Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors Program: 20 free games softens price drop news for early adopters

Written by Matt Swider on July 28, 2011

3DS Price Drop News: Spending an unnecessary $80, bound-to-be outraged early adopters of the Nintendo 3DS will get free games.

The forthcoming $80 Nintendo 3DS price drop that was announced this morning will come five months after the system launched, meaning early adopters are going to be fuming. However, Nintendo is offering these loyal customers a total of 20 free games as part of what the company calls the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors Program.

The first set of 10 free games are from the NES era and will be available on the 3DS' Virtual Console. They include classics like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda. In addition to getting them at no cost while everyone else will have to pay for them in the Nintendo eShop, early adopters will be granted first access to the downloads, which start on September 1.

Later in the year, Nintendo will allow Ambassadors a second helping, this time to 10 free Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. The GBA download list so far consists of Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

УThese games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors,Ф this morning's press release promised, Уand Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.Ф

To be eligible for the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program, Nintendo 3DS owners must use the system's wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 PM ET on August 11. Meaning, if you're plan was to get the best of both worlds by purchasing the $170 system and still download the free games, you're out of luck.

Does a 20-free-game program make up for overpricing the Nintendo 3DS by $80?