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This Black Friday, November 27, Nintendo will release DSi bundles containing pre-installed software to the value of $20. The metallic blue DSi bundle (a new color for the States) will feature Mario-themed DSiWare, while the white is for those with "a passion for brain teasers."

• Blue version: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, Dr. Mario Express, WarioWare: Snapped!, Mario Calculator and Mario Clock.
  
• White version: Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Sudoku, Brain Age Express: Math, Clubhouse Games Express: Card Classics, Photo Clock.

There is no altered price to go with the announcement of these bundles, so we're guessing the units will retail at the normal $170 price. Of course, it is Black Friday, so check various retailers for the best deals.

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This week starts an initiative to bring classic LucasArts titles to the Virtual Console for the next month. Today, Super Star Wars for the SNES is available, however Nintendo also promises its sequels, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, in the coming weeks. Considering these are among the top Star Wars experiences out there, you can bet we're pretty pumped. It feels kind of like when you bullseye a womp rat in your T-16!

The latest Hanabi Festival on the European Wii Shop is ending in just about the most aww-inducing, candy-colored way possible: with Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Detana!! Twinbee.

These two cute classics are joined by a WiiWare game called ColorZ, which features a color-shifting mechanic similar to Treasure's Ikaruga in a sort of maze-navigating game. Also on WiiWare this week: Heracles Chariot Racing. And on DSiWare, A Little Bit of ... Brain Training Sudoku, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

• Detana!! Twinbee (Turbografx, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points)
• Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Super NES, 900 Wii Points)
• ColorZ (WiiWare, 1-3 players, 700 Wii Points)
• Heracles Chariot Racing (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 800 Wii Points)
• A Little Bit of ... Dr Kawashima's Brain Training Sudoku (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

Nintendo has made a deal with UK TV station Five to fully fund one of its new shows, MCV reports. The Advertiser-Funded Programming deal means that Nintendo will pay for eight episodes of the new Britain's Best Brain show, which subjects contestants to five tasks, each designed to test a different brain function: "memory, co-ordination, numeracy, recognition and risk."

Obviously, we suspect Nintendo will use this opportunity as a promotional platform for the Brain Training series. If it were, say, Capcom looking for Britain's best brain, there would be cause for concern. MCV notes that in-show product placement is illegal, meaning that Nintendo will have to relegate the DS mentions to ads.

This week, the European Wii Shop is granted with a somewhat anticipated new title, and one we're glad is launching there before it does here. We're intensely curious about the platform action title Icarian: Kindred Spirits, and the fact that it's coming out in Europe first means we'll get to read reviews. We hope those 100 soundtrack downloads are claimed by now, by the way!

Also available for download this week: Let's Catch on WiiWare, and some more Brain Training on DSiWare.

WiiWare:

• Icarian: Kindred Spirits
• Let's Catch

DSiWare:

• A Little Bit of ... Brain Training: Maths Edition

We know that Nintendo is doing very well financially as of the end of fiscal 2008. And, of course, we know that hardware sales play a major role in that windfall. But how is Nintendo doing in terms of software sales? Very well, thank you! The company released a list of every million-selling first-party title on the Wii and DS as a supplement (PDF link) to its financial report, with no real surprises other than, perhaps, the monolithic bigness of some of the numbers.

The best-selling Wii title, of course, is Wii Sports, which sold 45.7 million copies across North American and European bundle sales and standalone Japanese sales.The best-selling DS game: Nintendogs, at 22.3 million copies!

We're just happy to see the wonderful Rhythm Heaven on the list, though there is something odd about it: according to the data, Rhythm Heaven sold 140,000 copies outside of Japan -- but the game didn't even come out in the West until April 5, after the end of the fiscal year.

The full list is after the break. Spoiler alert: if you are the type of person who gets angry about Nintendo's success in the expanded market, this will anger you.

[Via Kotaku]

So, Nintendo has announced all the games you'll be able to purchase for your brand new DSi in the online DSi Shop on April 5. The list is ... well, we were going to say "eclectic", but it's just plain weird. You can Nintendo's full descriptions after the break, but here are the titles:

• WarioWare: Snapped!
• Bird & Beans
• Brain Age Express: Math
• Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face
• Art Style: AQUIA

You can level a lot of complaints at Nintendo and be well within reason, but you can't say that it's not trying some different stuff. As previously announced, you'll also get $10 in credit (1,000 DSi Points) if you log on to the store by October 5, which leads us to ask: Which game will you be picking up?

While we can't be sure what the launch lineup for the DSiWare shop outside of Japan will look like, we can guess that the Australian shop will feature at least one of these games, thanks to OFLC ratings:

• Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games
• Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face
  
• Master of Illusion Express: Deep Psyche
  
• A Little Bit Of ... Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: Maths Edition
• D-Code (probably Art Style: Decode)
  

The standard ratings board disclaimer applies: we don't know when these will be out, or if this release implies other regions. But if you wanted to know if Nintendo planned to localize any of its Japanese DSiWare lineup, here is evidence that yes, it is.

Also found on the OFLC: The WiiWare version of Rainbow Islands (yay!) and Adventure Island: The Beginning. Also, Karate Phants.

Another organization is blowing an imaginary whistle on Brain Age and other similar products designed to sharpen minds. Consumer group Which assembled a panel of three neuroscientists to test the ideas that brain training games improve memory and help prevent dementia. The panel found "weak" or no evidence to support the claims.

"There is no evidence that using this product will have any functional impact on your life whatsoever," Dr. Chris Bird, one of the scientists involved with the study, said. The panel concluded that "surfing the internet or chatting to friends" would have the same prefrontal cortex blood flow effect as doing DS-based math. Basically, it means that, in terms of brain activity, Brain Age seems to work about as well as any other mentally-stimulating pastime.

"If people enjoy using these games, then they should continue to do so -- that's a no-brainer," said Which's Martyn Hocking (perhaps with pun intended -- emphasis ours). "But if people are under the illusion that these devices are scientifically proven to keep their minds in shape, they need to think again" (Hocking is just full of puns, isn't he?).

Nintendo responded, saying that it has never claimed scientific proof of Brain Age's effectiveness: "What we claim is the Brain Training series of games, like playing sudoku, are enjoyable and fun. These exercises can also help keep the brain sharp." It also helps your organization make the news!

Brain Age games don't necessarily make you smarter, and it is "charlatanism" to make such a claim. Those are the conclusions drawn by one Alain Lieury, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes. The professor's findings were picked up by The Times, which loves itself a good story (from 2006).

Lieury surveyed 67 ten-year-old kids in his study, which compared the impact of Brain Age on intelligence with pencil and paper-based puzzles and going to school (in case anybody was seriously entertaining the thought of homeschooling their child with a DS).

The Times covers the precise results of the study in its article, but the long and short of it is: Brain Age won't help you raise an army of miniature geniuses and take over the free world. Boo. "The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it's fine," writes Lieury in his new book, Stimulate Your Neurones. "But it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test."

Which is great and all, but is anybody terribly surprised by this?


[Via GamePolitics]

Thirteen DSiWare titles will be released to Japan's DSi Shop on December 24, so we thought we'd construct a one-stop post where you can gawk at games most of us can't have. Past the jump, you'll find screens for all launch titles, as well as the price and size of each. How would you spend the free 1,000 DSi Points you get with the system?

Because we love the series, we'll kick proceedings off with a look at A Little Dr. Mario (500 DSi Ware Points, 29 blocks required):

Nintendo has released a new video advertising the downloadable offerings on the Japanese DSi Shop, which will become available starting December 24. This new trailer gives us a better look at a few of the games we knew about, and introduces a few we didn't.

Thrillingly, we now have names for two of the Art Style games: Aquario and the very cool-looking Decode. There's a brief look at the Brain Age DSiWare games; Utsusu! Made in Wario, the 500-point WarioWare game that uses the DSi camera; and the separate WarioWare minigames like Paper Plane and Bird and Bean.

Awesome new stuff includes Chotto Dr. Mario (A Little Dr. Mario), a 500 Point downloadable Dr. Mario game; single magic tricks from Magic Taisen/Master of Illusion; and Chotto Asobi Taisen Odegaru Trumps, which contains a small variety of card games from Clubhouse Games. Combined with the known offerings, this is the whole launch lineup, and it's all Nintendo!

After the break, you can see a longer trailer for the downloadable Brain Ages, and a really, really cool look at Ugoku Memo-chou, the flipbook/notepad software.

The DS is purportedly bringing in new gamers who wouldn't traditionally care about video games at all, with stuff like Nintendogs, Brain Age, and Personal Trainer: Cooking (as seen in the above ad). We're happy to see Nintendo capturing the interest of people who previously would have seen our hobby as either too kid-oriented or too teenage-dude-oriented.

Have you seen it work? Have you encountered the "expanded audience" out in the world? Become acquainted with any new DS owners lured in by language training or math? For our part, we seem to be meeting more late-to-the-party gamers than ever these days (in our limited capacity as socially inept shut-ins to meet people).

In what has become a holiday tradition as beloved and predictable as your Uncle Jack tipping a few (or 17) back and daring you to punch him in the stomach, Nintendo is releasing two new DS bundles just in time for the shopping season.

Beginning on Black Friday, you can look for a red DS emblazoned with Mario's trademark "M" and packaged with New Super Mario Bros., as well as an Ice Blue model that's packing Brain Age and a custom carrying case. Well, you can look for the $149.99 bundles beginning on Black Friday, but don't be surprised if it's mid-February by the time a soccer mom decides against cutting your brake lines for buying one out from under her.