If you’re lucky enough to both reside in the United States of America and own one of Nintendo’s fantastic handhelds, either a 3DS XL or a 2DS, then you’re in for a real treat.
Satoru Iwata must be going soft on you lot, as Nintendo are putting both Pokémon X and Pokémon Y up for download on their eStore for free.
The only catch, if you can call it that, is that you must register a both your handheld console as well as one of six games: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Yoshi’s New Island, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Super Mario 3D Land, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and Mario Kart 7. The registration costs nothing, but is presumably in place to provide proof of ownership (and lets be honest, if you have a 3DS or 2DS and don’t own any of those six titles then you have bigger problems to worry about).
Upon registration you’re sent a download code and away you go! As the offer has not officially been released by Nintendo yet, you’ll have to wait until March before searching for it on the store. Sorry if we got your hopes up a little prematurely.
What makes this particular offer really stand out is because of the nature of the games. Not only is the Pokémon franchise absolutely huge and a real system-seller for Nintendo, but X and Y are the first Pokémon titles to be released on the 3DS and 2DS. What’s more, they were only released six months ago!
If you haven’t seen your way to checking out either of the landmark titles yet then you should be licking your lips in anticipation. If you already purchased it at full retail price six months ago…well…hopefully you’ve enjoyed the game?