Get Pikmin 3 a day early if you pre-order at GameStop

Nintendo and GameStop are giving Pikmin fans two opportunities to get their hands on Pikmin 3 earlier than normal during a weekend in-store event.

On July 20 and 21, more than 250 GameStop and EB Games stores in the United States and Canada will have a playable demo of Pikmin 3 on hand, according to an announcement from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Further sweetening the deal, Wii U owners who pre-order the downloadable version of Pikmin 3 at a participating GameStop or EB Games that weekend will get early access to the game. They'll have the opportunity to download the game from the Wii U eShop on Aug. 3, one day before the game's official retail release date in North America.

Pikmin 3 will be released in Japan — where the game was recently highly rated by Famitsu magazine — this weekend. The European and Australian versions will be released near the end of July.

For more on Pikmin 3, check out Polygon's recent hands-on impressions of the game's story mode, our feature interview with series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and a newly released trailer.