Lot to get through today, so lets start off with:

NEW BLACK AND WHITE ENGLISH NAMES

The official nintendo magazine from the UK has annouced a couple more new English pokemon names, they are as follows:

From Doryuuzu, this guy’s name is now Excadrill

This used to be Kurumiru, now its Sewaddle

Lastly, this was Mamanbou and now its Alomomola

Also revealed in the article… the move Bug Opposition is now Struggle Bug, while Drill liner now becomes Drill Run. The Highlink feature (which allows you to head to other players games for some quests and fun) is being called Entralink. The DSi feature that allows for video communication between players (which is also used somewhat during the main story) is now known as Xtransceiver (which should techically be called the cross transceiver – but who will honestly call it that)

US TOYS ‘R’ US PIKACHU DOWNLOAD

News the second: So while the legendary dogs are being made available gamestop (and celebi will be available soon there as well), Toys ‘R’ Us are about to hold thier own download event. From Jan 30th from Feb 13th, you’ll be able to get Ash’s Pikachu. Being the same one that Japanese players were able to download a few months back, it will be level 50, holding a light ball and know the moves Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Volt Tackle and Iron Tail (the main 4 moves Ash’s Pikachu uses in the anime) – the OT will even be Ash!

NEW ANIME SERIES HEADING TO USA
As expected, the latest series of the Anime following Ash’s adventures in the Unnova Region is heading to the US. In Japan, this series is cleverly titled Pokemon Best Wishes – which initials, BW is the same as Black and White – Clever huh? In America this series will also be cleverly titled as Pokemon Black & White… oh well, maybe being straight forward is the new ‘in’ thing.

BIG NINTENDO ANNOUNCEMENT
So, today was a big announcement day today for Nintendo – the big N held Simultanious press confrences on either side of the Atlantic today anouncing the one thing we all want to know…

When does the Nintendo 3DS come out over here and how much will it cost?

Ok, so that was 2 things… But we got the answers to both along with a preview of a few of the games coming to the system (that any future Pokemon games will most likely be made for) and a few peices of technical info about the console

Between the launch day and E3 in eary June, Nintendo expect 30 games to be released, and that’s both first and 3rd party games. The launch day line up however is a bit vague, with no exact details on what games will be available on either side of the pond.

As for the console itself, there’s some pretty impressive stuff announced. Along with the stuff we already knew of (anolgue stick like controler, 3D slider to adjust/turn off 3D effect, SD card reader (with a 2GB SD card coming with the console) 3 cameras (one on the inside, 2 on the outside, allowing you to take 3D pictures) and an inbuilt tag mode, allowing you to transfer tag mode data even if the game is not in the console) we also lernt that the system will have inbuilt AR games, allowing you to play with the enviroment as you view it and an inbuilt game which allows you to shoot and a funny depiction of your face (or anybody else you’ve taken photo’s of), a Mii creater will allow you to make Mii’s again, although this time you can take a photo of yourself and it will then use that to make a base (which you can edit afterwards, dont worry) – Mii’s can be traded via the tag mode automatically… the 3DS will also have a pedometer, so you can see how far your walking when your trying to pick up new mii’s and swap tag mode data for various games.

Later on in the consoles life, an update will release a Web Browser and open up an eShop, with old Gameboy and Gameboy colour games, plus original stuff as well – will it also carry on the DSi’s Demo service, we can only hope.

The most exciting news about the console (after release date and price, obviously) is the new Friend Codes system – working more like Xbox and PS3’s internet systems, your console will have a Friends Code you can pass to other people – again, you’ll both need to register each other’s code before you can play with each other… but unlike the Wii – each game will not require another friends code. That’s right, only 1 code per customer. Upon registering each other code, not only will you be able to play with each other on any game you’ve (each) got – but its said that you’ll also be able to browes a list of all the games your friends have been playing – its how the big consoles currently work anyway, so it shouldnt be too much of a worry.

If you are worried about what your child is doing on the console, there will be parent controls that will limit the time playing on the web or completly turn off the 3D effect (amongst others, probably) -just make sure that the pin code you use to program these doesnt fall into your childs hands… that would defy the point!

But when is the console coming out? Well Americans can buy this new console on Sunday, March 27th (3 weeks after Black and White is released). It will be priced at $249.99 (save now and save quick). Us Europeans however also get the system 3 weeks after Black and white, on Friday March 25th. The price wasnt announced at the confrence, instead they said it will be up to retailers. Most European contries seem to be setting the console at €249.99 while the major UK Games shops are pricing at around £229.99 – which seems around standard compared to the other prices set.

Well – that was a lot of news… and we’ll bring you more when we find it out!