Nintendo announce 3DS XL

During tonight's Nintendo Direct event, Nintendo unsurprisingly announced the next iteration of the 3DS, the 3DS XL. Much like the DSi XL before it, the only real differences between this new system and the old one are the battery and screen size. While no statement has been made on how much better the battery life is, the screens are a whopping 90% larger than those of the original 3DS. The retail price was announced at $199.99 and the launch date set at August 19th.

So, what do you think? I know many out there have voiced frustration over the fact that a superior system is retailing for less at launch than the original 3DS, despite the fact that no one can really claim that they couldn't have seen this coming. It certainly proves to be good timing for me, as I have yet to get a 3DS.

Nintendo Unveils Life-Size Mario Karts

It was known that Nintendo would be in attendance at the LA Auto Show this week, but the exact reason wasn't known which let to speculation that due to the setting they may be doing something in celebration of the latest installment in the Mario Kart series due out early next month. The announced collaboration with West Coast Customs supported that assumption and as it turns out, that assumption was correct.

During it's presentation today, Nintendo revealed life-size replicas of a couple of the Mario Karts featured in the new game. The first is based off of the Standard Kart, and the second is based off of the kart of series new-comer Honey Queen.

Want some pictures? Just head over to the article on IGN.

PETA Pulls Back On Mario

Recently PETA launched a campaign against the latest Mario game Super Mario 3D Land, citing the fact that Mario wearing a Tanooki suit encourages the wearing of fur and the skinning alive of the real-life animal that the suit was inspired by. They even went so far as creating disturbing images showing Mario wearing an actual Tanooki skin covered and surrounded in blood. It didn't stop there, though. They took their insanity further still by creating a minigame in which you play a skinned Tanooki chasing Mario to reclaim it's removed skin.

This campaign sparked outrage throughout the gaming community and had fans up in arms over the disgraceful depiction of one of gaming's most beloved icons. Well, just yesterday PETA confessed that the campaign wasn't serious. In a statement to Eurogamer they told fans to relax and confessed that the campaign was simply a ploy to call attention to a serious issue. PETA even expressed surprise at the reaction and how literally the campaign was regarded.

It's plenty clear how disgraceful and how completely insane the organization PETA is. They've been known for being outrageous in their protests in the past, but this has to take the cake. This time they took the dissemination of their views and opinions too far. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Nintendo's Fight Against Piracy

With the DSi Nintendo has been known to occasionally release firmware updates to block and prevent the usage of flash carts and other sorts of piracy-related devices. Sadly these attempts to fight back against piracy were only viable for a short amount of time because of either two reason: makers of the devices worked their way around the update or people never even updated their system to begin with.

With the 3DS Nintendo expressed plenty of intent to change that in coming up with some new methods to make sure players' systems were updated whether they wanted it or not, and with the upcoming release of Super Mario 3D Land we're starting to see those methods put into action. As soon as you place the card into your 3DS and turn it on, it automatically updates the system's firmware. This automatic update  could mean one of two things: a ROM will not work without that update and that a ROM will not work after the update as well. This means that if you want to play the latest and greatest Nintendo title without paying for it and the with the aid of an eye patch, you will be out of luck. Not only are they employing automatic updates associated with game cards, but those who refuse to update the system firmware manually could find some of the game that they love non-functional, a method that honestly should have been utilized with the DSi.

I absolutely love seeing Nintendo taking the initiative to fight back against piracy, which has been a thorn in the side of any producer of media within the last several years. What's even more satisfying than that is to read the whining and complaints of those who supposedly use the piracy devices in legal ways. I'm sure there those out there who do use those devices legally, but at the same time almost 99% of those who do use the devices use them for piracy.

Iwata Stands Strong

After the announcements that Nintendo made for the 3DS Monday night, their stocks perplexingly fell five percent, investors citing lack of faith that the new announcements will further re-invigorate sales of the system. It's been no secret that investors have been pushing for Nintendo to begin development for mobile phones, and I discussed that in an earlier post (which you can find here). Well, after the conference  Japanese newspaper Nikkei asked Iwata about that very possibility, to which his response was "Absolutely not". His response in full is below:

"This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."


Iwata is certainly a breath of fresh air, and a reason to stand by the company even if you aren't a fan of Nintendo and their products. His complete and unwavering conviction in the 3DS and what Nintendo stands for shows he knows what he is doing, and that he is without a doubt the right man to be Nintendo's CEO in these trying times. In fact, he even took a fifty percent pay cut in support of the system. With all the greedy CEOs these days, if that doesn't give you his support I honestly don't know what will.

Of course, the system's success is still in doubt. The two main issues that really held back sales after launch were lacks of games and too high of a price, and with one (price) of those already fixed and the other (lack of games) soon to be fixed, we'll soon find out if the 3DS can be as successful as Nintendo has been hoping that it would be.

Nintendo 3DS Conference Details

Yesterday Nintendo held a pre-Tokyo Game Show conference centered around the 3DS, and several major announcements were made, including a November 3DS system update (more details below), new games coming to the system, and concrete release dates for some of their upcoming titles. Following is a list and details of each announcement:

• New 3DS color: pink
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords DSiWare update: Will be released September 28th, will include two new levels with unlockable powers, a single player mode, and wireless multiplayer
• November system update: the 3DS will be enhanced with the ability to record 3D video, and the Mii Plaza 
• New games: Monster Hunter 3G, Monster Hunter 4, Fire Emblem, Mario Tennis, Dynasty Warriors
• Nintendo Release Date: Super Mario 3D Land (November 13th), Mario Kart 7 (December 4th)
• Slide Pad Expansion: After the conference, the slide pad expansion was officially announced. It will cost between $15-20, be powered by a single AAA battery, and be compatible with the following titles: Monster Hunter 3G, RE: Revelations, Kingdom Hearts 3D, MGS Snake Eater 3D, Dynasty Warriors, and Ace Combat 3D

3DS Analogue Stick Peripheral Revealed

This morning through Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu it was revealed that Nintendo will indeed be releasing a peripheral to add a second circle pad onto the 3DS. This was later strengthened and verified as true by a Nintendo UK official in the following statement: 

We can confirm that Nintendo does plan to release the attachment but that any further announcements on the attachment will be made at some later time by Nintendo. 

Looks incredibly ugly doesn't it? Adding a couple centimeters in overall thickness to the system, this thing certainly seems like it's stripping the 3DS of being a portable. Apparently the device is supposed to tie in with a release of the popular Monster Hunter series on the 3DS. With that knowledge it certainly seems that Nintendo is desperately catering to third party developers, I certainly couldn't imagine any other games utilizing this abomination. What are your thoughts?

Nintendo Under Fire

It's no secret that Nintendo hasn't been doing very well as of late. The 3DS hasn't been selling at all at the pace that Nintendo had anticipated that it would, though they shoulder most of the blame with the system's lackluster selection of launch titles. They've even gone so far as to drop the price of the system a full eighty dollars ($169.99 down from 249.99) in an attempt to raise more interest. Now it seems that Nintendo's investors are urging them to begin developing titles for competing consoles and platforms. There are some out there that predict that Nintendo is on the verge of transitioning into a strictly software business and completely drop the hardware side of it.

As a friend of mine says, if this is the future of gaming then I simply will no longer be a gamer. A future in which Nintendo doesn't offer a dedicated handheld and develops only for other consoles like (god forbid) iOS and Android is one that I hope never comes to fruition. A completely touch screen oriented platform like iOS simply isn't viable when it comes to more than just casual gaming, developers attempts at imitating physical controls like analog sticks on a touch screen is just laughable. That would essentially kill off gaming as we know it.

According to this article Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, shares those sentiments. Stating that Nintendo would only produce titles for their owns platforms as long as he's the one in charge. While many may think that it is, the 3DS certainly isn't out of it yet.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Will the recent 3DS price drop encourage an increase in sales and cast aside these thoughts? Answer in the poll below:

3DS Receives Much Needed Price Drop

It seems that Nintendo has officially given up on hoping for success at the $250 price point for the 3DS. This morning it was announced that on August 12th Nintendo would drop the price tag of the 3DS by $80, setting it at the starting price of the original DSi at $170. For those early adopters that tolerated the steep price, Nintendo will offer 20 free NES and GBA games as a means of compensation. If you've been following the 3DS, you'll know that it hasn't exactly proven to be as much of a success as Nintendo had initially hoped that it would. This steep of a price drop only six months after the release of the system shows a little desperation on Nintendo's part to increase sales. This will no doubt help, it certainly makes me a little more optimistic on finally picking up a 3DS for myself. What are your thoughts?

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