Kirby’s first console platform game since the Nintendo 64TM days; Kirby’s Epic Yarn introduces an amazing new look based on animated yarn and a world of cloth and textiles. The creative approach is woven directly into the game play and allows the ever-morphing KirbyTM to take on a variety of new forms. It’s a one-of-a-kind platformer that lets players explore high and low for hidden objects and fun adventure.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn hits stores this Fall.

That sound you just heard…? That was the sound of thousands of gamers clamoring with joy at the Nokia Center in Downtown L.A. Why? Because one of the most longed-for franchises from Nintendo’s long history makes its glorious return in spectacular 3D. Kid Icarus is back in a new game designed specifically for the Nintendo 3DS system by Kirby and Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai and his development team at Project Sora.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is a fast-paced and action-packed blend of aerial and ground-based shooting built on elegantly intuitive and streamlined play control. Boasting game play that is easy to pick up but incredibly deep, the game is sure to satisfy novice gamers as well as fans who have been clamoring for a new installment in the franchise.

Nintendo finally pulls the curtain on the successor to the DS. At today’s Nintendo Keynote, Mr. Iwata presented to the world the Nintendo 3DS. As previously reported, the new handheld will boast 3D capabilities without the need of glasses and users will be able to control the extent of the effect. It will also sport a 3D camera to be able to take… well… 3D photos. There’s improved graphics as well. Controls include accelerometers and gyroscope for 6-Axis Motion Control as well as an analog Slide-Pad (a big welcome that was seriously missing from the DS).

After completing the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Retro Studios wanted to get away from Samus and try something different. Who would have ever thought that would envolve Donkey Kong? But not just any Donkey Kong title… but Donkey Kong Country!? That’s right. The franchise that Rareware started back in SNES is back with Retro Studio’s Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Retro Studios faithfully restores everything that made the original series great, from barrel cannons to mine carts, and then builds on those elements with stunning graphics and new layers of depth to the world and game play. The game offers the traditional side-scrolling experience everyone loved, but with levels created in fully rendered 3-D environments.

And Ffor the first time ever, the franchise features the ability for two people to play together at the same time, ala New Super Mario Bros. Wii – one as Donkey Kong, one as Diddy Kong. Players can navigate the levels separately or as one unit. Diddy Kong can ride on Donkey Kong’s back and hop off whenever he pleases, allowing novice players to ride on Donkey Kong’s back through more challenging areas of the game.

Donkey Kong Country Returns hits retail this Holiday Season.

Nintendo today, during their E3 Keynote, revealed the new, highly anticipated Wii title in the Zelda franchise named The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. As the video above shows, it looks like Nintendo has gone for a cell-shaded look more akin to Wind Waker; or as Nintendo puts it “like a painting come to life”.

A new control scheme has also been introduce thanks to the Wii Motion Plus. No longer do you have to point the Wii-Mote at the screen. Everything is now motion based like Wii Sports Resort with more one-to-one sword and shield gameplay. Ironically, Miyamoto pulled a Steve Jobs; asking the crowd to turn off their wireless devices as they were causing interference as he experienced some technical difficulties during the on-stage demo.

Skyward Sword will require the rest of the year to polish and will be available sometime in 2011

In case you hadn’t heard, PBS will be airing a special performance of Video Games Live through July and August. The 90-minute Video Games Live special will consist of never before televised live musical performances from the Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Halo, Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, God of War, Civilization, Chrono Cross, StarCraft and Guitar Hero franchises, including a musical journey through Classic Gaming. The special will premiere on July 31 and air throughout August 2010 on PBS stations (check local listings).

Lucky viewers in the Bay Area and Northern California will be able to experience the Video Games Live PBS Special almost two full months in advance. PBS station KQED Public Television 9 will be debuting the Video Games Live special in its entirety on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 7:30pm and Tuesday, June 8th at 1:30am.

More information can be found on the KQED website.

Early this morning, in a press release posted at Nintendo’s Japanese site, the company officially announced the highly anticipated successor to the Nintendo DS. Temporarily named the “Nintendo 3DS”, the handheld will boast hardware with which “games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.” It will also be compatible will all current DS and DSi software. The release reports that the handheld will be released before the end of the fiscal year ending March 2011.

Engadget points out reports from Japan detailing known hardware for the 3DS. Ashai claims that the handheld’s 3D output will possible via “parallax barrier LCDs” from Sharp and is backed by reports from Nikkei which also adds that the displays will measure four inches diagonally (each).

Nikkei also claims the device will feature a “3D control stick” (presumably to be an analog stick), support rumble, longer battery life and speedier WiFi. While speaking with a representative from Nintendo of America, The New York Times has confirmed that we will get our first hands-on with the new hardware at E3 2010, scheduled to be held from June 15 in Los Angeles.

[via Joystiq]

Unless you’ve been living in a cave on Mars for the last 4 years, you know that the long awaited 13th installment of the Final Fantasy franchise was released this week. I haven’t always been a big fan of the series but decided to give this one a chance - even to just give my software starved PS3 a chance to do what it was meant to do… plays games.

From the very beginning, FF13 hits you like a ton of bricks with spectacular action and visuals and gameplay you don’t normally expect from a typical Square-Enix title. The character development is not what you’d expect from FF. In fact, there isn’t any — aside from some very minimal equipment upgrading — for the first 4 or 5 hours. It isn’t until an early plot twist when your party finally starts to “level up”. And then it’s not your typical auto leveling you might be expecting.

The storyline on the other hand… Well, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with it yet, but right from the beginning I was lost. I wasn’t sure why anything was happening or what the characters’ motives are or anything. You’re immediately thrown into the action with very little explanation. Again, it wasn’t until several hours into the game that you finally get an adequate explanation of what is happening and you start piecing things together.

As many reviews have pointed out, the first third of the game (approx. 15 hours or so) are really slow and tedious… and I can see what they’re talking about. Only a handful of hours into the adventure and I’m still being greeted by tutorial dialogs and am still trying to get a firm hold of the battle system. But I wouldn’t say it’s tedious… to an extent. The story seems to finally picking up the pace and totally welcome some of the monotony now. Rather get through it now than later down the road.

So far it’s been a pretty good experience and I’m looking forward to next many, many hours of enjoyment to be had.

With HeartGold and SoulSilver just around the corner — this weekend actually — you can’t just help but think about how it all started…

To celebrate Monopoly’s 75th anniversary, Hasbro will be releasing a new version of the oh-so-popular game that might throw some die-hard fans into a hissy-fit. Gone will be the out-moded paper money, metal game tokens and… the square board. Monopoly Revolution, as the name might suggest, will feature a completely new modern look and feel to it.

First of all, the most obvious of the changes comes to the board. Gone is the old quadrilateral in favor of a more compact and sleeker round board. The game tokens have been replaced with translucent plastic tokens more reminiscent of compact “holographic” representations of the old full-sized metal pieces. Even the houses and hotels have a translucent look. Also, no more having to consult the game rules to remember how much of each bill each player gets; now everyone will have a credit style card (which will definitely help not having to mentally figure out how much you have and cut down on any cheating). Plus, inflation has sky-rocketed in this version with passing go now granting you $2 million.

I’m sure plenty of die-hard fans will argue that the only way to truly play the game is with the old square board and physical paper money; but I whole heartedly welcome this version of the game. It has a much more modern, sleek feel to it and lets face it, Monopoly hasn’t really changed all that much since its humble beginnings. It’s about time it had a major makeover.

I for one will defilingly be picking this one up when it’s released later in the fall.