My new European Luigi 3DS XL arrived!

Look what arrived in the post today!

It's the special edition Year of Luigi 3DS XL, European version!

I bought it from the UK Nintendo Store. It says the release date is 1st Nov 2013, which means they've broken their own street date by a whole week!

I like Luigi. He's funny and reminds me of my fondness of my own little brother. ^_^

So many European special editions!

It's like... special edition season!

Nintendo are releasing two special 3DS XL consoles:

A Year Of Luigi 3DS XL and a Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 3DS XL.

I've had my eye on the Luigi one since it came out in Japan, and I've been enjoying my DSi XL far too much recently to be satisfied with my regular sized 3DS, so I pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it the other day. Even though it's due out on November 1st, I got an email earlier saying "Okey-dokey! Your order is on it's way!", so it looks like Nintendo are breaking their own street date!

There's a special edition of the upcoming Legend of Zelda game "A Link Between Worlds", which is the sequel to Link To The Past. It comes with a download code for "Link's Awakening DX" (for some reason...) and as demonstrated by Aonuma and Iwata comes with a little chest that goes "da da da daaa~" when you open it. It was priced at £59.99 the other day, the preorder button has been taken down now. Visiting the page earlier today caused the entire website to break, I wrote to them and they told me that preorders are breaking stuff and that's why the "buy" button is missing at the moment. I'm not sure it's worth it anyway. Not to say it's a bad game; I played a bit of it at the Play Expo and it seems like it will be a fun game, I mean that it's way more expensive than the £32.99 people are pricing the regular edition at.

This Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collector's Edition looks amazing, it's a remake that's dual language, and has content from both the PS2 and Gamecube versions of the original game. This collector's edition comes with a novel, soundtrack, and 5 cute figures. It comes out at the end of February, so I've suggested to my boyfriend that it would make an excellent birthday present for someone like me. :)

This Bravely Default Deluxe Collector's Edition comes with a figurine, soundtrack CD, artbook and AR cards. It says it's exclusive to shopto.net, which I did not expect.

The Nintendo shop was the only one to have preorders open at this stage! It's like no-one wants to take my money! XD

Oh well, I shouldn't spend much money on myself this time of year, it's coming up to Christmas present shopping time, and I did just spend most of my money on a pinball table. Also, Guided Fate Paradox and the new Ace Attorney games are out this week, I've been looking forward to both of those. :D

Virtue's Last Reward (3DS) coming to the UK

Earlier today, I put a preorder in for a 3DS game called Virtue's Last Reward, via Amazon.co.uk.

It was originally called "Kyokugen Dasshutsu ADV Zennin Shibou Desu", and is the sequel to "999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors"... which I haven't actually played yet. I was going to make myself wait until I'd read through another path in Ever 17 first...

Original Japanese trailer with English fansubs

It comes out on the 16th of November 2012, and is being published by Rising Star Games. I wish they had something to notify me when they announce these things; it was announced back in August and I didn't know until today. It also comes out on Vita (but I don't have one of those). It'll be Japanese voices and English subs, according to the sales blurb.

It also starts off "Everybody dies… …can you escape the inescapable?" so, thematically consistent and ever optimistic, yeah. :)

Nintendo 3DS - first impressions

I had a chance to try a 3DS in a shop over the weekend.

It didn't have any games for it, the lady demoing it was just taking 3D pictures with the built-in camera, and there was a little Augmented Reality game where you shoot a floating head in the room where you're standing.

It was kind of ok, but I didn't really like it.

It's got a 3D effect and if you move your head a little to the sides, it moves along with that, but if you move too far it really breaks the picture and you see two completely different ones.

I ended up feeling a bit odd after looking at it for a while. Mildly disoriented.

I don't really like it.

I found myself thinking.... it's really not going to be good as a proper portable like that; I mean, if you're planning on using it while on a bus or train - the bumps as you travel are going to mess things up.

Oh and it probably won't be the same for proper games, but when you switch the console from 3D to 2D, and you're looking at a photo, it makes the photo seem horribly fuzzy and low res.

So now I've seen one, I am definitely thinking [no thanks].

I dunno, when all you have to compare is *actual reality*, the fake 3D effect just isn't impressive.