WiiNoob

Year of Luigi 2DS Might Be Coming To North America

It seems Nintendo has one more surprise left for the “Year of Luigi”, and it comes in the shape of limited edition 2DS.

Can you believe the “Year of Luigi” is almost at its end? It feels like it was only yesterday when the 30th anniversary celebration for Mario’s underappreciated brother kicked off in March with the release of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS. And since then, the Luigi love hasn’t stopped thanks to the likes of New Super Luigi U, a special Luigi-flavored 3DS XL, and all other sorts of commemorative goods.

I’m really sad that it’s coming to an end, but I get the strange feeling this special year is definitely not going to go out on a whimper. Why just look at what one of Kotaku’s informants surprisingly snapped a bunch of pictures of: a “Year of Luigi” editioned Nintendo 2DS. Where it came from? No one besides our insider friend knows, but from the looks of things this portable seems to be a proper retail item headed for an eventual North America release. The fact that it has a ESRB rating on the back of the box is all the more proof.

The ESRB logo is in the bottom-right corner, do you see it?

The 2DS system itself is as Luigi personified as they come. Not in the same manic way as the Luigi 3D XL, where the system was fiercely sprinkled like a birthday cupcake with silhouettes of Luigi front-and-back. This one is keenly more subtle with its green-and-white color tones and only having one silent imprint of Luigi on the flip-side – a bit on the sophisticated side if you ask me. I quite like it. Then again, I spend my off hours watching cartoons and cheesy 1980s movies, so who am I to know sophisticated.

Meanwhile, and as expected, Nintendo has flat out denied all acknowledgement of this Luigi 2DS, which is normally par for the course of them in any rumor situation no matter the convincing evidence. With Black Friday and the holiday shopping season rapidly on its way though, I’m almost sure we’ll see some big announcement about this handheld sooner or later. I just hope whoever took these images is in witness protection now that he must forever hide his identity from Nintendo’s legal team of assassins. Godspeed, helpful stranger.

For more Nintendo news, how many copies of Pokémon X and Y sold after its release (hint: a lot), and the Kickstarter success of Mighty No. 9, who has the backing of one of the co-creators of the Mega Man franchise, don’t hop too far from WiiNoob.