Even though the Switch is doing quite well, Nintendo hasn’t given up on their aging handheld. The company announced a brand new Zelda 2DS XL bundle that will come pre-loaded with a copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. This Hylian Shield Edition will be sold at $159.99 exclusively at GameStop starting on July 2nd.
The announcement tweet showed a few different pictures of the upcoming console. It’s themed around Link’s iconic Hylian Shield, hence the name and the blue coloring. This is not the only Zelda-themed 3DS/2DS, as there was a Majora’s Mask-themed 3DS back in 2015 for the 3DS re-release of the N64 classic.
Keep in mind that this system includes the New 2DS XL, which is slightly different from the the cavalcade of different handheld consoles under the 3DS and 2DS banner. It, as its name implies, is not capable of 3D. However, it does have the same power boost as the New 3DS. It also comes with a second analog nub, a bigger screen (hence the XL), amiibo support, two extra shoulder buttons, a slight ergonomic redesign, and a few other small changes. This relatively new console is still a great piece of hardware, according to our review.
This Zelda 2DS XL bundle comes with The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which was one of the system’s highlights back in 2013. This 3DS-exclusive sequel to the SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past injected new life into the franchise’s formula and played with the perspective of the world. Renting items, instead of find them in levels, changed the open-ended dungeon structure and flattening to a 2D perspective gave the gameplay a new dimension. The game was a commercial and critical success for Nintendo, selling 2.18 million units as of early 2014 and earning high scores from multiple websites.
