All this excitement over the launch of the new 3DS in the UK has put me in mind of those fantastic Japanese adverts that came out last October. For the launch of the new 3DS in Japan, Nintendo brought in Japanese pop singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and created the most colourful, upbeat advert I’ve ever seen:

No matter how many times I watch that ad, it still makes me smile. Here’s hoping that Nintendo come up with something just as bonkers for the UK (although somehow I doubt they will).

Unfortunately I’ll be missing out on all this colourful cover-plate-swapping action – I’ve preordered the new 3DS XL, and only the smaller, new 3DS has the changeable cover plates. I definitely prefer the look of the smaller new 3DS over the XL, but I’ll mostly be playing Monster Hunter 4 on the new system, and that game really suffers from being played on a small screen. C’est la vie, no Yoshi plates for me.

I’ll bet these cover plates will be an enormous money spinner for Nintendo, especially in Japan. When I was over there in 2013, I was astonished at how many accessories were on sale for the 3DS (see photo below, taken in the shop Kyoto Yodabashi). The accessories section was almost as big as the game section, and it was filled with every possible kind of case, stylus and cover. This fits in with the trend for accessorising mobile phones – no Japanese teenager would be seen dead without multiple straps and/or stickers covering their keitei.

No doubt the aisles of Kyoto Yodabashi are heaving with 3DS cover plates right now.