Nintendo's second Humble Bundle is live, and this one isn't restricted to North America

When the Humble Bundle organization teamed up with Nintendo for a pay-what-you-want batch of indie games last May, it was the first time that console games had ever been available in a Humble Bundle. It was also the first time Nintendo participated in a Humble Bundle.

Today, the two companies launched a new group of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games: the Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle. It's designed to address some of the most notable complaints about Nintendo's first Humble Bundle.

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"With Nintendo's help, we've aimed to craft a bundle that will have the widest appeal possible," said John Graham, co-founder and chief operating officer of Humble Bundle, in an email interview.

The organization's previous collaboration with Nintendo, the Humble Nindie Bundle — named after Nintendo's moniker for the indie developers it works with — was available exclusively in North America because only Nintendo of America was involved in the process. Damon Baker, who handles marketing for third-party developers and publishers at Nintendo of America, told Polygon in June that the Nindie bundle was region-locked in order to protect the developers.

"The fact is that some of that content hadn't even been released in Europe yet," Baker said at the time. "And so releasing it on a global scale would have been really difficult because either the content hadn't been released or had been recently released, and it would have been detrimental to those developers to already have such a drastic discount associated with it." Baker added that a region-free bundle was possible in the future.

Nintendo hasn't quite gotten there yet, but the Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle is a major step in that direction. This time around, both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe partnered with Humble Bundle for the package. That means that Wii U and 3DS owners in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will be able to buy the bundle and redeem download codes for its games.

The bundle includes the following games:

Pay $1 or more

• Affordable Space Adventures, KnapNok Games and Nifflas' Games (Wii U)
• Retro City Rampage: DX, Vblank Entertainment (3DS)
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, WayForward Technologies (3DS and Wii U)
• coupon for 10 percent off Humble Monthly (for new subscribers)

Pay more than the average

• Citizens of Earth, Eden Industries (3DS or Wii U)
• Freedom Planet, GalaxyTrail Games (Wii U)
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, Sega and Xeen (3DS)
• a 3DS Home menu theme for Retro City Rampage: DX that is exclusive to the bundle

The Humble Nindie Bundle only featured indie games, which made sense considering the package's name. But the Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle also includes a couple of AAA titles from major third-party publishers. Buyers who pay at least $13 will receive copies of Dimps and Capcom's Super Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition for 3DS, as well as Vigil Games' Darksiders 2 for Wii U.

Last year's Nintendo bundle supported the charity Code.org, a nonprofit organization that seeks to increase diversity in the field of computer science by bringing in women and people of color. The bundle raised more than $120,000 for the charity, according to Baker.

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Nintendo of America chose Code.org again for the Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle. Buyers of the bundle can also contribute to a second charity, one that Nintendo of Europe picked: SOS Children's Villages International, an Austria-based nongovernmental organization that works to strengthen families and communities in an effort to support the welfare of children.

Graham told Polygon that Humble Bundle has been working for "a few months" with Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe on the new bundle, and specifically focused on the regional availability of the games.

"The criticism we heard from customers was that avid Nintendo and Humble Bundle fans in Europe could not participate in the promotion," said Graham of last year's Nindie package. "We listened to their feedback and worked closely with both [Nintendo of Europe] and [Nintendo of America] to bring this follow-up bundle to a much wider audience."

Download codes for Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Australia and New Zealand must be redeemed on the Nintendo eShop for 3DS or Wii U. Keys for Nintendo of Europe can be redeemed on the web as well as in the eShop, except for the Retro City Rampage: DX theme, the code for which must be entered in the 3DS eShop.

The Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle will be available from 11 a.m. PDT today until the same time on May 10. Humble Bundle is set to reveal a group of additional titles halfway through the period, at 11 a.m. PDT on May 3.