Lawrence.com

3DS logo by frojas

In North America, we've been waiting for details on the upcoming Nintendo 3DS to emerge since last summer at E3. Now, a little more than a month before Japan's launch, Nintendo finally dished the details on the 3DS debut in the United States.

3DS will release on March 27 for a retail price of $249.99 (about $50 lower than many skeptics were predicting) and can currently be pre-ordered at Gamestop, Amazon and Wal-Mart. It will launch in two colors: Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black. It will ship with a 2GB SD card, charging cradle and six augmented reality (or AR) cards for use with several programs both on the console at launch and releasing later in the year.

3DS Atomic Black by frojas

Various software will be on the 3DS at launch including a Mii creator, media player and even a web browser. Nintendo also announced that among these included programs that some, including the web browser, will not be usable until a post-launch software update. There will also be a virtual console offering past Gameboy and Gameboy color titles. As much as I hope there will be an amazing selection of titles, the state of the Wii's virtual console leaves me cautiously optimistic and you can pretty much bet none of these titles will be in 3D. Additionally Nintendo will be launching Pilotwings Resort, Nintendogs + Cats and Steel Driver on launch date.

Third party titles will also be available at or around launch. That list is:
- Dead or Alive Dimensions
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
- Madden NFL Football
- Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
- Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
- Asphalt 3D
- Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
- Ridge Racer 3D
- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

3DS Aqua Blue by frojas

Nothing was mentioned about the highly anticipated Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake or the new Kid Icarus: Uprising title, both coming from Nintendo, or the Metal Gear Solid: Naked Snake remake of MGS3. Hopefully details on these and other titles will be made available shortly.

I will be picking this up at launch and going with the Atomic Black color. As for launch titles I'm probably sticking to Pilotwings and Super Street Fighter IV 3D, but who knows what will be revealed about some of these titles leading up to launch. Resident Evil Mercenaries is a multplayer mode taken from RE 4 and 5 and not the upcoming Chris/Jill campaign we've heard of, so I'll be skipping it. What about you, any other titles catching your interest?