As those of you who've connected your 3DS to the internet in the past 24 hours may have noticed, a new system update is now available for the Nintendo 3DS family of consoles (that's the 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS, for those keeping score at home). Alongside a few stylistic tweaks to the eShop, and a few general stability adjustments, by far the biggest addition that comes in the catchily titled Version 9.0.0-20E is the ability to change how your 3DS' menu looks, thanks to the brand new themes.
Beautiful!
After updating your console, a new Theme Shop option will be available from the HOME menu. Letting you purchase a variety of brand new themes to customise your console, the Theme Shop also adds five free themes to get you started - Simple Red, Simple Blue, Simple Yellow, Simple Pink, and Simple Black - which is a nice touch, even if it does make your 3DS menu sound like a convention for poor Simply Red tribute acts.
In the Theme Shop there are currently fifteen themes available, from basic themes based around Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach, to a stunning Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Two Worlds theme. With more set to launch over the next few weeks, the first of a number of weekly updates is scheduled to land at the end of October, and promises to bring with it designs based around Animal Crossing:New Leaf.
If colourful character designs aren't your thing, there's also a variety of geometric pattern designs available, with inspiring names like Chess Board, Stripes, Polka Dots, and Stars. Still, for those who prefer their designs to be more minimalist, these themes do work pretty well with the 3DSs menus.
While the best things in life may be free, Nintendo's themes sadly aren't, although they do have a variety of price tags. While the five simple themes are included free with the update, the non-character based themes will set you back 89p, and the premium character based designs, NES Mario, Mario Characters (both wood and felt designs), and Hanafuda themes are £1.79 each.
Other features added in the update include the option to access the Nintendo 3DS Image Share from the HOME menu, along with the ability to take photos of your top and bottom 3DS Menu screens. A perfect chance to show off your theme of choice, you can take screenshots by pressing the Y button, and holding the +Control Pad up or down, depending which screen you want a photo of.
As with all updates there has been a number of minor improvements and bug fixes to improve system stability.
Coming hot on the heels of Sony's recent similar update for the Playstation Vita, which also brought themes to the handheld, the full list of what's included in the update is as follows -
Changes in system software version 9.0.0-20E
- Addition of themes to the HOME Menu
-
The appearance of the HOME Menu can now be customised with themes. Five themes are provided with the update and additional themes can be purchased from the Theme Shop. Themes can be selected using the Change Theme option in HOME Menu Settings.
Nintendo eShop
- The layout of the software information page has been changed to provide easier access to videos, demo versions (when available), user reviews and other information.
- Further improvements have been made to enhance the user's experience.
- System stability improvements and other adjustments
- Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user's experience.
Do you like these new themes? Which ones have you bought? What themes would you like to see added in the future?
