Nintendo Smashes Down Its Holiday Lineup

In a press release sent just after the Japanese Nintendo Direct, Nintendo of America laid out all of its plans for the upcoming holiday season, including console bundles, its upcoming game lineup, and new information on the Amiibo figurines. Let us say this up front: prepare your wallets.

First, the Amiibo figurines are set to launch this holiday season, and Nintendo unveiled the first twelve figurines coming out in the new line. Mario, Link, Yoshi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Marth, and Samus round out the opening lineup, and each figurine will be available for $12.99 at retail. If you're keeping score at home, that's $155.88 before taxes for every figure in the lineup. Future Amiibo figures will be released for Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker, Mario Party 10 and Yoshi's Woolly World.

Next, we finally know when Bayonetta 2 will be in our hands. As the press releases says, "The witch is back on Oct. 24. The game features over-the-top battles with wild weapons that take place in gorgeous set pieces. A new snake transformation lets Bayonetta better navigate underwater. The original Bayonetta game, complete with some Nintendo cosplay options for the powerful heroine, comes bundled with the retail packaged version of Bayonetta 2." That's two Bayonetta games in one, and that we can't argue with.

The third big announcement was the announcement of three new holiday console bundles mixing the current Nintendo hardware with some of its top games. First, a new Wii U bundle in mid-September will include the 32GB console and two games, Super Mario 3D World and Nintendo Land, for $299.99. The Wal-Mart exclusive version of this bundle replaces Super Mario 3D World with Mario Kart 8, and Nintendo stresses that this bundle will be available for a limited time. Not to be outdone, three new Nintendo 2DS colors, Electric Blue, Crimson Red and Sea Green will also launch this October, all bundled with a free download for Mario Kart 7 from the Nintendo eShop. That's a lot of new hardware coming this year, and we expect those who have yet to adopt to take the plunge.

These announcements, coupled with a strong holiday lineup including new Super Smash Bros and Pokemon games, have the makings of a big holiday season for Nintendo, so long as consumers jump on the chance to get free games with their systems. We'll see what happens for sure this holiday.