400,000 joy-bringing 3DSes sold to lucky Japanese customers

Image: Adapted from PICT0035 by goodsurfers2011 under a CC-BY license.

Nintendo’s inevitable march toward global domination took an important step forward today with the launch of 3DS in Japan.

The system’s initial shipment of 400,000 units sold out almost immediately. That includes units preordered, and those that actually made it to store shelves before quickly being snatched up by same-day customers.

Word is that stores will actually be receiving a fresh shipment of the multi-screened, multi-awesomed devices Sunday.

So there you have it, the long awaited 3DS is finally out there in the wild, and 400K lucky residents of Japan are playing with them right now, probably in varying states of rapture.

Source: andriasang

Here’s the North American 3DS launch line-up

Image: Nintendo

The launch of the 3DS in North America is only a little over a month away, but the day-one line-up for that region wasn’t announced until just today. Let’s find out what Nintendo has chosen to bless us with this time (from the press release):

On March 27, new Nintendo 3DS owners will be able to choose from the following Nintendo-published games, each available at a suggested retail price of $39.99:

• Pilotwings Resort™, an aerial adventure featuring airplanes, hang gliders and rocket belts. Players soar above tropical Wuhu Island in 3D as they complete missions or snap pictures.
• Steel Diver™, a submarine game that involves strategy and combat. The 3D visuals give players the sensation that they are looking into a miniature aquarium as they control the sub’s speed, depth and pitch, and fire torpedoes.
• nintendogs™ + cats, a game that lets players interact with realistic puppies – and kittens – in a variety of fun ways. There are three versions of the software, each with different starting breeds: French bulldog, toy poodle and golden retriever. But in each version players can unlock and enjoy more than 20 different breeds.
• Other Nintendo 3DS games in the works for 2011 from Nintendo include The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D, Star Fox 64™ 3D, Kid Icarus™: Uprising and new installments in the Mario Kart™ series.

Whoah. It could be worse! The most intriguing news comes in that final point. Apparently, new Mario Kart “installments” are coming out in 2011. Confirmation that the game known to be in development will be ready for 2011 is spectacular, but endless speculation on whether that’s a typo or a legitimate declaration of plural Mario Kart games is even better!

Oh right, third party stuff is coming out too:

• Super Street Fighter® IV 3D Edition from CAPCOM
• The Sims™ 3 from EA
• Madden NFL Football from EA SPORTS
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D from Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• LEGO® Star Wars® III: The Clone Wars™ from LucasArts™
• RIDGE RACER® 3D from NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
• Super Monkey Ball™ 3D from SEGA
• BUST-A-MOVE UNIVERSE™ from Square-Enix, Inc.
• SAMURAI WARRIORS®: Chronicles from TECMO KOEI AMERICA Corp.
• Asphalt™ 3D from UBISOFT
• Combat of Giants™: Dinosaurs 3D from UBISOFT
• Rayman® 3D from UBISOFT
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Shadow Wars from UBISOFT

Augh augh augh, give me Zelda, augh augh augh

Image: Nintendo.

When in unholy fuck is the world getting its next Zelda game?

Back in December, Shigeru Miyamoto claimed that Skyward Sword was an ominous “over half complete,” but now Iwata is saying “[Miyamoto's] team is now entering into the final completion stage of the game.” So that’s something. He also says:

Talking about The Legend of Zelda franchise, what people called a masterpiece in the days of Nintendo 64, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” has been in the process of being remade for Nintendo 3DS, and this Nintendo 3DS version is expected to hit the market earlier.

Seriously people, I need this shit to live. As crushingly painful as it may be that we have to wait until the end of March for the 3DS, and then somewhere between then and June for the Ocarina of Time remake, it is even harder to come to terms with the idea that we have to wait until after that for a truly new Zelda game.

It’s been five, FIVE, years since Twilight Princess came out. Two since Spirit Tracks, and that was boring and hardly lived up to what I need in a Zelda fix! Come on!

Back when Twilight Princess was announced, I made a decent effort to play through the previous games in the series in anticipation. Anyone doing anything similar for this?

Source: GoNintendo

Sony announces “NGP,” err, PSP2

Image: Sony.

Sony finally cleared away the months of rumours and speculation, officially announcing the PSP2, or as the company is currently calling it, the “Next Generation Portable.”

Much of what was expected came true: touch screen on the front, touch pad on the back, “PS3 quality” graphics, and dual analog. Perhaps more surprisingly, Sony has decided to ditch the UMD format and is switching to DS-style flash-based carts. Also included are 3G support, GPS, and an OLED screen.

Sony is promising a holiday 2011 release date for Japan, but no price has been announced. Random internet forum speculation indicates the thing will be pricey, in the area of $300-400.

Hyperbolic industry fellatio has already begun for the system, with one EEDAR analyst claiming:

After seeing the specs today, if the NGP can’t succeed, it is clear that the portable gaming landscape has forever changed. The future of portable entertainment is in the hands of Sony.

It’s like we’re right back in the PSP vs. DS days of 2004. Let’s see if Sony can really lift us out of the “gaming ghetto” this time.

3DS details semi-revealed, semi-okay

Image: Nintendo

As so many have long anticipated, Nintendo held their January 19th 3DS info-fest, and what was revealed turned out to be a somewhat mixed-question-mark-block.

First, the big stuff: in North America, the system will sell for $249 on March 27, 2011. There will be two colours at launch, aqua blue and obsidian black.

What the launch games will be is still unclear. Nintendo is claiming 30 “launch window” games, but that period extends all the way to E3 in the summer. I’m still hoping for Ocarina of Time to be fit in there somewhere, which, as IGN notes, is “looking better than ever.”

The system will come with augmented reality games, and a suite of software for things like Mii creation and 3D camera software. There will be a handheld Virtual Console with GameBoy and GameBoy Color games for sale.

The bad news is, no real surprise here, friend codes are back. They’re not quite as awful as before, as there is only one per system, rather than one per game. We also don’t have all the info when it comes to how online interactivity will work either, if it will be easier to communicate and set up games with your friends than on previous Nintendo systems, for example. Never the less, what is clear is that Nintendo’s online is still a decade or more behind the competition.

Source: Engadget