Umihara Kawase has finally been officially confirmed for release in North America. Natsume will publish the 3DS game early next year on the eShop as “Yumi’s Odd Odyssey”.

According to Natsume president and CEO Hiro Maekawa:

“We have been interested in releasing this unique title for awhile now. We are working very closely with Agatsuma Entertainment to bring this game to our fans, who we know appreciate games that are a little different, and also have lovable characters.”

You can find the first English screenshots from Yumi’s Odd Odyssey above.

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A new screenshot from Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games has surfaced showing the game’s Legends Showdown events. In the mode, players can compete against dark versions of their favorite characters.

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Zombie Blaster was mysteriously removed from the 3DS eShop recently. An issue relating to an ESRB rating caused Nintendo to pull the game, but publisher Enjoy Gaming says it’ll be back up in no time. It’s already been resubmitted to Nintendo, so expect to see it on the 3DS eShop “in the not too distant future.”

Enjoy Gaming told Nintendo News:

It was removed due to an error in the ESRB rating embedded in the code. ESRB re rated the game as Teen with descriptors and Nintendo took the product out of eShop because the parental controls were then wrong. The code has now been altered and resubmitted to Nintendo for their normal checks before it will be re released on eShop in the not too distant future.

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Black Forest Games is about to launch a new Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Halloween level in the form of DLC. However, a release isn’t planned on consoles – Wii U eShop, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade – due to the “extensive submission process” that would have been required.

Black Forest Games does plan to make up the DLC absence for console players. In its announcement today, the studio teased “several things” that are coming to consoles next year.

“That’s our way to celebrate Halloween with all the Giana Sisters fans out there. Knowing that the question will be raised: Since there is an extensive submission process required for consoles, we are currently not working on bringing the DLC to PSN, XBLA or WiiU. For all those playing Giana on console: there are several things planned for 2014.”

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Cult County was announced for the 3DS eShop earlier this year, but quickly fell off the radar. Good news: the game is still in the works. Bad news: we won’t be hearing about it again until next year.

Renegade Kid co-founder Jools Watsham wrote on Twitter earlier today:

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Ubisoft may have plans to take its Splinter Cell franchise into the television space. Last Wednesday, the publisher filed a new Splinter Cell trademark for the use of “continuing television programs and interactive television programs”. The filing encompasses the production and distribution of Splinter Cell TV shows and motion pictures while also covering the comedy, drama, live-action, and animation genres.

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Nintendo will be debut its new series of vignettes starring Wayne Brady this week. A tweet sent out by the company teases:

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The Wii is on its way out, and the Wii U hasn’t performed up to Nintendo’s expectations. Given these two factors, MCV decided to ask Activision’s UK MD, Roy Stackhouse, about whether the publisher’s expectations for the game have been negatively impacted.

Not at all, Stackhouse said. In fact, he along with Activision as a whole “expect to sell a lot of Skylanders on the Nintendo platforms.” Stackhouse also said the company still considers Nintendo to be “a very integral part of our sales mix going forward.”

Stackhouse’s comments in full:

“Not at all. We still expect to sell a lot of Skylanders on the Nintendo platforms. Just because the sales may have softened doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of consoles out there that children are still playing on. We still see Nintendo as a very integral part of our sales mix going forward.”

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