Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Nintendo Reveals 18 Titles to Launch (March 27th) with the 3DS in the U.S., 1st Party Priced at $39.99

Coming straight from a PR email (posted here, among other places), Nintendo has finally named 18 (16, really) 3DS titles from both itself and third-party publishers that are "ready to go" on March 27th in North America.

List:
 - Pilotwings Resort
 - Steel Diver
 - nintendogs + cats (3 versions; french bulldog, toy poodle, and golden retriever)
 - Aphalt 3D
 - BUST-A-MOVE UNIVERSE
 - Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
 - LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
 - Madden NFL Football
 - Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
 - Rayman 3D
 - Ridge Racer 3D
 - SAMURAI WARRIORS: Chronicles
 - Super Monkey Ball 3D
 - Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
 - The Sims 3
 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (footage at 1:50)

Gotta say, thanks again to the free service from G4 for the heads up on this one. I was out running when I saw a brief text speaking of 18 launch 3DS titles, and I knew I had to rush home to see what they were (I don't have a data plan that includes internet usage on my phone).
Glad to finally get a hard list of games to expect day one and that there are as much as there are, but I'm really not glad that Nintendo opted for $40 games. I was really expecting a base price of $35 for "normal" first-party titles, and then "premium" titles would go for $40. Steel Diver and PilotWings don't really seem like "premium" titles to me. No proper indication of what prices to expect from third-parties, but if Nintendo starts at $40, I can pretty much guarantee that third-parties won't trend lower in general. Super Street Fighter IV 3D, LEGO Star Wars 3, and Nintendogs + Cats are the only things of this launch list that stand out to me as being titles with content to match a $40 asking price, and Street Fighter likely won't be $40, based on it's budget price in Japan.


I should be getting my 3DS on the 29th if Amazon (UPS or FedEx, really) doesn't let me down, and as I've said, I've got DS titles to finish up and finally buy so that will keep me busy, but I think I'll at least grab PilotWings Resort. I'm very interested in one of the fighters (Dead or Alive: Dimensions, or the launch Street Fighter), Shadow Wars, and Super Monkey Ball, and I would like to get one of the racers (Ridge Racer or Asphalt), but I need to hear more about them. I've got an eye on Steel Diver, but I'm not at all sure about getting it yet.


Which of these do you guys plan on buying when you grab a 3DS? Or maybe you don't at all plan to grab a 3DS, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Actually pretty impressed with the line up that North America has. I think this is Nintendo's most strongest handheld launch line up ever, third party wise. I know I'm going to get Street Fighter IV because that game is going all out in using 3DS's capabilities (including spotpass so free DLC anyone?), I never played the "Musou" series before but I like how KT are putting so much effort into this game so I'll keep my eyes on it, and finally I'm actually interested in PES 2011, Shadow Wars and Ridge Racers 3D. (I got the DS version of the game. I had fun playing it but those cars could rubber banded me to death)

    The ones that I'm disappointed about are DoA: Dimensions and Rabbids are not launch titles! I know that KT announced that they were releasing both Samurai Warriors and DoA: Dimensions for launch but something must have happened and that Rabbids game looks sweet...I thought for sure it was going to be a launch title.

    However, I'm sorely disappointed in EA's Madden NFL Football. I can live without franchise mode since I never touched it Madden '99, but I'm totally baffled by the lack of any multiplayer modes when EA announced it at the Nintendo Conference. You would expect a sports game to have some sort of multiplayer game at least, but this is the first time that I'm hearing about it. Also, not supporting Streetpass is missed oppurtunity since they could have done a trading card game or a fantasy football system.

    All I have to say is that the game better support Spotpass so that they can include some sort of mode into the game since this game really shouldn't have used up all 2GB of space on the 3DS card. *Sorry about the long Madden post, I just had to vent*

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  3. "...I'm really not glad that Nintendo opted for $40 games..."
    Me neither, but this means they just need to deliver content to justify the price...and I'm not sure I see it with Nintendo's release games.

    "...Street Fighter likely won't be $40, based on it's budget price in Japan."
    Actually, Amazon.com has it at $40, as are 90%+ of the third party games last I checked...$40 seems the "MSRP" they're all going with now.

    @Falco8:
    "...I'm sorely disappointed in EA's Madden NFL Football."
    Same here, same reason also. No online multi-player...or even local shared multi-player between two 3DS systems?

    I'm guessing EA will release a NEW 3DS Madden in August/September, that has multi-player...I'm guessing this was rushed out the door, simply to take advantage of the release of the system...but just 6 months later they can release a fuller game for $40...which I wouldn't doubt happens and then EA will wonder why consumers don't like them and they don't do well on Nintendo consoles and complain about it.

    I am interested in PilotWings Resort and Steel Diver from Nintendo, but knowing Steel Diver has been swimming around for 5+ years has me kind of worried about the game...and for $40, the game better last a long-time, with lots of replay value.

    Super Street Fighter has me interested, but I haven't purchased a fighting game in a long while...though this one being portable is kind of appealing to me.
    I'll have to read more hands-on impressions with all the games though, before making any final decisions...

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  4. I mentioned Madden especially not being worth the $40 it will likely sell at, but removed when I changed a bit of the topic structure. If they add all the content that makes people gaga for the $60 home console version then $40 or $45 won't seem like a bad deal at all, but until then they get a big middle finger.

    As for Amazon prices.....it just seems like a lucky guess that Nintendo's own games ended up matching the prices that Amazon guessed, because that's what they're doing and that's what I'm doing; making a guess based on some hard facts.
    Also consider that part of Amazon's policy is that if a customer preorders something at a certain price, and the price goes up later, the customer that already pre-ordered will only have to pay the first, cheaper price. So, they're guesses would bias-ly skew higher in that way.

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