Although we don’t know just how well the 3DS performed on launch day, there’s no question that it sold very well. Nintendo has said that the new handheld has become their best-selling portable in North America in terms of day-one sales. First week sales will be revealed on April 14 via NPD.

“More details about U.S. sales numbers will be made public on April 14, when first-week U.S. sales figures will be tallied by the independent NPD Group. Nintendo worked hard to get as much product as possible to retailers on day one to meet demand, and we will continue with these efforts moving forward.”

Source

1. Tales of Xillia (PS3)
2. Dragon Quest X (Wii)
3. Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3)
4. Yakuza: Of the End (PS3)
5. Super Robot Wars Z (PSP)
6. Mario Kart 3D (3DS)
7. Metal Gear Solid Rising (PS3)
8. Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP)
9. Final Fantasy Type 0 (PSP)
10. Fotokano: Picture Girlfriend (PSP)
11. The Last Guardian (PS3)
12. Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
13. Dark Souls (PS3)
14. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS)
15. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)

Source

It appears that the boxart for Dead or Alive: Dimensions was a bit too risqué. Temco Koei has been forced to modify the title’s packaging to cover up Kasumi’s thigh. According to Destructoid, the ESRB asked for the change. The image on the left features the original boxart while the right picture is what you’ll see on retail shelves.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time a Tecmo Koei game received a boxart censor. The new image for Samurai Warriors 3’s art covered Kaihime’s chest area in the North American version.

Thanks to Steve for the tip!

Source 1, Source 2

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition – 9.0
Conduit 2 – 7.5
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars – 8.0
Madden NFL Football – 6.0
Ridge Racer 3D – 8.0
nintendogs + cats: 7.5
The Sims 3 (3DS) – 7.0
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii) – 8.0
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (DS) – 8.0
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS) – 8.5
Pilotwings Resort – 8.0
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters – 8.5
Top Spin 4 – 7.0
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles – 7.0
Rayman 3D – 8.0
Spongebob SquigglePants – 7.0
Super Monkey Ball 3D – 7.5
Asphalt 3D – 6.0
Rango – 5.0
Rango (DS) – 7.0
WWE All-Stars: 6.5
Steel Diver: 8.0

Hideki Konno discussing Nintendo’s interest in 3D…

“[Playing games in 3-D] is something that we’ve been continually testing and working on at Nintendo. We’ve never actually stopped looking at 3-D as a viable product. And it just so happens that the technology in the marketplace now coincides with what we wanted to do. So actually, it was just very fortuitous timing.”

Hideki Konno on the Virtual Boy…

“When we launched Virtual Boy, we thought it would work. It’s trial and error. We made mistakes. And we build on mistakes.”

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Wondering why Nintendo Power scored Conduit 2 a 7.5? A few points from the magazine’s review have been extracted, which you can read up on below.

– Mr. Ford/Prometheus relationship compared to Michael Knight and KITT from Knight Rider
– Ford’s voice acting isn’t great
– Ford’s delivery makes one-liners feel extracheesy
– Solid gameplay
– There are some great moments, such as the ending
– Reviewer would have liked the set pieces to be as thrilling as the ones in recent Wii first-person shooters
– Worth playing for the multiplayer
– Has some issues, but the team did take criticisms from the first title into account

It does seem as though the heart of the review didn’t focus on multiplayer. Nintendo Power didn’t have anything negative to say about that aspect, so I suppose that’s good thing.

Thanks to Jake for the tip!

There are a lot of words one could use to describe a system like the 3DS. “Awesome”, “Innovative”, “Sleek”, “Sexy”; these would all fit the bill very nicely. After all, it’s been seven years since Nintendo first released their genre-busting “Nintendo DS” onto the gaming scene, so it’s only fitting that their next handheld device would be, for all intents and purposes, at least as innovative if not more so than the 140 million seller that the original DS was. While many people have used many words to describe the new 3DS system, and all of them ring true, one word is better than any other at illustrating everything there is to know about this $250 fun-box.

The 3DS is absolutely and unwaveringly Nintendo.
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