Nintendo 3DS Gets Cheaper at $170; Users Flooded With Freebies

Nintendo announced plans to drop the retail price of its portable Nintendo 3DS system to $169.99 in the U. S. down from the suggested launch price of $249.99 effective Aug. 12.

Nintendo is expecting to open up the market to more gamers with a reduced 3DS system price, which enables a glasses-free 3D experience.

"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D", was launched on June 19, which will be followed by "Star Fox 64 3D" arriving on Sept. 9, "Super Mario 3D" in November, "Mario Kart 7" in December and "Kid Icarus: Uprising" launching in the holiday season.

Nintendo has also announced 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop, "to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11."

These 3DS owners will also be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program, which enables the registered Ambassadors to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public, starting Sept.1.

These games, including "Super Mario Bros.," "Donkey Kong Jr.," "Balloon Fight," "Ice Climber" and "The Legend of Zelda," are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

According to the press release, Nintendo 3DS launched on March 27 sold more than 830,000 systems in the U.S.

Nintendo 3DS has a host of features including the new Nintendo Video service which automatically delivers short 3D videos of music, comedy, animation and Hollywood.

A free application allows Netflix members with unlimited streaming plans to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming from Netflix.