Topic: Nintendo Downloads – April 28, 2016

[Shaymin]

OK, so THAT happened.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/42605/nintendo-downloads--april-28-2016

Following a chaotic and messy day of news, a download article seems almost redundant. But the show must go on. Most of the attention today is focused on the “free, but…” trio of the two Mini Mario & Friends Amiibo Challenge and the final version of Lost Reavers following the two week beta period. Note that the Mini Mario game won’t even go past the title screen unless you have, say, Best Princess or another amiibo in that range.

The indie love, in addition to being all over the place with the Friends of Nintendo Humble Bundle, comes with The Deer God on Wii U and ASH (not to be confused with unlocalized DS RPG Archaic Sealed Heat) on the 3DS. As well, we have an expansion for SteamWorld Heist that blows out the entire game. On the Virtual Console, let’s not lose our heads as we celebrate 2010, 2011 AND 2012 Game of the Year candidate Xenoblade Chronicles finally coming out on Wii U in North America for the usual stakes.

Europe’s biggest release of the week is a 2015 straggler finally getting its big push with Yo-Kai Watch, which attempts to make SMT gameplay more palatable to the younger set, plus the aforementioned freebies. If you’re not down with ghosts, you can cop Shutshimi on the Wii U eShop (finally) or tangle with the Bear Hugger on New 3DS with Super Punch-Out!!.

Please note: The retail compilation re-releases of the Sega 3D Classics Collection and Pokémon Rumble World are also out in North America this week.

North America

3DS Retail:

Disney Art Academy (US $29.99/C$39.99: preload, unlocks May 13)

Wii U eShop

Lost Reavers (free: in-game purchases)

Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (free: amiibo required)

The Deer God ($7.99/$9.99)

3DS eShop

Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (free: amiibo required)

SteamWorld Heist: The Outsider ($4.99/$5.49, in-game purchase for SteamWorld Heist)

ASH ($3.99/$5.59)

Wii U Virtual Console

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) ($19.99/$28.19)

3DS Themes

Star Fox Zero: Space Battle

Shovel Knight: Campfire Dream, Plague Knight

Sales and Price Drops

The Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle is available until May 10.

Etrian Mystery Dungeon is $19.99 and Etrian Odyssey IV / Conception II are $9.99 through May 9.

Real Heroes Firefighter 3D is $4.99 (from $9.99) until May 5.

Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX is $4.99 (from $8) until May 25.

SDK Paint is $2.99 (from $3.99) until May 11.

Circle Entertainment titles are on sale until May 5.

Joindots titles are on sale until May 5.

Alkterios Games titles are on sale until May 19.

Eli Brewer titles are on sale until May 5.

Europe

3DS Retail

Yo-Kai Watch (€39.99/£34.99)

Wii U eShop

Lost Reavers (free: in-game purchases)

Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (free: amiibo required)

Shutshimi (€9.99/£6.99)

Run Run And Die (€3.99/£3.59)

PixelMaker (€2.49/£1.99)

TAP TAP ARCADE (€1.99/£1.79)

3DS eShop

Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge (free: amiibo required)

SteamWorld Heist: The Outsider (€4.99/£4.49, in-game purchase for SteamWorld Heist)

Sssnakes (€1.99/£1.79)

New 3DS Virtual Console

Super Punch-Out!! (SNES) (€7.99/£7.19)

Sales and Price Drops

The Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle is available until 10 May.

Teslagrad is €10.00/£9.50 (regular €14.99/£13.99) through 18 May.

Conception II: The Legend of the Seven Stars is €9.99/£8.99 (regular €29.99/£24.99) through 12 May.

Secret Files Tunguska is €6.49 (regular €9.99) until 5 May.

Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D is €4.99/£4.49 until 5 May.

CIRCLE Ent. titles are on sale through 5 May.

Epic Dumpster Bear has been permanently reduced to €6.49/£4.99.

[Soren]

Been meaning to try out the Deer God on Steam. Maybe I'll give it a shot here.

[TOPHATANT123]

Epic Dumpster Bear with the permanent price cut already.

[rygar]

No price drop for xenoblade on 3DS?  Can I expect one soon?

[ejamer]

Why would there be a price drop?


A virtual console-type release on Wii U and a full port to New 3DS are very different from a business perspective, and Nintendo doesn't normally drop pricing for first party games.


It's old enough that some stores might discount the game. It's possible there will be a sale on the digital version at some point.  But as far as I can tell, having Xenoblade available on Wii U eShop has nothing to do with pricing for the 3DS version.

[fred13]

I've played both the 3DS and the Wii version of Xenoblade. They're both AMAZING. Just get one! Don't go without this game.

[rygar]

Ejamer: I'm a casual consumer and didn't realize they were different enough to justify such a large price difference between systems.  I guess it makes sense when I think it through, but I'm not clear on the differences between ports, remakes, etc. I certainly won't be annoyed as a consumer if the price differential is really related to costs, but I might be if it were related to recouping arbitrary projections.

[kokumaker]

Xenoblade! That's all that matters. If you don't own it already (and even if you do), buy it immediately. It's absolutely amazing!!

[Phil]

Interested in The Deer God. What's the timeline for a review, staffers?

[ejamer]

Ejamer: I'm a casual consumer and didn't realize they were different enough to justify such a large price difference between systems.  I guess it makes sense when I think it through, but I'm not clear on the differences between ports, remakes, etc. I certainly won't be annoyed as a consumer if the price differential is really related to costs, but I might be if it were related to recouping arbitrary projections.

Sorry if that came off harshly. Didn't mean it that way.


For us, as gamers, it seems like there totally could/should be a price drop.  The 3DS game is essentially the same as the Wii release - just a port of an old game, and even that port is now pretty old.


Nintendo views things differently though.


First, they don't like to drop pricing on retail games regardless of age and have stated previously that they intent to maintain perceived value of games by avoiding aggressive price drops. So part of the reason I don't expect or predict price drops is because of their corporate policy.


Second, even though Xenoblade (the Wii version) is pretty old, when they remade the game for 3DS there was significant development effort to port the game to a less powerful system - both to make it work well and to add a few extra features. It's not a new game, but (presumably) took a lot more effort and expense to create than a ROM dump that gets digitally distributed.

[Mop it up]

Time to check out "free" crap because it's "free."

[ejamer]

Xenoblade! That's all that matters. If you don't own it already (and even if you do), buy it immediately. It's absolutely amazing!!

Ugh..  Still excited that Xenoblade is widely available at a decent price, but forgot about Canadian exchange rates. If it were $10, I'd impulse buy immediately. If it were $20, I'd still buy because Xenoblade is awesome. But the current asking price of $28.xx+tax is more than I typically pay for games that I already own two versions of.


I'll buy it eventually, just not today. Still good value (and a great game!) for anyone who doesn't already own it.

[rygar]

Thanks, that's helpful.  From the enthusiasm on this thread, sounds like I should just get it. I wanted to start playing it pretty badly a week or two ago, but was feeling guilty because I just dropped a decent amount of cash on some other games. I was looking for an excuse to justify putting it to the front of the queue, lol. I'll probably pick it up tomorrow for the weekend.

[Shaymin]

Ugh..  Still excited that Xenoblade is widely available at a decent price, but forgot about Canadian exchange rates. If it were $10, I'd impulse buy immediately. If it were $20, I'd still buy because Xenoblade is awesome. But the current asking price of $28.xx+tax is more than I typically pay for games that I already own two versions of.

$28? I thought the standard was $24...

/checks Canadian Nintendo store
SON OF A... #mrgrgr

[ejamer]

Ugh..  Still excited that Xenoblade is widely available at a decent price, but forgot about Canadian exchange rates. If it were $10, I'd impulse buy immediately. If it were $20, I'd still buy because Xenoblade is awesome. But the current asking price of $28.xx+tax is more than I typically pay for games that I already own two versions of.

$28? I thought the standard was $24...

/checks Canadian Nintendo store
SON OF A... #mrgrgr

I know, right?  It's still a reasonable price for a great game, but the surprise increase for Wii games (and this new pricing applies to all Wii games available for download, although not for any other Virtual Console systems) sucks. It's even higher than standard conversion rates by a few bucks. I get how that can happen, especially when CAD is recovering from some brutal lows recently, but it still hurts the wallet.

[Fatty The Hutt]

That CDN pricing is total B.S. The dollar has been better recently, the prices should be deceasing, not increasing. And they're just hurting themselves. It's too high for impulse buy esp when we know the U.S. price. And it's a digital product = all gravy for them. Dumb.

[Wah]

the Australian dollar is worth 30 more cents then the us at the moment so why is the conversion rate for eshop cards and steam cards like $6 dollars more.

[ShyGuy]

That's backwards, it's worth 33 cents less than the US dollar. Plus you guys have a 10% VAT, plus the Koalas, so it comes out about right if you factor all three in.