New Adventures for Professor Layton, Paper Mario and Disney Epic Mickey Arrive Before Thanksgiving; Luigi’s Mansion, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem Coming in 2013

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 25, 2012 – Nintendo of America showcased its holiday lineup for Nintendo 3DS and provided a sneak peek of content coming in 2013 in a Nintendo Direct that was posted this morning. Nintendo-published games include Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Oct. 28) and Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Nov. 11). These join the just-released Crosswords Plus, Style Savvy: Trendsetters and Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! to form the widest and deepest lineup in the platform’s history. Additionally, two new downloadable course packs are now available for the industry’s current top-selling portable game*, New Super Mario Bros. 2. The course packs are available for purchase from the in-game shop.

Nintendo’s third-party partners continue to bring their best franchises to the Nintendo 3DS experience. Notable titles coming this holiday season include Scribblenauts Unlimited from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (Nov. 13), Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion from Disney Interactive (Nov. 18) and Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!! from D3Publisher (Nov. 20).

Nearly all of the Nintendo-published games coming this holiday season will be available as both a packaged product at retail and as a digital download from the Nintendo eShop. These games will join four major Nintendo 3DS games that were previously only available as physical products that were added to the Nintendo eShop on Oct. 18: Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Star Fox 64 3D.

In addition to games also available in stores, there is a massive lineup of games that are only available in the Nintendo eShop. That list will grow stronger starting today and through the holiday season with the addition of building-block puzzle game Crashmo (Nov. 22), the sequel to the acclaimed Pushmo game, and the 360-degree water-morphing action-puzzle game Fluidity: Spin Cycle (Dec. 27). Additional games include NightSky (available now) and Ikachan (later in 2012) from Nicalis, and a trilogy of games from Level 5, including LIBERATION MAIDEN (available now), as well as Aero Porter and Crimson Shroud coming later this year.

“The quality of portable game play on Nintendo 3DS is unparalleled; no other hand-held device can match it,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “And that holds true whether games are purchased in packaged form, or via digital download.”
   
In only its 20th month of availability, Nintendo 3DS owners can choose from a combined library of more than 650 traditional packaged and digital games, meaning something for every gamer on holiday shopping lists. The parade of hit titles will continue into 2013 with Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Fire Emblem Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.

Nintendo 3DS is available in both its original format, or as the newly released Nintendo 3DS XL, which offers all of the original features with screens that are 90 percent larger than the Nintendo 3DS, and a 4GB SD memory card.

To view the complete Nintendo Direct video announcement, go to http://youtu.be/D4QFbibEnX8.