REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hand-held gaming fans with a taste for scary stories and paranormal activity have something special to look forward to this year. Nintendo of America has confirmed plans to launch Spirit Camera™: The Cursed Memoir, an immersive, horror-themed game developed exclusively for the portable Nintendo 3DS™ system, across North America on – when else? – Friday, April 13. The game uses the built-in camera functions and augmented-reality features of Nintendo 3DS to enhance a sinister, spellbinding storyline, incorporating players’ own pictures and surroundings to create a personalized 3D horror experience.

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir introduces a mysterious girl named Maya who has been hiding in the shadows of an old house. Players must help Maya break free from a terrifying curse by aiding her escape from the clutches of a malevolent woman in black. By using the Nintendo 3DS system’s built-in camera, players can view Maya in their own surroundings as the game’s eerie events unfold.

Included with the game is a 16-page AR Book, known as the “diary of faces” in the game’s Story Mode, which serves as a gateway into this haunting experience. As players view the book’s images through the lenses of the Nintendo 3DS camera, they enter its pages using augmented reality. At times, pages will come to life in the form of movies, revealing past events that offer insights into the mysteries surrounding the diary. In other moments, characters will emerge from the pages into the player’s world via augmented reality in the form of evil spirits that attack from all directions.

“Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir will give Nintendo 3DS owners an extraordinary new way to enjoy the system’s augmented-reality features and 3D capabilities,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Everywhere they go, they’ll be able to transform their real-world surroundings into a chilling hand-held adventure.”

Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

For more information about Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, visit http://spiritcamera.nintendo.com.