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European retailer Game puts a plaster over its money wound

Earlier this week Game met with lenders to discuss its credit problems and options for staying in business, and now Game reports it will operate "with lower limits" and under "revised terms for its facilities." As of November 2011, Game had 1,275 stores in Europe and Australia, but has hinted that it could sell off more than half of its overseas locations, and it plans to close 60 stores by 2013. It closed 39 locations last year.

Game's economic problems aren't an issue solely for retailers, but can affect the larger gaming industry as well -- both EA and Take-Two discussed Game's position during their Q3 financial calls.

Club Nintendo card case is worth the fake money

Nintendo's never sent me a Club Nintendo bonus for review before, and I thought it was kind of odd when one arrived. But I don't think there's ever been a Club Nintendo bonus this nice. The 3DS Game Card Case is both beautiful and genuinely useful, holding 18 DS or 3DS games in a case the size of a single DS game box. That's a rarity among DS game cases.

The transparent case comes with four reversible covers, for a surprisingly versatile look. I grabbed some random DS and 3DS cartridges from my desk, stored them in the case, and took some pictures so you can see for yourself.

Now Playing: January 30 - February 5, 2012


Repair time this week in Final Fantasy XIII-2...

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Nintendo testing classroom text-to-speech tech with DSis

Nintendo and Japanese telecom company NTT are working together on a voice recognition project, aimed at making it easier for students with hearing or other disabilities to keep up in classrooms.

The project, which NHK reports is undergoing trials in Okinawa and Tottori Prefecture, captures instructor speech, converts it to text, and saves it to the cloud while also sending it to devices -- like the DSi. That way, students can read along, and have an automatic record of lessons. See it in action in the video on NHK's site.

The downside to this plan, of course, is that it creates a situation in which a student is expected to be paying very close attention to his or her DS in the back of the classroom -- a situation ripe for abuse of the Retro Game Challenge variety.

NMA TV's breakdown of Nintendo's financial situation is as zany as you'd expect


Nintendo is coming off of a pretty rough fiscal year, posting an anticipated loss of ¥65 billion ($839M) despite strong sales for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. They're optimistic for the future, naturally, with the 3DS performing well since the price drop and the Wii U right around the corner, but that enthusiasm hasn't been enough to repair the company's trading value.

It's a serious situation with meaningful implications both for stockholders and the industry as a whole, so who better to provide a comprehensive breakdown of the situation than the incomprehensibly bizarre and often disturbing creative powerhouse that is NMA TV. If you've seen any of their other videos, you've got a good idea of what to expect in the media briefing above. If not, you'd better sit down.

Super Mario 3D Land breaks 5 million sold, Skyward Sword at 3.4 million

Nintendo elaborated on the "strong sales" for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land today, in its list of million-selling titles for the last nine months. The Wii adventure sold 3.42 million units worldwide, of which 3.04 million took place outside of Japan.

That makes it the best selling Wii game for the period, right? Nope! That's Mario Kart Wii, which sold 4.91 million copies between April and December, for a life-to-date total of 31.91 million copies. New releases Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Wii Play Motion squeaked into the million-seller club with 1.21 million and 1.12 million respectively.

On 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land sold 5.03 million in total -- 3.68 million "overseas" and 1.36 million in Japan. Mario Kart 7 sold almost as many, at 4.54 million. Even the good old DS managed to have some million-selling new releases: Professor Layton and the Last Specter (1.19 million, all outside of Japan) and Kirby Mass Attack (1.01 million).

Creepy Japanese title Nanashi no Game phones in a sequel (in Japan)


Call us masochists, but we were really looking forward to the stateside release of Japanese horror title Nanashi no Game, or its sequel, Nanashi no Game Me (trailer above) for the DS. Neither of these made the trip -- evil spirits are afraid of flying, we assume -- and now there is one more Nanashi no Game title we can feel left out on, Nanashi no Appli, out today for iOS devices in Japan.

Nanashi no Appli follows the same story as its predecessors, Andriasang reports, where you play as someone who downloads a cursed RPG, which gives you one week (whisper: seven days) to complete it before you die. Nanashi no Appli features Twitter connectivity, a virtual OS that decomposes as the game progresses, and 3D sound, so you never know exactly where those disembodied voices are coming from.

An Android version will be released in February, also in Japan. Maybe it's better that way.

Catch Mewtwo in Pokemon White and Black starting on Feb. 12

It was hard for us to trust Pokémon again after Gold and Silver came out. We had spent years learning every minute detail about the original 151, and suddenly all of that work and devotion was worthless? What's more, it needed repeating with 100 more Pokemon? We may have been young tykes, but we were old enough to feel broken.

Regardless, the Kanto Pokemon still hold a special place in our hearts, and it's endearing to see one of the most awesome monsters in the OG Pokedex coming back into the fold. Starting on February 12, Mewtwo (#150 for you whippersnappers out there) will be distributed to Pokémon White/Black via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service "for a limited time."

Further information about the event is forthcoming, but we do know that the legendary clone comes packing "an exclusive move that Mewtwo cannot normally learn," which we're hoping is an ability that takes us back to the days of the PokeRap and Team Rocket's original voice actors.

NintendoWare Weekly: Mutant Mudds, Mario & Sonic, Flush the Goldfish

As promised, another 3DS demo is available on the eShop, this time for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. It may not have zombies, but then, it may have Waluigi. Renegade Kid's Mutant Mudds, its first self-published project, is also up on the eShop this week, offering challenging platforming and shooting and some dramatic 3D effects.

DSiWare features a sequel to the indie game Flipper; though if you played it, you still won't recognize Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish. The original was an isometric puzzle game about reshaping environments ... and the sequel is a side-scrolling action game that uses one contextual button!

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Nintendo enhances expected loss; 15 million 3DS units sold since launch

Nintendo has once again revised its expected loss for the fiscal year ending in March, widening its forecasted financial misfortune from ¥20 billion ($258M) to ¥65 billion ($839M). The increased loss comes a quarter after Nintendo switched its forecast from a ¥20 billion profit to loss.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year ending December 31, Nintendo had sales of ¥556 billion ($7.2B), a 31 percent decrease from the same period last year. Overall, it posted a loss of ¥48.4 billion ($620M).

"Nintendo 3DS hardware during the nine months ended December 31, 2011, were 11.43 million units, and the total worldwide sales since its launch exceeded 15 million units," the company stated. Both Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 have gone on to become million-selling titles.

The company also mentioned that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii recorded "strong sales, especially in the United States." Worldwide Wii sales over the nine-month period hit 8.96 million units, with software selling 89 million units.

Nintendo's financial woes, coupled with mobile gaming's increased portion of the handheld market, are not sitting well with investors. The House of Mario continues to see its stock sitting at a five-year low.

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