0

Nintendo has just launched another free-to-play app for the 3DS: Nintendo Badge Arcade. Well, I should say it’s free to download. Like the free 3DS apps that came before it, Badge Arcade has plenty of in-app purchases.

The gameplay is incredibly simple. Nintendo Badge Arcade is basically a claw game. Players hold down the A button and watch as a claw slowly moves back and forth across the screen. Whenever they release A, the claw will open and descend. Instead of stuffed animals, though, the player is trying to collect badges. These badges can be used to decorate your home menu, kind of like custom themes.

Nintendo has been putting an emphasis on customizing your 3DS home screen for a while now, and this new app gives players more options for doing just that. Most of the badges just slot into icon squares and can be moved around to create panoramas of sorts. However, other badges can actually replace the icons used for certain applications, like the camera or the settings.

The game will give you five free plays up front, but after that it costs a dollar to get five more. Every day you will have the chance to play one practice round. In practice rounds, you collect fake badges. Sometimes fake badges have stickers on the back that give you free plays for real badges. So you can still get something out of this title if you don’t want to pay money.

real money

Your pink bunny host transforms into a “real” bunny to explain what he means by “real” money.


This article was written by

Courtney is Pixelkin's Associate Managing Editor. While working with the Girl Scouts of Northern California, she mentored young girls in teamwork, leadership, personal responsibility, and safety. Today, she spends her time studying adolescent development and using literary analysis techniques to examine video games.