Japanese 3DS owners will go to the Olympics next year.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games received a Japanese release date during the Nintendo Direct event.

Japanese gamers will join Mario and Sonic on March 14. The duo will head to the Olympics with many other characters from their respective worlds to compete in many different events.

These are the games third party developers have for the first half of 2012.

Nintendo Direct showcased some of the third party efforts Japanese 3DS fans can expect for the first half of 2012.

Many of these games had new trailers revealed, while most of them just had a release date confirmed.

The full list of third party 3DS games as shown on Nintendo Direct are as follows:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid 3D, Rhythm Thief and Resident Evil will be available for a test run on the 3DS.

New 3DS demos will be added to the eShop later today in Japan, the Nintendo Direct event confirmed today.

Curious Japanese players will be able to try out the following 3DS titles later in the day:

- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (796 blocks)

- Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (1040 blocks)

- Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure (781 blocks)

The best photos will receive special prizes.

Starting next month, Nintendo will be holding monthly 3D photo contests, Satoru Iwata recently confirmed via the Nintendo Direct event.

Players will submit the best 3D photos they can take, where they will be judged by celebrities. The players that submit the best photo for the month will receive special prizes.

The quirky sound based mini-game is highlighted on Nintendo Direct.

Yoshio Sakamoto, creator of Metroid and WarioWare, demoed the latest build of Kiki Trick alongside Satoru Iwata on Nintendo Direct.

Kiki Trick is a mini-game based collection with a focus on listening to sounds. The first game using this concept had players listening to a garbled phrase and choosing the correct text based on what they understood.

Players won't have to wait long for the latest Fire Emblem epic.

Fire Emblem 3DS has been given a final name along with a Japanese release date.

The game was first revealed at the Nintendo 3DS Conference held a few months ago. It is now known as Fire Emblem: Kakuse. Iwata declared it to be an original entry in the series while it retains elements from previous games.

The game will also include online play.

Kird Icarus: Uprising has been given a March 22, 2012 release date for Japan, Satoru Iwata announced on Nintendo Direct.

Originally, the game had an early 2012 release date. This confirms when Japanese players can expect the game. Iwata explained that the game is currently in the fine tuning stages.

Enjoy the holidays with a broadcast directly from Nintendo.

The next Nintendo Direct broadcast is arriving in just a few short days.

The event will take place in Japan on December 27 at noon. For Americans, this translates to December 26 at 10:00pm EST. The broadcast will deliver information regarding the Wii and 3DS.

The last Nintendo Direct broadcast... Read more...

If you loved the game's music, you can download the soundtrack at your price.

The soundtrack to WayForward's Mighty Switch Force is available for purchase now through Jake Kaufman's Bandcamp page.

Like their previous soundtracks, players can name their price on it, meaning that they can pay as much or little as they want or can afford. All funds go toward improving WayForward's recording studio.

Even more games are set to debut on the eShop very soon.

UFO Interactive Games's Samurai Sword Destiny has been given a January 5, 2012 release date.

The title is a sprite-based on-rails hack-and-slash in which players deal away with many foes in a feudal Japan setting. The characters can set up combo attacks, equip several weapons and level them up so they can unleash stronger attacks.

December is a great month for the eShop.

VVVVVV is coming next week, according to a game profile update on Nintendo's website.

VVVVVV will be released on December 29 in North America as part of Nintendo's weekly downloads update. The game will be available for $7.99. 

VVVVVV is a Commodore 64-styled puzzle-platformer known on PC for its ingenious gravity mechanic and brutal difficulty. Read impressions of the game here.

Even the preface to the new Zelda history book is full of information.

The origin of Impa's name was revealed in the new Zelda history book, Hyrule Historia.

Miyamoto explained that Impa's name comes from the word impart, due to the fact that she imparts the legend of Zelda.

In the same section of the preface, Miyamoto re-explained the origins of both Zelda and Link's... Read more...

Puzzle lovers unite next week!

Picross e2 and the Game Boy version of Tetris are coming to the eShop in Japan on December 28. Picross e2 is priced at 500 yen and Tetris is priced at 400 yen.

This marks the second downloadable Picross title to appear on the eShop in Japan, with the first title appearing in the summer. This updated... Read more...

Escape the third dimension!

Nnooo's Nic Watt surprised us with a Swapnote photo of escapeVektor running on a debug Nintendo 3DS.

This picture was an early Christmas gift from the Australian game studio. The creative director didn't go in any detail about this, but we do know that the must-have WiiWare game will find its way to the handheld in some capacity next year. Will this be just a port of or a sequel to escapeVektor - Episode 1? We will keep you posted.

Mighty Switch Force and Tetris lead the charge, and Swapnote comes out to no fanfare.

Mighty Switch Force and Tetris for Game Boy are the two big 3DS-exclusive releases this week, along with Swapnote, the message-sending application that also came out in Europe and Japan this week.

In addition to three games mentioned above, three DSiWare titles, a WiiWare game, and a WiiWare demo hit the shops this week.

The very first Zelda game can now be bought on the eShop for 500 yen.

The Legend of Zelda for the NES is available for purchase on the eShop in Japan.

The game, which has been available for free for those who participated in the 3DS Ambassadors program, is priced at 500 yen (around $6.40 in American currency), and it is the first non-handheld Virtual Console game to make an appearance on the system. This version of the game is the cartridge version as stated by the official page.

In a recent tweet, Nintendo of America announced Bionic Commando's eShop release date. 

The Game Boy release of Bionic Commando is coming to the North American eShop on December 29, according to a tweet from Nintendo of America.

Bionic Commando on the Game Boy was released in 1992 as an adaptation of the original NES title. Like its NES cousin, the game is an action platformer in... Read more...

Several blockbuster releases pushed the system into great success.

The 3DS is believed to cross the 4 million units sold mark in Japan by the end of 2011, Japanese site Nikkei reports.

According to statistics by Enterbrain and quoted by Nikkei, in the third week of December the 3DS sold 390,000 (slightly higher than Media Create's 360,000 units sold estimate),... Read more...

The minor update improves system stability.

System Update version 3.0.0-6 is now available and should be delivered to 3DS systems worldwide shortly.

The updated version doesn't appear to include any major changes. Nintendo's website states simply that "further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience."

Celebrate Valentine's Day with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs (and a 3D movie).

Tekken 3D Prime Edition is coming out on February 14 in North America and February 17 in Europe. Additionally, along with One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP, the game is being distributed by Nintendo in Europe.

The game contains a full 3D movie, Tekken Blood Vengeance, which is produced by the same studio... Read more...