This year’s Tokyo Game Show won’t even officially kick-off until tonight beginning with the Sony press conference, but Nintendo’s pre-TGS press conference, focusing solely on the 3DS, has already filled Nintendo fans with enough excitement and anticipation to hold them over for the next few moths.
We heard quite a few announcements regarding the 3DS itself, and though they may not be earth-shattering, they’re enough to get the casual 3DS owner amped up. More specifically, the female causal 3DS owner. In addition to the confirmation of the 3DS’ second analog stick and the announcement that the handheld’s November system update will add “3D video capture”, Nintendo revealed that they will be releasing a new Pink 3DS model in Japan, which will inevitably make its way over to the States eventually. We knew that the 3DS hasn’t lived up to Nintendo’s sales expectations, but the female gamer population is a relatively small one, and if Nintendo already feels the need to call upon that demographic to boost sales then that may not be the most promising sign for 3DS analyst predictions.
Nintendo also revealed release dates for some big upcoming 3DS titles. Super Mario 3D Land will hit stores on November 13, followed by the highly anticipated Mario Kart 7 on December 4, which reportedly now has a gyro-controlled first-person mode in addition to some brand new features.
What games will Nintendo fans have to wait until next year to get their hands on? Aside from Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2, a newly announced Mario Tennis game for the handheld is now also slated for 2012. Unfortunately, Nintendo announced this morning that Kid Icarus: Uprising (the one 3DS title I long for yet can’t seem to grasp) has been delayed until 2012 as well. According to the publisher’s note, the development team for the 3DS action game determined it needed more time to complete the game. Perhaps the developers are now adding in support for the system’s additional analog stick? Either way, Pit said he was “Sorry to keep you waiting!” back in E3 2010. Now it’s just getting annoying, Pit.
