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3DS

A Hyrule Handheld Heirloom

by Andrew Brown - November 25, 2013, 5:47 pm EST
Total comments: 3

Two new Zelda bonuses for two new Zelda worlds.

It seems that every new Zelda game is destined to release with some kind of collector's edition memorabilia from now on, and that's just fine with me.

Straight out of the box!

You can't get much classier than black and gold together.

The newest special edition 3DS XL system to hit the store shelves is the glorious golden Triforce version, shown during the last Nintendo Direct presentation.

The inside of the system is pure gold.

The shell features a golden top half using a slightly-sparkly gold finish similar to the casing in the recent golden controllers while the Triforce image is a more matte paint, making it hard to see under certain lighting conditions. It's a great effect, giving the illusion that the Triforce is holographic even though it's just a different tone.

The bottom half of the lower casing is black with the shadowy inverted Triforce so that when the 3DS is opened the casing makes the logo from the new game.

Neat! I love the creativity in these new hinged-image designs.

Comparison to the Zelda Game Boy Advance SP, which released with Minish Cap.

While I still prefer the smaller, chunkier design of the regular 3DS overall, there's no denying that this XL is a wonderful collector's item and much truer to the Zelda series than the Ocarina of Time 3DS. The one thing that stopped me from buying one of those is that it wasn't gold! My only concern is that the casing is smooth enough to easily pick up fingerprints, and, being my first XL, it doesn't feel as solidly built as the original model. If I ever take this thing out for StreetPasses I'll certainly be buying a padded carry holster for it, as well as a cleaning cloth to wipe off fingerprint smudges regularly.

This item was harder to come across than the chests in the game.

The other item for today is the cool little treasure chest that came with pre-orders of the new game in PAL regions. Like the Poké Ball bonus from X and Y, this is a proper licensed product featuring the Nintendo logo. It also features the official Link Between Worlds logo on the bottom of the chest.

It contains slots to hold up to five games inside and, of course, both DS and 3DS game cards fit inside. It can be a little hard to remove the games from their slots due to the small space between the cards, but at least they're held snugly in place and won't fall out if you tilt it.

Perfect to store your treasured games.

The speaker inside the lid is arranged like a Rupee!

The key feature for this chest is that it plays the "found item" fanfare whenever you open it, revealing the games stored inside. There's a removable panel inside the lid allowing you to replace the battery when it dies and a switch to turn the music off to conserve the it. It's quite a clever design. The sound mechanism is triggered by a a button on the inside of the lid which is compressed by a little tab sticking up from the lower half. When the lid is opened, the button is released and the sound plays.

If I had one complaint to make, it's that when the chest is open the mechanism inside the lid makes the whole thing top-heavy and it won't stand up on its own. Granted, it looks much cooler in the closed position anyway and it's a silly argument to make for the sake of criticism. It is still one of the best free gifts to come with a Nintendo game this year, if not ever.

And that's all for today! There are a few more pictures in the gallery below. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Images

Talkback

azekeNovember 25, 2013

Grey circle pad kinda ruins it though.

I see your point, the 3D slider and the Circle Pad could have been black, or that same tan colour that the C-sticks and D-pads were on the golden Wii controllers. Just wait until there's a golden GamePad with Zelda U!

RasNovember 26, 2013

I ordered one of those LEs from Game so I could get the chest.  And I'm in the US. Yes, quite an expensive trinket. At least the game itself came with my XL. 

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