Recently in Nintendo Category

Super Mario 3D Land is a terrific platformer that mixes moments of insane difficulty with a player-friendly approach and brilliant visuals that perhaps more than any title so far, make a case for 3D visuals as an essential component of gameplay.

How so? Acrophobia, to put it simply. Running and jumping to ridiculous heights has always been at the core of Mario games, and the Nintendo 3DS' stereoscopic visuals make it easy to imagine what it would be like to ascend - and perhaps fall - hundreds of feet. The handheld's visual capabilities also make enemies, fireballs and even boomerangs as if appear as if they are capable of flying towards and almost out of the screen itself.

But as nice as the graphics are, Super Mario 3D Land - and any other game - needs to be fun to play to avoid failure. Thankfully, Nintendo delivered a classic Mario experience that relies on the traditional running and jumping exploits of vintage Super Mario Bros. while adding a series of zany and zanier surprises to keep things interesting.

Nintendo revealed a new pink version of its 3DS handheld today. The pastel-colored hardware comes bundled with one of two different versions of "nintendogs + cats," and the packaging is predictably adorable.


Nintendo's MSRP for the bundle is $169.99, which is the same as the current price for a 3DS all on its own.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be released Nov. 20 for the Wii console, Nintendo announced today.

Nintendo announced a "Holiday" release at the E3 convention, which took place in June in Los Angeles. Skyward Sword will be the first  traditional Zelda title designed specifically for the Wii console's motion controls. Its predecessor, Twilight Princess, was originally designed for the GameCube before being rebuilt for the Wii.

I would like to say that Nintendo also announced a release date for Kid Icarus: Uprising, its highly anticipated 3DS title, but that would be a lie.

Nintendo announced a big price drop for their still-new 3DS portable gaming system. The Big N slashed $80 from the devices' MSRP, bringing it down to $169.99 from $249.99.

There's more: Nintendo also revealed plans to release a package of downloadable NES and Game Boy Advance titles for the 3DS. Players who buy the system before the price drop - Nintendo has taken to calling them "3DS Ambassadors" - can get the games free of any additional charge.

The 3DS' price drop, to be effective Aug. 12, follows many reports, such as this one, of disappointing sales for the new handheld. The 3DS's big selling point was its 3D visuals, but readers can go to virtually any gaming website and read comments from players lamenting a relative lack of games for the new system.

Captain America: Super Soldier might actually be the first movie tie-in game that doesn't suck. At least not as badly as some of its predecessors have.

A message posted to Megaman Legends 3's Developer Room site has confirmed the worst: Megaman won't be returning to his RPG-lite series on the 3DS.

The project had elicited the help of fans in designing a new character for the game as well as a new robot enemy through contests designed to bring fans closer to the production of the title.

Regular updates were made by the staff within a "Developer Room" site at Capcom's Japanese and North American sites, fielding questions and keeping everyone updated on the project. It was a rare level of transparency that Platinum Games' had also engaged fans with through blog entries following the development of games such as Bayonetta.

When Keiji Inafune had left Capcom shortly after Capcom had revealed their Megaman Legends 3 project for the Nintendo 3DS, fans were understandably worried over whether the project would survive without him.

It was already a huge surprise to many considering that the last Legends game, Mega Man Legends 2, came out in 2000. The Mega Man godfather had even mentioned interest in doing a follow-up to Legends 2 in an interview with Gamespot in 2007.

Capcom did their best to assure everyone that the the game wouldn't be impacted by Inafune's departure, though it's hard not to think about the kind of influence one-time series producer could have brought to the game. Yet the collection of blog postings and updates at Capcom's Developer Room had shown that the team behind the game was working to make it a worthy successor to the series that Inafune had started.

And now, it looks like we'll never know how it could have turned out at all.

Nintendo came on strong in their press conference. Hot on the heels of the 25th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, Nintendo also took the time to finally unveil their successor to the Wii. Did they win everything? I felt their conference did really well for them. But calling it the Wii U? Either they're being zen about the name, or Nintendo is basically telling everyone that no matter what they call it, they're ready to print money.