Among all of the excitement around the launch of My Nintendo, gamers in Europe and PAL territories can also see another promised feature in action - the option to purchase over 2000 games from the official website, with those downloads then sent automatically to their system.

We've already tried this out through My Nintendo itself, where a message at the top of the screen advised that Flipnote Studio 3D is available for free in Europe. Clicking through a few pages and providing our Nintendo Network ID login details (we were already logged into the new Nintendo Account) completed the process, and shortly afterwards our 3DS had automatically downloaded the app.

That infrastructure is applied more broadly on the official Nintendo site across Europe, however - we tested it with the following random titles on the UK-based site, covering the Virtual Console on Wii U and 3DS and a recent Wii U 'Nindie' game, all with the option to buy along with integrated details showing what you'll get in terms of My Nintendo rewards. As you can see, one choice falls just below the threshold for 10 Gold Points, while the 50% Star Fox 64 discount doesn't exclude it from the £8.99 bracket.

What is lacking, we'd suggest, is a nicely designed eShop-style web platform - at present you can only browse the 'Games' areas found through Nintendo's official websites or search for a game by name. It's also worth noting that the availability of a lot of smaller games is still rolling out in Nintendo of America, but as it was the NoA press release that cited over 2000 games being available to buy online for automatic download we expect it to kick in very soon.

It's terrific to see that download titles of all sizes and prices now have an extra avenue to earn sales. Perhaps a future step will be a presentable online eShop as a dedicated website, however, to mimic the approach taken by the likes of Sony with PSN.

Another step in the right direction for Nintendo, that much is certain.