Moments following the shock announcement of a 3DS price drop from Nintendo’s Japanese arm, the North American division has outlined plans for a stateside price drop. The 3DS will carry a suggested retail price of $169.99 starting August 12, a steep drop from its original $250 asking price.

Backed by a strong lineup of first-party titles, including Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising, Nintendo hopes the price cut will spur momentum throughout the holiday season.

“For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games.”

Additionally, as a token of appreciation to early adopters, Nintendo has gift of 20 free downloadable games on the way. Anyone with a 3DS that has connected to the eShop at least once by August 11, a day before the price cut goes into effect, will be automatically registered into a loyalty program – dubbed Nintendo 3DS Ambassador. The rewards will be spread out across the remainder of this year. Details include:

Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

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