Well, Nintendo surprised everyone with their Nintendo Direct conference today.  A new version of the 3DS called the 3DS XL was announced and while I would rather have had it announced at E3 (where I could have played it), it still looks pretty decent.  So here’s the big news that we got from the Nintendo Direct today:

• 3DS XL coming out in North America in both Red and Blue colours (along with a 4GB SD Card) for $199.99 on August 19th.
• 3DS XL has 90% larger screens than the original 3DS and will also have better battery life.
• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is due out on July 31st and a playable demo is now up on the eShop
• Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask coming to NA in November (yay~)
• New Prof. Layton will also have daily new puzzles available via the Internet for an entire year
• Namco Bandai team (including leads from Tales games, SoulCalibur, and TEKKEN) will be working with Sakurai on the Wii U and 3DS versions of the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game
• Art Academy game with art lessons coming to 3DS
• Kirby 20th Anniversary Dream Collection for Wii (launching Sept. 16th) to include music CD, artbook, and the following six Kirby games: Kirby’s Dream Land, Kirby’s Adventure, Kirby’s Dream Land 2, Kirby Super Star, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Kirby 64, and challenge levels done in the style of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 (also coming out Aug. 19th) will have a Coin Rush mode where you complete 3 challenge levels and then compare scores with others through StreetPass.
• NSMB2 will also be the first 3DS game to feature full 2-player local co-op for the entire game and bonus Coin Rush DLC levels will be available for purchase after launch.
• Fire Emblem 3DS coming to North America in 2013.
• Super Mario Land on sale at $2.99 on eShop starting tomorrow for 7 days
• 2 new Virtual Console titles coming out for eShop every week now
• photoshowcase.nintendo.com to be a curated online gallery where you can submit and vote on 3DS pictures starting on July 2
• Pokemon Black/White V2 coming out “this fall”
• Pokemon Dream Radar and Pokedex 3D Pro available for purchase on eShop along with Pokemon Black/White V2
• Also had the first (very short) trailer of footage from the English build of Pokemon Black/White V2
• Animal Crossing 3DS due out this year in Japan (no love for NA apparently)

Also, here’s a better picture of the 3DS XL from Nintendo of America’s Twitter feed:

I’m not sure what to think about Namco Bandai primarily developing the new Smash Bros. games, but I’ll wait on passing judgement on the game until there’s actually something to see.  The 3DS XL will hurt my wallet, but I’m not actually as upset about it as some other people may be.  The DSi XL is far and away the best way to play DS games, so I’m sure the new 3DS will perform admirably as well.  The only thing I’m really kind of peeved about regarding the 3DS XL is that I’ll probably have to buy a larger version of the Circle Pad Pro to play games like Resident Evil Revelations on it, and that sucks.  Considering everything Nintendo’s learned about needing two control sticks, you’d think they would have been smart and included the second circle pad in this redesign too.  Oh well, I’m getting my Professor Layton this fall, so I’m satiated for the time being.  We’ll continue to keep you informed on the rest of Nintendo’s random announcements in future weeks as they come, so stay tuned to Game Usagi.

[UPDATE: North America is getting a Nintendo Direct presentation too also starting at 10:00PM CST.  The Nintendo Direct page says that it will be regarding the Wii, DS, and 3DS (again, no Wii U).  You can check out the North American Nintendo Direct page here, and we’ll have a combined summary of both of the Nintendo Direct presentation go up tonight after they have aired.]

Nintendo is broadcasting another Nintendo Direct presentation starting today at 10:00PM CST.  Apparently it will focus primarily on the Wii (not the Wii U) and the 3DS, so no one knows quite what to expect accept for perhaps a few more details on the Kirby 20th Anniversary disc for the Wii and Animal Crossing on the 3DS.  It’s not the heavily anticipated announcement of Wii U release details, but we’ll be getting some kind of news from Nintendo tomorrow and we’ll have a summary of the salient points up as per usual shortly after it’s broadcast.  Bear in mind also that this is a Japanese Nintendo Direct and it may not have too much information that applies directly to the rest of the world.  Check in with us later tonight to find out what Nintendo has to say.