Mario Party will be heading to the 3DS in the winter, which could mean late 2013 or early 2014. The game will include 81 new mini-games that will test your speed, concentration and luck, and the game will also take advantage of the 3DS’s various hardware features. Some of the mini-games use AR cards, amongst other unique things.

As for Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, the game will have you visiting an island for what was planned to be a relaxing vacation. However, Princess Peach is kidnapped (go figure) and is pulled into a fantasy dream world. The only way to make your way into the dream world is when Luigi sleeps on special pillows that have magical powers. Gamers will be able to start playing the game on August 11 in North America, July 12 in Europe, and July 18 in Japan.

The Yoshi’s Island sequel will feature some of the same art concepts and gameplay as featured in past installments, with Yoshi being tasked to protect Baby Mario by using deadly eggs on enemies, as well as ground stomps and other maneuvers that any Yoshi Island gamer will be familiar with. The official title of the game and its release date will be announced later in the future.

Donkey King Country Returns 3D will simply be a remake of the Wii game with the same name (only without the 3D). This time around, however, Nintendo added a new mode that features an adjusted game balance. This is because portable gamers tend to play in shorter sessions than home Wii console gamers, so the game is catered around that. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D will launch on May 24.

What you’re seeing here is none other than Murphy himself taking a whopping 16+ minutes to not only explain the entire concept of both LearnFun and PlayFun, but a cool Mario Bros demonstration as well. Just the first level of Super Mario Bros, one of the most played video games of all time due to its in-box inclusion with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, is included for demonstration. You’ll see Murphy beat the first level, the machine learn from him, and the machine play.

This video shows how not just Mario Bros, but a wide variety of video games could technically be learned and beaten with the computer and by the computer. As the original NES system is just a miniature computer – ancient by today’s standards – it’s really only a matter of reading the button presses and pressing them at the right time. It’s not only limited to those one-possibility games either, this system could be expanded even to the randomly-generated worlds of today.

Now we’ve just got to amp up the power a bit and let this beast loose in the online worlds of WoW and whatnot. I know good and well I’ve sniped my own fair share of robots in Team Fortress 2 already. Bring on the Nintendo bots! PlayFun, you’re mine!

[via TechRadar]

If you’ve been a lifelong Mario fan, then this DLC is definitely for you. It takes levels from the old NES-era Mario games and remakes them for New Super Mario Bros. 2‘s Coin Rush mode. Officially dubbed the “Gold Classics Pack,” the DLC pack contains three courses inspired by levels in the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. The first course in the pack brings together the first two levels of Super Mario Bros., while the second course will be familiar to those of us who played Super Mario Bros. 3 non-stop when we were kids. For the third course in the pack, we’re going back to Super Mario Bros. for a romp through Bowser’s castle, ending with a battle against the meanest Koopa the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen.

Nintendo has already won major points by revisiting classic Mario level, but even better is the fact that this DLC will be free through January 31, 2013. Once February arrives, the DLC will cost $2.50, which really isn’t bad when you consider how much some publishers like to charge for DLC. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed the DLC in a new Nintendo Direct Mini stream, which also you tells you how to go about downloading the Gold Classics Pack. Check out the video below.

The DLC is available starting today, so have at it. At the very least, make sure you use SpotPass to nab the DLC before it becomes a paid download on February 1, 2013. What do you think of this latest DLC offering for New Super Mario Bros. 2 – is it nice to see classic levels re-imagined, or were you hoping for something different?

Never fear, US 3DS owners – you’ll be getting these games too, just not today. Nintendo says that all four of the titles listed above will be launching on the US eShop on October 18, and each will set you back $40. True, you could probably find each one of those games for less at a brick and mortar store, but if you want to download from the comfort of your home, it’ll have to be at full price.

All of these are must-haves for 3DS owners, though some of them aren’t particularly new. While Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land offer players entirely new experiences, Star Fox 64 3D and Ocarina of Time 3D are (obviously) remakes of the famous N64 games. That said, both have been given a graphics boost on the 3DS, along with some added features – an improved multiplayer mode in Star Fox 64 3D, along with the Master Quest and Boss Rush modes in OoT 3D – so they’re still worth checking out.

Hopefully these are the first in a long line of Nintendo retail releases on the eShop. We’ve had plenty of older Nintendo games pop up on the eShop, but retail 3DS games are an entirely different beast. If Nintendo keeps this up, we have a feeling that our wallets will be running on empty more often than they usually are.

That’s because all three of these DLC packs add levels for Coin Rush mode, so if you purchase them, you’ll have a lot of coin collecting in your future. The first had been dubbed “Gold Mario Go! Go! Pack” and will add three new Coin Rush levels. This is the easiest of the three DLC packs, which all apparently vary in difficulty. It also has a total of 30,000 coins for you to collect, so even though this is easy, you’ll have a lot of work ahead of if you want to collect every single one of those coins.

The second, “Challenge the Record A Pack,” will post your top scores on Nintendo’s website, so we’re also seeing Nintendo experiment with the idea of leaderboards with this DLC offering. There are three time trial levels to conquer in this pack, though there isn’t any word on the difficulty or number of coins. The third and final pack is called “Survival Panic Pack,” and features three levels once again. As you may have already guessed, this is the most difficult of the three, so expect some frustration when it comes to completing the levels contained in it.

There isn’t any word on western release dates yet, but all three DLC packs will be available in Japan on October 2. Each will cost 200 yen, which is right around $2.50, so Nintendo is keeping the price low with these DLC packs. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information, as we’ll update you once Nintendo starts talking release dates for the US and Europe!

[via Nintendo]

The Wii U Premium Set has been revealed in Japan as containing a Wii U console, AC adapter, Wii U GamePad (one unit), GamePad AC adapter, and HDMI cable – with the console having 32GB onboard storage right out of the box. The Basic Set, on the other hand, has that same set of gear but with 8GB of onboard storage instead – and there’s more!

The Premium Set also includes a membership to the Nintendo Premium Network. This membership gives you 10% off of digital software purchases and will have additional benefits listed soon! The Premium Set also includes bonus bits such as stands for both the GamePad and the console itself. Of course each of these accessories are able to be purchased on their own.

NOTE: have a peek at our 2012 hands-on with Wii U as well as our 2011 E3 Wii U hands-on for sweet Nintendo action!

The stands as well as new iterations – new colors, that is, of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk will be available too. There’s also a new Sensor Bar set for a new price coming up too, each of these shown in the gallery below complete with Japan-based cost for now. There’s also a Wii U Pro Controller launching in black and white for 5,040 yen – that being right around $50 USD, and the whole lot will be available at essentially the same time – soon!

In addition to pricing and release information, this short press conference also showed off a couple elements we’d seen a bit of in the past like HUD data and map information on your controller instead of up on the big screen. Also revealed were a couple new games – New Super Mario Bros. U and NintendoLand. The Mario title, said Iwata, will be the first Mario title to launch with a Nintendo home console since Super Mario 64 all the way back in 1996.

Stay tuned to our Wii U tag portal for more information as it’s released throughout the day – there’s still a USA-based press conference on the way!

With the 8-bit graphic universe shown in the original Mario Bros. game now transferred down, down, and down some more into a much more basic environment, one thing shines through the brightest: Mario was a breakthrough game. Not just because it was fun, but because the gameplay and the environments in the game were so advanced that they look good even when you strip the whole thing down to its most basic components.

In the video above you’ll see a gleefully old-school looking demonstration of the game with what should be some rather recognizable elements all around. The game has right around 16 levels re-created right this minute, and more are on the way. This game also currently exists entirely in a 32k file – amazing!

If you want to try the game out for yourself, you’ll need first to get yourself a Harmony Cartridge. This bit of hardware will plug in to your original Atari 2600 and allow you to play hundreds of pre-made games and classics without the hassle of actually going out and finding the games (which of course, are no longer produced today) themselves. And new games are being made here in 2012 as well – as evidenced by Mario!

The game is being shared right now by Sprybug so that you can tell him how awesome it is. Music and sound effects are included – and yes, you will be able to fire fireballs if you do become FireMario.

[via DVice]

It became a huge issue when the game was released. There are areas within the race tracks that allow players to essentially skip more than half ot the course. The shortcuts were so extreme – and unintentional – that anyone using them has been considered a cheater. It was a big headache for Nintendo because the way the system originally worked, there was no way to patch individual 3DS games over the Internet.

However, a firmware update for the device went live earlier this year that modified the 3DS’s inner workings and made such a feat possible. This issue caused many to draw comparisons between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft yet again, noting that Nintendo is far behind when it comes to things like online connectivity in the gaming environment.

[via Wired]

However, the company has confirmed that Luigi’s Mansion 2 will be coming out for the 3DS. So what this means is that either Nintendo is working on making it multi-platform for its new console as well, or someone over at Play.com is just confused. When an online retailer adds a new title to its database, sometimes it is based on conjecture, sometimes it’s based on a private conversation with a publisher, or sometimes it’s just a mistake. It could be any of the above.

Luigi’s Mansion has a somewhat interesting history. It was a launch title for the Gamecube, and it scored a fairly strong level of sales. But that is partly because it wasn’t until much later in the Gamecube life cycle that Luigi’s much more popular brother, Mario, got his own game on the platform. There was a new Luigi’s Mansion game that was on the drawing board for the Wii, but that would have included a 3D display periphaeral that ended up not panning out.

[via CVG]

Guan calls himself an “electromechanical hobbyist” and says that Mario Kart had a big influence on him in his early days – apparently he was fascinated with the electromechanical properties of the miniature karts. We’re not quite sure. But he never lost the passion for that game, so one night when the hallways of MIT were empty, he decided to take his contraption for a test drive.

Okay, we have to admit, it’s pretty cool. You don’t really think about it when you’re playing the game, but those Mario Kart vehicles are insanely small and must be somewhat frightening to drive around at high speeds, especially with banana peels everywhere and red turtle shells coming at you from all directions. Sadly, that wasn’t part of Guan’s trial run either. But maybe some day it will be…

Specifically, the central character, voiced by John C. Reilly, will be the quintessential “bad guy” from the days when gaming was more about tricky maneuvers and perfect reflexes than 3D graphics and professionally certified surround sound. Ralph has been described as a human version of Donkey Kong. It will very much be a parody of vintage video games.

But the coolest part will no doubt be the cameos. So who will show up in this geekfest of a flick? So far, it’s been revealed that Street Fighter’s Zangief and M. Bison, Pac-Man’s orange ghost Clyde, and – you better believe it – penultimate video game villains Robotnik and Bowser. Never before have all these characters appeared in the same title, whether it’s a game, a movie, a comic book, or whatever. So it’s going to be quite a movie.

[via EW]

The confirmation came from a Spanish publication called El Mundo, which quoted Nintendo bigwig Shigeru Miyamoto directly. English-speaking Nintendo representatives have confirmed the validity of the statement, with Eurogamer.com quoting a spokesperson as saying, “In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U system will be shown at this year’s E3 Expo. We’ll have more to announce about our plans for the E3 Expo at a later date.”

There had been no previous confirmation of a Mario game on the Wii U, but no one would have seriously believed it wasn’t on the way. The fact that Miyamoto is already talking about it now, though, hopefully means that it will be coming out early in the console’s life cycle. And in fact, if the company managed to get it out as a launch title, sales would be through the roof. Because Mario games take so much care and precision, though, they usually aren’t expected to be launch titles for a Nintendo system.

[via CVG]

Lighting fuel to this fire is that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata noted earlier this year, in passing, that the company was working on a new 2D adventure for Mario, suggesting that the franchise was going back to its old-school roots. Of course, the registering of a domain is one of the least important steps in creating a game, so one would be wise not to read too much into this.

Nevertheless, Nintendo registered that domain for a reason, and if there was a spiritual sequel to Super Mario Bros 3, it would bring delight to Nintendo fanatics the world over. Sega had a modicum of success by trying to go back to Sonic’s old-school roots in releasing games like Sonic the Hedgehod 4 and Sonic Generations, but neither of those was truly an accurate continuation to what a new Genesis game would have been like.

[via IGN]

So the great scienstists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did what they do best – turn something into a bunch of 0′s and 1′s and analyze the hell out of it. When they looked at the game franchises mentioned above, they found out the construction of most of the games fit into a category of mathematical problems called NP-hard.

NP-hard refers to the most difficult type of solvable mathematical theory. The scientists discovered that getting through a level is like the logical problem poster child known as the “traveling salesman problem” – if a salesman has to travel to 100 cities, what’s the most efficient route? Sure, you could figure it out, but it would take time, right?

Basically, the researchers mapped out every hazard, every bottomless pit, every flying enemy, every bullet bill, as a ‘city’ and discovered that, while there is a mathematical way to solve the most efficient route, it is pretty darn difficult. For the math-philes out there, the study is chock full of technical jargon. But for the layman, just know that there’s a lot more math to the way Mario levels are designed than you might think. Think about that next time you’re doing a speed run of Super Mario World.

[via New Scientist]

Other features of the game includes a four-player co-op mode, a level editor, and a 33 different hats for the title character to wear. Updates to the game have also been promised in the form of downloadable mappacks, for when you get bored of the main campaign. Best of all, updates will be offered gratis. Mari0 is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and is can be downloaded right this very second over at the creator’s website.

We quickly went hands-on with the game, and came away with a grin on our face. It’s a little strange getting used to the controls, especially if you don’t have a USB controller to hand, but it works as advertised. Moving around is simple enough thanks to the standard WASD configuration, space handles jump duties, and the left/right mouse buttons serve as the blue/orange portal triggers.

Once you’re familiar with the controls, you play the same Mario levels as the original game, but with the addition of the Portal gun. That’s really how simple it is, and it adds an odd dynamic to an otherwise recognizable game – you get to play around and experiment with different portal placements, either to navigate your way around the terrain, or to dispatch enemies. The Hammer Brothers later on will certainly be easier to deal with, in any event. If you want to get an idea of exactly what you can get up to, check the embedded video.

[via Engadget]