3DS NES games will include multiplayer following an update

by JC Fletcher on Jul 29th 2011 8:00PM

Those freebie NES games you get from the 3DS "Ambassador Program" on September 1 will be bare-bones at first, but a future update will bring some extras. Nintendo told IGN that after the paid versions of those ten games show up on the eShop "later in the year," the free versions will be updated at no cost.

The upgrades will include "additional features such as multiplayer simultaneous play," which is kind of a big claim, since not even the Game Boy Virtual Console games sold now have multiplayer functionality. Nintendo didn't detail any other changes, except to say that 3D isn't one of them. The games won't be remade as 3D Classics.

The list of NES games announced includes Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda. These and five more unknown games will be included in the Ambassador Program. Ten Game Boy Advance games will follow later in 2011.

Source: IGN

Tags: 3ds, 3ds-ambassador, ds, eshop, multiplayer, nes, nintendo, virtual-console

Reader Comments (67)

Super Mario 2 & 3 for the love of all that is holy.

@Qehb I know it's a Capcom game, but if they could get Duck Tails on there I would buy one before the 12th.

@HiberN81 Duck tails. I don't know if those taste good or not.

@Qehb

Lost Levels can stay. That game is the equilavent of date rape.

@Qehb

Whenever things like this come up, I always try to think of games that I don't already own. The only NES game I can think of that I want but don't have is probably Contra (I lost it years ago). I love co-op Contra on the NES.

@ItsameMatt03

I have it since it came with Contra 4, but I would love some co-op Contra NES. One of the greats.

Sweet

zombies ate my neighbors please.

@Special Agent Bob
multiplayer for snes games in general would be worth its weight in gold for me.

I still wish the games where in widescreen

Hells yeah,,,

Still glad I waited

I wish they would release Little Nemo the Dream Master someday.

@KiDPANDA

how'd i never heard about that game? it looks wonderful!

I was going to buy a 3DS recently until I discovered that their is going to be an $80 price drop.
So what do you all think? Still sounds better to wait and get it for $170? Thats what I'm thinking.

@Farseye Buy now. Register to get your free games. Go back to store on August 12th and get a refund for the difference in price. You just received $80 back and $100 worth of free old school shit.

@Farseye
Better to wait. Here in Japan, you can only get about $80 USD if you're selling your 3DS to a game shop. (You can get $90 if you sell a PSP-3000, which is crazy)
Saw a brand new 3DS for $150 in Akihabara yesterday.

@(Unverified) I was thinking the same thing, except Farseye should wait until next week since most stores have a one week price adjustment period.

If only I wanted a 3DS, this would be a brilliant scheme.

@(Unverified)
It's tied to the device, not the account.

@(Unverified)
Yep this would probably work for sure if you buy one at walmart about 1 or 2 days before the price drop.

Games are tied to the device/account combination (a EID is generated when the account is activated on the device).

Also, GameStop does not take back returns for systems. Trade-ins yes, but not returns.

I love you Nintendo, but re-hashing old games is not the way to win over the new generation of gamers nor is it the way to appease the loyal Nintendo fans.

@jbondsr
As a Nintendo fan I am very happy to get 20 classic games (+ the free Excitebike 3D).
As for the new generation of gamers, the way i see it is that they will now have the chance to play some of the greatest games of all time that they missed out on.

@jbondsr I dunno man... there are some top notch games in that free batch and the fact that 10 of them will ONLY be available via this program have my interest piqued. I would play most of those more than the 3DS games they would offer, I'm sure.

@Super Nintendo Chalmers

I agree with you. I am glad to get the free games, and everyone should get a chance to play the classics.

I'm just saying that re-releasing old games seems to be the trend for them now. (They have some new 3DS games that are great, but the number of rehashes outweigh the new stuff.)

Nintendo was built on a library of awesome new games, and coming up with new ideas for their in-house IPs. If they don't have that (and not even a decent online system in this day and age), what do they have?

@jbondsr
Uh, you realize you're talking to Nintendo fans, right?

Hint: they just bought well over a million copies of a rehash of a 12-year old game for full 3DS price. If there's any fan out there who loves playing rehashes, it's Nintendo fans. This is right up their alley.

@PointlessPuppies

No arguments there. (I'm one of that number.)
Just hard to see Nintendo have to make a price cut so soon and see their stocks take such a dive.
They're being challenged by Sony and Microsoft on the home console front, and the smartphone market on the handheld gaming front. The last thing they need is to loose more money because they didn't do anything new. (Not to say that a CoD version 26 or an Angry Birds Siberia would be anything new :-P)

Nintendo will be around long after where all passed on, I'd just like to see them on top.

@jbondsr

Heh, you must not be a "loyal Nintendo fan." I've been a diehard Nintendo fan for most of my life, and when anything Nintendo does involves their classics, well, I'm too weak to not give in.

@ItsameMatt03

Never said I don't give in. I ALWAYS give in.
Just trying to look at the situation from an non-Nintendo fan point of view.

@Super Nintendo Chalmers That's the same argument I presented to my roommate yesterday. My parents were in the military, and they were very much anti-gaming, so I am just now getting into a lot of games most people my age (23) already played.

BTW, GoldenEye is friggin' awesome. I just beat the Wii version earlier this month.

They better put Pokemon up on that store and let us trade wirelessly like Black & White. That would be awesome.

@Ospov Indeed, that would be most awesome. I actually know some friends that actually refuse to acknowledge every generation after the first. To them, the first generation is the only one that matters. Although I do wish to own the original Pokemon games, mainly for nostalgia, the 5th gen was quite brilliant.

I want Punch Out!!! or Super Punch Out!!! Either would be awesome, preferably in 3D

Kid Icarus and Retro City Rampage would be Killer[Instinct]

@BustahWolfenstein: Nice pun. *sigh* if only they could....if only they could..........

Downloadable versions of KI 1 and 2 (preferably arcade versions) would INSTANTLY and PERMANENTLY end all 3DS strife. I know Rare still owns the rights but can't Nintendo still port those particular versions of the game since at the time those games were published under Nintendo's banner?

Gameboy Advance on the 3DS??? Is that a typo, or legit info (I haven't been following the 3DS for a while).

@KatanaVx

It's not permanent. The GBA games will only be available as a "limited offer" to people who buy a 3DS and connect to the eShop BEFORE August 12 (the day of the price cut).

This is another example of Nintendo's stupidity when it comes to marketing. The GBA should be a permanent feature of the Virtual Console, and to deny these games to people who purchase a 3DS after the price cut is a dick move.

They only said those 10 games would be limited, they never said there wouldn't be any others.

@tendoboy1984

Uff! Amen to that, brother! That is essentially a very stupid move... I hate it when game companies ruin marketing and a feature of a console when they limit it like that...

@Kabob799

That may be true, but until Nintendo specifies otherwise we can't necessarily reach your conclusion.

Apparently my comment is gone now? Arrg. Stupid profile verifacation.

Anywho, Retro City Rampage, Battletoads, and Kid Icarus plz.

Just wondering. Did Ninty announce DSi and DSi XL price cuts as well?

*River City Ransom

Why does Nintendo continue to not grasp online interaction? I understand they're a bit late to the game, but come on. The 3DS will get better...with future updates, the free games we get will get better, with future updates.

When will they release a product or game that, once downloaded, is complete? It's a bit baffling in my opinion.

Is this how the Wii U is going to be? Another PS3 type infrastructure I have to update once a week? /sigh

@(Unverified)

"When will they release a product or game that, once downloaded, is complete? It's a bit baffling in my opinion. "

You're joking right? My guess is you haven't been playing video games for long.

Ooo! Yes! I loved playing Mario Bros. against my brother back-in-the-day!

@The Only Girl

My wife asked me to pull out the NES and hook it back up the other day so we could play 2 player Super Mario Bros. We've been having fun.

Go Nintendo! I will buy next month Fu*k Sony j/k

Well, this is awesome news. It's doubtful but it'd be nice if it was online multiplayer as well as local because I don't know anyone with a 3DS and I've only had 3 StreetPass hits since I got it on launch day (and those were from walking through busy cities).

Funny, everything that draws me to the 3DS is old. OoT, virtual console (to a small extent) and now this, which if done right (HAH!) could be very, very interesting and praise worthy.

There's a chance it won't be gimped, but I'm not holding my breath over it.

Still, now that it's going to be at a much more reasonable $170 i'll have fewer excuses not to get a 3DS. Assuming 3rd party support doesn't keep bailing out.

Can we get some Battletoads up in here?

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3DS NES games will include multiplayer following an update

Reader Comments (67)

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:05PM Qehb said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:22PM HiberN81 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:26PM spartalaughs said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:54PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:23PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 10:05PM Bighouse said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:13PM Themariohenri said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:13PM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 11:11PM DJMaxxi said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:14PM Themariohenri said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:15PM HiberN81 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:21PM KiDPANDA said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 7:52AM bedroompop said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:24PM Farseye said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:29PM jbondsr said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:51PM incubeezer said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:52PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 11:00AM Brodo said

Posted: Aug 1st 2011 10:38AM Xenobite said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:25PM jbondsr said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:34PM Super Nintendo Chalmers said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:36PM Endless VertiGo said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:45PM jbondsr said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:54PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:04PM jbondsr said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:14PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:32PM jbondsr said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:45PM NetOperator Wibby said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:35PM Ospov said

Posted: Jul 31st 2011 12:45AM Ryguy226 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:40PM BustahWolfenstein said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:48PM xpander2k said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:48PM KatanaVx said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 1:11AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 2:25PM KaBob799 said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 3:48PM KatanaVx said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:49PM BustahWolfenstein said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:50PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:50PM BustahWolfenstein said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 8:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 4:22PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:02PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:21PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 9:25PM type2red said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 10:10PM TCJJ said

Posted: Jul 29th 2011 10:43PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 12:21AM Basevi said

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