Today, Nintendo announced  a price drop and a brand new color for the 3DS. The Flame Red 3DS will hit stores on September 9 for $169.99.

Check out the video from Vidiocom detailing Nintendo’s latest move.

For the past 22 years, Nintendo has had the handheld gaming market on lock. During that time span they’ve had their share of competition from some big name companies — Sega, NEC, Atari, Nokia, and Sony. Most of have fallen, while others became afterthoughts, but with Apple’s handheld devices making a serious move on Nintendo’s territory, now seemed like the best time for Nintendo to make a bold (gaming) evolutionary move.

Full Review

With the portable gaming market getting very crowded, Nintendo is once again getting ahead of any potential challengers by dropping the successor to their DS console: the Nintendo 3DS. Not only were we treated to an exclusive hands-on demo with their much hyped, glassless portable gaming system, but were given an early retail copy.

Much of the DS design was maintained from the last generation; top and bottom dual screen, single touch-screen, camera, mic, d-pad, four face and two bumper buttons. Nintendo touched up this system by adding a much-needed analog stick, SD slot, and features both a gyroscope and a motion sensor. They stopped short of making this truly backwards compatible with their entire handheld library as only DS titles can be played on this system as no Game Boy slot is found on this system either. In case you were wondering, no, the older DS games cannot be upconverted to play in 3D.

Gameplay wise, the 3DS looks amazing. When playing the Super Street Fighter IV, an Xbox 360 and PS3 console release, graphically you wont be able to tell the difference. The actual fighters’ movements are so fluid and the graphical effects flawless duplicated. You’ll notice, however, how flat some of the background images truly look. Nintendo explained that was more the developer’s (Capcom) doing than any flaw with the 3DS graphics machine, but it doesn’t take too much from the experience. The 3D effect is more trickery as they play with your depth perception than actual vibrant 3D movement that jumps off the screen. But the effect definitely adds a new layer to the gameplay experience

Nintendo included two games with the system: AR Games and Face Raiders. Both expertly showcase the capabilities of the system as it creates this augmented-reality that requires the player to physically moves the player up, down, left, right, and even 180 to 360 degrees to play. AR Games utilized packed in cards (six in total) and builds a virtual 3D world playable on any flat surface. The frame rates is kind of slow, but nonetheless, it’s an impressive use of the hardware. Face Raiders has you taking pictures with that new 3D camera (in theory of people) then superimposes those pictures over attacking flying objects, and have you shoot at these new enemies that sport these faces. Out of the games we played, Madden Football was the only title that doesn’t play well in 3D.

As usual, Nintendo incorporated a number of gimmicky features that really don’t add to the overall gaming experience, namely Mii creation, as they’re really pushing the Mii maker and Mii Plaza. Along with the 3D gaming, you can take pictures 3D pictures with the 3DS. However, they’re limited to being displayed on the 3DS and once the novelty wears off you’ll completely forget about this. Lastly, it’s not a true portable system. Too many times the game gets stopped because the lightings not right, especially with the AR Games and Face Raider. And you have to have a good range of motion to be able to turn around and move with the device for certain titles i.e. Steel Diver and Face Raider.

All that being said, it’s an awesome handheld GAMING system. Much like the release of its Wii system, once the fad of the 3D gimmickry wears off, the true developers will take advantage of all that the 3DS has the to offer. For its $250 price tag that’s a lot to ask for “wait ‘till you see what it will do” system, but with the future being 3D gaming and the graphics put into this system, Nintendo’s reign as the handheld gaming kings is in no jeopardy.

With the launch of SSFIV 3D 10 days away Capcom released new screenshots and a TV commercial for the title. Check it out below?

Nintendo DS

3.0 OUT OF 5.0

I have to admit  I’ve been sleeping on the Professor Layton series. Nintendo’s latest release, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, begins with Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, receiving an “eerie” letter stating that London, in the future, is in disarray and that the Professor’s assistance is greatly needed to set things right again. Don’t bother asking why they need to travel to future to set things right instead of fixing what happens in the past so that the bad never happens, just go with it. The twist is, that the letter seems to be from Luke from the future. So of course Professor and Luke MUST figure out what’s going on which culminates with the duo being sent 10 years into the future.

Hit the jump for full review

If you have never played a Professor Layton game, know that this game focuses on puzzles and  gameplay is strictly about solving those puzzles. The gameplay consists of point and click interaction with the DS’ touchscreen. You will direct the characters around the London streets, interact with random characters and solve each puzzles via point and click. The developers put minimal effort into graphics, but less face it, at this point the main draw are the many great puzzles not the amount of pixels they can put on the screen.

Thankfully, those puzzles deliver. The puzzles range from those as simple as tracing multiple strings from one end of a maze to the other, to creative math problems where you must input an answer to sliding puzzles that have you move a block to a designated place.  If you were a fan of Curious Village and Diabolical Box’s stories, you will love this game’s puzzles. A minor complaint I have with the puzzles is that they’re more or less the same, only that the game has introduced more puzzles this time. However, they’ve added a few nice twists, such as a move limit to sliding puzzles and some other plot related twists.

If you’re a puzzle maniac, then this one is a must get. Despite the minor flaws. the engrossing story and nearly 170 puzzles make this a worthy addition to the acclaimed franchise.

Check out the video hosted by Harmonix CEO and co-founder, Alex Rigopulos showing off the keyboard play in Rock Band 3. Rock Band 3 will be released on October 26th in North America and October 29th for the rest of the world for the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Wii and Nintendo DS systems.

EA recently announced that Real Madrid midfielder Kaka has been chosen for the cover of FIFA Soccer 11. The superstar futbol player will be the center-piece of global advertising, marketing and promotional campaigns for the game.

Kaka is part of group of 17 stars who will adorn FIFA Soccer 11 worldwide. he will be accompanied by stars from other teams in other countries in territory specific packaging when FIFA Soccer 11 is available in stores September 28 in North America and October 1 in Europe and Asia.

Capcom will release a really dope collection of all the Mega Man Zero games that were released on Gameboy Advance on one DS cartridge on June 8th.

Any Mega Man fan should remember the character Zero whom was introduced in the Mega Man X back series. There are also new modes including “easy scenario” which provides a “much more forgiving cyber-busting experience” without holding back any of the fun.

Nintendo DSi

Nintendo

4.0 out of 5.0

Nintendo is teetering on Sega territory with the release of its latest update to their portable gaming console, the Nintendo DSi XL. Not sure what I’m talking about? Recall back to the period of 1994-1995. Sega, the clear leader in the 16-bit console war, embarked on a number of questionable upgrades to their Sega Genesis console. There was the Sega CD, then the ‘new’ Sega Genesis, the ‘new’ Sega CD, and the 32X before finally releasing the Sega Saturn in 1995. By that time, people were sick of Sega, and the Saturn bombed while Sony launched the PlayStation and never looked back.

Complete review

Off the bat, the fact that the screen is 93% bigger is a huge plus when it comes to playing platformers like Wario Ware D.I.Y. and the latest Pokemon games: Heart Gold and Soul Silver. The screens look great and games look like they should have been on screens this size in the first place. The screen is clear and the games don’t have that stretched out look ala, the Game Boy to GBA conversion. Web browsing is actually a reasonable task; the experience feels much like the iPod Touch with the upper screen magnifier helping out for details. Despite an increase in size, it still feels light. What’s more is the insane battery life. I initially charged it to half battery life and here it is, almost a week later, and I’m still playing it without recharging it.

Don’t quite understand why they don’t have the Game Boy and GBA backwards compatibility. Nintendo was crapped on for ditching this when the DSi came out, so can’t comprehend why they didn’t fix this as their are a ton of old school games many have yet to play. But at least they included games on here —the very addictive Brain Age Express games and Photo Clock.

The DSi XL is a worthwhile gaming device to purchase if you’re making the leap from a GBA or the original DS. –A. Kennedy

Today Nintendo announced that the highly anticipated DSi XL will be launched in Europe on March  5th. The unit boasts dual 4.2 inch screens (much larger than the Nintendo DS Lite) and a larger stylus.

Available in wine red and dark brown, the casing features a glossy top and matte finish on the underside. The XL will also come with Dr. Kawashima’s Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function already installed.

The price in Europe will be £140. The United States release date and pricing have yet to be announced.

Today THQ announced the development of Beat City for Nintendo DS. THQ says the game will be easy to pick up and play. In the game  players must find their rhythm in order to restore Beat City to the vibrant, melodious city it once was.  Using the stylus, players simply tap, swipe or hold on queue to the music’s beat in order to receive a high star rating within each mini-game.

More info and screenshots

While tapping to the beat, you can watch the city transform right before their eyes ridding the city of Dame Isolde Minor and her Cacophony Corporation, who bring nothing but monotony.  The better a player is at keeping the beat the more items are unlocked in the environment.

This game actually sounds like fun and it could be a big hit.