New 3DS XL and PS Vita holiday bundles

Nintendo and Sony are bundling up their handheld systems with extra games and services in time for the holiday season. Nintendo and Sony both announced this week new packages arriving next week for portable gamers who have yet to get their hands on a 3DS XL or PlayStation Vita.

The new 3DS XL deal bundles a blue/black system with Mario Kart 7 pre-installed for $200. That's how much a 3DS XL usually runs for all by itself, so if you've been itching to tear up some asphalt and banana peels on the go, now's the time.

Meanwhile, the PS Vita's Instant Game Collection bundle plays up the system's new support for PlayStation Plus. The $300 pack includes a 3G system, a year of Plus membership (which can be appended to existing subscriptions), a Unit 13 downloadable game voucher, and a 4 GB memory card.

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Wait, Sony's only packing in a bare-minimum 4 GB memory card when this bundle pushes PS Vita's digital services? Yes indeed, and if you want to store more than a couple big games you'll have to shell out for fairly expensive proprietary memory, cutting into the $99 savings Sony boasts for the package. Still, not a bad deal overall.