Joystiq has posted a "How to download Ambassador Games" PSA on their website. The instructions are as follows:

"In order to get your free games, you'll have to open up the eShop (cool so far), then ... go into the "Settings/Other" menu there, scroll to "Account Activity," and then click to "redownload" each game, even though you're actually downloading them for the first time."



You can't do it just yet but, when the time comes, now you're ready.

Source: Joystiq

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Ice Climber - awesome! Once you get used to the controls it plays great and has a decent difficulty curve. It's surprisingly tough to get the end of stage bonus!

Yoshi - pretty good puzzle game. I remember playing this on my TI-83 calculator throughout all of grade 10 and 11, good times. Mode B is where it's at.

Wrecking Crew - I got bored of it after the first 5 stages. The fact that you get into positions where you can't clear the stage and just have to wait to die puts me off. Will give it another go sometime.

NES Open Golf is a robust golf game. I'm surprised it has so much depth. I got the hang of it within a few minutes and birdied the third hole. It seems to have a lot of options and content.

DK Jr - not as good as I remembered, but still fun.

Balloon Fight - Great time-waster. Will go for high scores, repeatedly.

Posted by

anon_mastermind

on: 09/01/11, 16:20

Yoshi is surprisingly good. I've never played this puzzle game before, so it's totally new to me. I got hooked almost immediately. It's probably my favorite game of the Ambassador Program.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 09/01/11, 16:56

Mine are downloading as we speak :)

Posted by

Cube191

on: 09/01/11, 16:56

@GameDadGrant

I had played it on the NES and it is fun but another game that probably a lot of people missed and I find to be MUCH better is Wario's Woods. I got to play that one on the GameCube thanks to Animal Crossing. I got pretty addicted to it and the game gets TOUGH.

Posted by

VofEscaflowne

on: 09/01/11, 18:25

@VofEscaflowne

Yeah, Wario's Woods is excellent. I still have my NES cartridge, stored somewhere down in my basement. I've of course unlocked it in Animal Crossing, and I even spent $5 and downloaded the Virtual Console version, too.

I'm a Wario's Woods consumer whore, apparently.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 09/01/11, 18:32

+1 for Wario's Woods. Fell in love with it via Animal Crossing, and 5$ well spent on the Wii VC. It would have be too good to be true if it were one of the Ambassador titles. I'd actually love to play the SNES version someday.

Posted by

anon_mastermind

on: 09/01/11, 18:43

@anon_mastermind

I've played the SNES version via an emulator around a decade ago. It was pretty good too - Toad had some unique moves/abilities exclusive to that version, if I recall correctly.

Interesting thing about the SNES version? It's a North American exclusive. It was never released anywhere else in the world.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 09/01/11, 19:09

Man, Balloon Fight is AWESOME. I love the inertia based gameplay and it's just fun to control. It's my favorite of the titles so far.

Posted by

casper884

on: 09/01/11, 21:10

Yeah, Yoshi isn't too bad! It's nothing like Yoshi's Cookie, thankfully.

Is NES Open Golf different from just Golf? I assumed it was the latter.

Wario's Woods is pretty cool. I'm interested in the SNES version.

@anon_mastermind
Press Select to jump back to the Level Select in Wrecking Crew.

It still takes too long to start a stage, though.

Posted by

Anand

on: 09/01/11, 21:58

Do you guys think Balloon Fight is the most derivative Nintendo made game of all time? I can't remember another example of Nintendo just straight ripping off a game like that.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 09/01/11, 22:01

Radar Scope? Devil World? Not every branch was a paragon of innovation in the early days.

Balloon Fight IS a Joust rip, but it does feel completely different. I like it better, I have to say. Joust is just too brutal.

Posted by

Anand

on: 09/01/11, 22:13

Mrs_Mustache likes Wario's Woods a lot, too, but she never comes here anymore.
Zero scared her away, or something.

Or I'm making that up.

Blah.

Posted by

Mr_Mustache

on: 09/01/11, 22:24

Apparently, Nintendo has begun updating the NES Ambassador games in Japan

Posted by

Jargon

on: 12/24/11, 19:16

@Jargon

Updating them with MULTIPLAYER. Color me surprised! I've said again and again I believed we'd never get multiplayer because, well, we didn't get multiplayer for any eShop VC game we've paid for.

Nintendo surprised in a good way, here. Awesome.

Posted by

Guillaume

on: 12/28/11, 20:07

@Guillaume

Actually that was already confirmed for the NES games. Doesn't really matter to me since I can play multiplayer NES games in plenty of other forms. What I want is multiplayer in GBA games, which I can't easily play.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 12/28/11, 20:13

I'm kind of assuming this is a first step towards that (and paid eShop VC games). But maybe there is some issue preventing it for handheld games?

Posted by

Guillaume

on: 12/28/11, 20:17

I think it's because most (if not all?) of the ambassador NES games aren't simultaneous, so it's easier to add it in. I mean hell, technically SMB had multiplayer already, it was just single system multiplayer (you could use the shoulder buttons to change to controller 2).

It would be pretty sweet if they added it to the GBA games, but I'm not expecting it.

Posted by

rebonack

on: 12/28/11, 20:35

Edited:

12/28/11, 20:35

Local or online Multiplayer for NES games?

Posted by

Stephen

on: 12/28/11, 21:19

@Stephen

Local.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 12/28/11, 21:20