Xbox was the first out of the online network gate with Xbox Live in 2002. Sony got into the swing of things four years later with PSN (though the paid subscription arm of their service, PSN Plus, just launched in 2010). At long last, Nintendo has decided to step up to the plate with the “Nintendo Network.”

Nintendo has been halfheartedly offering multiplayer capabilities for Wii and DS (and now 3DS) for a while now via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but most of the features that fans of Xbox Live and PSN know and love have been left by the wayside. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a quarterly financial briefing on Friday said that he’s aware that WFC has always been “focused upon specific functionalities and concepts” instead of offering the wide range of features that online gamers want, such as player accounts/profiles, multiple players on a single device, and achievements.

Nintendo’s efforts here seem largely tied to the launch of the new Wii U console, though Wii and 3DS users will also be able to take advantage of its services. Iwata says that his company intends to use Nintento Network tie together its disparate online offerings into a single, unified service, including downloadable games and DLC, gamer competitions, and of course multiplayer gaming. He made this jab at the glut of DLC plaguing the industry these days:

Nintendo, as a software maker, does not plan to deploy businesses where our consumers cannot know in advance which item will appear as the result of their payment and they have to repeat the payments and, before they know it, they end up spending a huge amount of money in order to obtain the items they originally wanted to purchase.

His comments aren’t unwelcome. Having to download additional content in order to finish a game or play it the way you want to play it rates on the annoyance scale right up there with the Red Ring of Death.

But is anybody else struck by the hypocrisy in what he’s saying here? Replace the word “software” from his statement with “hardware,” and you get an exact description of how Nintendo handled its last few console launches. Most early Wii owners “originally wanted to purchase” a motion controlling console that offered precise motion tracking, but we didn’t get that until the add-on “Wii Motion Plus” controllers came along a few years later, requiring an additional purchase. Most 3DS buyers wanted to buy a handheld device that offered all of the controls we needed right there in the device, but less than a year after its launch, the “Extended Slide Pad” was released to add the second thumbstick that Nintendo suddenly realized should have been there all along.

Iwata didn’t provide a launch date for the Nintento Network, but it’s safe to assume it will launch alongside the Wii U as one of its key selling points.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata poses with the Wii U at E3 2011

Has there been a single console generation where Nintendo hasn’t held the “distant third place” title when it comes to horsepower? It’s starting to sound like the Wii U will be no different.

Industry insiders have been saying for a while now that Nintendo’s next-generation console, the bizarrely named Wii U, which is expected to run 1080p graphics and is approximately 50% more powerful than the current-generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But a Japanese developer told fansite Wii U Daily late last week that that “50% more powerful” thing was an exaggeration.

The rumored Wii U specs are as follows:

• Processor is a quad core, 3GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU that’s “very similar” to the processor inside the Xbox 360
• 768 MB of IBM-made DRAM is embedded in the CPU, but shared between the CPU and GPU
• The GPU is an unknown 40nm ATI-based chip

The Japanese source also told Wii U Daily that Nintendo has been testing two versions of the console — one at the aforementioned 768 MB of RAM, and another with 1 GB — presumably with the intention of releasing only one. It’s also important to remember that Nintendo will probably continue tweaking these specs until very close to the console’s arrival on store shelves. (And if I were cynical, I might point out Nintendo’s tendency to release hardware before it’s fully realized, so the specs could change even after the Wii U first releases. Good thing I’m not that cynical.)

Last year at E3, when the Wii U was first announced, it sounded like Nintendo was finally planning to catch up to the graphical capabilities of its two biggest rivals, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But since then, there’s been loads of industry rumors indicating that both Microsoft and Sony are already hard at work on their next-generation consoles — and the specs for both will likely leave Nintendo in the dust once again.

I can’t help wondering why Nintendo is always content to always be the “third most powerful console,” letting Microsoft and Sony push the graphics boundaries while they (Nintendo) keep their own ambitions safely middle-of-the-road? (The generation gap between the Wii and the other two was so great during this last generation that if developers wanted Wii versions of their game releases, they had to re-make said games from scratch — or hire another developer to do it for them — at drastically lower specs.) I would even posit that credit should largely go to the more powerful machines for making possible brand new franchises that grab all the headlines and break new ground (like Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, LittleBigPlanet, Mass Effect, Uncharted, etc.). Meanwhile, Nintendo sticks to its tried-and-true formula of churning out endless sequels that star their legacy characters (like Mario).

So why does Nintendo settle?

An easy answer would be, “because they can.” Their sequels will sell to the faithful no matter what, so why should they push the envelope to come up with more modern games and franchises? Even the newer category of Nintendo games that use Mii avatars, like Wii Sports and its endless spinoffs, feels very old hat now. And the motion control technology that gave Nintendo its edge with the Wii has been outclassed by snazzier, higher-tech devices like Microsoft’s Kinect. But Nintendo doesn’t seem to care. While Microsoft and Sony are fighting to become the central media hub of the modern living room, by comparison Nintendo’s consoles tend to have more of a childlike “toy” feel to them.

On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with marching to your own beat and not following the crowd. Maybe that’s all it is, combined with a certain cultural divide.

What do you think? And will the Wii U’s lesser-than specs be enough to entice you away from the next Xbox and the PlayStation 4?

Wii U tablet controller

At E3 this year, Nintendo’s gaming guru Shigeru Miyamoto said that the company’s next-gen console, Wii U, would support just one tablet controller. In response, the Internet howled. Perhaps still stinging from public reaction to the 3D feature of the 3DS, it looks like Nintendo has caved on the Wii U.

A report by Develop, citing an anonymous industry source, says that Nintendo’s engineers are currently working overtime to figure out how to make the next-gen machine operate simultaneously with two of its touchscreen tablet controllers, instead of just one. The Wii U’s technical specs were the reason Miyamoto gave this Summer as the reason why they were sticking with a single-tablet approach (Wii remotes would be used for multiplayer, under that plan), as Nintendo wants to keep the console’s price as low as possible. But now Nintendo has decided that the fans are right: one tablet just isn’t good enough. Develop’s source also said that engineers are working to resolve issues with RAM capacity and processor speed. Nintendo intends to have the Wii U’s specs finalized in time for E3 2012.

Because of the toll the tablet controllers take on system resources, it’s unlikely that the Wii U will ever run more than two tablets at a time. (So sorry, no four-player co-op.) One assumes that, just like the Wii, Wii U will ship with a single controller, with further controllers available as additional purchases.

Sales of the 3DS aren’t so bad that the device qualifies as a “flop.” And with all of the Wii and DS consoles that they’ve sold in years past, it would take a LOT to make a dent in Nintendo‘s bank account. But they just had their worst fiscal year in, like, ever.

I remember when the Wii was unveiled, it was all anybody could talk about. The anticipation was through the roof, and it was a paradigm shift so profound, it caused Microsoft and Sony to alter their own console strategies (hello, Kinect and Move!). An aggressive pricing structure combined with the innovation of motion control made for an unbeatable combination, and people who never played games, like senior citizens, were suddenly buying themselves a game console so they could bowl at home.

The Wii U hasn’t made headlines since E3 earlier this year, when it was unveiled. While there’s always the contingent of faithful who will be excited no matter what, the collective Wii U reaction from the masses paled in comparison to the game-changer that was Nintendo’s last console.

Then there’s the 3DS. It was supposed to be the flagship of the 3D gaming revolution, but it turned out to be a headache-causing gimmick that very few 3DS owners still use consistently. Its sales numbers haven’t been anywhere close to what Nintendo was hoping for or projecting — the primary reason that the company’s fiscal year sucked the big one.

The DS was another mega-hit for Nintendo that reached people who never otherwise played video games. Thanks to things like brain-training games and cooking assistants, the DS became something much more than a game console. The closest thing you could compare it to is the iPhone, because it could do a lot more than one thing (in this case, gaming).

It’s way too early to worry about Nintendo yet. They’re still selling consoles in the millions, and heaps of games to go along with them. But I can’t help wondering what will happen if the 3DS never catches on the way the DS did, and the Wii U underwhelms. The DS and Wii were such an incredible one-two punch… is replicating their success even possible?

The 3-minute animation that opens The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has leaked, and you can watch the whole thing right here. It’s a beautiful, watercolor-on-parchment style animation, though the English translation of this Japanese version is typically broken — and kinda cute.

Skyward Sword drops on November 20th in America for Nintendo Wii, while Europeans get it on the 18th. The story, a prequel to Ocarina of Time, finds Link a native of the floating islands of Skyloft, where he grew up with childhood friend Zelda (who’s not a princess this time out). One day young Link discovers the Skyward Sword, which takes him to a second land beneath Skyloft that’s ruled by the Demon Lord Ghirahim. Using the sword, Link travels back and forth between the two lands, to solve the mystery of why the two worlds were separated. Per usual, Zelda will also disappear, forcing Link to have to find and save her.

You know, again. For something like the 15th time, in fact.

Expect a significantly more refined Wii Remote control scheme than what was used in Twilight Princess.

Check out these time-lapse videos of Bashir Sultani’s salt art interpretations of Link and Mario. The Mario one is in color, but I think the Link one is by far the better piece.

Nintendo 3DS + Expansion Slide Pad

“I know! Let’s take our thin, super-cool 3DS device and make it bulkier!” That’s my interpretation of the thinking behind the “Expansion Slide Pad,” which was leaked today as a new peripheral for the 3DS. In other news… Wanna win a “Flame Red” Nintendo 3DS? Find out how after the jump.

Slide Pad peripheral

To accommodate games that require two circular thumb sticks instead of just one, Nintendo has come up with a new peripheral for the 3DS handheld device that adds a sort of cradle to the lower half of the machine. This peripheral, dubbed the Expansion Slide Pad, adds a second thumb stick on the right, along with three new shoulder buttons. Capcom is believed to be secretly working with the Slide Pad in development of a new Monster Hunter title being made exclusively for the 3DS, but no other games made to support the Slide Pad are yet known.

Nintendo has yet to officially comment on the Slide Pad, which was revealed instead in Japanese magazine Famitsu, and scanned by one fast-acting Twitterer. I’ve enhanced and cleaned up that image, cut it apart and presented it above and at right. It doesn’t look like something that would be easy to travel with, and I have no doubt this will be yet another “add-on innovation” for a Nintendo device that will eventually be integrated into future iterations of the game console (a la the Wii Motion Plus).

Also in 3DS news, Nintendo is about to launch a new color of 3DS that’s recently become a hit in Japan: Flame Red. To celebrate, our friends at 3DSBuzz.com are giving away one of the first Flame Red 3DS consoles. Between now and September 15th, you can enter to win right here, and there’s even a way you can double your chances of winning.

The new "Flame Red" Nintendo 3DS

Redditor Massenus has found the perfect solution for his dead Nintendo by making a lunch box out of it. Who carries around a lunch box these days? I don’t really know, but if I worked at a “real” office and had to bring my lunch with me everyday, I would not mind using this cool Nintendo lunch box! (By the way, if you have lots of Nintendo Games, try this cool boys’ “toy” made with the cartridges.)

Nintendo Lunch Box

So what happened here? Massenus says that some of the connection pins had corroded and the console just stopped working. Whatever the reason for the death of his beloved Nintendo, I think the result of his creativity is worth it. This Nintendo lunch box can hold a sandwich.

Nintendo Lunch Box

But wait, there’s more! This baby can really hold a good amount of goodies that will keep that hungry belly full.

Nintendo Lunchbox

Here’s how Massenus came up with this:

1. Unscrew everything.
2. Dremel off the screw mounts inside the case (leave the ones around the edges.)
3. A few pieces of duct tape form a hinge in the back.
4. Front and center are two plastic cylinders used for screws (One top, one bottom.) Trim one down the width of two magnets. Glue magnets to cylinders.
5. Cut controller cord an inch or two over comfortable handle length.
6. Plug in one side. (Add some superglue for stability.)
7. Strip and thread the other side through where the red light was.
8. Glue the wires down on the inside.
9. Dremel two small holes in the sides of the controller.
10. Unscrew controller, reassemble as shown centered on handle.

As he said, it was painfully easy. I think the death of the console was more painful than the transformation to lunch box. Painful or not, I think that this is an awesome way to recycle the iconic gadget that the NES is. What do you think? What would you do with a dead console?

Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo has announced that the price of the 3DS portable game console is being dropped from $249.99 to $169.99 on August 12th. If you do the math, that’s a 32% price cut for a console that’s less than 5 months old. Nintendo couldn’t have picked a louder way of announcing to the world that sales of the 3DS suck.

According to Game Informer, Nintendo will be taking a loss for every $170 3DS they sell. Never in the company’s history have they taken a loss on hardware sales, even though both Microsoft and Sony engage in the practice even now. The thinking is pretty obvious: sell lots more consoles at a cheaper price, and make up for that lost revenue with loads of game sales. Retail sales of the 3DS handheld console have been less than the company hoped for almost from the start, so apparently they felt that something drastic had to be done. But it’s still kind of a surprise that the big N would sacrifice a bit of its pride this way. That’s never been how Nintendo does business.

Nintendo also announced a plan to keep current 3DS owners (and owners who buy the device before August 12th) from crying foul: early adopters will be automatically enrolled in the “Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program,” which will entitle those players to 10 NES Virtual Console game downloads and 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games by the end of this year, all for free. The NES games — which will become paid games at some point, available to everyone, but which “Ambassadors” will get to own early, and for free — include the original Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, the first Legend of Zelda, and more. The 10 Game Boy Advance games will not be made available to the public, ever; they will be exclusive to Ambassador members. These titles include Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare Inc., Mega Microgame$, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and four more yet to be announced.

So… Do you think the 3DS will ever match or surpass its predecessor (the DS) in popularity? And does this price drop make you want to own a 3DS more than before?

Now that Nintendo has announced its intentions to jump the generational gap with the forthcoming Wii U, chatter around the industry inevitably must turn to its two chief rivals, and when they might answer Nintendo’s challenge with brand new hardware of their own.

Five years is generally considered the standard life cycle for a video game console. Nintendo’s Wii turns 5 this November, and its successor has already been announced for launch sometime next year. But what of Microsoft and Sony?

The Xbox 360 is the oldest of the bunch, coming up on its 6th birthday this holiday season, while the PlayStation 3 (like the Wii) will turn 5 around the same time. This means that when Nintendo’s Wii launches, it’s very likely that the Xbox 360 will be nearly 7 years old.

The Xbox 360 S

Microsoft certainly gained a tremendous amount of momentum by coming out of the gate with the Xbox 360 a full year before its rivals. Nintendo had the “new, wow!” factor on its side with the Wii’s motion controls, so being a year late didn’t hurt them. But Sony has continually felt like it’s playing catch up with the Xbox during this generation. (They were the last console to add Netflix, for example, and only created their own top-tier online service, PlayStation Plus, after witnessing Microsoft’s staggering success with Xbox Live.)

Microsoft has made nearly an annual tradition out of overhauling the Xbox’s “dashboard” user interface (with yet another on its way), while Sony still uses the same setup that they’ve had since the PS3 launched. Xbox has also done a solid job of consistently adding new features to their Xbox Live service, such as Netflix, ESPN, Last.fm, and they were the first console to integrate Facebook and Twitter. And they’re still adding new stuff all the time; at E3, they just announced plans to integrate live TV into Xbox Live’s many media offerings. Sony is doing better about adding new features, and is making a very strong case for 3D gaming of late, but still has a ways to go to catch up with Microsoft.

Microsoft and Sony have both refreshed their legacy hardware by upgrading their current hardware. The Xbox 360 S and PS3 Slim consoles trimmed down the machines’ casings while refining their innards — without really changing anything about the core experience — and lowering the price tags. And both companies have manufactured and marketed motion controllers with Kinect and Move, respectively. They represent two drastically different approaches to motion control, but both were birthed in response to Nintendo’s incredible success with the Wii.

The PS3 Slim

So what happens now? Does the next-generation console race begin again, thanks to Nintendo’s announcement of the Wii U? Will Microsoft and Sony jump on the bandwagon and trot out their next big home consoles?

One recent report suggested that Microsoft is eying 2015 as a target launch window for its next major console release, though this report seemed to be comprised mostly of speculation. Yet it seems probable, does it not, that Microsoft is in no hurry. Thanks to Kinect and its constantly-improving slate of features, MS believes the Xbox 360 still has plenty of life left in it. And most gamers agree that graphically speaking, Xbox 360 games still look great. But how long will it be before its processing power simply can’t keep up with the times? The “you are the controller” functionality of Kinect is getting such a huge focus from MS nowadays that that technology will undoubtedly be a core part of the next Xbox, whenever that comes. So hey, “2015″ is as good a guess as any.

Sony chief Jack Tretton says that the PlayStation 3 is “just hitting its stride,” and I think he’s right. Despite the PlayStation Network debacle, it finally feels like the PS3 is reaching its full potential. Tretton also says that he doesn’t expect there to be a PlayStation 4 “for quite some time.” So I’d say we’re probably 4 to 5 years off, at least, for the next PlayStation as well.

Tretton makes a particularly shrewd observation in that same interview, when he notes that the horsepower capabilities of Nintendo’s new console were used as Sony’s benchmark back in 2006, when the PlayStation 3 was released. He posits that the Wii U is Nintendo finally arriving to the party, not jumping ahead to the next step. Tretton suggests that Sony (and by proxy, Microsoft), has nothing to prove against Nintendo (except, you know, the Wii’s staggering sales numbers).

So what do you think the future holds? Is Nintendo playing catch up, or will it set a new benchmark for Sony and Microsoft to meet? My gut says that Nintendo is scrambling now that the Wii’s last-gen hardware is finally cracking at the seams. But the Wii also taught us that no one should ever underestimate Nintendo.

You know that new console that Nintendo announced as the successor to the Wii? The oddly named “Wii U” with its touchscreen controller? The games you’ll play on it will only work with one, lonely controller.

Nintendo says that the reason for this is that the cost of the controller is so high that it would be unfair to expect consumers to purchase two of them. Which could be one of the worst decisions anyone in the video game industry has ever come up with.

When did “cost prohibitive to multiple controllers” stop being a fundamental design flaw? How is a modern console supposed to be competitive enough to thrive if only one person can ever play with it at a time? I can’t think of a single console in gaming history that got away with that. Didn’t the Atari 2600 even have two-controller games? (It’s been a while, I barely remember.)

To be fair, all of the existing Wii controllers and peripherals will work with Wii U. At E3, a video demo was shown of five players playing a single game; one was using the Wii U touchscreen controller, and the four others all used Wii Remotes. But is this really a viable model? If you or someone you know has a Wii U and you want to play together, it’s going to be just plain not fun to have to take turns with that touchscreen controller. And I wonder what this does for online multiplayer? If game developers can’t design their games to take advantage of local co-op or PvP modes in Wii U games, then will they be able to offer those modes for online players? More importantly: will they want to?

Nintendo seems to think they’ve got something revolutionary and novel enough to warrant this gamble. And make no mistake: that’s what it is. We’ll find out if it pays off sometime next year.

Super Mario Bros., the classic video game from Nintendo first released in 1985 for the Nintendo entertainment system, follows the exploits of Mario and Luigi as they venture through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser.  Once the best selling video game of all-time until being surpassed by Wii Sports in 2009, Super Mario Bros. is more than just a video game, the game’s characters have also become features in the fashion world.

A collaboration between Converse and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. for the game’s 25th anniversary means a union of Chuck Taylors and Princess Toadstool.

The partnership will bring the first two in a line of shoes to consumers in July 2011.  The grand design featured above will be made available in August 2011.

The first, more basic,  designs will show a repeating pattern of little Marios on a white or black background, while the other two designs will display scenes from the game itself, both the first and last levels.

At a price of $100 will you pick up a pair of the line of classic shoes featuring the most famous plumber of all-time?

Albotas

Who would have known? Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams was named after the comedian’s favorite princess. The 30 second commercial in lieu of Father’s Day speaks loads of the relationship the father-daughter pair have when it comes to video games.

Ad on top. Interview at the bottom. When Robin Williams and his wife were pregnant, they spent countless hours playing The Legend of Zelda for the NES. They loved the name and christened their daughter with it.

E3 isn’t even halfway over yet, but many are saying that Nintendo has already stolen the show with the announcement of its next home console, dubbed “Wii U.” (I wouldn’t have thought it possible for Nintendo to come up with an even worse name than “Wii.”) Yes, it’s a successor to the Wii, using the same basic aesthetic and overall thematic elements, so Miis aren’t going away anytime soon. And yes, it incorporates motion control.

But the big innovation is the controller: a large device with a built-in 6-inch touchscreen right in the center. Here’s our exhaustive report, including Wii U’s graphics capabilities and how that new controller will change pretty much everything about how you game.

Nintendo’s press events always get lots of buzz, but for the life of me, I don’t know why people enjoy them so much. They’re dull, tedious affairs, where even the people on stage who speak English as their native language do so in a slow, monotone way (Reggie, I’m lookin’ at you). It’s speech after speech after speech, most of them along the lines of “we are so awesome, and here’s why,” all of them boring, with a few interesting game videos sprinkled in here and there. Maybe it’s a cultural difference between America and Japan, but Nintendo’s press events put me to sleep every time. My kindergarten graduation held more excitement.

There, my rant for this year’s E3. Now let’s look at the Wii U.

I remember when the Wii was first introduced, Nintendo explained that the inspiration for the Wii Remote came from the stylus used with the DS, and trying to translate that functionality to the television. By the same token, I believe that the inspiration for the Wii U controller came from the DS’ lower screen — the touchscreen that can do everything from provide a second view of the action to add new and different kinds of control over what’s happening in the game.

And there can be no doubt that Apple has had a humongous impact on the game industry. Both Sony, with its new PS Vita, and now Nintendo, with its Wii U, are incorporating iPhone/iPad-like functionality into their devices. Of course, many hardcore gamers will just be happy that Nintendo is finally embracing HD gaming. Let’s take a look at all the specs of the Wii U:

The controller — which was the focus of Nintendo’s coverage at its debut; the home station console wasn’t even mentioned — is 1.8″ tall x 6.8″ wide x 10.5″ long. It features a 6.2″ touchscreen, with a 16:9 ratio. The buttons are pretty much the same ones from both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck, except with 2 analog circle pads instead of one. Under the hood, there’s a built-in gyroscope and accelerometer, rumble, a front-facing camera, microphone, stereo speakers, sensor strip (for motion control), and a stylus. The Wii U will also support up to four Wii Remote controllers, connected at the same time as the Wii U controller. All other Wii controllers are supported as well, such as the Balance Board.

As for the console itself, which looks like a rounded-off Wii, it supports all the way up to full 1080p resolution (finally!), and even uses an HDMI cable, though you could also use S-video or composite cords. Saved games will be handled very much like the Wii, with internal flash memory and expansion options via SD card. Interestingly, Wii U’s specs also mention support for an optional “external USB hard disk drive.” Games will come as a higher-density version of the CDs that the Wii uses, though it’s backwards compatible with Wii CDs and games, too. The console has four USB 2.0 slots, and runs on an IBM Power-based multi-core microprocessor.

At the E3 event, Iwata-san stressed that the controller, despite appearances, will not work as a solo handheld gaming device. You can continue playing your game on the controller even after the TV has been turned off or switched to something else, but all game data comes wirelessly from the console.

In addition to games, there will be video chat capability built in (a la Apple’s FaceTime), and the stylus will (among other things) let you draw on the touchscreen (sorry uDraw Tablet — sucks to be you). You’ll also be able to surf the Net, using the touchscreen to control what you surf on your TV.

The 1080p resolution support means that Nintendo can finally get back into the hardcore games business. Developers no longer have to create separate, lower-res versions of triple-A titles. (Be gone, minigames!) At least from a graphics perspective, anyway. The touchscreen controller will no doubt have a major impact on how Wii U’s games are played.

While we know Wii U will support both one Wii U controller and up to 4 Wii Remotes at one time, it’s not entirely clear how a more traditional multiplayer or co-op will work with the Wii U controller. Can one Wii U support more than one touchscreen controller at a time? How would that work, and what would it look like?

As for games, it’s still very early in the console’s development — it’s not scheduled for release until sometime next year –the following Wii U titles have been announced:

• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• an Assassin’s Creed game (possibly an entirely new entry custom-made for Wii U)
• Batman: Arkham City
• Darksiders II
• Dirt
• FIFA Soccer 2012
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
• LEGO City Stories
• Madden NFL 2012
• Metro: Last Light
• a Need for Speed game
• Ninja Gaiden III: Mirror’s Edge
• a Pikmin game
• a Raving Rabbids game
• Super Smash Brothers Wii U
• a Tekken game
• a The Sims game
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online

At E3, Nintendo is running a number of tech demos that show off what the Wii U can do, any of which could become games. The demos include “New Super Mario Bros. Mii” (a Mario title that allows your Mii to play alongside Mario & Luigi), “Chase Mii,” and a Zelda demo.

Enjoy the screens below for some looks at more Nintendo games that are on the way for both Wii and 3DS.

E3 is just two weeks away! Can you believe it?

What delicious (and what vaporware) delights will E3 2011 bring to gamers? What surprises do Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have in store for their pre-E3 media extravaganzas? What games will walk away from the week with the heaviest buzz? It’s impossible to predict what secrets all the major companies have up their sleeves, but here’s n early look at what we have to look forward to.

Microsoft

Spike is broadcasting the big Xbox event live (and commercial free!) on Monday, June 6th, at 9:30 AM Pacific. It’s expected to last 90 minutes. “Xbox 360: The Future Revealed” is the title of their event, which is a bold claim for a company that’s not expected to reveal any new gaming hardware. If you don’t get Spike, you can also watch it online at GameTrailers.com. Xbox Live will even have it available to stream in HD sometime after the event is held.

According to Microsoft, their event will give special emphasis to Gears of War 3 and Forza Motorsport 4, and a Halo announcement of some kind seems like a sure bet. Microsoft also claims that they’re going to “reveal the latest in innovation for Kinect,” which probably means a round of new game titles — which should be more impressive than last year’s, since developers have had more time to work with the hardware. Plus, there’s likely to be some firmware updates to Kinect in the works, so maybe we’ll learn about new capabilities the device will have in the near future.

As for what else they’ll have for gamers… who knows? Microsoft loves to surprise people, so anything could happen.

Nintendo

Gamers can watch live streaming video of Nintendo’s media briefing at e3.nintendo.com, on Tuesday, June 7th at 9:00 AM Pacific. Nintendo is keeping its secrets close, but we know they’re unveiling their next-generation console at E3, so expect this to be the focus of their event. It’s even going to be playable after the event, on the show floor. No games have been announced for the new console, so some biggies — including titles that can match current-gen software on the 360 and PS3 — will go a long way towards winning back the hearts of hardcore gamers. And there will no doubt be lots of new 3DS games to show off.

Speculation is all over the map on what the new console will involve, but the most prevalent rumors refer to a wild new controller that includes a large touchscreen, motion control, and lots of other bells and whistles. Plus, it’s E3 and it’s Nintendo, so expect to hear something about Zelda. And it’ll probably be another case of postponing a game to make it a console release title — just like what happened with the last Zelda launching with the Wii.

Sony

Oh, Sony, Sony, Sony… Sure, you have your new NGP portable device to tout, but how will you ever be able to get the focus off of the PR disaster that was the PSN implosion? Some big game announcements would certainly help, and there are probably some nice ones in the cooker for NGP. But we already know quite a bit about most of the PS3′s forthcoming triple-A titles, such as Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3. So it’s going to take a lot to knock our socks off.

Sony‘s media briefing is scheduled for Monday the 6th at 5:00 PM Pacific. No plans have been announced yet for live broadcasting of the event.

Games, Games, Games

So what are the big titles of E3 2011? It’s a safe bet that Modern Warfare 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will be big news all over the map, probably showcased at both the Sony and Xbox press events. There are an endless number of big titles in the works that will be competing for headlines at E3. These include Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, BioShock Infinite, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Dead Island, Duke Nukem Forever, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Mass Effect 3, Prey 2, Prototype 2, Rage, Resident Evil: Raccoon City, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the Tomb Raider reboot, among countless others.

One thing’s for sure: it’s gonna be a good E3.

The long-rumored successor to the Wii is real, and it’s going to be unveiled at E3 in June. Compiling data from various reports, it sounds as though Nintendo is going well beyond a “Wii HD,” instead trying to revolutionize the industry once again with something unprecedented.

Dubbed “Project Café” by Nintendo, the new console’s existence and planned debut were first reported by Game Informer, citing numerous anonymous inside sources. Corroborating reports stated that Nintendo’s next-gen system will offer HD graphics thanks to system specs on par with the current-gen Xbox 360 (some reports suggest it’s more powerful than both the 360 and the PS3), and a new controller that could be the “next big thing” beyond the Wiimote.

The controller is said to include a 6″ touchscreen, enabling it to work as a tablet of sorts, as well as opening the door to cutting edge new control schemes. An “iPad with buttons,” if you will. Some insiders suggest that the screen will be HD, while others say it will be standard-def.

The controller also includes left and right-side buttons, a standard d-pad, two triggers, and other inputs that have yet to be revealed. The technology behind the Wii’s sensor bar — that little black bar that sits atop your TV, allowing the Wiimote to sense your movements — is being integrated into the controller this time, which means that motion controls will once again be included, but they’ll be more advanced this time. Perhaps strangest of all, the tablet/controller will also have a front-facing camera. (Anybody care to venture a guess on how that might be utilized in-game?)

Nintendo is said to be trying to correct its biggest mistake with the Wii — lack of strong third-party developer support — by having already filled in all of the major developers about Café. Back when the Wii released, Nintendo focused almost entirely on its own game development, leaving third-party developers out in the cold. Five years later, Nintendo is paying the price for this oversight with a console that’s become stagnant and… well, wholly uninteresting. When was the last time a new Wii title was able to generate the same level of excitement among gamers as, say, the latest Call of Duty, Halo, or Assassin’s Creed? It sounds like Nintendo is finally ready to embrace the hardcore gamer again — while not altogether abandoning casual players.

On top of all this, a French gaming site called 01net — which correctly predicted the specs of PlayStation’s next-generation peripheral — says that Café has one other major aspect that no one has yet guessed or revealed. This last ace up the N’s sleeve reportedly has developers all tingly with excitement. “Nintendo’s plans sound unreal,” says one source, who mentioned that “publishers are already planning launch titles and it’s all very exciting.”

What could this last surprise be? Could that controller touchscreen be 3D, using the same technology behind the 3DS? Will the front-facing camera somehow interface with the HD game on your TV in ways never attempted before? Will the controller itself also function as a detachable, handheld gaming device? Or is Nintendo preparing to unleash a completely new technology on the gaming world, just as it was the first to implement motion-sensing controls?

And what about those hardware specs? Even if Café is more powerful than the 360 and PS3, Nintendo could quickly find itself in last place again when it comes to horsepower, when Microsoft and Sony release their next-gen consoles. (Industry rumors suggest that Microsoft has quietly been working on the third-generation Xbox for a while now, though Sony’s in no hurry to pump out the PS4.)

In the meantime, the price of the Wii is expected to drop down to $150 as soon as mid-May, while possibly even being packaged with a copy of the bestselling Mario Kart Wii. This would be an attempt to squeeze the last bits of life out of the Wii before Café is unveiled. Moreover, Café is expected to include backwards compatibility with all Wii games.

Café is expected to be in stores for Christmas 2012, but we should get a look at it much sooner. E3 kicks off in early June, and Nintendo will hold its annual “media briefing” early that same week, where Café will most likely be shown off for the first time.

DeviantArtist ihateyouare has created a humongous portrait which is basically the world map of Super Mario RPG. This game is officially titled Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and was originally released in 1996 for the SNES. In 2008, the game was ported to the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console and was released in several countries other than Japan.

The brains behind the game are directors Yoshihiko Maekawa and Chihiro Fujioka and producer Shigeru Miyamoto. For sure, these guys would be impressed with this rendition of the world map, as one cannot help but admire it – whether or not you have played the game.

I suggest that you click on the image to see the full size and fully appreciate the details. In case you’re wondering, the artist used Photoshop and Wacom Tablet for his masterpiece.

The Legend of Zelda (Zelda) is one of the great video games of all-time with its mixture of action, adventure, and puzzle solving.  For many, their first exposure to Zelda was as a game played on The Nintendo Entertainment System.

For those unfamiliar with Zelda, the game centers on a character named Link, who’s often tasked with rescuing Princess Zelda from Ganon.  To say Zelda is fun, addictive, adored by countless console gamers and an all-around great game, is putting it midly.

The game is admired so much that one enterprising individual, Greg, has taken their love of Zelda and created his very own homemade Legend of Zelda min-arcade game.

How does it work?  According to the creator:

“Basically I modded a nes controller to arcade controls and build a mini arcade cab around a yobo nes. This thing is great! Its fun to play other nes games on arcade controls such as: zelda 1 and 2, donkey kong, punch out, metroid, megaman ect.”

So, there you have it.  Greg took a NES system, built his own Legend of Zelda mini-arcade game casing with the result being a super, small, arcade game that fits on any dresser, book case, or other place you’d think to store a miniature arcade game.

Are you a fan of the Zelda game franchise?  If you could have your very own mini-arcade game, which game would you opt for and why?

Geekologie

Lest you have any lingering doubt that Apple’s iOS is a gaming platform to be reckoned with, today’s events hammered the idea home.

The iPad 2, just unveiled today by His Steveness, features a graphics processing that’s nine times the speed of the original iPad. That’s some monstrous horsepower, particularly for a device that was already more powerful than all other handheld gaming devices. And don’t forget, the iPad has a bigger screen than any other handheld console, so the fact that it’s now going to be able to power high-def games at 9x the original’s speed, on all that screen real estate, is incredibly impressive.

The iPad 2 also has video cameras facing front and back, FaceTime video chat, and a significantly thinner, lighter frame. Just like the iPhone 4, the new iPad has a gyroscope, and there’s a new version of iOS coming with it — version 4.3. It comes in two colors — black and white.

Curiously, despite all that extra processing power, Apple didn’t up the iPad’s storage capacity at all. The iPad 2 comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models, just like its predecessor. You’d think gamers in particular would crave more space to store downloaded games.

Not a single game was mentioned in the Apple keynote this morning, but did you happen to notice where the Apple keynote took place? It was held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and would you look at that? The Yerba Buena Center is right across the street from the Moscone Convention Center, where the annual Game Developer’s Conference is taking place all this week.

But it gets better: Apple’s iPad 2 keynote this morning took place at the exact same time as Nintendo‘s GDC keynote about its new handheld gaming device, the 3DS. So much for subtlety, Apple!

And what was Nintendo’s big keynote news? That a new Super Mario Galaxy game is coming to the 3DS (good stuff), and that streaming Netflix movies will be available on the 3DS (meh). The company also took some potshots at game “apps” and their “quantity over quality” approach to sales.

Nintendo’s new handheld launches on March 27th.

Apple’s iPad 2, meanwhile, beats them to the punch by hitting stores two weeks earlier, on March 11th.

Apple has declared war on the handheld gaming marketplace. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.

I hope you’re not looking for Kid Icarus: Uprising or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, because you’re going to be disappointed. Those are considered triple-A titles, and are requiring some extra time for polishing, but both are still expected to hit shelves later this year.

Nintendo’s three titles are being priced higher than standard DS games, at a suggested price tag of $39.99. That’s $10 more than most new DS titles cost.

Nintendo’s three titles include:

Pilotwings Resort – Consider it the Wii Sports of the 3DS. You’ll fly above the island featured in Wii Sports Resort using planes, gliders, and jetpacks to complete various missions.

Steel Driver – Another vehicle-based game, this one an underwater combat sim set in a submarine.

Nintendogs + cats – The DS classic goes 3D in this update of the bestselling pet simulation.

The third-party titles available on launch day are:

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.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars from LucasArts.

Ridge Racer 3D from Namco Bandai.

Super Monkey Ball 3D from Sega.

Bust-A-Move Universe from Square-Enix.

Samurai Warriors: Chronicles from Tecmo KOEI.

Asphalt 3D from Ubisoft.

Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D from Ubisoft.

Rayman 3D from Ubisoft.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars from Ubisoft.

If you’re planning on owning a 3DS, which of these is on your must-play list?

I feel funny calling this a game review, because a game this is not. But it does run on a standard Wii game console.

uDraw Studio, the software that comes packaged with THQ’s uDraw Game Tablet, is essentially an artist’s studio and palette, providing all of the tools needed to create your masterpiece. So is it possible to create something that could actually be called art? With a lot of patience and practice, yeah, I think so.

The uDraw tablet itself might seem at first pass to be a glorified steering wheel that you pop your Wii remote down into and then shake around to manipulate various games. It’s true that some of the games made for uDraw require you to shake or rock the tablet back and forth. But what sets the device apart is the stylus connected through the back and the drawing surface on the front. This is where uDraw shows what it can do.

I have to give THQ props for seriously thinking this thing through. Every aspect of the design shows that a lot of care went into designing the device. There’s an indentation on the back where the stylus is easily stored, or you can place it tip-down in the “inkwell” on the front of the device, for easy access during gaming. The pen tip of the stylus retracts slightly when you use it, and there are also two buttons on the side of the stylus that allow various interactions. Probably the most startling of these is that you can draw in mid-air with the stylus by just pressing down one of the side buttons. No contact with the surface of the tablet is necessary — but it’s recommended, as I found it considerably easier to manipulate that way. Since it’s just a peripheral for the Wii remote, it requires no batteries of its own.

Unlike other digital surfaces, the shape and size of the landscape are set 1:1 to what’s on the screen, so there’s no picking up the stylus to reposition your hand on a different part of the tablet. The tablet and the screen stay fixed to one another no matter what you do. This can take some serious getting used to, although I imagine it allows for greater precision among the true artistes.

The palette is a powerful tool, giving you a wide array of brush styles, colors, stamps, shapes, and post effects to apply to your work. The software tries to make it simple to select your options such as opacity, size, and so forth. But there’s still a learning curve involved, because it tries to offer a full suite of artistic tools while keeping them as simple to use as possible. (The software may be rated E for Everyone, but my 3-year-old got frustrated after 15 minutes and gave up.) I have a feeling it may end up being a case of “not enough” for those who really want to make some fine digital artwork, yet at the same time being “too much” for those who just want to have a little fun doodling.

Some nice features include the ability to pan and zoom on your canvas, up to 400% of normal size, and a “replay” feature that will show you a time-lapse video of your work in-progress, stroke by stroke. This is probably my favorite feature, because it’s just a kick to watch yourself work, and you can adjust the speed of the playback between 1x and 8x normal. You can also save and export your work thanks to your Wii’s optional SD card. Files are saved either in PNG or JPG format, for higher resolution versus lower, respectively.

“Environments” give your canvas a place to live in a static, virtual world space, but this is purely an aesthetic feature, serving no discernible purpose within the game. The software comes with lots of blank canvas types for you to draw to your heart’s content, or you can choose to play in the built-in coloring book. This should prove fun for younger Wii players, but it still requires you to have an intimate working knowledge of the palette.

My main issue with the tablet was an inability to make the tip of the stylus go where I wanted it to go. Whether this was a design flaw in the device or some deficiency of my own, I can’t say. I’m experienced at sketching though, and have never had so much trouble getting smooth curves or lines to turn out right. More than once I kept wishing I could just ditch the stylus and use my finger, the way I can on my trusty iPad.

One other aspect of the drawing process that real artists may frown on: a “painting time” bar goes from empty to full with every stroke you make on your artwork — and there’s a limit on how many strokes you can make. The in-game tutorial claims that the stroke counter will fill up after roughly 35 minutes of drawing time. And I guess if you’re not done with your work by then, you’re just screwed, all that time down the drain. I must assume this was done for the purpose of memory usage in the game, but it still sucks.

Overall, I give the uDraw Game Tablet a solid 3 stars. I commend THQ for trying something new and different — and I’d love to get my hands on some of the other games for the Tablet to see how they fare — but the hardware has a few unfortunate flaws. Still, for a fun diversion, it’s perfect for the Wii’s “casual gamer” audience.

Nintendo was very eager at a special media event today to convince consumers that the 3DS handheld gaming system is more than a one trick pony. “3D gaming without the glasses” is certainly the headline talking point, but there’s a lot more under the hood of this thing than just the fancy screen.

First up, the big news: The Nintendo 3DS drops on March 27th in North America, for a lower-than-expected price of $249.99. It arrives a couple days early in Europe, on the 25th, for £229 in the U.K. and €249 everywhere else. More than 30 titles are expected between the launch date and E3 in June, and the hardware comes in two pretentiously-named colors: “Aqua Blue” and “Cosmo Black.”

Inside, the 3DS has a motion sensor and an accelerometer, which is said to allow for Wii and iPad-style gameplay. There’s also a healthy array of built-in software, including a Mii Maker that works with the front-facing camera, an activity tracker, a built-in pedometer, “AR Games” for augmented reality fun, “Face Raiders” which lets you shoot things with your Mii face (meheh?), a Web browser, video player, and audio software. The already-announced 3D outward-facing camera was heavily hyped as a potential draw to the system for non-gamers.

The pedometer is a nice touch, you have to admit, as well as the motion sensor and accelerometer. I also like that the 3DS’ Home button is no longer for quitting your game. Nintendo has taken a page from the iPhone and other smartphones, turning the Home button into a pause button, even allow you to multitask while your game remains paused.

Another welcome change: each 3DS uses just one friend code, which only has to be registered once. No more of the blasted things for every single game! Nintendo also says that GameBoy and GameBoy Color “greatest hits” titles will be available as downloadables sometime after launch, along with 3DSWare download-specific games. You can also expect plenty of 3D game demos and videos.

The announced launch titles include:

• PilotWings Resort: fly a plane over a very familiar island — the one from Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort
• Nintendogs + Cats: uses the front-facing camera for facial recognition, so your pet will know you when you call. If a stranger tries to play with your pet, he or she may bark at them in fear!
• Steel Diver
• The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Dead or Alive: Dimensions
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
• Madden NFL Football
• Street Fighter IV 3D
• Asphalt 3D
• Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
• Ridge Racer 3D
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

More titles in the works — any of which could wind up as launch window titles — can be glimpsed in this first “3DS Games Trailer” that was shown at today’s media event.

What do you think? Does the $249 price point make you more likely to plunk down for a 3DS of your own?

Nintendo’s Japanese hardware launches typically come earlier than their American counterparts, but the pricing and titles available are not always indicative of what North American consumers — or even European consumers, for that matter — will see on launch day a few months later.

The official Japanese 3DS launch list includes:

• Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
• Nintendogs + Cats
• Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle
• Ridge Racer 3D
• Samurai Warriors Chronicle
• Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
• Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble 3D
• Winning Eleven 3D Soccer

In addition, Nintendo released a 5-minute video demonstrating the 3DS’ capabilities, including the software that comes included with the device and the simplicity of Mii creation. Be warned: the video is entirely in Japanese; still, it gives you some solid views of the console in action, which hasn’t really been seen until now. The overall aesthetic used by the 3DS is very similar to what’s used on the Wii.

There’s a battle blazing right now, on one side of the spectrum is the Xbox 360 which managed to finally dethrown the Nintendo Wii for four months, after years of dominance, then there’s the Wii, the little system no one saw coming. Now to show us the true battle of those company’s is Doctor Octoroc with his “Firewall” – SNES Style FF4 ‘Evil Wall Battle’ Parody

Every gamer will notice he has chosen to use the SNES Final Fantasy style gameplay, which gives a pretty good representation of the battle…at least in my twisted mind.

My favorite part occurs when the Xbox 360 with Bill Gates’ face built in starts hurling system specs at the approaching various Nintendo characters which include Megaman, Zelda, Mario, Link and Samus.

Here’s the gameplay video:

It obviously wasn’t a battle of processing power or the Nintendo characters would have went down with a slight breeze.

So there’s a press release making the rounds today about how Microsoft’s new Xbox motion controller Kinect has sold one million units in its first 10 days. This is big news for Xbox because Microsoft has made big noise about wanting to sell 5 million Kinect units by the end of this year, and they claim that these initial numbers put them on track for that.

But I can’t help wondering how this news stacks up to Kinect’s motion-controlling competition. First-week ticket sales mean everything at the box office, so why not apply that same prognostication factor to gaming? One million units in ten days is a great pull quote, but did Kinect manage to do better in its first week than Nintendo or PlayStation? And more importantly, what does this mean for Kinect’s future?

If you do the math, and in terms of “first week sales,” Microsoft‘s numbers equate to approximately 700,000 units in its first week. My research shows that in the U.S., Sony sold approximately 60,000 Move units (defined as an Eye Camera and one Move controller) in their hardware’s first week. As for the Wii console, when it first launched back in 2006, Nintendo claimed that it sold 800,000 units in the first eight days — which equates to approximately 525,000 in the first week.

Now it’s important to remember the importance of supply-and-demand when it comes to early sales. Sony and Microsoft both offered ample supply in their first week of sales, but Nintendo’s numbers were hampered by the fact that they had a nation-wide shortage of initial hardware units available. Early adopters had to work hard to even find a Wii console in those first months, when retailers sporadically received scant shipments which would usually sell out within minutes. So Nintendo could have sold more — a lot more — Wiis if they had had more units available at launch.

But here’s how first-week sales in the U.S. break down, in approximate numbers:

Nintendo Wii: 525,000
PlayStation Move: 60,000
Xbox Kinect: 700,000

The clear winner is Kinect, and it points to a strong future for the peripheral. But this doesn’t necessarily mean Kinect will outsell Wii in the long run, as that’s a very lofty goal; Wii has got a gigantic 4-year head start, and has demonstrated incredible staying power, with over 36 million units sold in the U.S. and some 76+ million sold worldwide.

Follow @FGgamer on Twitter for the latest gaming news.