Nintendo finally managed to get their digital offerings right after two wrong starts with DSiWare and WiiWare, with the Nintendo eShop. Their digital offerings have been wholly excellent, and their unusual progressiveness in putting all retail games on there has been a boon as far as convenience is concerned.

This week’s eShop offerings are similarly great- Wii U owners finally get to play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the latest installment in Nintendo’s long running, ape starring platformer franchise, developed by star studio Retro (of Metroid Prime fame).

The 3DS might not be getting a major release like that this week, but the digital offerings are great- first up is the last of the Guild01 games (which also include Crimson Shroud, Liberation Maiden, and Aero Maiden), Weapon Shop de Omasse, wherein you are the blacksmith crafting weapons for great heroes on quests to save the world or something.

Yes, it’s playing an RPG from an all new perspective.

Other games released include Level 5’s Inazuma Eleven, the soccer sim/RPG hybrid that finally releases in the US, as well as the first three episodes of the Inazuma Eleven anime for free on the Nintendo eShop.

Stay tuned for our reviews.

Today at Nintendo Direct, Nintendo ended up dating several major 3DS games, while also giving us new extended looks at these games in the process.

The first of these was Yoshi’s New Island, which already has a release date for March. Next up were Kirby Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf World Tour, both releasing on May 2. Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy was announced for later this month for North American shored (the rest of the world already has it), and soccer RPG Inazuma Eleven was announced to be releasing today for North America exclusively on the Nintendo eShop.

A new game that was announced today was Pokemon Battle Trozei, which looked like a rather addictive and neat mix of Candy Crush and Puzzles and Dragons, but with a Pokemon flavor. Yes, this is going to sell millions, especially since it looks loads better than the mediocre DS game.

Inazuma Eleven wasn’t too far behind, selling 6.5 million games in total worldwide for all of its games. Meanwhile, Ni no Kuni for the 3DS (available only in Japan) and Wrath of the White Witch, the PS3 adaptation of the game, managed to sell 1.4 million copies worldwide.

So far so good, though the sales for Ni no Kuni are somewhat sobering, especially considering the hype and positive critical reception the game received when it released in the West. At least Layton still manages to make it rain for Level-5. We’ll see how Wonder Trick fares when it releases in November.

(Source)