The only list you'll read this month that has Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball on it!

I didn't think that, in the shortest month of the year, I would question my sanity for the amount of games I played. If you're mathematically inclined, I played more than one game a day, even more if you count the individual Super Scope and Kinect games I tried out. 

Though, if you break down the hours of playtime, it's probably not that ridiculous, as a majority of these games were of the "Oh man, I love VVVVVV. I feel like playing 20 minutes of it." I have no such defense for the 10 hours I likely put into NFL Blitz this month. Or the countless hours spent with review games that I didn't like that much. Regardless, any month when you can put down Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball and not want to slit your wrists is a good one, right?

Come play Resident Evil: Revelations' Raid Mode with the Nintendo World Report Community.

Nintendo World Report is holding a Community Wi-Fi Night for the Raid Mode of Resident Evil: Revelations this Saturday, February 25. The main event kicks off at 7 p.m. Eastern, which is 4 p.m. Pacific and Midnight GMT. 

Post your 3DS friend code here and add other NWR readers, making sure to notify them via personal message that you've added them so they can be sure to do so in return. You can also post your code in this thread in the forums, and add people for this and other 3DS multiplayer games.

We're giving stuff away when we hit 1,000 likes.

We're on the precipice of some sort of Facebook landmark: 1,000 likes. We'll be giving away a free pieces of swag to random like-rs when we hit 1,000, and as of this posting, we are at 978 likes.

Here's a sample of what we will be giving away:Sonic the Hedgehog Shoebox - Comes with commemorative Sonic the Hedgehog DVD, exclusive golden ring, and more!Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion Lunch Box - It's a lunch box...with Cartoon Network stuff on it!Scribblenauts Signed Poster - From the launch of the original game, signed by Jeremiah Slaczka and more members of 5th Cell!Assorted 3DS Cases From Power A - Power A makes some damn good 3DS cases. We'll be giving some away.

We'll be live tracking each Nintendo Direct event starting with Japan's at 3 a.m. PDT and ending with North America's on 6 a.m. PDT.

Join the fun as we chat about the announcements as we liveblog them.2:53:56: The Japan one should start in about 7 minutes.3:00:34: Iwata is ready! and So are we!3:02:39: Something about Wii no Ma video service? Not sure.

Or: One quick way to irritate Andrew.

It's not uncommon to come across some ambiguous names throughout Nintendo's many franchises, and some of them can be quite hard to pronounce given their obscure spelling, especially since many of them are derived from another language. That said, it's one of my pet peeves to hear something heavily mispronounced over and over, but often if someone's lingual mutilations are politely pointed out to them, they'll fly into a rage and angrily defend said errors. As a language teacher and holder of a LOTE certificate in Japanese, I feel I have at least a reasonable understanding of how these names are intended to be pronounced.

An EA press event without Nintendo games wound up selling NWR's Director on buying a Kinect.

At an EA event last week with little Nintendo relevance, I tried out Tiger Woods on Kinect. To put it simply, I was blown away by it and almost promptly went out and bought a Kinect in preparation.

While I adore the MotionPlus-enabled Tiger Woods games on Wii (R.I.P.), you could still easily game the control scheme. Yes, you had the ability to buckle down with the MotionPlus and mimic a golf swing, but you could still just as easily swing the Wii Remote one-handed. Tiger Woods on Kinect makes you actually practice a legitimate golf swing, and it does it in a smart way.

I've got ambitious plans that will probably not be finished.

I've tried in the past to create a weekly log of what games I played. I usually began it at the beginning of the year, and updated it weekly until about February or March. It never made it past that. So, here I am, putting this concept in the public eye. I'll rattle off what I played throughout January 2012. Remember, this is more for me than for you, but feel free to play along. I'll understand if your January log is incomplete.Swapnote (3DS, Download) - This was the first game I turned on in the New Year. After January 1, I opened it once during a recording of Connectivity. Swapnote is dead to me now.Bionic Commando (3DS, Virtual Console) - I have grand intentions of going back to this surprisingly decent Game Boy game. It takes Bionic Commando for NES and boils it down into handheld form. It's frustrating from time to time, but I enjoyed what I played. I'm about halfway through.Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - Sporadically throughout the month, I played this with friends. My wife and I raced together one night. Another time a good old-fashioned Mario Kart brawl broke out among friends. I stand by this being one of the best games in the series (for me).Madden NFL 12 (Wii) - What better way to soothe the Packers' loss than to march through a season in Madden? I think I only made it through Week 10 or 11, but my team's flawless record helped me get over the giant egg my beloved team laid in the playoffs. Madden on Wii might be my most-played game in 2011.Pikmin: New Play Control (Wii) - One night, I played this for like a half hour.Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - I checked out the SpotPass and StreetPass stuff I accrued since December. I like this game, and I'd love to get back online with it sometime. Community Night, anyone?The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) - One night, I felt like beating the Deku Tree in Master Quest. So I did.Mighty Switch Force (3DS, Download) - I've been methodically working my way through this game. Still need to beat it completely, but it's not like it's going anywhere.Cave Story 3D (3DS) - It's Cave Story. In 3D! I only really like playing with the sprites, because the new models blend in with the background too much for me. I'm not very far in this, but I intend to go back to it.NFL Blitz (Xbox 360, XBLA) - An unsung amazing game. NFL Blitz is an early candidate for, no joke, my favorite game of the year. My friends and I have gotten insanely competitive over this, leading to near fights, epic tournaments, and rage.Trine 2 (Xbox 360, XBLA) - Played the demo of this. I want to get it at some point, but I might wait for a Steam sale.Okamiden (DS) - Got this on Target clearance and played about an hour of it. I got stuck somewhere and put it down. Maybe I'll go back to it? I don't know.WarioWare (3DS, Virtual Console) - I occasionally break out my favorite ambassador game as my "comfort game."Tetris (3DS, Virtual Console) - Like WarioWare, this is a comfort game.Mario Kart: Super Circuit (3DS, Virtual Console) - I turned this on one time. Played it for half a race. Turned it off. I hate this game.Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) - Cleared out my StreetPasses. StreetPass really does the trick of getting me to come back to games I beat or put down.Skyrim (Xbox 360) - I only put a few hours into this, and then put it down. I realized I'm never going to play it again, so I sold my copy. I've got my eye on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, though...Zen Pinball 3D (3DS, Download) - Got this when it came out on eShop and put some time into it before I realized I suck at pinball compared to my 3DS fans. I'll likely play it from time to time, but my pinball wizard dreams are dashed.Shinobi (3DS) - I wish I could say I was clearing out StreetPasses, but that's not the case. I just like playing this game. It's a fun 2D action platformer. Reminds me of Ninja Gaiden for NES, which I adore.Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360) - I had this grand plan of 100%-ing this game when I got it back from a friend I lent it to. I played it for about 20 minutes and then watched all the secret stuff on YouTube. I'm weak and not (as much of) an achievement whore anymore.Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) - I hooked up my Nintendo 64 and decided to play Super Mario 64. I never owned this game for N64, and that my game collection has merged with my wife's, I do. This game is freaking magical. Go watch those speed runs with jaw agape.Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - Had to show off the retro level to my wife. Somehow, I just wanted to go back and play Super Mario 64 after this. The last 20 or so stars in Galaxy 2 are mostly stupid.Mutant Mudds (3DS, Download) - Mutant Mudds came. Mutant Mudds saw. Mutant Mudds conquered. I love this game. It hit all the right buttons for my platforming love. I wish it was a little quicker, but speed would alter the style so much.Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360) - Played about two or three hours of this. Ended up getting cut short because I started playing Sakura Samurai for review. I regret that. This game was looking to be much better. I need to go back and play more of this.Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword (3DS, Download) - Read my review. I was very nonplussed by this game. It really let me down.Mario & Sonic Demo (3DS, Download) - Awful.Paper Mario (Nintendo 64) - I played the first hour of this. It's super slow. I want to go back to it, but man, it starts off so slow! I hope the 3DS sequel hits the ground running.

NWR talks about why they love the Pokemon franchise. 

Why do you play Pokémon? I have given my answer and now some of the staff on NWR wants to give theirs! Is it all about becoming the best? Is it about catching them all? What makes Pokémon that great game that keeps us coming back for more? Why do YOU play Pokémon?

Carmine Red - Well, duh, the POKéMON! The character design for these guys has always been great: emotive, safe, adventurous, cute, kitschy, yet universal. My best times have been when I really latch onto one of the guys and they become "my" Pokémon, not just some stats and graphics on the screen. I think a lot of Pokémon competitors don't achieve that same emotional response with their characters.

Having trouble loading Nintendo's latest eShop game? We might have a solution.

So you bought Sakura Samurai despite my lukewarm review and it won't load? That sucks.

But seriously, I ran into the same issue when I was reviewing the game. I booted the game and it would just start with a black screen with "Loading..." spazzing out in the bottom right-hand corner of the system. It effectively froze my system, as the only way to restart is to hold the power button down and do a hard reset.

When I asked our Nintendo representatives about this issue, they had no idea. Fortunately, I was running out of SD card space at the same time, so I bought a new SD card, replacing the one that came with the system. After moving the files over to the new bigger SD card, Sakura Samurai worked fine.

Why do you strive to be very best?

I recently found my SoulSilver version and decided it was time for me to set out on yet another adventure to become the best trainer. As I booted up the game, erased what data was on there (shedding a tear for some of my old friends) my roommate asked me something.

“Why do you even play Pokémon? I don’t see the appeal of it.”

I stopped for a moment. I didn’t quite know how to answer that. 

“It’s not about the story,” my friend answered, “it’s about something else. It’s about the world.”