Face punching coming to the 3D handheld next week.

Double Dragon will hit the Japanese Virtual Console on the Nintendo 3DS next week. 

This news comes from a recent update on the Official Nintendo website in Japan, which lists the title as being published by Arc System Works with a price tag of 400 yen. Japanese 3DS owners will be able to purchase the game starting on June 22.

The eShop receives its first official update, while the Wii sees two new games and a demo. 

With the opening of the eShop last week, Nintendo has decided to move Nintendo Download to Thursdays. That means from now on, the Wii Shop Channel, DSiWare Store, and Nintendo eShop will all update on Thursdays, with new titles going live at 9 a.m. Pacific time on the same day.

This week's update brings a slew of new titles, including Mega Man 5 for Virtual Console and Donkey Kong for the Nintendo eShop.

Also, Miyamoto sees the series and game like it was Twin Peaks.

Here are some translated notes from the latest Iwata Asks on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D:

- Back when they first started making it they didn't know how big a game they would be able to make with the memory constraints. Miyamoto reveals that while they were validating it, he had a worst... Read more...

The latest update to the 3DS firmware is listed by Nintendo as a "stability" patch.

Nintendo has released an update to the 3DS firmware that, among other "stability" fixes, corrects the Ridge Racer 3D freezing bug that they introduced in the eShop update last Monday.The newest version, 2.1.0, also includes unspecified "minor adjustments to enhance user experience."

3DS systems... Read more...

Mario's party finally hops online.

In the latest issue of Famitsu, the magazine reported that the Japanese version of Itadaki Street Wii, known as Fortune Street in North America, will feature online play over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

The game features country-wide online battles only, meaning a newcomer to the series will not be able to challenge a veteran player from the Japan, where the series has been available for years. 

Kathy Beth Terry and Rebecca Black party to Just Dance in Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" music video.

Earlier this year it was confirmed that Ubisoft would be sponsoring Katy Perry's California Dreams Tour, which has already swept through Europe and will arrive in North America this summer. Now they have taken their promotion to a whole new level in Katy Perry's new music video for her current single, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).

Check out the new The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D commercial that includes Williams, his daughter, and an epic beard.

Nintendo UK unveiled a new television ad for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D featuring Hollywood actor Robin Williams and his daughter Zelda.

Robin Williams, famous for his roles in Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Morning Vietnam, has been a fan of the Zelda series since he played the first game on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. His daughter, Zelda Rae Williams, is named after Princess Zelda. 

Nintendo remain confident about their manufacture and launch estimates.

Nintendo's global president, Satoru Iwata, is confident that there will be no significant manufacturing issues that will affect their business, and they are confident in their estimates for the launch timeline. 

He gave the example of a boom in smartphones affecting LCD production as something... Read more...

The Wii U is a dedicated gaming system.

The Wii U will not have the ability to play DVD or Blu-ray discs.

Iwata explained in an Investor's Q&A that since many people already have devices for watching movies, it was not worth the added cost of licensing the technologies for inclusion in the Wii U. 

So you'll have to keep your DVD player in your living room just a while longer.

Online could be very different for Wii U.

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Global President, says that a flexible online strategy is essential moving forward, and working with social networks cannot be discounted.

Nintendo's past online infrastructure has been something that is fixed, but this is not good for developers, who cannot realise their... Read more...

It is not expected that consumers will want to buy a second controller.

Nintendo's current plans are to work on games that use a single Wii U controller only. This is partly due to cost, as a game that used two controllers would have to add enough value for it to be worthwhile for the consumer to justify buying another unit. 

In the Investor's Q&A following... Read more...

Is the Wii U more powerful than other current generation consoles?

Developers are claiming that the Wii U has 50% more processing power the other current generation consoles on the market. Arvind Bhatiaaa, an analyst with Sterne Agee remarked that, "Some of the developers we spoke to indicated to us that the console will have 50% more processing power compared to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360." 

What name is Nintendo cooking up for their next generation controller?

The Wii U Controller has not been given a name by Nintendo yet. In a recent interview with Giant Bomb, Mark Franklin, director of public relations for Nintendo of America, stated, "Now, we're just calling it the new controller. Don't have another name for it yet."

The new controller, first show during Nintendo's E3 press conference, features a 6.2 inch touch screen, along with the usual host of buttons found on Nintendo controllers.

The free download will be part of Nintendo's celebration of The Legend of Zelda's 25 anniversary.

The upcoming free DSiWare version of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is the Game Boy Advance multiplayer game that was included with the release of A Link to the Past on the GBA. We confirmed this with a Nintendo rep during E3.

The DSiWare title will be available for free to gamers in celebration of The Legend of Zelda's 25 year anniversary and will be released in September.

All five generations of Pokémon will be available this time around.

With Super Pokémon Scramble's release date just over a month away in Japan, Nintendo has opened an official site for the game today. Along with new information on the game, the site also includes the first trailer of the game.

Super Pokémon Scramble plays very similar to its WiiWare predecessor... Read more...

Nintendo has released a new trailer highlighting their new 3D remake. 

Star Fox 64 3D is due out in Japan on July 14, and in order to build hype for their upcoming 3D remake, Nintendo has released a new trailer that highlights the title's gameplay. The trailer can be viewed below.

Star Fox 64 3D is due out in North America this September.

The first Inazuma Eleven game for the Nintendo 3DS will be released this Winter in Japan.

Inazuma Eleven Go was announced earlier this year for the Nintendo 3DS, though no specific release date was announced for the title at the time. Today however, Level-5 gave a more specific release timeframe for their upcoming portable title.

According to Level-5, Inazuma Eleven Go will arrive in... Read more...

Japanese website Game Watch also speculates that the GPU will support Shader Model 4.1 and has a lot in common with the Radeon HD 4000 line of graphic cards. 

The Wii U graphics processing unit (GPU), provided by AMD, includes two different output modes, one of which can support generating graphics for the screens on two or more Wii U controllers, according to Game Watch.

Nintendo showed off the Wii U displaying HD graphics on a television screen while... Read more...

Nintendo plans an experience closer to its rivals than any system to date.

Nintendo plans to present an online model for Wii U that is significantly more sophisticated than the online offerings for Wii or DS. Speaking at E3 with Eurogamer, Nintendo UK marketing manger Rob Lowe noted that Nintendo recognizes that the online presence of a game console is... Read more...

Nintendo's French site offers details on the developers behind this MotionPlus enhanced title.

The French site for Nintendo's upcoming Wii Play Motion has revealed the developers behind the title's mini-games. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that Wii Play Motion featured an "unique" development process where Nintendo collected ideas from various developers, asked them to build a prototype version of it with the help of Nintendo's internal development teams. From there Nintendo selected 12 games to be featured in the collection.