As Echoes Of Wisdom Approaches, I’ve Never Been More Grateful For The Nintendo 2-For-$100 Voucher

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is set to launch at the end of the month and I can’t wait. I’ve currently got my hands full with Astro Bot and Star Wars Outlaws but I’m hoping I can race through both by September 26th and give Zelda’s solo adventure my full attention.

This is the first all-new, single-player, 2D Zelda game in 11 years. We haven’t had a new top-down adventure since The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which launched in 2013. That game’s open-ended structure set the series down the path that would eventually culminate in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Echoes of Wisdom bringing that style of design back to 2D, with a decade’s worth of evolution and innovation, is extremely exciting. Add in that Zelda is the playable protagonist for the first time ever in a mainline game, and that her magical powers look like they’ll be fun to use in clever, creative ways, and I’m all in. I can’t wait to play this game.

Using The 2-For-$100 Voucher Right Takes Strategic Thinking

But there are a bunch of other Nintendo games that I’m itching to play, too. None as much as Echoes of Wisdom — Zelda has been my favorite series since I first played Ocarina of Time a quarter-century ago — but I’m interested in several more games than I have money to buy. It’s times like this that I’m grateful Nintendo still offers its bundle that allows you to mix and match two select games for $100.

This deal can be negligible, depending on what you pick. For example, if you chose Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club, which retails for $49.99, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which is also going for $49.99, then congrats, you just bought two games at regular price with extra steps. But, if you get Tears of the Kingdom (which is still the only Switch game that sells for $70) and any of the offered games that go for $60, you can save 30 bucks. I already own Tears of the Kingdom, so a deal that good isn’t on the table this time, but I can still save $20 by choosing well. And, with GOTY season rapidly approaching, it’s a good way to check out new games without breaking the bank.

Echoes Of Wisdom Is A Lock. But What Else Is Voucher-Worthy?

Echoes is a done deal, so one slot is filled. But I’m going back and forth on the other game I should add to the bundle. I’d like to play Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but I probably won’t end up considering a remake for my list at the end of the year. The Last of Us Part 2, one of my favorite games, got a remaster this year and there’s no way I’m including it on my GOTY list, so anything else would have a pretty steep climb.

I like the first two Famicom Detective Club games a lot, so Emio should be a no-brainer, but again, the lower price point makes that a bad deal. Or, I could get an older game that I haven’t played (like Fire Emblem Engage or Bayonetta 3) but the concern there is that if you buy an old game at the same time you buy a new game, the old game is naturally going to get tossed to the side. Plus, that doesn’t help me with my GOTY quest.

So, if I want a new game and time to play it, the most sensible choice is Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The first new Mario & Luigi RPG in nine years looks like a ton of fun, and I’m interested in seeing what Nintendo does with the island-hopping structure. It’s a game I might wait on otherwise, but with the 2-for-100 deal, it makes sense to hop on it now. Of course, I’ll probably change my mind several times before I end up pulling the trigger but, the beauty of the 2-for-100 is that I really can’t go wrong. I either buy cheap games and save nothing or buy expensive games and save a lot. I can’t lose.