Santa won't be bringin you one for Xmas.

(Reuters) – Nintendo Co Ltd said on Wednesday the launch of its 3D-capable DS handheld game player will miss the busy year-end holiday shopping season, forcing Japan’s leading game machine maker to slash its full-year profit forecast by one-third.

Nintendo will launch the new version of the DS on February 26 in Japan and in March in the United States, by far the biggest market for the game machine maker.

The company trimmed its projection for overall DS sales for the year to March 31 to 23.5 million units from 30 million and lowered its estimate for Wii consoles to 17.5 million machines from 18 million.

“At first we thought it would be desirable to launch the 3DS within the year, so we made our forecasts on that basis. At this point it is clear that if we launch within the year, we will not be able to supply enough units,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told an analysts’ conference.

With sales of its DS and Wii fading, Nintendo is relying on the new 3D model to revive profits and help it fend of renewed competition from Sony Corp and Microsoft, whose motion-gaming peripherals will be on the market in time for year-end shoppers to buy.

[Full Article at Reuters.com]

Don't froget put on your 3D glasses.

Nintendo reveals 3DS

(Gamespot) – Nintendo has announced a new version of its DS handheld system that will support 3D games. The 3DS will play games with 3D effects “without the need for any special glasses”, according to the Japanese company. It will launch during its coming fiscal year, meaning it could arrive any time between April 2010 and March 2011.

Nintendo describes the system as a successor to the DS series, but it will also play DS and DSi titles. The 3DS is a temporary name according to Nintendo’s perfunctory press release, but more details on the machine will be revealed at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. This year’s show will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 15-17.

Though Nintendo’s official announcement of the 3DS was light on information, additional details on the upcoming handheld appear to have surfaced from Japanese business daily Nikkei. The newspaper’s online edition reports that the 3DS will feature a thumb stick for controlling movement in a 3D plane as well as rumble functionality. The handheld will also reportedly feature greatly enhanced battery life, improved network connectivity, and a screen size that’s smaller than four inches.

Nikkei also narrowed the release window of the 3DS, saying it will arrive during the back half of 2010. However, it is unclear whether that date holds true for Japan alone or the rest of the globe as well. Notably, Nintendo released the DSi XL last November in Japan (where it is known as the LL), and it went on to sell some 700,000 units by year’s end. The system’s Western rollout, however, hasn’t come until this month.

[Full article at Gamespot.com]

Bookworm for the DSi scores a Busy Gamer 5

First Glance:
PopCap’s Bookworm in a portable format. Grab the dictionary and the thesaurus… The pocket versions.

The Short Story:
PopCap has a tendency to make games that I can waste countless hours on. This isn’t a complaint. I used to spend hours expanding my vocabulary on the free web version but now I can blow that time on the DSi and the latest rendition of one of PopCap’s flagship games.

The Score:
This is a no brainer. My DSi is with me on every Reckon Crew outing that involves travel and hotels… Which is most of them. The DSi version of Bookworm is as good as it gets for short or long sessions. Exiting to the menu, as with most PopCap games of late, saves your progress and lets you pick up where you left off. Ease of play, quick loads, and stat tracking earns Bookworm a bilio-tastic Busy Gamer 5.

Body of Review:
It’s safe to say I’m a puzzle fiend. I’ve said it many times before and I’ll keep saying it till someone tells me to shut up. That’s not an invitation… So take a puzzle game and let me flaunt my somewhat impressive vocabulary or at least my encyclopedic knowledge of word structures and I’ll bite every time. That’s why I was so pleased to see the Bookworm title make it onto my lastest favorite portable gaming device, my Nintendo DSi.

Curious about how many three letter words you've used? There's a stat for that...

If you’ve played any rendition of the Bookworm franchise, the controls are easy to pick up when the game starts… Touch the letter where you want to begin and then add on to it until you’re satisfied with your choice. As you use letter tiles, they are removed from the game board and new tiles fall in at the top of the screen. The surprisingly comprehensive in game dictionary tracks whether you’ve entered a valid word and then awards points based on the length of the word and any bonus tiles you might use. You can also shoot for the bonus words as you go to crank up your score.

As you score points, you are awarded levels and titles. With each new level comes the increased chance of a flaming word tile dropping onto the game board. Flaming tiles burn down through other letter tiles when they aren’t used and if they reach the bottom of the board, your game is over. This can add a bit of a panic when they drop into a section with no vowels but there is a scramble button you can use to help out a bit. Unfortunately, using the scramble button can produce more flaming tiles.

Rank up, show your friends you could have finished first in that 2nd grade spelling bee.

Scoring a particularly good word will result in the addition of bonus tiles, letters that can be used to increase the point value of any given word. You’ll be awarded a green, gold, or diamond tile based on the score of the previous word. Use them at any time, they don’t go away unless a flaming tile burns through them.

The only drawback of Bookworm for the DSi is that there is only one play mode. The mode available is untimed, scoring strictly on the words you spell. This can be dangerous as you can lose track of time if you get caught up in trying to spell out twelve letter words…

Bookworm tracks your stats so you can see what your longest or highest scoring word was or you can see how many three letter words you’ve created versus longer words. This allows you to mock your friends who play when you point out you actually were able to make a twelve letter word and they just burned through their entire repertoire of three letter words in the English language. And we all know I wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to mock my friends…

Overall, the game is a great buy for only 500 points through the DSi’s online game store which also conveniently downloads and plays immediately on your device. The purchase was painless (aside from having to use the whole points thing, ugh) and once the download was done, I was playing in a matter of moments.

It’s a great value for the price, a great game to play when you have a few minutes, and it won’t ask you what “extraneous” means… HA!

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Read into this, Bookworm on DS!

#1 Digital Word Game Comes to Nintendo’s Handheld Gaming Console with New Features and First-Ever Multiplayer Capabilities

(Press Release) – PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of the world’s most widely played video games, today announced the launch of Bookworm™ for Nintendo DS, a new adaptation of one of PopCap’s most successful franchises and the most popular digital word game in history. The Nintendo DS version of Bookworm is available now at major retail outlets for US $19.95.

“Bookworm has set the gold standard in word games, boasting over 100 million downloads to date across a variety of platforms,??? said Ed Allard, vice president of strategic development at PopCap. “With the Nintendo DS version, we’ve pulled out all the stops to give players even more deep content and specialized features than ever before. These include a Multiplayer mode for the first time ever in the popular Bookworm series that allows users to go head-to-head using one or two cartridges, as well as a library building system that provides exciting new game action for both old and new Bookworm players.???

In Bookworm, to complete each level, players link adjoining letter tiles to build words and feed “Lex.??? They’ll use Reward Tiles and spell Bonus Words to boost their score while overcoming obstacles such as burning tiles that end the game if they’re not used before they reach the bottom of the screen.

In this Nintendo DS adaptation, players will spell their way to a higher rank across three different game modes. Players can link letters in the fast-paced Action mode; if laid-back wordplay is more their style, Classic mode provides plenty of action at their own pace; or for the ultimate challenge, players can compete against friends in the Multiplayer mode. The Multiplayer mode is a new feature offered for the first time in any version of Bookworm, and is played over the DS WirelessCommunications network.

Players will test their vocabulary might with 20 themed Bonus Book Collections and the ability to build out 18 unique library rooms. They can also build their spelling skills and track their progress with in-depth stats and charts. Additionally, all features have been specifically tuned for dual-screen, vertical gameplay, allowing players to hold their DS like an actual book, while enjoying endless challenge and fun.

Key features include:
- Collect up to 20 books and build out 18 library rooms

- Customize game backgrounds with the libraries you’ve built

- Pick up and play — start working wordy wonders in seconds

- Unlimited levels keep players rising up the ranks in the Hall of Fame

- Watch your brain grow with the all-new Lex Ray

- Save high scores and best words for posterity

Oh, look. An "inflated ego" lens...

It’s been a while since I’ve been interested in picking up a new handheld system. My DS had sufficed to keep me entertained for countless hours and was among one of the first batches to hit the states when they initially came out. I had flirted with the idea of picking up a DS Lite but after a few minutes with a demo model, I’d decided against it. But then I got my hands on my DSi.

The first thing I noticed was how sturdy it felt compared to the Lite and even compared to my old DS. The shoulder buttons felt less “mushy” as did the buttons on the face. The heft was good, not too heavy, well balanced, making it a bit less cumbersome than the original DS but more solid feeling than the Lite.

Turning on the device for the first time, I was set up and running off of my wireless router fairly quickly. The DSi located and recognized my router as well as the neighbor’s and the process for connecting to a WiFi network was painless and rather “idiot” proof. A quick perusal of the online features of the DSI showed there was no built in web browser which was an initial disappointment for me but it was short lived. Within moments of checking the Nintendo marketplace, I had downloaded the free web browser and was checking out the Busy Gamer website.

The next step was to check out the latest innovation of including two cameras on the device. I had known going in that the cameras were fairly low resolution but I was pleasantly surprised to see they were better than what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be taking vacation pics with my DSi but they are quite capable of taking a decent closeup shot to play with using the built in photo editing software. The user facing camera is built into the hinge of the device allowing me to easily take pictures of my ugly mug while the external facing camera is on the top of the device facing outward when the device is open.

The built in software for editing photos isn’t going to make you throw away your copy of Photoshop but it’s certainly good for a few laughs. I distorted my own image until it was barely recognizable and made a kaleidescope image that was largely nostrils and lips. That’s an admittedly limited usage but it amused me for several minutes and I imagine would keep me entertained when I was taking a break from playing games.

Yeah, you'll be seeing that one in your sleep tonight... My bad.

And that brings me to the screens on the device. They’re noticeably larger than the DS screens and when I fired up Final Fantasy Tactics A2, I noticed a fairly decent difference in the way the game looked. It wasn’t that the graphics were any better but they did seem crisper with brighter colors. A quick play through of a battle showed me that the DSi did not sacrifice performance for any of the new bells and whistles the DSi has to offer.

The inclusion of the SD slot was a wonderful idea and the slot itself is easily accessible with a cover over it that feels more secure than on other similar devices. I found my spare 1 Gig SD card and popped it into the device and it was recognized immediately. While I haven’t loaded the device with any music or videos, the SD form factor means I can place the card in my card reader for my PC for file transfers rather than relying on a USB cable and software solution.

While I am still acclimating to the new finish on this device, the rubberized feel make it comfortable to hold and doesn’t make me feel like I will drop it if I’m walking and playing at the same time. It may actually be more prone to scratches and nicks than the DS or the Lite due to the finish but I haven’t had the misfortune of putting that to the test yet. I’ll just knock on some wood now…

Overall, I would happily recommend this device to anyone looking to upgrade from their SP or DS. While the new DSi lacks the slot to play Advance games, it would appear from the brief period that I spent in the market that older favorites may make the transition to downloadable content. My DS games are finding new life with the DSi, however, and I am pleased that I decided to add the DSi to my portable device collection.
Gritskrieg – End of Line