A Round-Up of Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct for the 3DS

by Menashe

There weren’t any big surprises in the latest Nintendo Direct, which focused on the 3DS’ upcoming releases over holiday season 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. However, it was chock full of new trailers and media which helped raise anticipation for the new titles. (And I became a fan of the massive, screen-filling goat you can summon during battle in Paper Mario Sticker Star. Paper Mario Goat for the win!) However, there were a few key points that were important for gamers to know:

- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is releasing on October 18 and can be purchased at retail or directly from the eShop.

- Paper Mario Sticker Star is being released on November 11, 2012.

- Three games that speaks to more of a broad audience have just released: Crosswords Plus, Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, and Style Savvy: Trendsetters. Reggie called Style Savvy as guilty pleasure because it happens to have a lot of strategy in the game, so you may even end up enjoying the game.

- Third party 3DS games over the holiday season are Srcibblenauts Unlimited, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, and Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!!

- All retail games published by Nintendo from now on will be available for purchase in the eShop.

- There are also many download-only games coming to the eShop. On November 22, Crashmo, the sequel to the acclaimed Pushmo, will arrive for download. Fluidity: Spin Cycle will come on December 27. Third party games on the eShop are NightSky (out now) and Ikachan (before end of the year), both by Nicalis.

- The beginning of 2013 will herald the release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Fire Emblem Awakening. There is no specific release date for either of them.

- Conspicuously missing from the event was Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. We can guess that it may have been pushed off until Spring 2013, similar to how Pikmin 3 was pushed off to Spring 2013 in order to clear the path for the holiday and first quarter releases, and fill in an empty hole in the Spring lineup.

For all the trailers and screenshots you can visit our Facebook page and image galleries.