Monster Hunter 3 G was huge in Japan, though in the West we had to wait a while for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate they were very different times for that particular Capcom franchise. There was the price cut, of course, and then some major game releases in late-2011 and early-2012 that drove sales globally.

The company successfully (arguably) rescued the 3DS and reversed that poor momentum, with the system eventually enjoying solid sales that generation, albeit still not close to replicating the success of DS.

In this current era of Nintendo basking in the success of the Switch, these sorts of actions feel very distant indeed. Its initial sales underwhelmed to such a degree that Nintendo took multiple steps to steady the ship that, in hindsight, are quite stunning: Satoru Iwata and other senior executives took sizeable pay cuts the company apologised publicly for its struggles the 3DS was given a substantial price cut after just six months on the market, and early adopters were given 20 free games - 10 NES and 10 GBA - as compensation, with the GBA selection never made available outside what was dubbed the 'Ambassador Program'. The system's launch in March 2011 had been particularly poor, especially when you consider its status as the successor to the wildly popular DS. Give it a watch, also, as a reminder of what this joyous 3DS game was all about.Īs Jon mentions, it's worth noting that Super Mario 3D Land was a major contributor to a rescue project for the 3DS. It's not typically held up or remembered as a glorious entry of the Mario series - indeed, at the time of writing it inexplicably doesn't rank on our dynamic reader-rated list of the 50 best 3DS games - but several of us in NL Towers have rather fond memories of this title and feel it deserves a spotlight to highlight what it did for the series and, indeed, its host system.įirst of all, be sure to check out the video at the top from our very own Jon Cartwright, who makes a lot of good points that we'll be happily reiterating here. Ten years ago on 3rd November 2011, Super Mario 3D Land made its debut on 3DS in Japan.

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