[Gemini-Phoenix]

The majority of Nintendo titles I can afford to hold off on, as they can be bought at any time from retailers or eBay. These bundles though are the sort of thing that you don't want to pass up on, and become very difficult to acquire at a later date, and often you sacrifice condition if you leave it and end up buying later from an eBay seller. It's easier to buy them on day one and then fill in the gaps with standard releases as and when you can

I definitely think Nintendo have been lapsing lately though. Their previous CE's of the last couple of years have been rather hit and miss, with mainly Zelda games getting the LE treatment, but hardly ever any of their other franchises. A Link Between Worlds was perhaps the low point, with GAME fabricating their own edition for that (and the same for Pokemon Rumble U). On the other hand, Nintendo seem more interested in selling LE Wii-U hardware bundles and LE 3DS models. The kind of major games which you think deserve a CE, usually get overlooked, but then Nintendo will surprise us with something nice for something like Chibi Robo...

In the past - in Europe at least - Nintendo have released some awesome CE's. Majora's Mask has a relatively sought after CE which was only released in Germany, and the same for Oracle Of Ages / Seasons on GBA. Spirit Tracks had a nice biscuit tin, and Skyward Sword had the box set with soundtrack and gold controller, and Wind Waker HD had the Ganondorf statue... This shows that they can do it when they want to!

Over the last three generations of Nintendo consoles, I look back and ask myself how many opportunities Nintendo have had to give us a nice LE or CE for a major franchise title. The Wii does have its fair share (eg, NSMB, Mario Galaxy 2, Mario & Sonic Olympics 2012, Skyward Sword, Mario 25th Anniversary etc), so I'll give credit where credit is due, but for the most part there have been many missed opportunities. When was the last time you saw a Kirby CE? Or a Pokemon CE? Or a Metroid CE?

I'm actually very surprised that Kirby & The Rainbow Paintbrush for Wii-U doesn;t come bundled with a Kirby Amiibo! Despite my initial complaint of Nintendo being lazy by bundling Amiibo's with games, I find it even more baffling when they pass up an opportunity to do just that with a major first party release like Kirby! I just don't understand Nintendo sometimes, and over the years it feels like they just don't want to make money where there's plenty of opportunity to do so!