A comedy website just made a video game and released it on Nintendo’s 3DS. That’s kind of weird, right? Well, CollegeHumor doesn’t think so. In fact, that organization thinks it makes perfect sense.

The game is BearShark, a perpetual-running game available now for $3.99 in the 3DS eShop. BearShark is also a CollegeHumor comedy series that the company first released through the Nintendo Video app on the 3D handheld.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Nintendo,” CollegeHumor chief executive officer Paul Greenberg told GamesBeat. “They approached us about two years ago to help them make the 3DS more than just a game machine. They commissioned a series called Dinosaur Office, which quickly became the most popular series on the 3DS.”

In fact, each episode racked up millions of views on the Nintendo Video app.

“It was so popular that Nintendo ended up ordering three seasons of it,” said Greenberg. “Then they came to us a while later to order another series.”

That ended up becoming BearShark, which is a series of slapstick cartoons that have a bear and a shark teaming up to eat a dude. Only this time, Nintendo wanted CollegeHumor to find a way to extend the audience and come up with more content than just the episodes.

CollegeHumor talked through around some ideas. They were thinking about doing some behind-the-scenes stuff, but in the end the company realized that the only thing that really made sense for Nintendo’s gaming platform was an original game.

“So we commissioned BearShark the game,” said Greenberg. “It’s actually based on the same animation that BearShark [the cartoon] uses.”

In the 3DS endless runner, players control the human star of the series as he tries to avoid death by bear and/or shark. I’ve spent a bit of time with it, and BearShark is a simple, colorful one-touch game. It doesn’t do anything surprising, but it’s also a competent take on the well-worn genre.

“We’re really excited,” said Greenberg. “It really fulfills CollegeHumor’s mission to be a multimedia, multiplatform studio that wants to reach its audience wherever they are.”

For Greenberg, the BearShark game gave his team an opportunity to express their talents in a different way. With the website and its videos, CollegeHumor is a comedy-first company, but with the game they were more focused on making something fun rather than funny.

“It’s hard to be funny in a video game,” said Greenberg. “We didn’t want to try too hard. We just wanted to give something that our audience would find enjoyable and something that is appropriate to the medium.”

CollegeHumor wants to use this game to create more fans of its properties while simultaneously offering up something new to its existing viewers. Greenberg expects people searching through the eShop to discover the game and then to want to track down the videos.

If this works, gamers can probably expect a lot more games from CollegeHumor.

“We will definitely be launching more games based on characters and content that we created,” said Greenberg. “We want to create properties and then exploit it. Over time, we’ll continue to build those out as cross-over entities.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo isn’t exactly on the edge of discovery when it comes to online social features for its gaming systems. Sure, the Wii U has the Miiverse, but the 3DS doesn’t really have much more than a friends list.

The publisher is adding some social networking to its 3D handheld in Japan today with a new screenshot-sharing tool, as first spotted by Twitter user Cheesemeister3K. Players use this feature to grab a shot of the screen while playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Tomodachi Collection. Gamers can then post the image to Twitter or Tumblr by navigating to i.nintendo.com using the 3DS’s Internet browser.

The limited tool currently only supports Animal Crossing and Tomodachi. It can also only send images to Twitter and Tumblr. GamesBeat asked Nintendo if it will bring this functionality to North America when Animal Crossing debuts here on June 9 and whether it will ever support more than its limited games and social networks. We will update with the company’s response.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The 3DS is having a great year. Between hardcore strategy role-playing games and the return of beloved franchises, Nintendo has been cookin’ up a diverse library for its 3D-enabled handheld.

During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct video announcement, it revealed a ton of information on upcoming 3DS games for the spring and summer — and just a few hours later, it was ready to show some of them off during a press event in San Francisco. While we played everything there, we’ve narrowed down the list to the four games you should pay attention to, breaking down just how similar or different they are from other entries in their respective series.

As an extra bonus, we wrangled up a few Nintendo representatives to tell us some little known facts behind each game.

Harness the power of the ‘stache

Title: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Release date: August 11

Synopsis

The newest role-playing adventure for the world’s most famous plumbers (which is different from that other Mario RPG series) has the Mario brothers running back and forth between dreams and reality to save Princess Peach. It’s like Inception except with less music by Edith Piaf and more vaguely Italian-sounding dialogue.

What’s old or new about it?

Besides earning experience points and levels, Dream Team is totally different from earlier games in the series. Mario crosses into the dream world whenever Luigi volunteers to sleep on magical pillows. This is where he teams up with the magnanimous Dreamy Luigi (they’re Luigi’s dreams, after all), a much more powerful version of his brother. Dreamy Luigi can merge with sparkling auras called Luiginary Works, where he becomes a giant, disembodied face that can help Mario around the 2D platforming levels.

The first Luiginary Work uses Luigi’s thick mustache as a stretchy tree branch — you pull his real mustache with the stylus on the bottom screen and let go once Mario is on it — that propels Mario to greater heights. Luigi’s second power brings objects in the background to the foreground with a powerful sneeze; you trigger it by rubbing his nose with the stylus.

Did you know?

“The game’s writing in English is handled by Nate Bihldorff, from the Nintendo of America localization team,” said a Nintendo representative. “Nate has been the lead writer for every game in the series to date.”

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Because your 3DS XL fit into your pocket too well before, Nintendo is finally releasing the bulky Circle Pad Pro add-on to make the system that much bigger.

This is the first time the Circle Pad Pro peripheral for the 3DS XL is available in North America. The company has it up on its official store for $19.99. It begins shipping tomorrow. The hardware shell adds a second circular analog pad for use in certain games that support dual-analog functionality.

The original 3DS has had a Circle Pad Pro since Resident Evil: Revelations launched in early 2012. Major games like Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, and Kingdom Hearts 3D all support the peripheral.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo just held one of its famous streaming Direct streaming news shows. The company made several big announcements, and we’ve included all of the trailers and videos below for you to peruse at your leisure.

Earthbound

Nintendo is releasing the SNES role-playing game for the Wii U’s eShop digital-download platform. Read more about it here.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3DS

Holy schmwow! This one made me forget how to curse. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed it’s producing a new 3DS game set in the same universe as the SNES classic A Link to the Past. Read more about it here.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Nintendo has new info about the upcoming 3DS role-playing game starring the plumber brothers. Read more about it here.

Yoshi’s Island 3DS

The publisher also showed off a new Yoshi game for its portable device. Read more about it here.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons

The Capcom Zelda games for the Game Boy Color will swarm the 3DS eShop this summer. Read more about it here.

Mario Party 3DS

The newest installment in the Mario Party franchise. Read more about it here.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Nintendo also revealed new info about its life simulator, which is coming out in early June.

Mario Golf: World Tour

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata revealed some new Mario Kart-style online functionality for the popular golf game.

Game & Wario

One of the few Wii U games shown today. Check the video to see some new minigames.

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins

The 3DS counterpart to the Wii U open-world game is due out on the system soon.

Virtual Console

Finally, a sizzle reel featuring some upcoming classics for the Wii U’s Virtual Console.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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I’m going to need my Zelda fans to sit down.

Nintendo is making a new top-down Zelda game for the 3DS set in the world of the Super Nintendo’s A Link to the Past. It’s a new game adventure, but it uses the style and design of that 20-year-old classic.

“What our developers want to achieve is to reinvigorate the flat 2D world of A Link to the Past with a sense of height and volume using the 3D display of the Nintendo 3DS,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said in a streaming video presentation. “With [that screen] it’s easier to differentiate levels in the environment. Our developers can utilize height differences in dungeons as a puzzle-solving mechanic.”

Most Zelda games take place in standalone universes. The Nintendo 64′s Ocarina of Time doesn’t have much to do with Gamecube’s Wind Waker. That’s why it is so strange that Nintendo is going back and reusing one of the classic Zelda settings for a new game.

The published didn’t give an official title for the new Zelda release, but it did say it is due out for the portable system this holiday. Nintendo also didn’t specify how this new game relates to the SNES original. We don’t know if it is a sequel, a reimagining, or something else. We just know it takes place in the same world.

Fils-Aime says that while the game takes place in the same exact world as A Link to the Past, it features an original story and fresh dungeons.

Link also has a new ability. He can become a flat 2D hieroglyphic drawing and move around walls to solve dilemmas.

“By moving through walls, your viewpoint changes,” said Fils-Aime. “And you can see the connections in the area that you couldn’t observe before.”

Nintendo is going to make a 3D video available in the 3DS eShop that shows off the visuals.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Two classic Zelda games are heading to that 3D Nintendo portable in your back pocket.

The Capcom-developed The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are due out for the Nintendo 3DS eShop on May 30, according to this morning’s Nintendo Direct streaming show. The classic Game Boy Color games are similar, but they feature distinct adventures.

The Oracle games were special at the time because they interconnected. Players could affect the events in one game depending on how they played in the other.

Of course, you don’t have to play both, but the connectivity will work on the downloaded titles for 3DS.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Pikmin are growing wings and taking to the skies. Surely this is a sign of the end-times!

During a streaming Nintendo Direct presentation today, company president Satoru Iwata revealed the newest creature in the Pikmin series. We already know about the fire, water, high-jumping, poisonous, heavy, and rock types. Now, we have a Pikmin that can actually soar through the air on its wings.

Pikmin 3 is due out August 4.

The pink plant-bug things can carry objects over obstacles, which should help in solving many of Pikmin’s difficult puzzles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo’s Mario Party series is making its 3DS debut. During today’s 3DS-focused Nintendo Direct, company president Satoru Iwata announced Mario Party for the handheld.

Mario Party is a series of multiplayer minigames. Players move around an interactive game board, taking on either the A.I. or other gamers. According to Iwata, Mario Party for the 3DS has a ”Total of seven game boards, each with their own set of rules.” According to Iwata, “The gameplay changes dramatically on each individual board, and there are some maps where victory is decided quickly, making a game that is easy to enjoy even if you don’t have a lot of time.”

The new Mario Party is coming this winter.

For instance, one game board has players collect boosts and use them at the proper moment to catch up to other players when they are behind in the game. One board features giant Bullet Bills that shoot at the player, and you must decide whether it’s safe to move, or to wait before proceeding. Moving at the wrong time can put you behind the other players.

Mario Party for the 3DS has 81 new minigames. Some games use AR cards. Iwata said Mario Party for 3DS features “some [minigames] that test your speed, some that test your concentration, some that test your luck,” and others that use the “unique hardware features of the Nintendo 3DS.”

Mario Party for 3DS is the 11th installment in the series.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The insanely difficult Donkey Kong Country Returns seems like a tough game to play on a portable device. It is especially a bad idea around the elderly and children because you’re certain to start cussing and kicking things.

During a Nintendo Direct streaming-video show today, company president Satoru Iwata revealed how the publisher is making Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (due out May 24) easier for the handheld audience.

“The Wii version was made with the understanding that people would settle in for long sessions,” he said. “On the portable system, people play for shorter sessions, so we adjusted the difficulty.”

They’ve adjusted the number of times players can suffer hits. Between both Kongs, you can now take a total of five attacks from opponents. That’s up from four in the original Wii game. But the 3DS version also has bumper-bowling style items that save you when you jump into a pit or crash into something in your mine cart.

If you feel like that is some how insulting to your gaming skills, don’t worry: Nintendo is also including the original (insanely difficult) mode in the 3DS release.

The developers also added eight new levels for players that clear the main game.

“This will add plenty of fun even for those who beat the Wii version,” said Iwata.

It also has a cooperative mode for local wireless — but no online play.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Mario brothers are back for some summer dreaming.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed during today’s installment of the company’s Nintendo Direct streaming video series that the 3DS role-playing game Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is due out August 11.

This fourth installment in the Mario & Luigi series of RPGs from Alphadream puts players in control of the famed plumber brothers as they traverse Luigi’s subconscious. The younger, slimmer brother sleeps on the bottom screen, and you can manipulate the dream world by poking, prodding, and pulling Luigi’s face on the touchscreen.

Dream Team is the first Mario & Luigi RPG for the 3DS.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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With over 20 billion games downloaded across all smart phone and tablet platforms in 2012, the mobile gaming market is shifting inexorably away from dedicated handheld consoles.

Statistics released today by analytics site App Annie and market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that total game spending on the iOS App Store and Google Play eclipsed that on dedicated handheld consoles during fourth quarter of 2012.

Apple led this dominance, helped by a growth in Google Play gaming revenue, particularly in Japan and South Korea. Around 60 percent of purchases of Google Play games came from the Asia-Pacific region that period.

Despite business models that are vastly different, Nintendo and Apple, when viewed in isolation, actually matched each other for sales pretty closely. “While the most popular games and their business models are quite distinct, Nintendo and Apple were surprisingly close in terms of aggregate consumer spend on game software in the fourth quarter of 2012,” said Lewis Ward, IDC’s gaming research manager, via press release.

Nintendo dominated the list of top five grossing dedicated handheld games, with key titles like Pokémon Black/White Version 2 (DS) and New Super Mario Bros 2. (3DS). Sony’s PlayStation Vita and PSP consoles had a limited share of the packaged game market, with Nintendo shipments topping Sony’s by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.

All 2012′s top grossing games on iOS and Google Play (listed below) were free-to-play titles supported by in-app purchases. All the top-grossing dedicated handheld titles were full-priced boxed (or boxed plus digital) releases.

While the game is a long way from over for dedicated handheld consoles, both Sony and Nintendo are surely taking notes on this shift in mobile gaming spending patterns.

iOS App Store

1. Clash of Clans Supercell (Finland)

2. Puzzles & Dragons GungHo Online (Japan)

3. Hay Day Supercell (Finland)

4. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North Kabam, (U.S.)

5. The Simpsons: Tapped Out Electronic Arts (U.S.)

Google Play

1. Puzzles & Dragons GungHo Online (Japan)

2. DragonFlight for Kakao NextFloor (South Korea)

3. Anipang for Kakao SUNDAYTOZ (South Korea)

4. GREE GREE (Japan)

5. I Love Coffee for Kakao PATISTUDIO (South Korea)

Dedicated handhelds

1. Pokémon Black/White Version 2, DS, Game Freak (Japan)

2. New Super Mario Bros. 2 3DS, Nintendo (Japan)

3. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 3DS, Nintendo (Japan)

4. Super Mario 3D Land 3DS, Nintendo (Japan)

5. Mario Kart 7 3DS, Nintendo (Japan)

[Report images via App Annie]

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Today’s Nintendo Direct, a live video stream that Nintendo broadcasts to make special announcements, brought in lots of 3DS eShop and downloadable-content news.

Bill Trinen of Nintendo of America’s Treehouse division, best known as the English voice of game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, talked Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC. Trinen said that the game’s first DLC map, “Champions of Yore,” is currently available as a free download. Come March 6, the price will go up to $2.50. On that day, “Champions Pack” — the first Fire Emblem map pack, which includes all three “Champions of Yore” maps — will go up from $4 to $6.

“New downloadable content will continue to become available for Fire Emblem: Awakening in the weeks and months ahead, including today,” said Trinen, who also announced two new maps: “Champions of Yore 3″ and “Golden Gaffe,” which both cost $2.50.

Nintendo product public relations man Kit Ellis had some eShop announcements. First, he detailed Pokémon developer Game Freak’s upcoming rhythm-based platformer, HarmoKnight.

HarmoKnight has the player running across a level set to music. You attack and jump while keeping time with the beat of the music. The game has more than 50 levels across eight worlds. Nintendo even showed off a Pokémon-themed level. HarmoKnight will be available March 28 on the eShop with a demo available for download on March 14.

Ellis announced Kersploosh!, also for the 3DS eShop. In this game, you control a stone that is dropped down a well. Players navigate the stone as they try to avoid obstacles strewn throughout the well to maintain speed. The idea is to reach the bottom and make a splash in as little time as possible. Kersploosh! arrives on the eShop on March 7.

Nintendo also announced Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, which is “coming soon.” It’s a puzzler in which players guide mini Marios through a path to reach a goal. It also has unlockable minigames and a puzzle creator.

Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger, a tower-defense game, arrives April 11. Players defend villages from approaching enemies by placing characters on the map to fight them off.

In Virtual Console news, Harvest Moon GBC and Legend of the River King, both originally for Game Boy Color, are coming to the Nintendo 3DS eShop. No release date was announced.

A demo for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate arrives Feb. 28.

Nintendo is definitely putting more effort into the downloadable side this generation.

You can check out the full Nintendo Direct video and a trailer roundup in case you weren’t up early enough to catch it live.

Click here for our full coverage of today’s Nintendo Direct.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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People have been talking about video game violence a lot lately, and Nintendo’s eShop update manages to hit both sides of the debate.

First up is the Wii U, which (at least for this week) is the place to go if you want video games about kicking people so hard that they explode. That’s because the only new item coming to the Wii U today is the full version of Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, based on the long-running manga and animé series. While it’s on a disc in Japan, Ken’s Rage 2 is exclusive to the eShop in the United States and Europe.

Things get a little more highbrow for the 3DS this week. Well, it’s technically next week, because you’ll have to wait until then before you can download the full versions of Brain Age: Concentration Training (Sunday) and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D (Tuesday).

Of course, if you’re Veruca Salt and want your new eShop games now, Nintendo also has a few things for you. Starting today, you can download the full versions of Splinter Cell 3D and Rayman 3D, as well as a demo of the upcoming Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan and the Nintendo Entertainment System classic Mega Man II.

Wrapping things up is the DSi, which only gets one new game this week: A vertical-scrolling platformer (think Doodle Jump) called Ah! Heaven. According to Nintendo’s page for the game, you play as a soul trying to get up to heaven, and while God is willing to open the gates for you, he is forcing you to reach them on your own. I’m not sure, but this sounds like a rather literal metaphor for something.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This is one of those weeks when Nintendo is going to have to sit down with all of its consoles and remind them that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it doesn’t have a “favorite.” Just because the Wii U and DSi aren’t getting any new content this week on their respective digital download services doesn’t mean they’re not special in their own way. It’s just that they’re not as special as the 3DS (or even the original Wii, to a lesser extent).

The headliner for this week’s 3DS-centric eShop update is the demo of Fire Emblem Awakening, the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running turn-based strategy series. You can also get the full retail versions of kid-friendly minigame collection Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue and Deer Drive Legends (which is unfortunately not an animal-driving sim but a hunting game).

Wrapping things up for the 3DS is a port of the Game Boy puzzler Kirby’s Star Stacker and Tokyo Crash Mobs, a game that proves that the DSi isn’t the only place to find totally weird things that are hard to explain. Basically, it’s a Zuma-style puzzle game where you throw people at other people in order to knock them out of line that uses a mix of live-action video and “wacky digital graphics” (according to the official site).

Finally, the original Wii finally gets an Amazon Instant Video app, so you can stream content from the online retail giant’s Netflix competitor. Hey, it’s something at least.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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One thing is for certain: Disney is going to cash in with the sales of these collectible, interactive figures for its upcoming Disney Infinity video game. They work similarly to the popular Skylanders series where each toy can unlock a different character to play as in the platformer. Disney plans to release Infinity on June 18 (as repeatedly told to me by a development team member demoing the game) for PC, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and various mobile platforms.

I suppose we can then expect a chaotic eBay black market to emerge for the 2013 holiday season (the figures regularly retail for $12.99 each).  In the mean time, check out these 3D wiggle pictures I snapped of a few treasured Disney characters using my Nintendo 3DS. If you suffer from seizures, however, you might want to hold off on looking … especially at that Incredibles one at the end.

The collection of interactive figurines Disney has unveiled so far for Disney Infinity

Sully and Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. and the upcoming Monsters University

Captain Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa from The Pirates of the Caribbean

Violet, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Dash from The Incredibles

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo completely forgot about some of its systems in last week’s eShop update, so today it’s going to make it up to each and every Wii U owner with a small amount of new stuff. You can also get another full 3DS title and a Virtual Console game for the Wii, so it’s a good week for everybody. Sort of. You’ll see.

First up is the Wii U, which does get two additions to its digital download service: a pair of demos, one for ZombiU and one for NBA 2K13. For those who aren’t familiar, the former tasks you with navigating a zombie-infested London and features permanent character deaths, and the latter is a basketball game that constantly promotes the fact that rapper Jay-Z was an executive producer on it. As Nintendo adds more demos to the Wii U eShop, maybe someday it will decide to actually make them easier to find.

The big update for the 3DS is another full retail game: Hello Kitty Picnic with Sanrio Friends. If you’ve been thinking about picking that one up and want to avoid the judging eyes of a GameStop clerk, now’s your chance to have some minigame fun with Keroppi and Badtz-Maru like you’ve always wanted. If you have no heart and don’t like Hello Kitty, maybe this week’s 3DS eShop offerings are for you: Reel Fishing Paradise 3D Mini, Wild Adventures: Ultimate Deer Hunt 3D, and 101 DinoPets 3D. The first two are self-explanatory, but the third one is about dressing dinosaurs up in hats and is “more fun than a puppy,” according to Nintendo.

Seriously, of all the fake names to pick… .

As usual, the weirdest update of the week comes from the DSi. Its only new piece of downloadable content is an app called Biorhythm that somehow tracks your physical, intellectual, and emotional “cycles.” It sounds like the dream that the Nintendo Vitality Sensor still lives on as we all hoped it would.

Finally, another old 2D fighter comes to the original Wii’s Virtual Console, and for once, it wasn’t developed by SNK (though that studio did work on it, so it’s basically the same thing): World Heroes 2, which features characters based on various historical figures like Captain Kidd and … a football player. It was the ’90s — that’s what video games were like.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo is all about dual screens in this week’s eShop update, and specifically the ones attached to the 3DS and DSi. Technically, the Wii U also uses two screens, but it doesn’t get any new content this week, so I don’t care about it.

The biggest additions to the 3DS’ eShop are dungeon-crawler Unchained Blades and the full retail version of role-playing game-flavored beat-em-up Code of Princess. You can also check out Gunman Clive, a side-scrolling shooter set in the year 18XX (maybe it’s a Mega Man prequel?), and Air Battle Hockey 3D, which is a fancier version of those first-person Pong Flash games.

You can also watch a Best of 2012 collection on Nintendo Video, which features fan-favorite clips from the service’s comedy and music offerings. My personal pick? That Skrillex video from last month. Wub wub.

Moving on to the DSi, it gets a pair of new titles as well: Snowboard Xtreme, a game that will teach you how to “use the snowboard,” according to the official site, and Galaxy Saver, which is not a chain of discount grocery stores but a Space Invaders-style shooter that lets you team up with a friend to kill waves of incoming aliens.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo better hire a decent sea monster to help them fight off a potential onslaught of 3DS pirates.

3DS hacker Neimod has revealed that he has gained full control of a 3DS kernel that enables the device to run custom code, according to GBAtemp.net. Such code will open the handheld to independently created home-brew software and pirated games.

“With full kernel control, anything is possible,” Neimod wrote in a thread on GBAtemp. “Unfortunately, we are elitist bastards who never share anything.”

Currently, Neimod’s hack uses a very specific save game in a certain retail 3DS game to exploit the handheld’s hardware. The hacker doesn’t want to reveal which game permits this hack, because Nintendo could then easily patch it.

So while a few individuals can currently run custom code on their 3DSes, Neimod won’t release the method to the public unless he can figure out how to preserve the exploit even once Nintendo knows how to fix it.

Naturally, this has developers worried.

“If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games,” wrote Jools Watsham of developer Renegade Kid (Mutant Mudds, Moon.) “If these hackers really want to mess with the guts of a 3DS, why [don't they] become legit developers for [the system] and let the world enjoy their talents?”

Most people interested in Neimod’s hack claim they mostly want to remove the system’s region-lock barrier that prevents a 3DS from one part of the world from playing games from another part of the world.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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2012 saw the continued evolution of three consumer technologies — autostereoscopy, touch-sensing, and motion sense – with direct application in the gaming world.

As an analyst in the tech industry (I do this gaming stuff for fun and occasional profit), I’ve witnessed these burgeoning advancements spread from the fevered dreams of OEM engineers to vertical-market trade shows, the Consumer Electronics Show, and finally E3 and the games industry.

None of these technologies debuted in 2012, but they’ve each matured and become an indispensable part of gaming. For perspective, here’s a link to last year’s article.

Seeing in three dimensions without goofy eye wear

For those who don’t know, “autostereoscopy” is an informal term in the tech industry for glasses-free 3D – “stereoscopy” refers to the process by which combining two offset images gives the illusion of depth (three dimensions), and “auto” denotes the glasses-free component.

Autostereoscopy uses a parallax barrier to create 3D images without the need for special glasses. This differs from an active shutter system (like Nvidia 3D Vision), which, through special driver software and glasses that present alternating left- and right-eye images, presents the illusion of depth.

Most consumers are familiar with polarized 3D systems, by far the oldest and most mature of these technologies. These are the sort most often found in theaters and theme parks.

Of the three techniques, autostereoscopy shows the most promise, but the tech is inherently limiting, as the 3DS amply demonstrates. The biggest downside to glasses-free 3D is its highly restrictive viewing angles. In my own experience, it ranges anywhere from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. Move too far in any direction and it breaks the illusion. In that way, the 3DS – and its parent technology – are not dissimilar to a hologram.

When the 3D revival began in recent years, the consumer electronics industry threw all their weight behind this oft-maligned gimmick.  CES became saturated with 3D TVs, 3D movies, 3D projectors, 3D laptops, 3D gaming, and more than enough 3D to turn off consumers — which it did. Whereas the leap from cathode ray tube (CRT) to flat-screen was monumental, 3D wasn’t nearly enough to convince most people to abandon their “obsolete” LED TVs. Most consumers apparently saw it as a stop-gap solution.

OEMs lay the groundwork for autostereoscopy

I saw the foundation of the 3DS’s glasses-free 3D tech at optoelectronics events (essentially, anything having to do with displays and lighting), and a large manufacturer – rhymes with “Carp” – demoed a small form-factor display long before it did (or didn’t … shhhh) become part of a certain Nintendo handheld.

And yet, Nintendo’s autostereoscopic handheld system – which may or may not have utilized display technology from Japanese manufacturer, Sharp – faced an uphill battle due to inherent limitations with the tech, itself.

The 3DS was hobbled from the start – health reports loudly trumpeted claims that 3D was unhealthy for children, while many viewers (myself includes) get headaches and/or nausea from observing stereoscopy for too long. And up to 12 percent of the population suffers from “stereoblindness,” which prevents the individual from seeing 3D images.

But the 3DS’ biggest handicap was its restrictive viewing angles, given that its claim-to-fame was its autostereoscopy technology. On July 28, Nintendo partially mitigated this problem with the release of the 3DS XL, which increased the screen size by more than 90 percent — (top: 4.88 in [124 mm], bottom: 4.18 in [106 mm]). But was it too little, too late?

GamesBeat writer Jasmine Maleficent Rea noted that “The 3DS XL is what the 3DS should have started as.”

But she also addressed the system’s improved capabilities: “A wider viewing area enhances the 3D effect, making some games that were too blurry in 3D a joy to play. For those of us with horrible vision, larger screens are a must, and because of this advancement, the 3DS XL is a great step toward people accepting a ‘gimmicky’ feature as a viable gameplay tool.”

Most consumers still do see 3D as a gimmick, and autostereoscopy is but a fancier gimmick. But for stereoscopy to ever become part of mainstream entertainment, it must shed the clunky glasses and develop into a mature, glasses-free technology.

Pinching, swiping, and styli

Capacitive touch – which underpins your iPhones, Samsung Galaxys, Droids, and countless smartphones – has become more prominent as the platforms supporting it have eked out a bigger piece of the pie. And resistive touch – the passive cousin of capacitive – has done even better for itself, featuring prominently in the Wii U gamepad (not to mention countless commercial applications like ATMs and credit card payment machines).

Resistive touch sensing – which registers pressure via fingers, styli, and other objects – is hardly a new technology. Because of its versatility compared to competing systems (like capacitive touch), resistive touch is popular in commercial applications like ATMs.

Nintendo utilized this relatively primitive touchscreen technology for its DS and 3DS systems, presumably to save a buck and to enable the use of styli.

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Nintendo doesn’t have very many exciting surprises in its eShop updates for this week, but you can at least find something new for all four of its online-enabled systems. Yes, even the Wii!

First up is the 3DS, which, as usual, receives the bulk of the new content. Starting today, you can download full versions of Mario Tennis Open, Pilotwings Resort, Pokémon Rumble Blast, and Bit.Trip Saga. With those five additions, the amount of 3DS games you actually have to buy in a store drops even further, which is good news if you’re reading this in the Midwest, because you’re probably buried under a mountain of snow right now and may never be able to leave your house again.

Two more DLC packs come to New Super Mario Bros. 2 this week as well: The “Mystery Adventures Pack,” which sends you through a series of courses filled with hidden secrets, and the “Impossible Pack,” which claims to have the “highest difficulty ever.”

If you prefer your 3DS games more bite-sized, you can get a handful of eShop titles this week as well, including the Game Boy classic Wario Land 2, the formerly WiiWare-exclusive EscapeVektor, pixel art puzzler Pix3D, horse simulator Riding Stables 3D: Rivals In The Saddle (which is an awesome name), and a demo version of 2 Fast 4 Gnomz.

Moving on to the Wii U, its only new additions this week are full downloadable versions of the recently released Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune games, both of which are based on extremely successful and long-running shows that encourage you to yell at your TV about stupid people.

As for the DSi, it gets a holiday-themed spin on a popular slicing series with Cake Ninja: XMAS, strategy game Castle Conquerers: Heroes 2, and Anonymous Notes Chapter 3: From the Abyss. Despite that name, it’s actually not some kind of Nietzschean sexting application, but a “real action RPG with preeminent exhilaration set inside an infinitely-extending dungeon” (at least according to Nintendo), which is slightly more descriptive.

Finally, the Wii gets full and demo versions of Vampire Crystals, an isometric zombie-shooter that supports four-player co-op and looks pretty crazy based on the trailers at its official page.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s a great week for downloading games on Nintendo platforms as the various eShops are welcoming all of the usual staples today: Wii U and 3DS full titles and demos, quirky DSiWare games, another SNK classic for the Virtual Console, and even something slightly bizarre enough to make its mere existence a little funny.

But first up is the Wii U. Last week, we saw the introduction of the system’s very first demo, and today we can add two more to that list: Rayman Legends and Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. You can also get the full version of Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition. Both it and the demos are available now.

Usually, Nintendo directs most of its eShop focus at the 3DS, but things are a little light this week for the super publisher’s latest handheld, with only one full retail game and a handful of smaller titles and demos ready for download. The full game is Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!!, which is based on Cartoon Network’s impenetrably weird hit show about a guy with a sword and his crazy mutant dog. Adventure Time is also available as a demo, along with Art of Balance Touch, a physics-based eShop puzzler. You can also check out Crimson Shroud, a tabletop-style role-playing game from Level-5 (the developers of the Professor Layton series); Gardenscapes, which combines a hidden-object game and a gardening sim into something my mom would probably love; and a port of the NES title Ninja Gaiden.

Fans of SNK fighting games can once again turn to the Wii’s Virtual Console this week as Real Bout Fatal Fury is now for sale digitally. This was the fifth installment in the long-running series, and it introduced the “independent Sway Button,” according to Nintendo’s website. As someone who doesn’t follow this genre, I can only assume that is more exciting than it sounds.

Finally, things get weird when we move on to the DSi. First and not particularly weird is Rytmik World Music, a synthesizer app that lets you create music with the included 180+ sound samples. Second and fairly weird is Zombie Skape, a game about dodging zombies on a skateboard. Yes, a skateboard. Not a skapeboard, whatever that is. Lastly, one of the coolest sounding things of all time: Chuck E. Cheese’s Alien Defense Force, in which you play as the giant mouse mascot as he attempts to defeat the evil king of Planet Cheese. Unfortunately, it does not appear to include delicious cardboard-flavored pizza or offer free tokens with a good report card.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo is once again out to prove that it is totally serious about supporting its various online platforms, as you can download new content this week for not just the 3DS and Wii U but the DSi and original Wii as well. Yep, it’s one of those “something for everyone” updates, which should hopefully help clear out the boring taste of last week’s Pac-Man port and YouTube app.

First up is the 3DS eShop, which is getting loads of new content today, including a demo of two-screen-platformer Fractured Soul, two more Coin Rush DLC packs for New Super Mario Bros. 2, a port of the NES’ Mighty Bomb Jack, and an adventure game called Murder on the Titanic. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m pretty sure the iceberg did it.

Also, Nintendo has apparently put on its rooster hat and written “full version of Scribblenauts Unlimited” into its magic notebook, as you can now download that and the full versions of Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning, Classic Games Overload: Card & Puzzle Edition, and Lego The Lord of the Rings on the 3DS eShop.

Finally, dubstep artist Skrillex brings the wub wub to the Nintendo Video section with a video for his song Breakn’ A Sweat, which also features The Doors. I can only assume that classic rock fans are very happy about that pairing.

Moving on to the Wii U, the system gets one of its first demos: FIFA Soccer 13. Adding more demos like this should bode well for the console going forward, especially since Nintendo shows no signs of decreasing the amount of full retail games it adds to the eShop. Speaking of, this week you can download Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade, Ben 10 Omniverse, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth, and Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game.

Wrapping things up with the DSi and the Wii, the former gets hidden object/minigame collection Christmas Wonderland 2 and role-playing game Crystal Adventure, while the latter finally gets a Virtual Console title that isn’t an old SNK brawler: the arcade classic BurgerTime. It’s still no Earthbound, but at least you get to kill pickle monsters.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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After the Wii came out, Nintendo supported it with fairly consistent Virtual Console and WiiWare releases. Then they became less and less consistent; now the only offerings are monthly SNK ports. If you’re one of the people who has already picked up a Wii U, you’re probably hoping that Nintendo can maintain updates as exciting as last week’s veritable Thanksgiving feast, when the company added nearly every launch game to the system’s eShop.

Unfortunately, the Wii U is looking a bit too much like its predecessor this week, as the only new thing for you to download is a YouTube app. But hey, it’s free, and you can watch videos on the tablet screen.

Thankfully, things look better on the 3DS (but only slightly). Starting today, you can download a port of the NES version of Pac-Man and an airport management sim/puzzle game called Aero Porter. Developed by Level-5 (the studio behind the Professor Layton series), Aero Porter tasks you with sorting luggage, customizing and upgrading your planes and airport, and, according to the official page, “avoiding security mishaps.” That last one sounds a bit stressful. Both games are available for $4.99.

Finally, a pair of new titles are available on DSiWare this week as well. First is Invasion of the Alien Blobs, an arcade-style action game in which you poke the titular alien blobs with the stylus in order to kill them, and second is Bloons TD 4, a tower defense variant of the popular series about a monkey shooting a cannon at balloons. Both are available now, the former for $1.99 and the latter for $4.99.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo is probably hoping you’ll save your money for something else this week, but that hasn’t stopped it from putting a few more full 3DS games on the eShop.

First is Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion. Unlike its co-op-enabled 3D platforming big brother on consoles, Power of Illusion is a 2D sidescroller inspired by Sega’s classic Castle of Illusion for Genesis. In keeping with the Epic Mickey franchise’s mechanic of using paint and thinner to create and destroy objects, you can use the 3DS’s touchscreen to draw items and help Mickey in his quest to defeat all of Walt Disney’s less popular characters.

The next title on the eShop this week is Hotel Transylvania, the tie-in for the recently released movie from renowned animator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Star Wars: Clone Wars). According to Nintendo, Hotel Transylvania tasks you with helping a human make his way through “the scariest hotel on the planet” and features 18 different monsters and 1,400 hidden gem to discover. Now, considering its setting and that it’s a 2D platformer with a very familiar-looking map on the bottom screen, you might end up confusing this for another Dracula-based series. Unfortunately, I’m going to assume that this one doesn’t end with you defeating Adam Sandler’s true form and unlocking the secret upside-down Hotel Transylvania.

For any of you admiring all of the diplomas on your wall, you can download the Brain Age-style intelligence tester American Mensa Academy, the third full 3DS title new to the eShop this week. Mensa International is an organization for people who have a high IQ, so playing this game is probably a good way to prove how smart you are.

Of course, you could also do that by uncovering the decades-old secrets of a mysterious island in the classic PC adventure Myst, which is also on the eShop this week. The game features new 3D artwork and, according to Nintendo, is “more entertaining than the original.”

As for digital-only games, 3DS owners can check out Monster Shooter (which looks like a very accurate description), while DSi fans can buy platformer Jump Trials and a puzzler that features a frontrunner for the best title of the year, Working Dawgs: A-Maze-ing Pipes.

Finally, if you prefer to use your 3DS to watch videos, you and your family can gather around it on Friday for a new Thanksgiving episode of CollegeHumor’s Dinosaur Office.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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After last week’s slim offerings, Nintendo is peeling off and then gingerly applying a few more exciting additions to its various digital distribution services this week.

See, that was a sticker reference, because Paper Mario: Sticker Star will be available in stores and on the 3DS eShop on Sunday. It joins Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and a handful of other games that aren’t focused on a plumber’s quest to murder turtles in the 3DS’s growing batch of full titles you can download from the eShop. GamesBeat’s own Jeff Grubb reviewed Sticker Star earlier this week and was less than impressed by its central gimmick, but he’s probably just waiting for the inevitable scratch-and-sniff-enabled sequel.

3DS owners can also check out a demo for Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion this week. Or if you prefer your mice to be yellow and have electric powers, you can download Pokédex 3D Pro, an application that sorts and ranks more than 640 of the pocket monsters. You can get started on figuring out which Pokémon is the best (spoiler: Meowth) by downloading the Pokédex today for $14.99. No word yet on whether or not PETA is working on a parody version, but we’ll keep you posted.

If you’re looking for something less high-profile, you can download a pair of new eShop-exclusive titles starting today: Johnny Hotshot and Dress To Play: Cute Witches. The former is not only a badass nickname but also a game about a kid who gets sucked into his favorite arcade machine, while the other is about picking out clothes for little witch girls and then taking them on adventures.

As usual, Nintendo is even gracious enough to throw a pittance to those of you who don’t have a 3DS, like the two new DSiWare games — Come On! Dragons and Smart Girl’s Playhouse Mini — that you can download this week. Also, for the third time in as many months, the only addition to the Wii’s Virtual Console is another old SNK game: Sengoku 2. Nintendo may have turned its back on the service a long time ago, but it looks like you’ll have random ports like this to keep the blue light flashing on your Wii until the sun explodes.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo knows you don’t like going to the store to buy video games. It has already made great strides in creating a world in which its fans never have to go outside (by selling New Super Mario Bros. 2 digitally on the 3DS eShop the same day it went on sale at retail), and today it makes a few more.

Joining NSMB2 are four more of Nintendo’s recent handheld hits: Super Mario 3D Land, Star Fox 64 3D, Mario Kart 7, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. All of these are available now for $39.99, which is their full retail price. However, considering that first-party Nintendo games rarely drop in price (if at all), the small premium you have to pay for the luxury of having Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi delivered right into your hands might just be worth it.

Throwing a bone to the non-existent 3DS owners interested in more games than just those I mentioned up above, Nintendo’s weekly download report has revealed a few more items will be popping up on the eShop in the coming days. These include Sparkle Snapshots 3D, a $5 app that allows you to add badass things like ribbons and glitter to the photos taken with your 3DS camera, and a demo for something called Moshi Monsters Moshlings Theme Park. The download report was unclear about what any of those words mean, but based on the screenshots, I assume it has something to do with a castle eating a dog.

Considerably less confusing is Style Savvy: Trendsetters, which is unfortunately arriving too late to celebrate tonight’s Project Runway season finale (I’m on Team Christopher!), but will be available digitally on Oct. 22, the same day it arrives in stores. Apparently this game, unlike its DS predecessor, allows you to design clothes for women and men. I know a thing or two about men’s fashion (as evidenced by the Voltron T-shirt I’m wearing), so I think I’d do extremely well at this.

Finishing off the week’s eShop announcements are the original Gradius, available now for $4.99, and Dinosaur Office: Halloween Spooktacular!. I gather that it’s a cartoon about dinosaurs working in an office and getting into Halloween-related shenanigans, which sounds incredible, so I’d suggest checking it out and getting back to me.

Finally, if you’re still living in the Stone Age and don’t have a 3DS, Puzzler World XL (available now on the DSi Shop) and Reel Fishing Ocean Challenge (which features a pun in the title) are available now on the Wii Shop Channel).

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This week, Nintendo finally opened those letters you’ve been sending them about Earthbound and decided to put a new (old) game on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

It’s not Earthbound, but it is Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, a completely unrelated Neo Geo fighting game. It joins the Super Nintendo version of the original Prince of Persia as the only games added this month, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo has forsaken its various downloadable game services, as two new releases come to the 3DS eShop this week as well.

OK, only one of them is really a new release, and it’s called The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave. The titular Denpa men are tiny invisible creatures that hang out around radio waves. Thankfully, the developers at Genius Sonority have discovered a way for you to use your 3DS to capture them by looking around with its built-in camera. You can then send them into dungeons and force them to battle other tiny creatures on your behalf. As explained in this e-book about the manga Fruits Basket, “Denpa” is a Japanese word used to describe, essentially, someone who is affected by radio waves and goes crazy because of it … so this is like a Pokémon game for people who wear tinfoil hats. If that sounds like your sort of thing, it’s available now for $9.99 on the eShop.

The other game is Quarth (not to be confused with Qarth, the greatest city that ever was or ever will be), which is a Konami-developed puzzler originally released for the Game Boy in 1990. A cross between Tetris and Space Invaders, Quarth has you shooting blocks up at falling shapes in order to turn them into squares and make them disappear. It is available now for $2.99 on your 3DS.

Nintendo has also added a new 3D gameplay trailer for Kid Icarus: Uprising. It’s actually a montage of clips from four previously released trailers, but it’s great for anyone who hasn’t bought the game yet and prefers to watch trailers in one digestible chunk.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This week, Nintendo takes a tentative step into the present (or recent past, if you’re a PC gamer) by making New Super Mario Bros. 2 available digitally on the eShop the same day it’s available in stores. It’s a bold move for a company that has been hesitant to embrace online gaming, but hopefully this signifies a new direction for the Japanese publisher.

Other new items added to the 3DS eShop this week include a video showcasing NSMB2′s Coin Rush Mode, which is presumably just like the regular game but with even more coins, and a handful of new downloadable songs for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (featuring various battle themes, spiky hairstyles, and crazy swords from the long-running role-playing game series).

However, if you prefer your downloadable content to feature crazy chickens and pirates, Nintendo has that covered this week with Crazy Chicken Pirates 3D. The game, which is available for $1.99, asks players to defend Chicken Island from a gang of murderous chicken pirates by…shooting them. Kid-friendly stuff.

Also, the Game Boy classic Mario’s Picross is on sale for $2.99 from today through Wednesday. You could download that if, for some reason, crazy chicken pirates aren’t your thing.

U.S. video game retail sales fell 20 percent in July, with total industry sales falling to $548.4 million from $686.3 million a year ago, according to consumer market research firm NPD Group. This reflects the continuing trend of gaming growth as a business, with the number of games sold through physical stores falling as consumers move to digital distribution.

Hardware sales are also down, with a 32 percent decline from last year’s $221.4 million to $150.7 million. Video game software sales are down 23 percent, to $260.7 million from $338.5 million a year ago. Only Nintendo’s handheld consoles showed any positive movement, though Microsoft did sell the most home consoles, with gamers grabbing 203,000 Xbox 360s in July.

“Of the hardware platforms that were on the market last July, only one, the 3DS, realized a unit sales increase over last year,” said Anita Frazier, an industry analyst for The NPD Group. “Both the DS and the 3DS, however, realized a month-over-month unit sales increase over June 2012 while the other platforms declined.”

The poor overall performance in July was a little better than in June, when sales fell 29 percent, and May, when sales fell 28 percent when compared to a year ago. NPD says that the total spending on games — when adding digital sales and used games, rentals, and subscriptions — was more like $1.36 billion in the month of June, compared to $1.17 billion in May.

According the NPD Group, total consumer spending on used and rental games reached $386 million, and content in digital format, including full games, add-on content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games and social network games, generated $1.47 billion.

“In the second quarter of this year, sales of content in a digital format have grown 17 percent over Q2 2011,” said Frazier. “While this growth is in stark contrast to the declines in new physical software and hardware sales, the size of digital sales is not quite large enough to offset these declines, leading to an overall drop in consumer spending in Q2 by 16 percent.”

NPD is working with video game research company EEDAR to try to come up with more accurate numbers for global digital and physical game sales.

The top game of July is NCAA Football 13 (pictured) for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Warner Bros.’s Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, available for multiple platforms, is the No. 2-selling game of the month, down from its top spot last month in June. The third-best seller is The Amazing Spider-Man from Activision Blizzard, also for multiple platforms, up from last month’s 10th spot.

The rest of the top 10 sellers in order are Just Dance 3 from Ubisoft, Batman Arkham City from Warner Bros., Call of Duty: Black Ops from Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, NBA 2K12 from Take-Two Interactive, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Dead Island from publisher Deep Silver.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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