Peznaze

Ahhh... Those are some of the same games they've got in the Capcom Arcade App. That has 1942, Commando, Ghosts n'Goblins and Street Fighter II. They charge $3 per game there, so on WiiWare it'll probably be 500 points per, considering all previous iPhone to WiiWare ports.

My God, it's full of Sudoku!

I'm not a huge fan of the interlocked Sudoku puzzles, they tend to be easier than the standard 9x9 because you can't solve one set until you solve the previous set kind of thing. Still, if it's cheap and has a random generator or the ability to enter custom puzzles, it'll be good for the 3DS.

Main twist on tower defence seems to be the "Scenario Rotation", which looks like you have several paths to defend at a time, not all of which can be seen at once. Could be interesting.

Nintendo really, REALLY has an aversion to hosting free content. You'd think they get billed by the bit or something.

But in essence, as WarioFAn63 pointed out, this is based on the DS demo service, which is temporary... sort of... But then, they have the bonus of the user not being able to save the demo, so you never know, but it's likely some demos will be hosted longer than others.

And yes, I'd expect 3DS demos to be similar in nature... Either unsaveable and nigh-eternally hosted or saveable and only available for a limited time.

Didn't the blurb mention "turbulent weather conditions" as well as enemy troops? But then, seeing how the enemy troops are only an additional tapping thing at the highest difficulty setting... I guess you can't add too much to Flight Control or it loses its charm.

Following the lead of Layton vs. Wright, the next one they'll do will be Harvey Birdman vs. Space Ghost.

And as to the subtitle, the answer, of course, is Dee Dee.

When you consider how much App sales skyrocket when a half-second clip is included in an iDevice commercial, they have a point.

Nintendo, however, will do their standard catch-22 argument. Not worth advertising when sales are so small. Sales are so small, they need more advertising. But they're too small to justify spending money on advertising, and so on.

That's amazing. Even though they only sold 8384 more units than Sony's combined numbers, it's shocking that they're buying DS at all with the 3DS just four months away over there. I guess the DS line of handhelds are truly little Pocket Monsters. heh. (Either that, or it's true that nobody realizes the 3DS exists.)

"In the video game justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups -- the professors who investigate puzzles, and the lawyers who object before judges. These are their stories."

Meh. Anywho, reminds me of Law & Order.

Interesting. If they could do it this way, why did they even bother with a disc? It's got to cost them less to distribute the software this way... Unless that disc contains barely functional software designed to test the market, I don't see why it ever existed. Unless it was something Nintendo required. Nintendo does seem loathe to offer anything for free in the Wii Shop any more...

Yeah, I thought it was related to the Dreamcast game, too. Alas, it's Harbor Master/Flight Control with apparently a new hat. Still, might be good. Waiting on the review.

Kororinpa in 3D... That sounds nice.

Interesting title... Seems like it comes from that "Nature makes for the best 3D photos" school of thought.

Exactly as promised, a means for people who haven't played Street Fighter since 2 to come back and enjoy the game without spending months pouring over faqs and training day after day. Not an advantage, really, just a "catch-up".

Yeah, Dr. Next-to-Youngest Child has an interesting design. Fits with their profile, too.

Yeah, this is bad news for Nintendo. The whole reason they're waiting to release it is so they can get a huge install base as quickly as possible. This will let them negotiate with movie studios and digital media distributors on much better footing. The good news is that they haven't even started advertising for the 3DS yet, and it's still half a year from launch. Most people who know about the 3DS at this point are Nintendo fans. Anyone else hears about it, asks when's it coming, hears "March!" and immediately loses interest and forgets about it.

Yup, Nintendo's online sucks because the majority of purchasers can't be bothered to put the device online. But then, with sub-par online content, there's no reason to put your device online. But then nobody's online and there's no reason to publish online content. But then there's less reason to put your device online. But then there's less reason to publish online content. And so on.

This would be their solution to the catch-22. Make the 3DS go online whenever it can, however it can.

Yeah, Kid Icarus is a TBA date now... I figure they're holding off on that one to let other titles sell first.

It's a very good lineup. One good thing to come of the wait, third parties get the chance to finish their games before the 3DS launches.

@40: 3DS doesn't go "off". Like most modern electronics, "sleep mode" is the powered-down state, but not really "off" like the good old days of hard power switches. I suppose you could always crack open your 3DS and slap a switch on the power so that actually does go "off", but that seems like overkill to avoid sharing Miis and high score data.

As for turning StreetPass off, that, apparently, is done on a game-by-game basis and never can be fully disabled for the system.

@15 After they release a Pokemon game where they fight via StreetPass? Absolutely, one 3DS will be carried in every bookbag, briefcase, purse, and fanny pack.

From wikipedia: "the Nintendo 3DS features an "always on" background connectivity system that current trademarks suggest the name being "CrossPass", which can automatically seek and connect to wireless network nodes such as Wi-Fi hotspots, sending and downloading information in the background while in sleep mode or while playing a game."
"Crosspass Mode can be customized to fit the user's preferences, including opting out of Crosspass Mode for selected software."

Somehow, I don't think that switch will do all that much to keep a 3DS isolated from anti-piracy measures.

Wow... Could they have hammered the "Nintendo 3DS!" any more in that video? New fight modes... ON THE NINTENDO 3DS! Your Trophies fight with other trophies... ON THEIR NINTENDO 3DS! Get your butt handed to you by random 8-year olds.. IN 3D ON THE NINTENDO 3DS!

It is an interesting glimpse of their "beyond human comprehension" level of anti-piracy. Basically the same as the Wii, with system updates on the games, and distributed via WiFi. Key difference seeming to be that you can't opt to turn it off. I really, really hope they don't do more than narcing via StreetPass or hackers will create the first true computer virus, one that transfers to new hosts just by being in proximity.

All in all, yet more confirmation that the 3DS is a portable Wii with 3D graphics.

I wonder... does this mean they only plan on manufacturing 4 million 3DS by the end of March..? Seems highly likely it'll be 100% sold out its first month, yet so low a projection means they know something we don't.

I daresay that regardless of whatever these mythical "steps" are that Nintendo is taking, a 3DS will be as easy to obtain at launch as a Wii was, an iPhone was, an iPad was, heck, even a Kindle was. Which is to say, unless you've got camping gear, don't expect to even see a 3DS before July.

I suspect the wait is due to the winning formula being having a nifty piece of technology that works. (Then you can charge whatever you want! People will buy all your stock for whatever price! ) They must need the time to get the 3DS up and running.

The interesting tidbit from that news was the 15 million 3DS software sales projection, which means they either expect the games will be too expensive, the inflated Yen is hurting sales too much, or there simply won't be more than half a dozen games released the first month.

Good thing I don't care for either of the launch colors, I get to sit back and hear how features like this work before spending the big bucks on a portable 3D Wii.

Hopefully they release more details soon, to boost DSiWare sales.

They really made it sound like a portable Wii that's always got WiiConnect24 on and 3D graphics.

I still have to wait on more particulars before I commit that much money, but it's looking good so far... just not in those colors. heh

Much later and more expensive than I thought. Maybe those rumored specs aren't quite accurate? Regardless... Just Black and Blue? No, thank you. I can wait.

Yup, sounds like a $200 price point.

The 64MB RAM is depressing, though. Sure, it'll play games really well, but that's about it. Why must we still buy 3 devices to read, view media, and game on? sigh

Ah, highly tempting to put points on my obsolete DSi for this one... Eagerly awaiting the review!

Means little, given the context. It's still "by the end of Nintendo's fiscal year". While the odds of it coming in 2010 are remote, it could happen. Of course, supplies will be so limited for the first few... years... of the 3DS' production run, most of us will likely not see a 3DS on store shelves until 2012.

Yeah, the Wii will be huge this year, especially if they launch the 3DS by year's end. Because nobody will be able to get the short-supplied 3DS, but hey, the Wii is only $199 and there's plenty now!

I thought he said in that interview that they're waiting for 3D TVs to get better before they upgrade the Wii to 3D. Still, it's a smart move to wait, and given the splash the 3DS has made, it's positively genius to wait.
Here's hoping they still do great Wii games for the years it will take for the Wii to see its successor.

Yeah, the interesting bit about that leak was that it said the date was pushed back to December. Nintendo says this is all speculation, though. What I think is that if it got pushed back once, it could happen again, which is why they're mum on any official details about the launch. If it does launch by Christmas, which would be fantastic, I don't expect more than two launch titles.

And yes, the other tidbit to take from this story is that if you're not one of the first ten people on your local pre-order list, you won't be seeing a 3DS in 2010, regardless of the release date. Unless you feed the "grey market" traders their 1000% profits. But I'm sure we all learned our lessons on this front from the Wii's launch, right?

Yeah, I like his reasoning of why the 3DS will sell. It's neat technology and it works!

Sadly, I think he's right, it won't be $200 or under. It might be $220-250, though. The buzz from Nintendo have been that a 3DS costs significantly more to make than a DSi and they're not going to lose money on the hardware, so $200 minimum, probably more. If you can't afford the price, save yourself the headaches of fighting with the grey market and wait for the price drop a few years from now.

Yeah, Nintendo and someone else do the licensed to the system, not the user plan... Amazon, I think it was. It's not what the end user prefers, as you have to re-purchase the license to enjoy the content on additional systems. It stinks, but don't expect it to change, ever. Bottom line is when you purchase WiiWare, VC, DSiWare, or likely 3DSWare, you buy a license to run that software on the device on which you purchased it no matter who uses it, not the other way around, licensed to a user no matter what system they're on.

It's not a deal-breaker for me, I bought a DSi for a portable music player that could also run good games, so I haven't bought a lot of DSiWare. Should I choose to get a 3DS (which is hard to resist - everything I like about the DSi plus stereoscopic picture taking!) I won't lose anything much.

What this news mostly says is that if you plan on getting a 3DS and have a DSi or DSi XL, hold off on buying DSiWare as you won't be able to transfer it. You likely won't be able to transfer it off of the 3DS, either.

The 3DS is going to sell hotter than the Wii, iPhone and iPad combined. It won't matter that it'll most likely cost at least $250. They'd region-lock it for the same reason Apple wouldn't let you buy an iPad with cash. You'll just buy it and sell it overseas where it's not as readily available yet (if at all) for 10x the price, and people will still buy it. Since the rumors are a Christmas release in Japan and Q1 2011 for the rest of the world, there's at least a 3-month window of gouging for a region-free 3DS.

But I agree, it shouldn't be region-locked. That's just stupid.

Yikes. People love them their Phoenix Wrights, it seems.

I'll still be getting it, as I've not played it before and it's the best way to get it, and it's a series that people should experience, if for no reason other than "cultural literacy".

Plus 100 points for the 5th chapter DLC in May.

Ah, finally a date announced, if only for EU... Hopefully it's a western-hemisphere simultaneous launch...

OTT? Must be getting old, can't decipher jibberish like I used to.

Very interesting trailer... Reminiscent of old, old, old arcade games. Going to have to keep an eye on this one.

That's one nice list, but 12 games for 16 weeks? Does that mean they're stepping up WiiWare releases in EU as well?

Huh? GTA on Wii? Where? "Here, diagonally!" Pretty sneaky, Alten8!

Oh, sorry, seeing those old LCD games dredges up lots o'nostalgia for me.

Fish'em all and let the great Sushi Chef in the sky sort'em out?

Looks interesting. I just hope it's not too ADHD with all it's trying to accomplish.

Faster is good, first step towards their first solution... Make the transfer faster, then make the transfer seamless. (download directly to the SD card, "buffer" a game on the card in the internal memory when you want to play it again...) Every Wii will soon have a 2GB card in it.

They optimized their encryption, that's good. I don't expect it'll get any faster than this, though. Unless they actually remove layers of encryption...

Nice to see the "legs" on Defend Your Castle are still quite strong, indeed! Seems fairly consistent compared to the international charts, too.

Yeah, the problem with these "We have 100,000,000 puzzles!" Sudoku type games that, without an editor, just an algorithm, most of the puzzles end up with two (or more) possible solutions. I hate that.

Hmm... Looks tied for first with Galaxy to me on metacritic, but then, these things tend to happen... King of the Mountain always has someone Kick the Can to topple that reign...

I'm sure it's a great, wonderful and fantastic game, but like Galaxy, too short for me to find it worthwhile.

@Starwolf_UK
For me, it's not "Wa wa 1500 is too much!", but rather "Wa wa 320 blocks is too much!" Ah well.

Defend your Castle gets displaced by Midnight Bowling?! Shame...