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All the news this morning is coming from the the two Nintendo Direct conferences that streamed early this morning, but where are these video conferences now for those that missed them? We've collected both the Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan (subtitled) Nintendo Direct conferences for your viewing pleasure inside. ...

Today's a great day for news, not only for Nintendo fans, but for Operation Rainfall. In addition to the big announcement regarding The Last Story, there's also been some news for the third and final Operation Rainfall title, Pandora's Tower. Like both Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, Nintendo of Europe will be releasing a limited edition version of Pandora's Tower. ...

This is no joke. During today's Nintendo Direct broadcast, a surprise crossover 3DS project was hinted from Sega, Namco Bandai, and Capcom. The three companies are working together for a mystery project, and Nintendo showed a teaser trailer during the broadcast. Namco Bandai, the games' publisher has also opened a teaser site. I still can't guess what the game is, but it exists! The teaser trailer shows a door with an electronic lock that required a passcode to get in. The numbers are 032760, but I don't know if they hold any special meaning. A blue gloved hand opens the door after entering the code, and the smoke clears to show the three company logos. We can only sit and wait for the project to be shared, but I'm excited to see what they have in store for us....

Nintendo Direct in Japan heavily featured Fire Emblem: Awakening, which is unsurprising since the game's due in the region next month. The showing accompanied an outpouring of content onto the game's official Japanese site, including screenshots showing off the game's characters, gameplay, and new features such as player character customization options, as well as a brand-new trailer showcasing the action as it plays out on 3DS. The game's also heading to Europe sometime this year, which means a North American release will probably follow...eventually. You can hop inside to browse all the new assets....

Kid Icarus: Uprising is coming up really soon; only a month away for North America. We've seen so many new trailers and articles in the past few weeks about the content of the game and it doesn't look to stop anytime soon. Today we have learned a little bit about the weapons that Pit uses to defeat his enemies. He has quite the arsenal for beating up baddies, and it looks like they do quite a lot. One bit of information that I find interesting is that you can destroy weapons you don't want in exchange for hearts. I'm not really sure how that works. Are your weapons alive? Not that we fans of the Zelda series can question it. We cut grass with our sword and find life. Grass is alive. Ahem. So, if you would like to see a little about heavenly weapons and Pit's abilities, clickity click on the jump! UPDATE: We also have two lovely new gameplay trailers to show after the jump, as well as a 3D Classics: Kid Icarus trailer straight from Nintendo. (Remember, if you pre-order Uprising, you'll get a download code for a free download of the NES original's 3D Classics version.)...

We spied with our little eyes a GameFly entry for Mario Tennis Open, and it turns out it was the real deal! Mario Tennis Open is headed for 3DS, and it's coming this May - the 20th, to be exact. That means that Nintendo's got three big titles slated for the next three months: Kid Icarus Uprising in March, Xenoblade Chronicles in April, and now Mario Tennis Open in May. I was a huge fan of the original Mario Tennis - I think that's the game I logged the most hours on for Nintendo 64 - so I'm definitely leaning towards getting this one as soon as I can. But in case you're on the fence or haven't played this glorious Mario Sports franchise yet, hop inside for the announcement trailer as well as press info from Nintendo....

A few weeks ago, fans for the Wii Xenoblade Chronicles were able to vote for an alternate cover art. Now that the voting is over and they have been tallied, I am pleased to share the winner with everyone. Can I get a drum roll please? No? Well fine, it's to the left. It is absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad the one I voted for won. That isn't the only news about Xenoblade Chronicles that I have to share though. In a recent press release, Nintendo has finally shared the final launch date for the North American launch. We already knew it was in April, and it looks like we won't be waiting until the end of the month. The game is set to hit the stores on April 6th with the fan-chosen artwork as the featuring game packaging. If you would like to see the press release, clickity click on the jump!...

You did it, dedicated fan campaign! The Last Story is finally confirmed for a North American release! This time, it turns out that Nintendo of America actually won't be publishing the game; XSEED, a third-party publisher founded by former Square-Enix team members with a specific focus on bringing good experiences to the North American market. There's no solid release date yet - all we know is it's coming "this year." If you ask me, though, I suspect we'll see it sometime this summer. That's two Operation Rainfall titles down, one to go!...

We've been told around the time that Skyward Sword was released that two titles were in the works for our favorite series - presumably one for the 3DS and one for the Wii U. However, we haven't heard a whole lot about it since, and when it's this early in development that's not much of a surprise. That is, of course, until today. To the left you will see an English version Swapnote sent out early this morning from the man himself (presumably written by a translator of course), Eiji Aonuma. He's telling us to all be ready for New Zelda games, which is enticing since such a remark could mean we may get a glimpse at the next 3DS Zelda game come E3 2012. Are you guys excited for the possibilities? We've spent a lot of effort talking about what Zelda may be like on the Wii U (and we have plenty more thoughts on that topic), but we've casually been ignoring the 3DS side of things. What sort of neat puzzles do you see Nintendo adding with the 3D effect? What sort of graphic styling do you see? What about timeline placement and story? So much to discuss......

Do you happen to have… $4000 around the house and are looking for something to spend it on? Probably not and neither do I. If we lived in a fantasy world where we can pay in monopoly money, or better yet, rupees, I think that this Majora’s Mask Adventure Set might be something worth buying. [...]