Nintendo recently revealed that an announcement on the Nintendo 3DS will be coming on September 29th, and will concern the price and release date of this hotly anticipated hand-held. Just to clarify, this doesn’t mean the 3DS is releasing in September. It means Nintendo will announce when the release date is in September. So right now we’re waiting to know when to wait. Yeah, not an ideal situation, but at least we know more information is coming in about two months, and the release date could be any time after that. October 1st? November, in time for holiday shopping? March 31st? Be prepared to speculate for the next two months, and mark your calendars, Nintendo fans.

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After months of artwork images and vague screenshots, The Last Story finally has a proper trailer. The wait was well worth it, though, as this video shows off the fantastic graphics of the game, as well as a unique battle system that puts a whole new spin on traditional RPG mechanics. Any doubts on this epic RPG can be laid to rest; the scenery, monsters, and battles shown look like they’ll add up to one of the best games ever to land on the Wii. But don’t take my word for it, check out the trailer below:

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Wayforward has a few new details about their upcoming 2D brawler, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Fans of the design of their last Wii game, A Boy and His Blob, should be pleased to hear that much of that development team is working on Batman, including the art designer and animator. If early screenshots and videos are any indication, The Brave and the Bold should have the same 2D flair and detail. The game is fully co-operative; the game’s AI will take over the other character if you’re playing alone, while a second player can jump into the action at any time. The game includes four episodes, each of which should last approximately two hours–longer than many classic side-scrolling brawlers. Furthermore, you can buy new gadgets and upgrades to help you along the way. Brawlers aren’t a common genre anymore, but Batman: The Brave and the Bold is shaping up to be a solid game.

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From July 1st through July 3rd, The Nuzlocke Challenge will be streaming a Pokémon charity event for Child’s Play.  The event will feature games ranging from the 1st Pokémon generation through the 4th generation.

Those playing the games will have special stipulations placed upon them: players must catch only the first Pokémon they find in a route, and if a Pokémon faints, it must be released.  The event will also feature a playthrough of Pokémon Pearl by challenge creator, Nuzlocke.

For more information and details, click here.

Thanks to Silverhawk79 and Mackormoses for the info!

Chris Morris, from Yahoo!’s Plugged In blog, asks the question, “Where are the new consoles?”.  Sure, we have an upcoming handheld (the 3DS), but how far off until we see a successor to the Wii, or even the 360 or PS3?  Though the real question asked in the blog relates to the reason why we might have to wait at least a few more years before we even see what the next generation looks like.

The blog gives two main points as to why the next console generation won’t be arriving anytime soon.  Morris says that, “the cost of making triple-A games has soared” (with some games costing around $100m to make), and that many developers feel that anyone has yet to, “come close to tapping the full potential of any machine”.  The blog continues to mention how the current generation is still in high enough demand, as well as the fact that new technology for each console is only just starting to pick up.

You can check out the full article here.

Thanks to Tropical for the link!

The latest version of the Super Mario Bros. Crossover fangame has been released.

Some new features from the previous versions include:

• Ryu Hayabusa as a playable character.
• Samus can now crouch. Functionality can be turned on or off in options menu.
• Simon can now change direction in midair. This can be enabled or disabled in the options menu.
• Link can now attack in all four directions.
• Mega Man can summon Rush Coil and his jump height has been decreased.
• Added difficulty settings to the game: super easy, easy, normal, hard, and extreme
• Added cheats: level select, water mode, invincible, and infinite lives

(You can view the full version history here)

To play the latest version of the game, visit supermariobroscrossover.com!

It’s a bit hard to believe, but the time I spent waiting in line to play Metroid: Other M at E3 2010 was probably the longest I had to wait to play anything at the show.  That’s a bit surprising, considering that a playable version of the game has already been shown off earlier this year.  The line wasn’t even that long, it just took a while to get your turn with the game.  A lot of this information probably isn’t even new to most people, but it was my first time playing the game, which I’m sure there are plenty of you who have yet to do so.  Will this game live up to being one of the Wii’s ‘hardcore’ hits?

Once it was my turn, I was ready to find out if this game can live up to the gameplay of previous Metroid titles, as well as find out a bit more about the deeper storyline that we’ve been promised for months.  Right at the start, Samus lands in a mysterious space station.  You learn how to ’scan’ objects using the first person mode: point at the screen with the remote, highlight the object you want to investigate, then lock on to it.  Upon finding a Galactic Federation ship nearby, she quickly meets up with a team of the Galactic Federation army at the end of a hallway.  While greeted by a former teammate, Anthony Higgs, the lead officer of the team, Adam Malkovich, doesn’t seem to be too thrilled.  Samus recalls an incident from her past between her and Malkovich which resulted in her leaving the Federation and becoming a Bounty Hunter.  Whatever that incident is, Malkovich doesn’t seem to want to let it go.  He won’t even tell Samus why he is investigating the station, calling her a mere ‘outsider’.

When the Federation army fails to break open a lock leading inside the space station, Samus simply breaks it open with a missile (you learn how to fire missiles here).  Malkovich obviously feels outstaged, while Higgs simply laughs over the fact.  The Federation army moves on through the station, and you finally get into the real gameplay.

The camera stays fixed, so that everything appears like a 2D sidescrolling platformer, but you can move into the foreground and background.  Any time you point the remote at the screen, you can look around in first person, as well as lock-on and shoot enemies or objects.  The intro stage isn’t much to write about, as you encounter various classic Metroid series enemies.  If an enemy latches onto you and damages you, Samus will shake the enemy off and kill it.  For having such limited buttons, Samus seems to have as much control as in the Prime games: the morph ball and charge beam are simple to use.  While you have bombs and missiles, Samus does not use them at this point, because she has not been authorized by Malkovich to use them.  Also,  you can’t walk while in first person mode.

After a bit of platforming, you encounter a save point, which works like the save points from other Metroid games.  The next room once again brings you to the Federation army, who are investigating a dead scientist’s body, strangely covered in some green slime.  A purple bug like creature jumps out, which quickly gets mowed down by gunfire.  That’s all it takes to bring attention to all of the other purple bug things hiding in the walls, which rush to the center of the room and transform into the boss of the demo.  Even after seeing this boss several times, and knowing what to do to defeat it, I will admit I got a bit stuck here.  The first time you lock-on to the eye of the boss, you are supposed to dodge it’s attack with a first person dodge.  I didn’t know what the game was asking me to do (the only indication was the screen turning a greenish color), so the boss actually killed me.  Once I got a second shot at the boss, I figured it out.  After one successful dodge, you then have to shoot the eye of the boss.  After that, Malkovich orders the troops to freeze part of the creature’s body, and also authorizes Samus to use missiles.  At this point, you shoot the eye of the boss with a missile (lock on to it in first person, and tap the A button), giving the Federation troops time to freeze part of the boss.  Then, you just fire a missile at the frozen part to destroy that part of the boss.  Do this three times, and the boss becomes defenseless.  One last missile to the remaining ‘bug’ and that’s the end of the intro area.

While I saw other people playing the next area, as well as fighting the next boss, I wasn’t able to play anything past the first boss.  Enough people had to wait their turn to play the game as it was.  Still, I’m very interested to see where the story goes, and I wish this game hadn’t been delayed until August.  Then again, it might be worth the extra time to fix some very minor annoyances, and to try making some other areas in the game look more dynamic from each other.  The environments I’ve seen at E3 have the same general appearance, though the second area is covered in plant life, and there have been images of a fire/lava area as well.  The storyline seems to play a larger factor than the actual appearance of the environment, as the story from the introduction alone is deeper than I expected.  The good news is that even with what could possibly be the deepest storyline in the Metroid series, it still has the Metroid feel… just this time, we get to experience it by looking more into the mind and perspective of Samus herself.  Could this game change the way we look at the entire series?  Will we think differently of Samus after we complete the game, for better or for worse?

Once this finally hits the store shelves, I’m looking forward to the experience that Nintendo and Team Ninja have put together.

While the 3DS definitely stole the show at Nintendo’s booth, the new Legend of Zelda title for the Wii was not going to be overlooked.  Taking up the entire center area of Nintendo’s booth, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was surrounded by various animated projection displays showing off the atmosphere of the game, as well as a few of the enemy characters.

Everyone who waited in line to play the game received a T-Shirt.  The design on the shirt is a green watercolor design of Link.  There were similar, full colored designs on the outer wall where the line was gathering.

I got to play the game on the ‘large’ screen at the front of the Zelda area, which was nice.  I didn’t make it too far in the demo, but I did like what I saw.  The Zelda series has been experimenting with art style quite a bit, and this one was obviously no exception.  The opening cinematic after the title screen had an unusual ‘Monet Painting’ effect: at first I thought it was just a very poorly created cutscene, but I overheard some others talking about it, and it seems that the look is intentional.  I can expect people to complain about it a bit, since it looks heavily pixelated and blocky.  The good news is that this changes once you start playing… although you can still notice the effect out in the distance.  The art isn’t the only new thing in Skyward Sword, as the game features Wii Motion Plus control, which heavily impacts the swordplay.  Attacking enemies requires a different approach from what the Ocarina of Time standard created, as Wii Motion Plus now gives you full control of the sword.  Miyamoto was just having a bad day at the press conference, as the controls are no where near that difficult.  The demo takes place in a brightly colored forest, full of large mushrooms and other such plant life, all which seem to react specifically to how you strike them with your sword.  Certain enemies require being attacked by a specific kind of sword swipe, such as having to slice a Deku Baba right in the mouth.  At the time, I couldn’t figure it out, but I had decent luck simply stabbing the Deku Baba’s in the throat.  The motion control is also used to throw rocks or bombs.  You can throw them overhead with a swing of the remote, or you can even do an underhand motion, allowing you to ‘bowl’ with bombs.  One small thing that actually surprised me was the addition of a ‘run button’.  A green circular meter appears next to Link’s feet, and you can hold down the ‘A’ button to run.  You can no longer run when the meter runs out, but the meter slowly regenerates when you are not running.  The running might not be Pegasus Boots fast, or Epona fast, but it’s better than rolling on the ground constantly.  I didn’t play around too much with the other weapons, though I tried using the flying beetle thing to grab a blue rupee.  The map and item screens could be brought up easily, though I wasn’t aware of the item menu where I had a red potion (my fault for not seeing Nintendo’s press conference beforehand).  Although I did not reach the ‘boss’ of the demo, it should be noted that it was placed inside of a somewhat open area, which is very unusual for the Zelda series.  Even the less threatening Stalfos received it’s own enclosed area to fight in.  While the boss creature was not very huge, and might not even be a major boss in the final game, it seemed a bit lost in the open mushroom forest setting.

While a playable build of the game was highly welcomed, it brings up plenty of questions.  While many story elements have been revealed over the past few days, the demo itself explained nothing.  Will the gameplay direction of the demo reflect the final game?  Will Link have any new modes of transportation?  What disrupts this Link from his home, resulting him in becoming a hero?  If the female character becomes the Master Sword, how does it happen?  Something tells me we have yet to even scratch the surface of this one.

So, want to know what the 3DS is like?

The thing that really took the center of attention at Nintendo’s booth wasn’t a game, or even the 3DS.  It was the 3DS waiting line.  In the history of long lines, this is one that’s definitely made a name for itself in some form.  Many people waited a couple hours to experience the 3DS… for 20 minutes.  To me, that’s not exactly the way to spend your time at E3.  Fortunately, I caught it at a time where I would only have to wait about 30 minutes to reach the demo area.

While waiting in line, various Nintendo staff were showing off some demos where you could move the camera around a bit to look at various 3D renders.  Once you got into the real demo area, there was a lot more to see.  There were non-interactive demos, demos where you could move the camera a bit, and a few fully playable demos.  Such demos included Kid Icarus: Uprising, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil, Nintendogs +Cats, and Star Fox 64, just to name the ones I actually looked at.  I realize some of the displays were just prerendered video, but at times I couldn’t tell much of a difference.  Nintendogs +Cats, and Star Fox 64 were the only two ‘fully’ playable games I got to experience.  Resident Evil was just a movie where you could zoom in and out with the camera.  Kid Icarus and Animal Crossing were non-interactive movies.  Basically, the Kid Icarus demo was the same video from Nintendo’s press conference.  If you thought it looked good then, you need to see it in 3D.  There was also a demo showing classic NES games and Super Mario World in 3D.  As I’ve already said before, once you reached the 3DS demo area, you only had 20 minutes to check out everything.  That really wasn’t enough time, as I had to skip watching a few of the 3D movies, and I didn’t even see the Metal Gear Solid game.

While waiting to play the Star Fox 64 demo, I was talking with a Nintendo rep, who was a bit surprised when I mentioned that I waited a bit longer in line to play Metroid than to get to the 3DS area.  Though she also asked me what color 3DS I would most be interested in.  Most of the demo units were black, and they looked good, but I also mentioned how I liked the silver/platinum colors of some of the earlier systems.  There was also a gold concept color on the show floor, which looked stylish, as well.  On the way out of the area, some representatives were showing off the 3DS camera.  While the cameras themselves are far from revolutionary (640 x 480, 0.3 megapixel resolution), the ability to take 3D pictures is nice, since they are intended for viewing on the 3DS screen, anyway.

As for the actual controls on the hardware, the analog pad was quite unique, and the 3D slider switch worked quite well.  Since I was having trouble focusing on the 3D effect at it’s maximum level, I tried adjusting it to a lower intensity, and it helped quite a bit.  The camera feature also had an additional on-screen slider to ‘focus’ the image.  Would be nice if that was in some of the games.

The 3D effect itself is something that can’t be seen unless you physically see the actual unit, so pictures or video of the screen will only show blurry images.  That’s a shame because many people won’t know exactly what everyone at E3 saw for at least another several months.  It is overall quite impressive, though some would argue it wasn’t worth the wait in line to only see limited demos for 15-20 minutes.  I can guarantee that it will be worth the wait.