Pokédex 3D for Nintendo eShop!

Nintendo World Report is reporting that a FREE Pokédex 3D app is coming to the Nintendo eShop sometime soon. Pokédex 3D will feature all 150 new Pokémon from Black and White viewable in 3D and able to see all 360 degrees by rotating the monsters.You will also be able to take 3D photos with this application. The app will also use the Augmented Reality features of the 3DS.

Players start with 16 Pokémon and can unlock the remaining Pokédex entries by scanning QR Codes, using SpotPass (up to three random Pokémon a day), or by trading data with friends, likely via StreetPass.

Nintendo drops DS Lite price to $99, redesign Mario DS title boxart

Mario-Red Boxes Will Help Shoppers Identify Select Fan-Favorite Mario Games

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The portable Nintendo DS™ Lite system is getting a new suggested retail price. Effective June 5, the system will be available at a suggested retail price of just $99.99 in the United States. The Nintendo DS family has become the best-selling video game system in history. More than 48.9 million systems in the Nintendo DS family have sold in the United States alone. Also in June, six Mario™ games for Nintendo DS will receive new red packaging, making it easier than ever for consumers to identify these hit titles in stores.

“From the moment it launched, Nintendo DS Lite hit a sweet spot for consumers in terms of value, experience and fun,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “This new price point will introduce Nintendo DS Lite to even more consumers, and the new red packaging will make it easy for them to find their favorite Mario titles.”

The six Mario games that will begin sporting the new Mario-red packaging in June are New Super Mario Bros.™, Mario Kart™ DS, Super Mario 64™ DS, Mario & Luigi™: Bowser’s Inside Story, Mario vs. Donkey Kong™: Mini-Land Mayhem! and Mario Party™ DS. These games represent some of the best-selling fan-favorite Nintendo DS games of all time, and demonstrate the well-known “evergreen” sales trend of Nintendo games. Their total U.S. sales through the end of April 2011 according to the NPD Group are as follows:

New Super Mario Bros.: more than 9.25 million units
Mario Kart DS: more than 7.40 million units
Super Mario 64 DS: more than 4.34 million units
Mario Party DS: more than 3.27 million units
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story: more than 1.98 million units
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!: more than 1.01 million units

Mario is one of the most beloved video game characters and the top video game franchise of all time. Thirty-one Mario games have topped sales of more than 1 million units since 1995, more than any other franchise. Through the end of March 2011, more than 262 million games in the core Super Mario™ series have sold worldwide.

For more information about Nintendo DS Lite, visit http://www.nintendo.com/ds.

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Call of Duty Elite online service announced

CALL OF DUTY® ELITE WILL UNITE AND IGNITE GAMING’S
LARGEST ONLINE COMMUNITY

Activision’s New Service Will Offer 30 Million Call of Duty Players
Innovative Ways to Connect, Compete and Improve

Will Launch With This Year’s Most Anticipated Release
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 on November 8, 2011

Santa Monica, CA – May 31, 2011 – The world’s most passionate online gaming community can now connect, compete and improve their Call of Duty® multiplayer experience through Activision’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) innovative new online service, Call of Duty Elite.

Developed from the ground up by Activision’s new Beachhead studio, Call of Duty Elite offers cutting-edge features that significantly enhance the franchises’ multiplayer experience and deliver a new level of social engagement that will unite more than 30 million players worldwide. Additionally, the service will offer exclusive, high-production value, original entertainment programming designed exclusively for the Call of Duty community.

“The average Call of Duty player spends 58 minutes per day playing multiplayer. That is more than the average Facebook user spends per day on Facebook. And yet, right now, there are very few tools to unite and super charge that social community,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Whether it’s allowing you to connect with your friends, or people of a similar skill level, people who live in your city, people who share your favorite passions, join competitive clans or social groups, or upload, view and comment on the incredible mass of player-generated content, or watch and comment on exclusive created content, Call of Duty Elite will give people more ways to connect with fellow players than ever before. Elite will also allow players of every level to improve their game with an intuitive suite of tools, and compete in tournaments for both real and virtual prizes.”
 
Call of Duty Elite will include several industry-first innovations, and is a key differentiator for this year’s most anticipated game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Elite will offer two-way communication between the service and the game, so that the choices and decisions that players make in Elite through the mobile and web interfaces will affect their in-game experience. The service will be fully integrated into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and will launch alongside the game on November 8, 2011.

Call of Duty Elite’s features and services engage the community in three key ways:
• Connect: Call of Duty Elite gives players unprecedented control over their multiplayer experience, transforming it into a true social network. Players can compete against friends, players of similar skill levels and players with similar interests, join groups, join clans, and play in organized tournaments. They can also track the performance, progress and activity of their entire network, both in the game itself, as well as through mobile and web interfaces. Elite will be an “always on” way for players to connect with the Call of Duty community.

• Compete: Call of Duty Elite establishes the most exciting, competitive environment in a multiplayer game. Players will have available a constant stream of events and competitions, tiered to group them with those with similar abilities. Both in-game and real-world prizes will be rewarded to all skill levels.

• Improve: Call of Duty Elite is like having a personal online coach. It provides players with a dynamic strategy guide that tracks their statistics and performances down to the most minute details. It can show gamers how they stack up against their friends or others in the community. Tools and information are provided so players can learn and up their game.
Carrying forward to future Call of Duty games, Elite will chronicle a player’s gameplay history in a cohesive career record, keeping track of every kill, every game and progress.

“Call of Duty Elite has been tailored for Call of Duty’s diverse base of players – hardcore gamers, casual weekend warriors and even beginners,” added Hirshberg. “Over 7 million gamers play Call of Duty online each day logging hundreds of hours of multiplayer per player per year. Of course, the out of the box Call of Duty multiplayer experience that gamers have come to love and expect will continue as is. However, for those players looking for more, Call of Duty Elite will supercharge their experience.”

Many key features of Call of Duty Elite will be available to Call of Duty players free of charge. Additionally, for players who want to up their game, Call of Duty Elite will offer a premium membership with a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market.

The service will be accessible on a number of platforms — via web browsers, mobile devices, through game consoles and within the game interface itself — so that players can connect with Call of Duty Elite whenever and wherever they want.

Call of Duty Elite will launch this fall with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. However, to test the scale of the service, Activision will hold a public beta this summer for Elite with Call of Duty®: Black Ops. For more information, go to http://www.callofduty.com.

Beta sign up and Link

Heroes of Ruin officially announced

A Brand-New Adventure Featuring a Lineup of Unlikely Heroes and Deep Social Functionality

LOS ANGELES (May 31, 2011) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas, today announced HEROES OF RUIN™, a brand-new adventure featuring four unlikely heroes brought together to form a fearsome alliance. Custom-built for Nintendo 3DS™, with support for online play and a wealth of social gaming features, players will find a new experience awaiting them every day.

“Using the Nintendo 3DS™’ StreetPass™ and SpotPass™ functionality, HEROES OF RUIN will offer extensive multiplayer elements,” said Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing and public relations, Square Enix, Inc. “We hope to create a community of HEROES OF RUIN fans who play well beyond the single player campaign and experience the story in completely new ways.”

HEROES OF RUIN uses StreetPass to create an inventive in-game ‘Traders’ Network’ where players can buy and sell rare and powerful items picked up in battle. With an ever-changing inventory updated from each player passed in public, character strengths and abilities can be greatly enhanced by accessing items from other players’ games. Outside of the game, HEROES OF RUIN makes use of SpotPass to reward players with rare items or unique challenges through local Wi-Fi hotspots. The official HEROES OF RUIN community website will reward players further with daily challenges and quests available to complete in-game. With social media functionality, the site will also give players a platform to meet other gamers, swap ideas and items, and team up in-game.

HEROES OF RUIN challenges players to carve their own adventure by joining forces with other heroes through seamless drop-in/drop-out co-op multiplayer or venturing forth alone. Players will enter an ever-changing world where danger waits around every corner. Heroes can explore and fight through wild, varied and dynamic environments, discovering new layouts and routes each time they play. Packed with strange and deadly creatures, these dangerous lands will stretch players’ combat and tactical skills as they enhance their characters, collecting loot, weapons and armor to empower them on their quest.

HEROES OF RUIN will be playable at E3 at the Square Enix booth (South Hall, #1647) and will be available in early 2012 for Nintendo 3DS. The game is not yet rated. For more information and updates, join the HEROES OF RUIN community at http://www.HeroesOfRuin.com.

Sounds pretty interesting. Can’t wait to see some screenshots and footage of the game.

A seiyuu plays Earth Seeker

A Japanese voice actress named Hisako Kanemoto plays the “Mysterious Treasure” quest.

Earth Seeker doesn’t take place on our Earth, the game begins after humans fled the planet in spaceships. One of them crashed and terraformed a planet to become Earth-like, but the damaged craft created monsters like an insect mixed with a railgun. On the planet, you travel with Guardians, natives who will help you in battle if you give them some booze.

I really hope that Earth Seeker gets picked up for western release. I have sent it many times to XSEED Games, and they said they were keeping an eye on it.

Source: Siliconera

Rumor: The Last Story headed to Europe

Our James McWhirter from over at the 3DS Tribe has some juicy gossip for us straight from the London MCM. Upon questioning the Nintendo representatives there this weekend, James was able to learn that we can expect to see The Last Story (Wii) released in Europe! It’s nice to see them change their minds about not releasing it here.

This should be taken with a grain of salt. With E3 just a little over a week away, I fully expect Nintendo to announce it at their conference. There is no way they would spend all of that money localizing big RPGs like Xenoblade & The Last Story and only release them in one territory. However, I can’t see them releasing them that close to each other either. Xenoblade, according to voice actors is headed to Europe & North America in September, although America hasn’t heard an official announcement as of this post.

I’m sure this rumor is likely to be more true than false since the Wii doesn’t have too much of a life left and hardly any scheduled games. Lets just wait for E3 everyone!

Source: JRPG Tribe

Tales of Xillia gameplay trailer

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Renegade Kid’s “Mutand Mudds” coming to Nintendo eShop

• 2D Side Scrolling platformer
• Once a 3D platformer for Nintendo DSi
• Redesigned from the the ground up
• Max uses water based items to defeat Mudds
• Different types of levels to explore
• Late 2011

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Hulk Hogan’s Main event announced for Kinect

EDISON, NJ–(Marketwire – May 27, 2011) – Wrestling icon, IMPACT WRESTLING Superstar, and global sensation Hulk Hogan and Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, announced today a strategic partnership to develop Hulk Hogan’s Main Event, exclusively on Kinect™ for Xbox 360® for an expected release this fall. Developed by Panic Button LLC, Hulk Hogan’s Main Event is the first performance-based wrestling game on Kinect for Xbox 360 that lets players train with mentor Hulk Hogan as they build their own wrestling personalities and learn the art of showmanship to win over the crowd.

“Hulk Hogan is much more than a wrestling star; he’s a sports entertainment icon with a huge personality, a massive following on Spike’s IMPACT WRESTLING, and immediate recognition across generations of fans,” said Jesse Sutton, CEO Majesco Entertainment. “Partnering with the Hulkster for Hulk Hogan’s Main Event is a dream come true and we’re looking forward to releasing a no holds barred motion-based experience that offers a full suite of over-the-top moves.”

“Listen up, people! You will feel the power of Hulkamania when you step into this game,” said Hulk Hogan. “Whether you are taking the damage or selling the pain, this game will let you unleash your inner wrestler as you hype up the crowd while putting the hurt on anyone that stands in your way!”

Hulk Hogan’s longtime marketing agent, Darren Prince, CEO of Prince Marketing Group, said, “When we started discussions with Majesco on the format of this game we knew it was a perfect fit for Hulk’s global brand.”

In Hulk Hogan’s Main Event, players will learn the ropes from the man himself as Hulk Hogan schools them on delivering the best show for the crowd by emulating famous Hulk poses and performing more than 30 punishing combos. The Kinect sensor tracks players’ every move; the more dynamic the motion, the more high impact the wrestler’s performance is. Players will create their own unique wrestler personality through a robust create-a-wrestler feature including many choices for face, hair, tattoos, outfit, ethnicity, body type, and entrance music. Perform in nine different venues including the backyard brawl, local gym and giant stadium in front of a massive audience. Enter tournament mode for two player tag-team and take turns delivering extreme moves. Best of all, players can wield a variety of damaging objects including metal chairs and ladders to deliver bone-jarring hits to their opponents.

Developed by Panic Button LLC, Hulk Hogan’s Main Event is expected to launch on Kinect for Xbox 360 this fall. Hulk Hogan will be making an appearance at E3 on Tuesday, 6/7/11, courtesy of IMPACT WRESTLING. For additional information, please register at http://www.HulkHogansMainEvent.com.

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House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut announced for Playstaion 3

When we released The House of the Dead: OVERKILL for Wii, one of the most common things we heard is the wish that it be on a next gen console. Your wishes have been heard and answered! That mutant massacring B-Movie blood fest, The House of the Dead: OVERKILL, is coming to the Playstation 3 with some great extras! The House of the Dead: OVERKILL Extended Cut is presented for the first time in spectacular high definition with 3D support and Playstation Move compatibility on the Playstation3. This gruesome shooter puts you in the middle of a mutant outbreak in Bayou County. The extended cut has all seven stages of the original re-mastered, and two brand new scenarios added, so the baddest just got bigger!

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