UPDATE: Because most everything involving Nintendo is sold in limited quantities these days, there is also a Luigi ornament that will be sold only for one weekend in October, so you will probably have to preorder if you want it.

Last July I told you how happy I was to see that Ubisoft and Hallmark had teamed up to produce an Assassin's Creed holiday ornament and went on to hope that other video game publishers would follow suit and create ornaments based on their popular franchises.  I'm very pleased to see that Nintendo has taken my advice, as Hallmark has announced ornaments featuring Mario and Yoshi will be available later this year for $15.95 each.

GameStop has offered Super Mario ornaments in recent years, but they've mostly been simple Christmas tree balls with existing stock character art printed on them.  I've bought them, of course, because that's how much I want official Mario ornaments on my tree.  Last year they sold a Mario figurine that was mostly on-model, more or less.  Now that Hallmark is producing these, I have great expectations for more high quality Super Mario ornaments over the next few years.  Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and Wario are all waiting their turn in the ornament spotlight.  Meanwhile, without a movie to promote this year, Ubisoft appears to be out of the Hallmark business.  No new Assassin ornament is announced for this year.  The Templars strike again.

(via NintendoWire)

Lest you believe that all of Nintendo's attention is on the popular Switch these days, take a minute to react with surprise at the announcement of the New Nintendo 2DS XL, a larger version of the 3D-less 2DS.  Unlike the existing 2DS which is a non-folding two-screened tablet-type device, the New Nintendo 2DS XL takes on the clamshell properties of its 3DS brethren.  You get all that powered-up New 3DS goodness including built-in amiibo reader and C-stick, but without the 3D capability.  Assuming Nintendo manufactures enough of them to meet demand, you'll find it in stores July 28, 2017 for $149.99.

If this is the end of the 3DS/2DS hardware line in favor of the Switch as many people assume it is, this hardware revision looks to be a good way to go out.  If you're in the market for a 3DS XL but aren't a fan of the 3D screens (and the $199.95 MSRP), this could be the system for you.  Why pay $50 more for an extra dimension you aren't going to use? This is also a great upgrade from the regular 3DS and 2DS lines if you're an avid amiibo user. I have a regular New 3DS and that built-in reader is a godsend compared to using my old external amiibo reader for the plain 3DS.  Nintendo is banking on Switch for its future, but the 3DS platform has been great for its present.

It can be expensive to collect video games.  Sealed copies of beloved classics like EarthBound or Chrono Trigger can sell in the used market for hundreds of dollars, while copies of rare titles like Stadium Events can command prices that most assign to cars or down payments on housing.  Who needs all of that stress and expense when you can collect the cheapest, most worthless games in gaming history?  Platypux Comix gets you started on your new valueless buying spree with a look at some of the cheapest games out there.

There have been a lot of lists written about the most expensive video games collectors can buy. But if you were just starting out, you probably wouldn't start with one of those, would you? Today we focus on the other end of the spectrum and track down the absolute, bottom of the barrel, can't-go-lower CHEAPEST game to collect for each system. These were gathered from figures displayed at PriceCharting.com, which calculates the average prices old games are selling for on the auction market.

All of your, ahem, "favorites" are there like Monster Truck Wars for the Game Boy ($0.99), F-1 World Grand Prix for the Nintendo 64 ($2.25), and DICE: DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises for the Sony PlayStation 2 ($0.01).  I was all set to tell you the story of the time I bought Virtual League Baseball for the Virtual Boy off of eBay in 2001 or so for a pittance and the seller threw in a second sealed copy for free just to get rid of his stock because the game was considered so worthless, but today on review I find that a new sealed copy of the game sells for as high as $20.  My investments are accruing in value!  So I suppose the lesson here is to take a chance on that cheap copy of DICE: DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises.  Who knows what tomorrow plus fifteen years will bring?

We gather here today to bid farewell to the Classic NES console, a Nintendo nostalgia item too beautiful for this world and gone far too soon.  As we say our goodbyes, we also dip back into history to discuss some of the most expensive and rarest video games spanning from the Atari 2600 era through the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.  Best and worst alike, some of these older games fetch absurdly high prices, and we explore some of our favorites.   Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way.

The online community is absolutely buzzing today about Eurogamer's report that Nintendo plans to sell a Classic Super NES later this year that follows the plug-and-play model used by the discontinued Classic NES featuring built-in games as a one-and-done purchase.  Let's hope the company takes the apparently unanticipated demand for classic Nintendo games sold in bulk at a reasonable price into account when they set up manufacturing targets this time.  Here's Tom Phillips with the news:

The SNES mini (or, to continue Nintendo's official branding, likely the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System) is currently scheduled to launch in time for Christmas this year. Development of the device is already under way, our sources have indicated.

Nintendo's plans for SNES mini are also a major reason why last year's NES mini did not see a reprieve from discontinuation, Eurogamer understands, despite the latter's continued popularity and sell-out status.

Of course everyone has their wish list of games to be included in the Classic SNES, and I'm no exception.  Here's my list of twenty-five games that I'd like to see in the console.  I'm limiting myself to reasonable selections based on the Classic NES's library licensees (so Capcom, Square-Enix, and Konami are in, but no Aero the Acro-bat from Sunsoft or Plok from Tradewest), but I'm not accounting for the technology licensing issues that have kept classics like Yoshi's Island and Star Fox off of the Virtual Console services because, let's face it, not including those games would leave a noticeable hole in the library.

• Chrono Trigger
• Donkey Kong Country
• Donkey Kong Country 2
• Donkey Kong Country 3
• EarthBound
• F-Zero
• Final Fight
• Final Fantasy III (VI)
• Kirby's Dream Course
• Kirby's Dream Land 3
• Kirby Super Star
• Mega Man 7
• Mega Man X
• Pilotwings
• Star Fox
• Street Fighter II Turbo
• Super Castlevania IV
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Punch-Out!!
• Super Mario RPG
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• Super Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

How about you?  Which games do you want to see in a Classic SNES?

It's such a minor error in the grand scheme of things, but one thing that grinds my gears in when support material for video games, movies, television, etc. fail to properly identify key characters.  While I'm impressed with Capcom's recently released The Disney Afternoon Collection, I involuntarily blurted out "Are you kidding me?" when I saw that Darkwing Duck's villainous nemesis Steelbeak, top agent of the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny, has been misidentified as "Metal Beak" in the Darkwing Duck music player.  I look forward to taking down Metal Beak along with the rest of Darkwing's rogues gallery including Megawatt, Jester Jack, Leafroot, and Liquidog.

"Metal Beak"? Are you kidding me?? Steelbeak would be furious! @frankcifaldi #DisneyAfternoon #PS4share pic.twitter.com/ioqGuSuvCB

— Matthew Green (@PressTheButtons) April 18, 2017

The demand for more Classic NES units is real, but as would-be owners of the little nostalgia boxes found late last week when Nintendo announced that it was discontinuing production of the already hard-to-find console, the reasons behind Nintendo's decisions remain a secret to everybody.  Why would the company kill off what was poised to be a runaway success had it only manufactured enough units to meet demand?  There as been lots of speculation in the media as to why Nintendo is moving away from the console; I've heard everything from "Nintendo wants to sell you a Switch instead" to "Nintendo is angry about how easy it is to hack the console and install hundreds of pirated games" to "Shigeru Miyamoto must personally bless each unit as it rolls off the assembly line and he just doesn't have the time for that", but perhaps there's a technical reason behind it all.  What, if any, is the mysterious secret of the Classic NES's technology and how does it impact production?  There's an interesting discussion happening at MetaFilter that focuses on the nature of the hardware inside the cute little console and why it may never have been intended to be an ongoing product.

I do these kinds of systems for a living and I'm boggled as well. It all smells of a quickie design - these parts are literally off a shelf in Shenzen. Do you really need four A7 cores plus a GPU plus a multitasking O/S to emulate a 6502 and a small amount of custom sprite + sound hardware? - JoeZydeco

"There had been some speculation on Reddit that it was a run of near-obsolete hardware proposed by one of their partners. Some teardown (I can't find a source now) found out that it was shipping with already EOL'ed components that weren't available for back-order from the fabs."

Definitely a strong theory - certainly there are lots of low to mid-range chipsets floating around these days that have more than enough horsepower to run old NES games.  This teardown says: Allwinner R16 (4x Cortex A7, Mali400MP2 GPU) Definitely a contender for getting cleared out.  And the board is like four chips and is the plainest looking thing I've ever seen.

It's possible that they got a bunch of CPUs at a good price but it wasn't ANY number of CPUs at that price.  Maybe Allwinner had some yield problems and all the chips in the Classic have a bad core in them which would make them hard to sell but Nintendo got them for a song and they're fine for emulators. - GuyZero

Thanks for finding that teardown, GuyZero. Knowing it's an Allwinner chip doesn't exactly confirm the theory that the CPU was a rare thing going completely obsolete. I mean, there are loads of A7/Mali parts that could have been substituted in place with a board respin. Unless that killed the profit margin on the product. - JoeZydeco

There's lots more at the discussion page.  It's an interesting idea that the Classic NES is running on substandard parts that Nintendo was able to gobble up cheaply for this little quick side project where any imperfections they may have does not matter, and if those cheap parts are now used up, naturally there won't be any more new units produced that can be sold for the attractive $60 price point.  It's certainly just as plausible as the other conspiracy theories floating around.  I never saw a Classic NES for sale in a store around my area, nor could I ever find one in stock online.  Short of amazing luck or the result of the blood oath, it looks like I'm going to miss out on owning one.  Join us on the next new episode of the Power Button podcast, Episode 235, for more on the end of the Classic NES and rare video games.

.@GrundyTheMan and I have made an unholy bargain. pic.twitter.com/4K7EX1UlPq

— Matthew Green (@PressTheButtons) April 14, 2017

It's always sad when a video game publisher chooses to shut down the servers that make multiplayer modes possible, and once again the Grim Reaper has come for a handful of Sony PlayStation titles.  The sadness is mitigated by the fact that you probably won't even notice the loss of these games as you likely were not playing them anyway.  Prepare to say farewell to the multiplayer functionality of games such as Sports Champions for PS3 and Modnation Racers: Road Trip for the PS Vita.

As of 1 July 2017 you will no longer be able to use the online features of the following games:

PS3

High Velocity Bowling
Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest
Sports Champions
Sports Champions 2

PS Vita

Modnation Racers: Road Trip

PS4

Kill Strain

These games will join our honored dead such as MotorStorm, Calling All Cars, PAIN, and Resistance: Fall of Man.  Yesterday's "Available Now!" is tomorrow's "We regret to inform you".  Trophy hunters and game archivists should get busy before it's too late, while the rest of us will go back to whatever hot new game is today's big deal.  Ashes to ashes, bytes to bytes.

When is a complete game not complete?  When season passes are involved.  We've tackled the practice of buying DLC in bulk before, but with the recent changes to Watch Dogs 2's season pass plans, we felt it was time to take another run at increasingly expensive add-on content.  Are passes a good deal or just a very expensive microtransaction?  It's time for some debate.   Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way.

The previously announced single-player expansion to Naughty Dog's hit Uncharted 4: A Thief's End has ballooned up so much that it's become a stand-alone release that does not require Uncharted 4 to play.  Subtitled The Lost Legacy and starring Uncharted 2's Chloe Frazer, this new chapter in the Uncharted story is due to release August 22 for the Sony PlayStation 4 at a price of $39.99 as announced this morning by the PlayStation Blog.

In December we said that we’re approaching this project as a true Uncharted game — complete with its own deep narrative with complex character development, all-new destinations, refined gameplay, and blockbuster cinematic moments. We’re especially excited to have Chloe as our new protagonist and explore more of her story as she and Nadine venture across India in search of the fabled Tusk of Ganesh.

I trust Naughty Dog, but let's be clear here.  At $40 and functioning as a separate work, this is not DLC for Uncharted 4.  This is a new game built off the back of Uncharted 4 which, assuming its  narrative and length hold up, is priced accordingly.  Perhaps Naughty Dog and Sony sense your sticker shock because the two are offering bonus material for those who preorder the game.  Preordering the physical release comes with the downloadable PS4 version of the PS2 adventure Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.  Preordering the downloadable version of Lost Legacy from the PlayStation Store also includes a new Uncharted theme. 

Two games for $40 is easier to swallow, although if I were Sony, I would play up the notion that this is a new Uncharted title and distance myself from the idea that this is "just" DLC.  If anything, Lost Legacy sounds like it's headed down the road of Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty or inFamous: First Light in that it's a stand-alone mini-sequel created using the underlying technology of the previous main game in the series.  There's nothing wrong with that, but the messaging is important to prevent turning away players who would balk at $40 DLC, but would embrace a $40 complete title.