Nintendo have made hugely popular Nintendo DS title Brain Training available for download by Wii U users in Japan via their Virtual Console service, as reported by Twitter user @NintenDaan.
BREAKING: Brain Training is now up on the Japanese Wii U eShop for FREE in Japan.
— Daan Koopman (@NintenDaan) June 4, 2014
The game is currently a free download until June 30, as long as users have System Firmware 5.0. Standard Virtual Console features like save states are not currently present in the game, but will apparently be patched in with a forthcoming update.
This release follows Game Boy Advance titles being added to Nintendo’s Virtual Console offerings on Wii U earlier this year. Given the way that the Wii U Gamepad operates, Nintendo DS releases seemed like an obvious next step, but it’s still rather surprising that this release would come out of nowhere—especially with E3 just on the horizon.
It would follow that more information on plans for a worldwide rollout of Nintendo DS content on Virtual Console will be revealed at E3 later this month, and it will certainly be interesting to see how quickly a release schedule comes together. For owners of the struggling Wii U console, Nintendo’s pragmatic and enthusiastic approach to future plans for the system over the past few weeks will surely come as an encouraging sign.