 3DS Ambassador Program Certificate I will automatically get a notification update when any of the 10 remaining free games become available. According to Nintendo, 10 Gameboy Advance games will be given to "ambassadors" between now and the end of the year.
There was also an announcement that they are going to put Zelda Four Swords in the eShop at some point for free download to everyone as part of the 25 Years of Zelda celebration. I'm guessing since we got Link's Awakening DX for free when Ocarina of Time 3D came out they will probably coordinate the Four Swords download with the release of Skyward Sword on the Wii.
One last note, latest video added to the 3DS Nintendo Video application called "The Art of FLIGHT" is amazing! It's all about snowboarding in extreme places where no human has ever gone before. And I'm no fan of snowboarding but this is AMAZING to see in 3D. Beautiful mountains and stuff. And, for the first time, they seem to have managed to have a few shots where the 3D does in fact POP OUT at you! Like in the movies there are a few shots where the objects, in this case snow and parts of a helicopter, actually extend forward towards you beyond the screen. I was led to believe it could not do that. And all the games I have seen, own, or played, all the videos, and everything else to date has all been "inside" the 3D screen like through a window. This represents the first thing I've seen that does this and actually pops out like you could touch it!
Well, that's about it for now. Haven't had a whole lot of time for games lately but today was a pretty big update.
