When Mega Microgame$!'s WarioWare series first debuted on the Gameboy Advanced it took a new direction with the minigames genre that hadn't yet been explored. There hadn't been to many games before it that featured minigame collections in which each game took less than five seconds to complete. This was the first of its kind; quick, short bursts of gameplay that required lightning fast reflexes to complete within a very short amount of time. With WarioWare D.I.Y., the job of creating these minigames is left to the player's hands. Does it work?

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Sick and tired of that boring old white Wii? Jealous that both Japan and Europe have already had their mits on an awesome looking black Wii for months? If you possess such ridiculous insecurities you'll be happy to learn that Nintendo will be offering the Black Wii state side May 9, with a few little bonuses over the plain old white color.

First off, the black model will come with two games. The standard Wii Sports title as well as the sequel, Wii Sports Resort. Guess what also comes with it? A Wii motion plus add on to go with the motion enhanced Wii Sports Resort. All this comes at the standard retail of $200, but one could argue that the Wii is technically $150 since Nintendo is throwing in another $50 game.

Sorry Metroid fans. If you were looking forward to getting your hands on Samus's guns this June you'll be disappointed to learn that Nintendo has announced that Metroid: Other M will be pushed all the way back to August 31st, around two months longer than the originally announced release date. As for the whys of the delay? When Kotaku broke the story earlier today Nintendo got in touch with them to comment:

"The launch date for Metroid: Other M has shifted to Aug. 31. As you may know, this game is the product of a unique partnership between longtime Metroid producer Yoshio Sakamoto, Team Ninja and many other individuals and groups, all of whom have set very high standards for this latest installment in the series. Although it's taking slightly longer than expected to complete the project, we're confident that fans will find it to be well worth the wait. Video game development is a lengthy and complex process. We have always put the quality of our products first, and have historically taken the time needed to make our games meet the expectations of our fans."

Oh well, life goes on. It's not uncommon for high profile Nintendo titles to get pushed back at the slightest hint of trouble. At least Wii owners have Mario Galaxy 2 to look forward to next month. Unless, you know, that game gets pushed back as well.

There's word going about over at CVG that Nintendo will be releasing the 3DS, the 3D touch screen follow up to the DS, as early as October this year. This comes by way of "industry sources" who informed CVG that the company was prepping to launch the platform this October, putting it in line to directly compete with the launch of Natal this holiday season.

CVG mentioned that a long time news source noted how it was "... a surprise - we were expecting it much closer to Christmas. But I suppose it gives Nintendo the opportunity to get it front and centre in people's minds nice and early."

If the information is true, it would put the launch of the 3DS around six months earlier than expected. Of course this could still just be nothing more than a rumor unless Nintendo announces something at this year's E3.

[via CVG]

Ubisoft's sword swinger Red Steel 2 is seeing some somewhat meager sales numbers for its first twelve days on the shelf. Kotaku provided the NPD numbers detailing the figures and as it stands now it doesn't look like a lot of people are sliding their plastic for the Wii-motion plus centered title, which is really a shame since the sword fighting mechanics of the game is something to be experienced.

Ubisoft commented on the matter making sure to mention that the figures only reflected twelve days worth of sales and that they would wait to see were the series stands in the long term. Hopefully some more substantial numbers will help bolster the game to success.

Japan's Sunday morning kiddy show 'Pokémon Sunday' provided us with two things: further proof that Japan is bat-shit insane, and our first look at some Pokémon Black/White gameplay.

Thanks to Joystiq providing a downloadable picture you can now feast your eyes at the above image and jump to conclusions about what the picture means. I may not know japanese but thanks to visual cues it looks like multiplayer in Nintendo's upcoming Super Mario Galaxy 2 will have a 2-player feature that lets the second player control a Luma. What's a Luma? Some kind of star thing...? It's Mario. It doesn't have to make sense.

There isn't any specifics given on just how Mario and Luma will work together, but this already looks to be an improvement over the original Galaxy's multiplayer "feature" which only let the second player collect star bits and shoot them at enemies.

3D displays as we know them require often uncomfortable and dorky looking glasses to achieve the illusion of depth. When Nintendo announced the 3DS last month one of the mystery questions regarding the handheld's features was how it would pull off "3D effects without the need for any special glasses." One look at Sharp's new 3.4 inch 2D - 3D touchscreen display and a lot of that mystery is answered.

The 3D display sports a 480x854 resolution that lights up at an impressive  brightness. It can be used as a touch screen, which falls nicely within the functional requirements of the 3DS mind you, and features a 1000:1 contrast ratio. Akihabra News already got a chance to see the display in action and came away quite impressed:

Finally I had the chance to enjoy Sharp’s new 2D/3D LCD that does not require 3D glasses. What I have seen so far has been quite disappointing, Sorry Fujifilm, but Sharp’s new technology is REALLY impressive and I cannot wait to have such a screen in my 3DS ! Not only the colors and brightness are good as advertised, but also the 3D Ghost-less Effect on this LCD is really impressive...Sharp have succeeded to do what Sony and Panasonic did without the need for 3D Glasses!

Apparently Sharp has already started mass production of the display for mobile devices. As per what mobile devices specifically, well, no official word has been given. It looks like the glove fits but we won't know for certain until Nintendo shows off the 3DS at E3.

[via Endgadget]

The original Super Mario Kart is heading to the Wii Virtual Console this Friday, featuring 20 tracks rendered in fluid Mode7 graphics. Consistently regarded by many as one of the best video games ever made, Super Mario Kart on SNES was originally released seventeen years ago and has spawned five hit sequels.

For 800 Wii Points you can relish in a wave of nostalgia, going head-to-head with your friends in split-screen, enjoy the multiplayer favorite Battle Mode, or go solo racing against an all-star line-up of Mushroom Kingdom characters.