Dr Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training: Can You Stay Focused? (£24.99) is a game many European 3DS owners feared cancelled. We even reported as such last year after our long-standing pre-order from 2013 – which we’d forgotten all about – was cancelled by Tesco, who stated that it was “no longer being published by the supplierâ€.
The arrival of the New 2DS XL is the perfect time to dust it off and finally release it on our shores, it would seem.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo held games back from certain regions. Crusin’ USA on N64 didn’t make it to Europe until 1998 – two years after the US launch – while 1080 Snowboarding had a six-month delay as Nintendo feared a snowboarding game wouldn’t sell well in PAL regions during the Spring. More recently, New Play Control! Pikmin 2 on Wii didn’t hit the US until three years after the rest of the world, where it was called upon to fill a gap in the release roster.
Speaking of Pikmin, Hey! Pikmin (£34.99) is another prolific title launching alongside Nintendo’s new handheld. Word has it that it’s a step-up from than similar spin-off Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash, but still rather lacking when compared to Nintendo’s usual outputs. Review scores are mostly a mixture of 6s and 7s, resulting in a Metacritic of 69%.
Then we have Miitopia (£34.99), an RPG lite spin-off of Tomodachi Life. Nintendo Life’s review went up earlier, where it was awarded an 8/10. “It’s a fitting celebration of the Mii concept, perfect for short bursts of play, and an absolute riot with the right group of Miis — if you’ve ever wanted to take your friends on a grand adventure, complete with silly cosplay and relationship drama, this is a perfect way to do it,†they said.
Oddly, only two new indies are due on the eShop to coincide with the New 2DS’s arrival. These are Kid Tripp (£3.59), a retro-chic auto-runner spread across four different worlds, and SWIPE (£1.39) – a score chaser from RCMADIAX that involves collecting crystals while avoiding nasties.
RCMADIAX also releases former New 3DS space shooter GALAXY BLASTER (£1.39) on Wii U this week. Wii U discounts are a tad more exciting, including Capcom’s Resident Evil Revelations (£6.39), DuckTales: Remastered (£4.79) and Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (£3.23).
Switch owners have plenty to mull over too. Six new releases, no less. Namco Museum (£29.99) and Overcooked: Special Edition (£17.99) are the big ones, accompanied by throwback party game Ultra Hyperball (£8.99), NeoGeo Super Sidekicks (£6.29), card game Physical Contact: SPEED (£4.49), and 3D art program Qbics Paint (£4.49).
Namco Museum features 11 games in total: PAC-MAN, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaga ‘88, The Tower of Druaga, Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 2, Sky Kid, Splatterhouse, Tank Force, and the GameCube’s PAC-MAN VS. – a multiplayer edition of the arcade classic, which Shigeru Miyamoto had a helping hand in. Namco included this asymmetric spin-off with certain GameCube games, later dusting it off for Namco Museum DS.
Handily, the download allowing access to multiplayer sessions of Pac-Man VS. is free.
Chaotic couch-based cook off Overcooked: Special Edition is another multiplayer great, having proven itself already on the likes of PS4 and Xbox One. As well as HD Rumble as a new feature, it also includes various DLC add-ons.
Nintendo’s New Summer Sale has also just commenced on the eShop. Dozens of 3DS games are down in price, along with New 3DS SNES games – including Super Mario Kart and Earthbound – and StreetPass Mii Plaza downloadable content. A full list can be found here on Nintendo’s site.
Finally, a handful of Capcom’s 3DS games are due a temporary price drop, with highlights being Resident Evil Revelations, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, and Mega Man Legacy Collection.