Pikachu New 3DS Faceplates Heading to Europe Soon

Both Serebii.net and one of the official news Twitter accounts for Bulbapedia, @BulbaNewsNOW, have announced that a Pikachu faceplate for Nintendo’s New 3DS will be releasing in Europe in a couple of months – on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Officially referred to as Cover Plates, the Pikachu variant of the New 3DS’ faceplate released earlier this month in Japan. Serebii.net reports that it is so far the second Pokemon faceplate to be released to the general public – the first one being themed around Omega Ruby and Omega Sapphire. A recommended retail price tag for the faceplate is currently listed as £12.99 / €14.99. It’s advisable to take note that faceplates are only interchangeable with the regular New 3DS, not the New 3DS XL. When the New 3DS models became available in Japan, nearly 40 different faceplates were available at launch. Some European Club Nintendo members received two faceplates as part of the New 3DS Ambassador Edition bundle. There are now 59 faceplates available in Japan, with the latest one dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles.

The New 3DS and the New 3DS XL both released in Western Markets this month, on Friday, February 13th, although North America only receive the New 3DS XL. They were first revealed in late-August last year, when Nintendo showed off the new additions to the 3DS design, such as an extra directional “nubbin”, new trigger buttons and built-in New Field Communication (NFC) support. Both the regular and New 3DS allow for improved autostereoscopic 3D thanks to eye-tracking, which allows gamers to view the handhelds 3D effect from wider angles. They also both come with MicroUSB slots as well, along with an improved processor to boot.