Early 3DS adopters are being compensated for the recent price cut...

The 3DS has had its problems recently, first there were the health scares, with warnings of headaches and sickness in children. Then on the back of this (and most likely, because of this) sales stayed way bellow Nintendo's predictions, forcing them to make a rather embarrassing press conference. Recently, in an effort to get 3DS sales back on track, the price has been slashed by almost £80, in Japan you can now pick one up for around 15,000 Yen (about £118).

But this announcement came as a bit of a slap in the face to those that had faith in the 3DS and bought it already. These early birds have paid about a third more than the current asking price for a console, and because of the fall in price, they one they have bought is now worth less too.

In efforts to appease their loyal fans, Nintendo have announced something called the 'Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme'. This 'programme' is for customers who bought the console before the price drop, and compensates them with 10 free games. As I'm sure you are thinking, 10 free games is nothing to be sniffed at, and the deal gets sweeter too, there are 10 more games to become available by the end of 2011. 20 games isn't bad for the £80 difference.

Of course, the value of this offer rests on the quality of the games, and Nintendo has stayed strong here, offering a selection of classic Nintendo games from their vast and popular back catalogue. The games included feature some of the flag-ship games of Nintendo's franchise; Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Mario And Yoshi, Donkey Kong Junior and Metroid. These five alone would have been enough to silence much of the criticism of the price change, but also included are 5 others to sweeten the deal. These are; Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, NES Open Golf Tournament, Balloon fight, Ice Climber and Wrecking Crew.

As you can see from that list, these aren't simple 10 'throw-away' games that are being used to distract people from the price change, they are some true classics that any 3DS-gamer should be happy to own, and with 10 more games coming before the end of the year, some players must even be thanking Nintendo for cutting the price of the system.

While these games will be some welcome compensation for the 3DS faithful, the consoles problems probably aren't going to end here, and it will be interesting to see what effect the new price has on the disappointing sales of the 3DS.

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