‘Nintendo Badge Arcade’ Comes to North America!

Badges! Crane games! Nintendo #BadgeArcade has it all! Grab it in the #eShop and customize your HOME Menu! pic.twitter.com/DmAjc4EoOj

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 11, 2015

While the new Nintendo Direct isn’t scheduled until tomorrow evening at 2PM PST, that hasn’t stopped the company from throwing us an early surprise.

Late last night, Nintendo sneakingly updated the 3DS Nintendo E-shop to include the long awaited Nintendo Badge Arcade app. What is Nintendo Badge Arcade you ask? Easy! Originally released in Japan late last year, this application allows you to collect special badges and pins from crane games so that you can customize your home menu. You can also collect special badges that let you replace some of your regular apps with a different looking launch button for that game. When you first boot up the game you will be given 5 free plays for the crane machine to show you the ropes on how to play. After that you can pay $1 for 5 more plays or $2.00 for 10 more plays, and yes that is real money you’ll have to spend. Why spend money you ask? Sometimes they’ll offer you a free home theme for your 3DS if you spend at least $2 during that promotion time. You can also play the practice mode once every day to get a shot at some more free plays. Are you going to download Nintendo Badge Arcade? What are some of your favorite Badges so far? Reply below!