Nintendo holiday deals offer even better game discounts beyond Black Friday

Nintendo has launched its holiday cyber deals, unveiling a number of discounts on popular Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games just ahead of Black Friday. Although this sale will overlap with the major shopping holiday, Nintendo’s digital-only discounts will continue beyond it — and, frankly, these offers are way better than what Nintendo has going for Black Friday itself.

The sale is good until Dec. 5 at 8:59 a.m. PT. We’ve got the highlights below.

Wii U titles on the cheap

Nintendo’s Black Friday deals selection is pretty unimpressive for Wii U owners. That comes as a surprise, since the company has another system it needs to clear house for by next March: the Switch. Selling Wii U games on the eShop for cheap doesn’t help retailers get rid of their stock, but it does give fans of the system cheap games to check out for the holidays.

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is $34.99, down from $49.99. The remaster launched in March, with higher quality graphics and amiibo functionality as part of the upgrade.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is $9.99, half off from $19.99. This is technically a Wii game, but it’s one of the best Wii games ever — so playing it again on Wii U is definitely worth it.
• Star Fox Zero is $34.99. It typically retails for $49.99. We weren’t in love with what we played, but series fans might find this a good time to pick up the spring 2016 action title.
• Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is also half off at $9.99. It’s reminiscent of the character’s classic 16-bit adventures, with some multiplayer to boot.
• Kirby Mass Attack is $4.99, again discounted by 50 percent. It’s a DS game that won acclaim late in the handheld’s lifespan, and now it’s playable on Wii U.

Discounted Nintendo 3DS games worth playing

• Hyrule Warriors Legends is $27.99 instead of its usual $39.99. The game is recommended for New Nintendo 3DS owners, as it runs far better on that system.
• Zero Time Dilemma is also $27.99, down from $39.99. We really enjoyed the visual novel back in June; it concludes the Zero Escape trilogy of sci-fi drama.
• Virtue’s Last Reward, the second game in the Zero Escape series, is also discounted. It’s $12.99 instead of $24.99.
• Fire Emblem Awakening is half off at $19.99. It’s a good warm-up before jumping into this February’s Fire Emblem Fates, which we were big fans of.
• Monster Hunter Generations is $23.99 instead of $39.99. That makes it a cheap option for getting into the massively popular action role-playing game franchise, and we dug it a lot when it launched in June.
• Good ol’ The Legend of Zelda is just $2.99 instead of $4.99. You can’t get much more classic than this NES game on 3DS.

A friendly reminder of a good Black Friday deal

On Black Friday, Nintendo will launch a special edition New Nintendo 3DS for $99. That’s the lowest price the system has ever been, and it’s offered in black and white. There’s no word on how long this offer will be available beyond the holiday, or how limited stock is, but most major retailers will have supplies.