The summer game drought has seemingly spread to the Nintendo eShop – there are only three new arrivals due this Thursday, and one of those is a yet another match-three puzzler.
There are some decent eShop discounts however. To celebrate its arrival on Wii U Virtual Console exactly one year ago, legendary SNES RPG Earthbound is receiving a 40% discount. This’ll bring the price down to £4.19 until 24th July.
Last year’s Virtual Console release marked the first time that the much-loved adventure was made available to European gamers. In order to give newcomers a helping hand, the originally packed-in player’s guide was also released as a PDF.
On 3DS meanwhile SteamWorld Dig – a game that we found very hard to fault – likewise gets a temporary price drop. Mixing Mr. Driller with Metroid, it’s one of the eShop’s finest. Until 31st July it’ll set you back £3.99 instead of £7.99.
Little Inferno on Wii U is also getting a cut – down to £4.59 – while escapeVektor on 3DS falls to £3.59 until the end of the month. Then there’s Nintendo’s Steel Diver: Sub Wars: Premium Version, down to £6.29 from £8.99. Finally, 3DS platformer Cubit The Hardcore Platformer Robot is not just getting a price cut – from £2.69 to £1.80 – but also a demo.
As for new stuff, Japanese 2D shooter Gaiabreaker (£9.89) makes its way onto Wii U. A very traditional shmup, it would appear that developers Ubiquitous Entertainment are big fans of Raiden.
Then hot on the heels of Kirby Triple Deluxe comes Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land – the week’s only Wii U Virtual Console release. If memory serves, fans hoovered this one up when it was first released in 2002.
This leaves us with that aforementioned match-three puzzler. Entitled Pick-A-Gem, it looks colourful if nothing else. If you own a 3DS and haven’t had your fair share of these yet, then the £2.69 asking price doesn’t strike us as unreasonable.