Support NeoGAF

[JoeM86]

Developer(s): Nintendo EPD
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Platform(s): 3DS
Release date(s):

JP December 12, 2014
NA November 11, 2015
EU November 13, 2015
​

Nintendo Badge Arcade, known in Japan as Collectible Badge Center, is a free bit of Nintendo 3DS software which can be used to customise your Nintendo 3DS Home Screen. This is done through the titular badges which are earned in the game.
Through various crane games, you can earn badges from a variety of panels which can be affixed to the home screen in any way you like. Some badges are too big and have multiple parts to be pieced together while others are fine from the get-go.
These are obtained through a variety of panels focusing on various Nintendo characters and/or scenes. Each panel has got at least 4 badges within it to get. There are three different style of panel

• Crane - The standard method. This is a crane machine like your local arcade where you move it over a badge to bring it down to grab. It can also nudge other badges it hits, potentially causing a chain reaction.
• Bomb - Using the motion, you can throw a bomb across the panel, which will cause all the badges to shift
• Hammer - Bring a hammer down to the left of where you want it to hit. It will knock the badges down.

The game is a free-to-play title. Each day, you can play with a practice machine to get dummy badges. For every 10 badges you get here, you get one free play! You may also sometimes find a Red Badge which gives you an additional 3 free plays or a Blue badge which gives you an additional 1 free play. Don't worry, the badges carry over to the next day if you get under or over 10! If you want you can pay to get 5 more additional plays. What's the cost?

Japan: 90¥
Europe: €1
UK: £0.90
US: $1
Canada: $1.29
Everywhere: Your soul

You can affix the badges to your home menu without even being in the game and save certain styles for certain themes. Not only can you affix them to free spots, but you can also assign folders a badge so your NES Virtual Console folder can have a NES icon and some badges can even replace various system icons such as System Settings and Mii Plaza. You can even share your designs to Miiverse.
​

So what series get badges? Pretty much all first party series. From Mario to Metroid to Pokémon to Swapnote, there's a lot of representation to the point that Japan has over 3,000 badges available. Here's a list of all the series with badges so far in Japan, which will be updated as time goes on.

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario 3D World (Labelled as Mario and Friends)
Super Mario Maker
Mario Kart 8
Mario Party 10
Mario & Donkey Kong
Animal Crossing New Leaf
Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer
Animal Crossing amiibo Festival
Splatoon
WarioWare Inc.
Fire Emblem Fates
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Kirby Triple Deluxe
Kirby's Adventure
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
Metroid
Yoshi's Woolly World
Pikmin 3
Rhythm Heaven
Tomodachi Life
Daigasso! Band Brothers P
Rusty's Real Deal Baseball
BoxBoy
Pushmo
NES Remix
Pokémon (Pocket Monsters)
Pokémon (Special)
Nikki (Swapnote)
Dot Series
Nintendo Badge Arcade

New badge sets come weekly, often tying in with recent game releases, but there are also special occasions which can warrant new sets of badges like Christmas Super Mario Bros. and Halloween Nikki. Most badge sets cycle out daily and weekly so if you missed one, you'll likely get another chance to get it at a later point, so check back daily.

When does it update?
Japan: Friday 04:00 JST
Europe: Thursdays at 04:00 UTC
NA: Tuesdays at 05:00 EST

Don't forget you can check your collection to see badges often in an awesome pose such as Link facing Ganon!
​

How do the panels reset?
There are a few ways for the panels to reset. First, clear the panel. Once you've done that, it'll automatically reset. Second, ask Bunny to reset it. Third, exit the game. You can exit the crane to get plays from the Practice Crane and come back and it'll be how it was, but once you exit the game, it will reset.

Do free plays carry over? Can I exit out?
Unfortunately not. When you get plays, you have to use them. If you turn your console off, they're gone forever.

Do I get a free play every day?
No. You get free plays given to you when there's a special event such as a new badge set, or you have to go to the practice crane to try and get free plays.

Do I need to re-mortgage my house to get all the badges?
Yes.

How do I replace the system badges with the cool new ones I've got that can be used?
Easy. You can't. Sort of. Rather than replace the badges, they act as a shortcut so you need to hide the standard icons away into a folder. They will both have the same function, but out of sight-out of mind.

Tips video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHIFTp0hT04
All panels in Japan: http://imgur.com/a/wcl7W

 

[Hours Left]

Heh, I just asked if the other topic was gonna be the OT. Nice job Joe.

5 plays is $1.29 in Canada FYI.

 

[Flintty]

Great OT! My 8 year old son will love this, and so will I. I sense some father/son competition brewing

 

[Zalman]

Nice OT. R.I.P. wallet.

 

[JoeM86]

Heh, I just asked if the other topic was gonna be the OT. Nice job Joe.

5 plays is $1.29 in Canada FYI.

Thanks. If there's any questions people still have, I'll wing them into a FAQ

And if anyone wants to do a better job at me on the images, they're welcome to haha

 

[kuroneko0509]

>Pokémon (Special)
For a moment I thought this refers to badges of characters from PokeSpe lol

 

[SalvaPot]

Aaaand Downloaded.

So ready.

 

[JoeM86]

>Pokémon (Special)
For a moment I thought this refers to badges of characters from PokeSpe lol

Haha na. These are a separate category than the normal one. Normal one covers all Pokémon and forms. This one covers special events like this one

In Japan, the difference is the main ones are labelled Pocket Monsters while this is labelled Pokémon

Got a full list of Pokémon badges on my site

 

[Hours Left]

So on the first day I got all 8 Mario badges from the tutorial, (Mario, Mushroom, Star, Coin, Goomba and 3 Blocks) plus a pixel Gameboy, Super Famicom Cart and Super Famicom Controller with the free plays I won in practice. Pretty good start I think.

This is a fun little time sink, and a nice way to get people to turn their 3DS on everyday.

 

[Ushojax]

With the badges for system software like eShop, Settings etc you can't actually replace the original icon can you? It seems you have to put them on a folder and then put the original icon inside that folder.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Need dem Nikkis

 

[Banjotanooki]

This.......might get addicting. I need more badges...wallet's not ready.....

 

[JoeM86]

For the record, I personally have spent ~£25 on this game.

I turned it on periodically for the free goes from time to time, but not regularly until September 17th. Now I'm on it most days.

Money spent was for the Pokémon badges, of which there is around 160 at this point.

I have just under 500 badges total.

To get all 3000+ that have been in Japan, it's estimated that around $400 may have needed to spend. While it's possible to get badges you want with your free goes, it's impossible to get all of them since over a dozen new panels get added each week.

 

[GasProblem]

Ugh why do we have to wait 'till friday. I'm going to be strong and only use the free tries.

 

[Litri]

My... money...

 

[Hours Left]

So it seems like the individual badge machines reset once you exit out of the game and come back, so if you've positioned the badge you want, I guess you gotta go for it immediately or you'll have to start over again.

 

[Rootbeer]

Cool thanks for the OT.

It's a fun little way to customize your 3DS, I suspect I'll be dipping into it very often when I want something quick to do.

I'm a sucker for the Zelda badges.

 

[Robin64]

Won't spend a penny on this.

...until the cute Nikki styled icon replacements arrive.

Soooo good.

 

[JoeM86]

Won't spend a penny on this.

...until the cute Nikki styled icon replacements arrive.

Soooo good.

I said the same. I even just screenshot the Pokémon panels as they are and had that on the site, but then a friend reminded me that I don't half-arse things.

;;

I hate that friend now. Once you get the first taste, you want more!

 

[c-murph]

Pokemon badges are going to kill my wallet.

Edit: Can I just keep playing Free Play every day and save all my "free plays" I win forever and ever... (or until Pokemon Badges arrive)?

 

[Hegarol]

What badges are currently available in the US-version?

 

[JoeM86]

Pokemon badges are going to kill my wallet.

Edit: Can I just keep playing Free Play every day and save all my "free plays" I win forever and ever... (or until Pokemon Badges arrive)?

No, you have to use them straight away

 

[c-murph]

No, you have to use them straight away

Disgusting Nintendo.

 

[Zonic]

Can't wait to get new icons. Also glad you can use badges on folders, got the GB badge so now it tells me it's the folder with all my GB/C games.

Edit: Bunny was telling me about Triforce Heroes & transformed into yet another funny form.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Today's free play is awesome fun.

 

[Zonic]

Yay, got all the GB badges............but today's the last day for the Super Famicom ones.....oh god, do I aim for them now or wait & see if they come back.....

Speaking of which, I can tell two of the cartridges are Super Mario World & Link to the Past, but what's the third one?

 

[Hours Left]

I got 7 badges with my free play, but 6 of them were boulders. XD

Got the Octorok I wanted though.

 

[Flintty]

Are the badges of different rarity or are they all fair game?

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Are the badges of different rarity or are they all fair game?

They are all fair (all panels are fixed spawns), but arguably better ones are sometimes harder to get and may need clearing of other badges to get in contact with it, depends on the layout though. I guess it boils down to what you want out of the game, collecting for collecting or just getting ones you want; I mean maybe Hours Left really wanted rocks.

 

[JoeM86]

They are all fair (all panels are fixed spawns), but arguably better ones are sometimes harder to get and may need clearing of other badges to get in contact with it, depends on the layout though. I guess it boils down to what you want out of the game, collecting for collecting or just getting ones you want; I mean maybe Hours Left really wanted rocks.

Yep. For example, here's a Zelda one currently in Japan.

To get the Ganon one, you need to remove all the other ones from the right hand side which were pushing it down onto the platform, to cause Ganon to make the seesaw move down and fall into the pit itself

Incidentally, I'll probably post the new panels here each week (when I'm around) for the Japanese game I really like the idea of Badge Center aside from the moneygrabbing so am happy to share these things.

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

Is there any trick to getting the badges that are hanging on hooks? Eg the one LBW panel up right now.

 

[Hours Left]

They are all fair (all panels are fixed spawns), but arguably better ones are sometimes harder to get and may need clearing of other badges to get in contact with it, depends on the layout though. I guess it boils down to what you want out of the game, collecting for collecting or just getting ones you want; I mean maybe Hours Left really wanted rocks.

Budding geologist.

 

[c-murph]

Is there any trick to getting the badges that are hanging on hooks? Eg the one LBW panel up right now.

Nah, I just cleared the triforce and two guards first. Then went in to grab them individually. No issues.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

How do you download the game. Im looking in the EU store and theres still nitng. Or hasnt it released yet there?

 

[Easy_D]

What's the point of this? You get digital little cutouts of old videogame art that you can't easily show off to others on the tiny 3DS screen?

 

[JoeM86]

How do you download the game. Im looking in the EU store and theres still nitng. Or hasnt it released yet there?

Comes in Europe on Friday

What's the point of this? You get digital little cutouts of old videogame art that you can't easily show off to others on the tiny 3DS screen?

You can share your decorating on Miiverse.

 

[GasProblem]

How do you download the game. Im looking in the EU store and theres still nitng. Or hasnt it released yet there?

EU gets it on Friday I think.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

What's the point of this? You get digital little cutouts of old videogame art that you can't easily show off to others on the tiny 3DS screen?

It's old and new art, and how you customize your 3DS icons is up to you, it's just a little thing you do for your own style that you can also share on miiverse.

 

[Easy_D]

Comes in Europe on Friday



You can share your decorating on Miiverse.

I barely bother with Miiverse, it's just too slow on a regular 3DS. Then again I doubt I'd bother if it wasn't. It just isn't for me . But still, the stickers seems like something you'd give away for free with different themes not milk people out of money with.

 

[Boss Doggie]

If you have a play, you can scroll around the machines. Certain layouts causes some physics which make certain badges fall.

 

[Hours Left]

I barely bother with Miiverse, it's just too slow on a regular 3DS. Then again I doubt I'd bother if it wasn't. It just isn't for me . But still, the stickers seems like something you'd give away for free with different themes not milk people out of money with.

It's just a fun little thing, and you don't have to spend a cent. I've gotten over a dozen already for nothing, and I don't plan on spending any money really.

And there are themes you can get in the app by purchasing plays, so really you're just buying a theme, and getting a chance to net some more badges along with it.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Yeah, it's still free in a slow sense, like any free to play.

 

[Draxal]

Kinda grumpy that they only have Fire Emblem Fates/If badges but the animal crossing ones have my attention so far ...

 

[KingBroly]

Does this ever escalate to the point where you either pay or stop playing like most F2P games?

 

[JoeM86]

It's old and new art, and how you customize your 3DS icons is up to you, it's just a little thing you do for your own style that you can also share on miiverse.

Indeed. There's some art that has never existed before like this Isabelle art

And this Mario Christmas spritework

In fact, there's a crapload of alternate Isabelle and Nikki artwork that didn't exist before this

Does this ever escalate to the point where you either pay or stop playing like most F2P games?

Only if you want to get them all. But no, there's free play chances every day

 

[Razmos]

Doesn't get released until the 13th for Europe? lame. I shouldn't have clicked on this thread

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Yo the next Metroid needs to end with Samus taking the mask off and it was Isabelle all along.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

This is really fun! I can see myself spending a few bucks on this.

Any way to know which promotional theme is currently being offered?

 

[JoeM86]

This is really fun! I can see myself spending a few bucks on this.

Any way to know which promotional theme is currently being offered?

One of the options in the "hub" is the Theme

 

[OrbitalBeard]

One of the options in the "hub" is the Theme

I saw the elevator to the Theme Shop but I couldn't find which theme was being offered and it wouldn't tell me when I selected the elevator. Am I missing something?