In the west, Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion is the first third-party Nintendo 3DS title that will be available both at retail and on the Nintendo eShop. In Japan, that honour goes to AKB48+Me and Samurai Warriors: Chronicles 2nd.
Both games will be available as Nintendo eShop downloads on October 25th, according to two separate Inside Games reports. AKB48+Me will see its retail release on that same day, but Chronicles 2nd is already available at retail as of September 13th.
In the case of Samurai Warriors: Chronicles 2nd, Inside Games say the eShop version will take up 1,800MB (1.75GB) of space. Interestingly, Tecmo Koei are pricing the eShop version of the game slightly cheaper than the retail version. The retail version costs 6,090 yen but the eShop version will cost 5,400 yen.
This marks the first retail game that’s available for a cheaper price on the Nintendo eShop than at retail. All of Nintendo’s own first-party titles are priced identically, regardless of where you buy them.
Additionally, a version 1.1 update for Samurai Warriors: Chronicles 2nd will be released on October 16th, and will make a few bug fixes as well as add a new easier difficulty mode to the game.