Smashing! Buy Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash via the eShop, get N64 Mario Tennis free

Nintendo are gearing up for the festive season with this Friday’s eShop launch of Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on Wii U. The price of the digital version has been set at £39.99. While there are cheaper ways to get hold of the it, Nintendo are throwing in a download code for N64 Mario Tennis (worth £8.99) with the eShop release.

It’s a pretty tempting offer, although it might be wise to wait for Ultra Smash‘s reviews to surface. Mario Tennis Open on 3DS received a lukewarm reception at launch, after all.

We were expecting to see Animal Crossing amiibo Festival on the eShop too but that appears to be a physical-only release due to requiring the new AC amiibos. We should have figured as much, no pun intended. Instead, and presumably to coincide, the eShop sees a Virtual Console release of the Nintendo DS classic Animal Crossing: Wild World (£8.99).

Other Wii U releases for this week include the creative looking Typoman (£9.99) – as shown during last week’s Nintendo Direct – Natsume’s side-scroller Ninja Strike: Dangerous Dash (£4.99), tower-defence game Totem Topple (£1.99) plus Barbie and her Sisters Puppy Rescue (£24.99).

Barbie also graces 3DS this week at the same price, along with BigBen’s I love my Pony (£19.99). Try to contain your excitement.

Johnny’s Payday Panic (£2.99) sounds a tad more enticing – it’s a comedic take on Cooking Mama et al. The trailer is below. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 meanwhile gets another piece of DLC, subtitled All Skills Must Go! (89p).

This leaves us with the week’s discounts, which include Blocky Bot (94p – regular price £1.89), Paper Monsters Uncut (£2.69 – regular price £5.49), Stone Shire (£1 – regular price £7) and TNT Racers – Nitro Machines Edition (£4.49 – regular price £6.99) on Wii U.

Then on 3DS there’s the apparently pretty good Crazy Construction (£3.99 – regular price £4.99) and yet another batch of games from Joindot, all of which have been reduced several times this year already. And you thought Rockstar’s bi-monthly Xbox 360 digital sales were growing wearisome.