Nintendo 3DS early adopters get 20 free games with updated multiplayer

By Mike Flacy Published July 30, 2011

3ds-playing-mario — Image used with permission by copyright holder

After Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS by over 30% earlier this week, the company announced a program to reward consumers that purchase the 3D device before the price drop on August 12. If a consumer connects to the Nintendo eShop before 11:59pm Eastern time on August 11, they will automatically be qualified for the Ambassador program. This initiative rewards Nintendo 3DS owners with ten free NES Virtual Console games as well as ten GameBoy Advance titles that Nintendo isn’t planned to release to the public. Five of the NES games include The Legend of Zelda, Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Climber and Super Mario Bros. The GBA games include Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame.

Other games will be announced later in the year. Further details indicate that these games will be in 2D, however upgrades will be made to the titles when they become available to the public. New features may include multiplayer modes and 3D visuals. 3DS Ambassadors can download the updates to the titles at no extra cost. It’s unclear if Nintendo plans to schedule weekly releases on the 3DS eShop of its extensive library of classic titles. Nintendo has been releasing titles weekly on the Nintendo Wii.

Recommended Videos

The price of the Nintendo 3DS is also dropping in Europe and Japan this year, however the main reason for the drop was poor North American sales due to a lackluster lineup of titles. Nintendo has made strides with the 3DS as of late with the release of Nintendo Video, a video delivery system to provide 3D video downloads, and Netflix support. However, the lackluster lineup of titles is often the main complaint from consumers. Nintendo is hoping to impress consumers with the release of several high profile titles this year including Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus: Uprising and Star Fox 64 3D.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Topics

Gaming

Sony is helping bury physical games, and preservation is being left to clean up the mess

A reported 2028 cutoff for PS5 discs gives the industry a deadline it still doesn’t seem ready to handle.

A PS5 sitting on its side with two Dualsense controllers next to it on the right.

Sony’s reported plan to stop producing PS5 discs in 2028 would push PlayStation deeper into a digital-first future, where access depends on licenses, storefront policy, and platform support lasting longer than companies usually promise.

That’s tidy for Sony and ugly for game preservation. Physical media was never a perfect archive, but removing it before a serious replacement exists turns the survival of old games into someone else’s emergency. It also raises questions about long-term ownership, resale rights, and whether players can truly rely on purchases to remain accessible decades later.

Gaming

PS Plus adds Modern Warfare III in July, plus two games worth your time

The unremarkable Call of Duty campaign comes bundled with remastered multiplayer maps, joined by For the King II and CrossCode.

PlayStation Plus July 2026 games featured

PlayStation Plus subscribers are getting a new lineup to dig into starting July 7, and this one leads with the biggest name Sony has put in the Monthly Games slot in a while. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III headlines this month's lineup, joined by the co-op fantasy RPG For the King II and the retro-style action RPG CrossCode. All three games will be available on PS5 and PS4 and remain available through August 3.

A blockbuster with a rocky reputation

Gaming

In this economy, Cinder City is asking for 64GB RAM. The rest of its PC specs are even weirder. [Update]

Remember when 16GB RAM was enough?

Cinder City Gameplay screenshot

Update: After our story went live, the team behind Cinder City reached out to clarify that the 64GB RAM recommendation was simply a mistake. The Steam page has since been updated to recommend 32GB of RAM instead. As also shared on Steam, the team noted that the current specs are based on an in-development build, and the final system requirements at launch could end up being lower than what's currently listed. So, no, you probably don't need to start shopping for another 32GB RAM kit just yet. The original story is as follows.

For years, PC gamers have joked that game developers treat hardware requirements like a shopping list. Cinder City might have just taken that joke a little too seriously. The game's newly listed recommended PC specs ask for a whopping 64GB of RAM. That's a figure that's raising eyebrows because almost everything else on the list looks surprisingly… normal.