New Nintendo 3DS XL arrives Feb. 13 for $200-$230, Super Mario Series + Wave 4 Amiibo coming

Following a successful launch in Japan and Australia last year, Nintendo today officially announced the New Nintendo 3DS XL for a North American release on February 13, 2015. The New 3DS XL has a faster processor than the original 3DS XL, integrated NFC support for Amiibo figurines, a second analog joystick with extra shoulder buttons, and fixes the original models’ 3-D display problems by using a new face-tracking camera.

Pre-orders for the portable will likely begin today, with four color options:

• “New Black” – a metallic black version without a game, sold for $200 (preorder from GameStop here, Best Buy here, Target here).
• “New Red” – a metallic red version without a game, sold for $200 (preorder from GameStop here, Best Buy here, Target here).
• “Majora’s Mask Edition” – an antique gold version with artwork inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, sold for $200 but not bundled with the game. (Very limited quantities; try to preorder from GameStop here, Target here.)
• “Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate” – a GameStop-exclusive silver and blue version with artwork inspired by the included game Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, sold for $230 (preorder from GameStop here).

Nintendo notably declined to announce the smaller New Nintendo 3DS, which was released in Japan and Australia alongside the New 3DS XL last year. Expect to see many closeout deals on the older models on gadgetnewsonline starting today. We’ll update this post with additional preorder links as they become available.

Also announced today were two new collections of Amiibo figurines (see our Guide, here):

• Super Mario Series: Due March 20, this lineup will include new versions of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi and Bowser, plus an all-new Toad figure that will work with the Captain Toad Treasure Tracker game. All of these characters, as well as Rosalina, Donkey Kong and Wario, will work with Mario Party 10 for Wii U, which will be released on the same day.
• Wave 4 Amiibos: Compatible with Super Smash Bros., new Charizard, Robin, Lucina, Pac-Man, Wario, and Ness figurines will be released later in spring.

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