Nintendo of America unveiled the game lineup for its new 3DS gaming system Wednesday, allowing users to play 3-dimensional games with the option of linking wirelessly to other players nearby.
The system goes on sale March 27 for $249.99, featuring games such as Super Street Fighter 4, The Legend of Zelda, Madden NFL and Lego Star Wars, with at least 30 games set to be released before the summer.
The device opens up to reveal two screens -– one with 3-D video that doesn’t require special glasses and can be adjusted or turned off, and a touch screen with an adjustable stylus. A motion sensor and a gyro sensor can adjust the screens as players tilt the device.
There’s also a 3-D camera built in.
The 3DS, which will be available in aqua blue or cosmo black, can also sense other systems nearby and launch games with them using the StreetPass function.
Nintendo's 3DS video game system might be hazardous to the health of children younger than 6, according to a warning posted Wednesday on the Japanese video game company's website.
"Vision of children under the age of 6 [is in] the developmental stage," Nintendo's warning said, according to a Google translation of the website. "Nintendo 3DS, 3-D, including 3-D movies and television, delivers 3-D images with different left and right eye images," which "has a potential impact on the growth of children's eyes."
The 3DS is the gaming giant's latest version of its DS line of handheld video game consoles. The feature of the 3DS that separates it from Nintendo's popular other DS systems: It can handle 3-D gaming and movies, displaying the depth-adding effect without requiring users to wear 3-D glasses.
Although Nintendo is advising that only the preschool crowd refrain from using the new system's 3-D feature, it also recommends in its note that all players -- children and adults -- should take breaks from its glasses-free 3-D gaming every 30 minutes, or whenever a user feels sick.
The 3DS will also have a "3-D volume" sliding button that will let users tone down the level of depth of 3-D images, the notice said.
It also said the 3DS would have a parental control feature that could restrict the console's screens to traditional 2-D images. Games, movies and other media displayed in 2-D will be safe for gamers younger than 6, the Nintendo warning said.
There is "enough for everyone to enjoy," it said.
Nintendo is set to release the 3DS in Japan on Feb. 26 for about $300. The 3DS is to arrive in U.S. stores in March, the company has said; a price hasn't yet been announced.
The 3DS isn't Nintendo's first try at 3-D video games. In 1995 the company released the Virtual Boy, which had two LED screens that displayed black and red 3-D effects in a viewfinder-like device.
The Virtual Boy didn't catch on. It was discontinued in 1996 and is one of Nintendo's few console failures.
Top photo: Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, introduces the Nintendo 3DS game device at the E3 expo in Los Angeles on June 15. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
Bottom photo: Nintendo Virtual Boy handout art from 1995. Credit: Nintendo
Or, if you'd like, lean into the driver's seat and play Return of the Quack, a game about a duck ... sitting on top of another duck ... shooting flying Fudgsicles and broccoli out of a yellow sky.
This xB is one-of-a-kind and built to the specifications of Eric Nakamura, a video-game lover and publisher of Giant Robot magazine.
And the car, which took about three months and more than $30,000 to build, is a video-game console on wheels.
The headlights and the reverse light on the rear bumper have built-in projectors to shine video games onto walls the car is parked near.
In the trunk, a Nintendo Wii and a vintage 1980s Nintendo Famicom (the Japanese version of the U.S.' Nintendo Entertainment System) are installed powering the images projected from the xB at either end.
The seat belt buckles are topped with controllers, the shift knob is a joystick and the car starts not with a key but rather with an old Nintendo video-game cartridge.
Scion, Toyota's offshoot company aimed at selling cars to younger buyers, builds a couple of custom cars designed with input from people outside the automotive industry each year.
The custom cars are a marketing scheme for Scion, but the projects also give folks like Nakamura the chance to do something they otherwise might never be able to do.
"Designing a car, a real car, from beginning to end is just something you don't get a chance to do," Nakamura said. "So I figure this is one of those opportunities you just got to grab 'cause I don't think we'll have other car companies calling me any time soon saying, 'Can you design a car for me?'
"This might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, you know?"
Scion approached Nakamura about the collaboration, based on any theme he wanted.
The choice was easy, he said, given his lifelong affinity for video games.
The white-and-gray paint scheme on the custom xB, rimmed with a red body kit, was chosen to mirror the colors of Nintendo's past video-game systems, Nakamura said.
"We wanted to celebrate old video games but also the future at the same time," he said at Scion Installation Los Angeles, where the car, along with video-game-inspired artwork, is on display until Dec. 11 in an exhibit called Pixel Pushers.
"This car kind of has that look; a little bit concept-car-ish," Nakamura said. "But ultimately you want the car to look cool just by itself.
"You don't want to look just like a video-game car. I wanted it to be a cool car that does all this stuff."
And yes, it drives too.
"We joy-rided it in Orange County one night," Nakamura said. "We decided to take it out just as a test drive -- we rode around through neighborhoods and onto busy streets. I got it up to about 60.
"We took it to a gas station and people just swarmed the car right away to check it out. It was kind of cool."
Those who make the trip to Scion Installation Los Angeles to see the car can sit in it and play video games in the Culver City art gallery.
Return of the Quack, one of the playable games, was built to coincide with the exhibit in a collaboration of Giant Robot, Scion, San Francisco artist Matt Furie and video-game designer Chevy Ray Johnston.
The game was given away in the a recent issue of Giant Robot and can also be played online or at the exhibit, from the driver's seat of the custom xB or in wooden arcade-style units in the gallery.
As of now, Scion has no plans to build a second car with Nakamura. Though the magazine publisher who also owns four Giant Robot Asian pop culture retail stores and a restaurant called Gr/eats, said he has a few ideas if called upon.
"That would be a dream, huh?" Nakamura said. "And I'm ready to do it."
Video: Interview with Eric Nakamura, publisher of Giant Robot magazine and designer of the Giant Robot Scion xB art car. Credit: Nathan Olivarez-Giles/Los Angeles Times. Photos: Giant Robot Scion xB and a screen shot of Return of the Quack. Credit: Scion.
Angry Birds, one of the best-selling smart phone apps ever, with a reported 36 million copies downloaded, looks to be using its success to catapult itself into the world of heavy-duty gaming consoles.
That means the game will appear sometime next year on the Microsoft X-Box 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii sytems, according to a report from the BBC, which quoted Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka.
The addictive game, where the player fires birds out of a slingshot in an effort to obliterate their piggy adversaries, has been a hit both on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and the many phones powered by Google's Android operating system. It generally costs 99 cents to download, and users are entitled to frequent updates that add new levels.
In October, game giant Electronic Arts bought Chillingo, the company that publishes Angry Birds on the iPhone and iPad, for $20 million. But the creator of Angry Birds, Rovio, was not part of the acquisition.
If you're curious what the game looks like, check it out being played on an iPad in our recent review of tablet computers.
Preteens want an Apple iPad for Christmas more than any other item, according to a survey from the Nielsen Co.
The iPad took the No. 1 spot in a 17-item list, with 31% of children 6 to 12 saying they wanted to find one of Apple's blockbuster tablets under the tree.
Second place on the under-13 list was a tie between and Apple's iPod Touch and a computer (no specific brand), with each named by 29%
The Nintendo DS portable video game console was No. 4, on 25% of wish lists. Tied in fifth were the Sony PlayStation 3 video game console, any (non-iPhone) smart phone, and any mobile phone.
The Nintendo 3DS, which won't be released in the U.S. until next March, came in the 10th spot on the list.
And an e-reader was the item on the list that children seemed to want the least, coming in at 17th with only 11% of kids saying they want to embrace the digital book format.
Teenagers had slightly different wants.
The top spot in the 13-and-up group was a computer, with 20%. Second place was a tie between a television and a (non-iPhone) smart phone.
The iPad was next with 18%, followed by a Blu-ray video disc player with 17%.
At the bottom of the teen was the Sony PlayStation Portable video game system, with just 5% saying they wanted one.
Nintendo's 3DS doesn't come out until next year, but could a 3G DS be far off?
Japan's largest wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, is talking with video game console makers about building 3G wireless Internet connectivity into their systems, the company's president told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
"Video game makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication," NTT DoCoMo President Ryuji Yamada told the Journal. "We are discussing this with various players."
Two of the largest forces in the industry are right in Yamada's neighborhood.
Chained to the wrists of booth babes (a staple of the video game expo) and in rows set on several king-sized tables in the back of Nintendo's exhibit in the Los Angeles Convention Center, the 3DS hand-held game system is drawing the largest groups of people we've seen yet. Each person is hoping to get a few minutes with the device before it hits stores next year.
Perhaps that's because no widely available appliance is capable of producing the sort of three-dimensional effect Nintendo has pulled off with the gadget without requiring the player to wear goofy glasses.
To see it on the 3DS, you need to look straight on at the top display (the bigger of the two on the device, and the only one with 3-D), or else you're staring at a blurry screen. That's the limitation of stereoscopic 3-D without the glasses. It's not hard to do, but if you frequently turn your head between game battles, to chat with someone or glance at the TV, you have to consciously reset yourself in front of the screen.
The 3-D elements, with characters in the foreground and a sense of depth in the virtual world, are just as you'd expect if you've seen "Avatar" or a one-off movie at Disneyland. The effect is less pronounced on such a small screen. Using the depth slider on the side of the 3DS, players can switch to 2-D (and some barely noticeable variants of 3-D), but the added dimension looks to be an improvement, albeit somewhat insignificant.
Nintendo may be reaching the limit of what it can do with its mustachioed mascot.
After nearly 29 years since debuting as Jumpman, encased in a Donkey Kong arcade unit somewhere in the depths of early-'80s culture, Mario is running out of costumes.
Throughout his adventures in Mario Land, Mario Bros., New Super Mario and the handful of other variations (not to mention the cartoons and abysmal live-action film), the fictional Italian plumber has donned just about every outfit you could imagine. Frogs, raccoons, statues, capes, silly hats, no hat, metal. He's carried hammers, fireballs, ice balls, coins, stars.
With a new game for the Wii console called Super Mario Galaxy 2 hitting stores May 23, what could Nintendo possibly do to keep the series fresh? Just look around. The Japanese game maker has turned much of its attention to the world -- er, worlds -- around the character.
The Galaxy predecessor cast Mario onto a series of tiny globes, placing a heavy focus on dimensional navigation. Breaking out of the game's linear, platform-adventure roots -- where players are rewarded for jumping on a ton of enemies and collecting items in a short period of time -- Galaxy added puzzles to the journey.
I spent some time playing the upcoming release Thursday morning, with the moral support of Nintendo reps who tried not to shame me too extensively when I fell off the level. (When you die, sending Mario through a black hole, the screen flashes "Too bad" -- a passive-aggressive phrase I saw several times in my 10- to 20-minute session.)
Days before Nintendo is set to release the DSi XL console, the company flashed some bits of info about a new hand-held game device it plans to show off at the Los Angeles E3 expo in June. Tentatively titled the Nintendo 3DS, the device plays three-dimensional games without users needing to wear special glasses.
The Japanese company was mum on details. But the system will succeed the Nintendo DS series and offer backwards compatibility, meaning it will play the old games, according to a statement. To do so, we could assume the Nintendo 3DS will have some of its predecessor's key pieces of hardware -- two screens, at least one of which is touch-sensitive, and a microphone.
Nintendo plans to release the product in the next 12 months, the company said in the news release. A spokesman declined to comment further, but multitude of questions need to be addressed before then.
With 3-D technology still very much in its infancy, especially one that doesn't require glasses, Nintendo will have to pull off some magic. Some exhibitors at the Consumer Electronics Show in January were showing off picture-frame-sized video screens that can project 3-D images without needing glasses. They weren't impressive.
Inherent in glasses-free 3-D is a predetermined viewing area. A filter on the screen redirects light to give the impression of an image popping out at the viewer, explained Tom Zerega, chief executive of the no-glasses 3-D technology company Magnetic 3D.
Because the gadget is designed for personal use, Nintendo has the luxury of planning for just a single user, rather than having to accommodate several vantage points. However, current glasses-free technology restrains the user from moving outside a small viewing zone.
The video game industry eked out a 4% sales gain in the U.S. last month, rising to $5.32 billion as shoppers snapped up nearly 2.8 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 published by Activision, according to a report released this afternoon from NPD Group.
For the year, video games, consoles and accessories took in $19.66 billion in retail sales, down 8% from 2008. Throw in $538 million in PC sales, which dropped 23% last year, and the total hits $20.2 billion. That's down 8.6% from $22.1 billion in 2008, which was a record year for the industry.
December capped a stomach-churning year for the game industry, with eight declining months out of 12. The genre that took the biggest hit last year was music and dancing games, which plunged 46% as players turned away from games with expensive peripherals.
Not even The Beatles: Rock Band, which was unveiled last year with great fanfare, could go against the economic tide. The title sold just $75 million last year, said Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. Combined with $149 million from Activision's Guitar Hero franchise, the total sales of $224 million is less than half the amount Rock Band and Guitar Hero made in 2008.
"Thank God this is behind us," Pachter said. "The momentum is moving in the right direction, particularly as we lap miserable music sales."
To see the top-selling games for December, click on the continue reading link below.