In which I stomp my feet and demand Wario Land and Kirby's Block Ball.

We're nearing the end of the first quarter of 2012, and while it seems like original titles on Nintendo's eShop are coming with regularity and quality, the Virtual Console has started to get cast aside.

Since the start of 2012, the 3DS has gotten two Game Boy titles, three NES titles, and three Game Gear titles. Last year, following the eShop launch in June, there were an average of four Virtual Console games released a month. Right now, we're getting less than three, and it gets even worse if you take into consideration that two of the NES games were part of the September batch of Ambassador games, and the Game Gear titles all came in one week.

It's real. Nintendo of America was not pulling an elaborate prank.

Xenoblade Chronicles came in today, and while I won't be reviewing it, I figured I'd show off its fancy reversible cover and other niceties.

Remember, if you want this game, you have to get it at GameStop or Nintendo's online store.Here's the game, in all its regular lame cover glory (see the reversible cover glory by looking up, or actually going to the website to read this. :P).Here's the innards of the game.And here's the reversible cover outside of its boxy confines.

If you're a lefty, this is the best way to play, but it looks ridiculous.

When I received my review copy of Kid Icarus: Uprising from Nintendo late last week, I proceeded to take it into some sort of lab where I had to craft a distorted Frankenstein-esque monster so I, as a lefty, could play it.

The pictures below show a 3DS with a Circle Pad Pro on top of the stand, the latter of which comes with Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Pit's back, baby.

To kick off our onslaught of Kid Icarus: Uprising coverage, here's some pictures of the game's manual and some AR cards.Here are Pit, Medusa, and Palutena. The top row are the ones that came in my pack of cards, and the bottom row is the special E3 2011 AR cards. They appear the same, and I was even able to have a confusing Pit vs. Pit AR card battle where they just killed each other....And here are the other three cards that I got in my six-card pack. Every copy of the game comes with a six-card pack. The manual is like most new Nintendo 3DS game manuals. Nothing too notable here, except the humorous trappings for the multiplayer mode. First off, it's called "Together" mode. Secondly, local multiplayer is called "Nearby" and online is called "Far Away." Here's the cool inside of the box, complete with Pit, Palutena, and other characters' faces.

If you missed these games on Wii, they're worth experiencing in HD.

One of the most celebrated/criticized aspects of the Wii is how it brought back light-gun/rail shooters, and in a big way. Remember Remember House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return? Of course you don’t, but I do, and it was the game that brought me back to the genre.  After that, Visceral Games released Dead Space: Extraction, Capcom delivered Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles, and Sega ripped our muthafuckin’ balls off with House of the Dead: Overkill. If you liked rail shooters, the Wii was an excellent system to have. But if you didn’t have a Wii, you had to sit back and pout.

It's coming out for other systems in October. Will it be on Wii U at the same time?

Halloween this year will likely be American Revolution-themed in the gaming industry. Ubisoft is releasing Assassin's Creed III on that day for Xbox 360, PlayStation, and PC. A press release today revealed that it's coming to Wii U as well.

However, the wording is a bit peculiar. "Assassin’s Creed III is set to release on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Windows PC and is also in development for Wii U™ from Nintendo."

Capcom really needs to start using spell check. 

Call me a weird one, but when I look through game boxes on store display shelves and see “Intermediate reading skill required to play this game,” it warms my heart just a little. Kids should be able to read, after all—there's so much great literature out there that easily trumps anything that Hollywood churns out. And if a game combines great gameplay with an interesting story involving plenty of text, more power to it.

I'd like to think games provide a helpful literacy boost to those who struggle with reading and don't feel the motivation to pick up a novel, especially the kind of game where mindlessly skipping through text leaves you lost with no idea what to do next.