To further boost awareness about the upcoming US release of the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo is conducting a four-city demo tour on select areas. The event is from March 11 to April 3 and will cover New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The public will have a chance to sample the 3DS' features inside the Nintendo 3DS Demo Pod which will feature Face Raiders, the Mii Maker, and other 3DS built-in features. They'll also get to play several launch games such as  Pilotwings Resort, Steel Diver, Nintendogs + Cats, and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition.

Below is the schedule of the tour. If you happen to be in the area, please be a dear and send us some pictures!

March 11-30
New York City: Grand Central Terminal

March 11-April 3
Chicago: Citigroup Center

March 11-April 3
San Francisco: Pier 39

March 11-April 3
Los Angeles: Third Street Promenade

According to Nikei, the 400,000 3DS units that Nintendo shipped to Japanese retailers virtually sold out during its first 24 hours in the shelf. This is no surprise for us since the same thing happened to the Nintendo DS Lite and DSi a couple of years back.

There's probably another 3DS shipment by now so there's no need to panic. Maybe if you run to the store fast enough you'll be able to glimpse one ;)

Nintendo recently announced the Japanese 3DS launch lineup at Nintendo World 2011. The list contains 8 games, including the eagerly anticipated Street Fighter and Nintendogs + Cats for the 3DS. Below is the full list of games available on 3DS Japanese launch date on February 26:

• Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
• Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle
• Nintendogs + Cats (Toy Poodle & New Friends, French Bulldog & New Friends, Shiba & New Friends)
• Winning Eleven 3DSoccer
• Samurai Warriors Chronicle
• Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
• Ridge Racer 3
• Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble 3D

Some of the other games announced were BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2, Tales of the Abyss and Raving Rabbids Travel in Time.

Nintendo officially revealed in a Tokyo event recently that the Nintendo 3DS will finally be released in Japan on February 26, 2011 for 25,000 yen (around $299). The final design (pictured above) does not differ much from the E3 version except for the analog slider which in not color-matched to the hardware anymore.

The Nintendo 3DS will initially come in "Aqua Blue" and "Cosmo Black" and will come pre-loaded with a couple of "AR Games" (Augmented Reality). A new Mii Plaza for Miis collected using the "Tag Mode" will also be available. There's a 2GB flash memory as well for other downloaded applications.

There's no fonal word yet for the Western launch date but most experts believe that it will be before March 31, as Reggie Fils-Aime previously predicted.

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Not likely, according to Dr. Mark Borchert, an ophthalmologist based in L.A. In an interview he was quoted that prolonged exposure to 3D displays is "not likely to cause any permanent harm to vision."

Dr. Borchert warned though that 3D displays are not entirely without drawbacks. There's eye strain, headaches, and sometimes nausea but "there's no evidence it can cause permanent harm to your vision or use of both eyes together or anything like that."

There's still a couple of months to go before the 3DS launch. Better get your eyes looked at :)

If Capcom's previous announcement of Resident Evil: Revelations and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition for the Nintendo 3DS riled you up, then prepare to be crushed.

A Q&A with an investor recently revealed that the game company will NOT be releasing any of those games this fiscal year. Development is underway though, the publisher assured, but the release will be a little late. No further reason was given as to why.

We're sure a little waiting won't hurt Capcom's sales but it would've been better if they can have a title out on the Nintendo 3DS' launch.

The head of Project Sora Masahiro Sakurai recently revealed that Kid Icarus: Uprising might include Kids Icarus, a multiplayer online version of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS game. According to the interview by GameMaster, Sakura said that the online capabilities are "being tested" and that there could be some versus play involved but "we can't go into detail." He is also quoted saying "There are a lot of capabilities that expand on what was in the DS that people are taking advantage of."

How would a Kid Icarus versus mode play out? Our guess is as good as yours. But if we are to choose who to leave the development to, we would hand it to none other than Sakurai.

Looks like we Nintendo fanboys have to hold off our dreams of owning a Nintendo 3DS for a while more. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's President, recently appeared on a episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where he said the 3DS would be coming out "next year."

Also, on a recent interview by IndustryGamers, Reggie assured us that the 3DS will "launch in all of our major markets by March 31, 2011."

In the video below, Reggie and Fallon plays Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. Just about 2 minutes in Reggie pulls out a 3DS and showed Fallon a demo of Kid Icarus.

 Nintendo is set for another HUGE launch with the Nintendo 3DS. The announcement was a success, gamers are all buzzing about the 3DS, and the initial list of games is pretty impressive.

Although the list below is long, it's still just a partial list. Who knows what other titles will pop-up before actual launch??! Several games worth mentioning are "Paper Mario," "Star Fox 64 3D," "CODENAME: Chocobo Racing," and "Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy." Yup, that's an Assassin's Creed game on the Nintendo DS!

Activision

• DJ Hero 3D

AQ Interactive

• Cubic ninja

Atlus

• Shin Megami Tensei
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Capcom

• Resident Evil Revelations
• Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (name not final)

EA

• EA FIFA Soccer
• Madden NFL
• The Sims 3

Gameloft

• Asphalt DS

Harmonix

• Music Game

Hudson Soft

• Bomberman franchise
• Deca Sports franchise
• Kororinpa franchise

Konami

• Baseball franchise
• Contra franchise
• Frogger franchise
• Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D "The Naked Sample"
• Pro Evolution Soccer franchise / Winning Eleven franchise

Level-5

• Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle *

Majesco Entertainment

• BloodRayne: The Shroud
• A Boy and His Blob
• Face Racers: Photo Finish
• Lion's Pride: Adventures on the Serengeti
• Martha Stewart
• WonderWorld Amusement Park

Marvelous

• Bokujyoumonogatari (Harvest Moon) 3D *

Namco

• Dragon Ball franchise *
• Gundam franchise *
• PAC-MANTM & GALAGATM *
• Ridge Racer *
• Super Robot franchise *

Nintendo

• Animal Crossing
• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Mario Kart
• nintendogs + cats
• Paper Mario
• PilotWings Resort
• Star Fox 64 3D
• Steel Diver

Rocket

• Crash-City GP
• VS-robo

Sega

• Sonic *
• Super Monkey Ball *

Square Enix

• CODENAME: Chocobo Racing
• 3D Dragon Quest franchise
• Final Fantasy franchise
• Kingdom Hearts franchise

Take-Two Interactive

• Carnival Games franchise

Tecmo Koei

• Dead or Alive 3D *
• Dynasty Warriors *
• Ninja Gaiden *
• Samurai Warriors 3D *

TOMY

• Lovely Lisa 3D
• Naruto Shippuden Action

THQ

• de Blob 2
• Kung Fu Panda
• Kaboom of Doom
• Marvel Super Hero Squad
• Infinity Gauntlet
• The Penguins of Madagascar
• Puss N Boots
• Saints Row: Drive-By

Ubisoft

• Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy
• Battle of Giants: Dinosaur Strike
• Driver Renegade Hollywood 61 *
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Warner Bros

• Batman franchise
• LEGO franchise

* Title is not yet final.

After weeks of rumors and speculations, Nintendo finally revealed the next iteration of the Nintendo DS --- the Nintendo 3DS! The wait is over and not surprisingly, well worth it.

Please note that the final design is TBA as of the moment, but this one is looking pretty darn good. Some key changes or upgrades from the DSi/DSi XL are:

• There are now three cameras; one on the inside and two outside.
• Uses Nintendo 3DS Game Card
• "Slide Pad" which acts as analog input.
• Uses motion sensor and gyro sensor.
• 3D Depth Slider to control 3D effect.
• Home, Power, and Wireless buttons.

A huge lineup of 3DS games were also revealed, which will be discussed in detail on future posts. For now, below is the trailer for one of the featured games, Kid Icarus: Uprising.



Also, video below shows Nintendo 3DS hands-on on E3 2010.

Nintendo recently filed a couple of trademarks that would confirm that the Nintendo 3DS will remain named as such. If you may remember, it was speculated before that the new handheld from Nintendo will undergo a name change before it was announced.

It was reported that Nintendo registered Japanese trademarks for "Nintendo 3DS," "N3DS," "3DSPlay" and "3DSWare." Also, it's quite interesting to see what Nintendo will do with 3DSPlay, as it does not exist yet from current Nintendo services.

The internet rumor mill is at it again as a supposed image of 3DS motherboard recently surfaced. The image above is reported to give hints on Nintendo 3DS features. Now, we can bore you with painful tech-talk on what we actually think of this "3DS mnotherboard", but we won't. Let's all just wait for the big reveal on June 15 shall we ;p

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Japanese newspapers Asahi and Nikkei recently reported exciting rumors concerning the upcoming Nintendo 3DS. Asahi claims that the 3DS will use a "parallax barrier LCD" by Sharp. Nikkei supports this and said that each screen will measure approximately four inches diagonally across. It is also rumored to feature a "3D control stick."

All excxiting rumors if you ask us. One thing is for certain though - all question will be answered this coming E3 2010 when the Nintendo 3DS makes its appearance!

Nintendo Japan recently announced via a press release on their website their new handheld console, the Nintendo 3DS. Equipped with hardware and software that are capable of rendering "3D efects" without the use of special glasses, the Nintendo 3DS is also backwards compatible with games from its predecessors, the Nintendo DS and DSi. The new handheld is expected to be released "during the fiscal year ending March 2011" or simply within the next year.

Although there are no official word yet about the 3DS, more information will soon be available on E3 2010 this coming June.

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