Weekly News Roundup: 10.23.2011

What started as a rather average week turned into an exciting glance at the next evolutionary step for 3DS as well as another revelation in the continuing convergence of media onto non-traditional platforms through the ever growing channels of streaming, online delivery. In other words, Wii and 3DS are making your cable or satellite provider very nervous. Along with a smattering of game announcements, we also get to discuss how one of this year’s most talked about games might play into Wii U’s future.

This week’s news roundup is a-go!

3DS Adding Major Features and Nintendo Recaps Holiday Plans

Friday played host to a title wave of announcements from Nintendo, with the majority of them concerning 3DS. We’ve already delved into the press release Nintendo sent out, but here is a quick recap. Hulu Plus will be showing up on Wii and 3DS before the end of the year. The $7.99 per month service provides subscribers with a slew of current and classic television series that can be streamed through either device.

3DS will receive an update near the end of November that will add the ability to record 3D video, new Mii Plaza puzzles, and a new Find Mii dungeon.

Nintendo is prepping four eShop titles for the near future. Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive! Allows gamers to explore the game’s world with creatures of their own creations. Pushmo is a 3D, block pushing, puzzler. Swapnote will be a free download that will lets gamers compose 3D messages and send them to friends vie StreetPass or SpotPass. Finally, Dillon’s Rolling Western, a strategy/action hybrid announced at E3, will be arriving early next year.

Nintendo also revealed an expansion of 3D video offerings including a 3D recreation of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” featuring characters from the Shrek franchise, as well as the upcoming addition of more 3D music videos.

Finally, Nintendo must remind us of the amazing line up of games for this holiday season. Pokémon Rumble Blast is available next week on Oct. 24, Super Mario 3D Land comes out on Nov. 13, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword follows up a week later on Nov. 20, and Mario Kart 7 brings wraps it all up on Dec. 2.

Kirby and Pit Coming to 3D Classics

Between Japanese press conferences and American press releases, Nintendo almost forgot to mention a surprisingly major announcement. It took Nintendo of Europe to unveil the fact that Kirby’s Adventure and Kid Icarus will be joining the 3D Classics series of downloadable games for 3DS. Considering the fact that the series seemed to focus on some of the NES’ lesser known gems, the addition of these two major titles is most definitely a turn for the better.

Why is the tree always shocked?

Kirby’s Adventure is the second game in the pink puff ball’s series and was one of the last big NES games. Kid Icarus introduced the world to Pit and features gameplay with hints of Metroid and plenty of its own twists.

Battlefield’s Wii U Future is Still Up in the Air

Battlefield 3 has received a great deal of press since it was announced due to its incredible visuals and intense rivalry with Modern Warfare 3, and with its release only a few days away, it is no wonder that the game has taken center stage at the moment. In an interview with Metro, producer Patrick Liu took a moment to talk about what the series’ future might be on Wii U.

Despite the fact Battlefield 3 and its developer, DICE, both appeared in discussions about the new system at E3, the system’s unknown, and likely far off release date, most likely mean that Battlefield 3 likely won’t be one the system. Further more, DICE doesn’t even know if they will be doing anything on Wii U at the moment. We’ve dabbled with it and looked what we can do with it,” said Liu, “but there’s no game planned.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the developer is down on the system, they just want to do something more with the new controls than simply plaster a map on the extra screen.

We have to come up with something that really uses their controls. And until we get that bright idea of what to do with the new controls,” Liu explained, “I don’t think there’s any point in making another version that’s just the same as everyone else.”

Battlefield is of course a major franchise within the core gaming market and it would definitely help build Wii U’s credibility among those gamers, but there are simply too many unknowns to take into account at the moment. Wii U’s release date, success, and whatever DICE is up a year or two down the road will be major influences on whether or not the franchise will come to Nintendo’s new platform and all these factors are currently just question marks.

All we know for certain right now is the uncertain claim that Battlefield 3 probably won’t be on Wii U.

Thus, this week’s new roundup comes to its dramatic conclusion. The preceding has almost certainly whipped your brain into a tumultuous storm of thought and excitement. Seeing as we don’t want you mind to be crushed this deluge of information, feel free to let your reaction spill out into the comments bellow — failing to do so could be bad for your mental health.