Blink, and you’ll miss it: Nintendo’s April sale is in full swing
It’s that time of the year again; Nintendo has finally given fans some leeway and opened the gates to a Spring sale.
Fans of indie and first-party Nintendo titles alike have something to celebrate this week. After the Indie World Showcase, Nintendo announced a weeklong indie and Mario game sale. Starting April 19, the indie sale will continue until April 26 12am PT/ 3pm ET / 8pm BST / 5am ACT (Thursday, April 27). In contrast, the UK Super Mario sale will end on May 4.
While UK fans of Mario will be pleased to see titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe go on sale for just $ £33.29, there are some even better deals for indie titles circulating the Nintendo eshop.
The mythic roguelike Hades, the 2D action-adventure game Hollow Knight, and the deckbuilding RPG Slay the Spire are all 50% off. Honestly, it’s an excellent time to be an indie fan.
Appropriately hyped
After seeing all the fantastic new indie games released in the Indie World Showcase, it’s hard not to want to run to your Nintendo Switch and pick up some of the masterful titles already out.
As a massive fan of Blasphemous and its intricate story, beautiful dialogue, and jaw-dropping aesthetic, hearing that a sequel would be released made my week. However, hearing that I’ll have to wait until late 2023 for it means that I’ll have to find another way to fill my time. Luckily that’s where the indie sale comes in. I’ve never actually played Hollow Knight, and now it’s half-price. I feel there are no more excuses I can make to delay the inevitable.
Make the most of it
Another reason to get stuck into this spring sale is simply for the reason that Nintendo don’t often discount its games. In fact, retaining the value of Nintendo games was a stated goal by the late president and CEO Satoru Iwata in the book Ask Iwata, so there is an active effort to ensure game prices won’t drop.
You also can’t find Nintendo’s first-party games on other consoles, as it is both developer and publisher. Therefore, Nintendo prices games as a developer would and not a publisher like Sony, as all the revenue can only be generated by copies sold.
Even though these reasons make sense, it doesn’t make playing almost $50 for a Mario title any less painful. So if you’re in the market for something new to play while waiting for the next big release like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sales are just the place for you.