Remember that ridiculous Slide Pad thing Nintendo is releasing for its maligned 3DS handheld? Well, some enterprising soul managed to snag one of the devices early in Japan, where the peripheral went on sale yesterday, and made a startling discovery. Apparently the manual for the device claims that although the Slide Pad runs on a separate AAA battery, it will last some 480 hours before needing to be replaced.

Netflix is coming to the 3DS; the wait is over. Sort of. The wait is over if you just wanted Netflix on your 3DS, really, really badly. If you wanted to watch 3D things on your 3DS, you still have some waiting to take care of. The free Netflix app is available for download today and can be used with an unlimited streaming account much in the same way a number of your other devices can. In fact, with the lack of 3D content at launch, the 3DS can be used in exactly the same way that a number of your other devices can. It is quite unlikely that this Netflix deal was going to sell any 3DSes with or without 3D functionality from the get go, but when it eventually shows up, it should serve to sweeten the deal for previous owners.

Quoth the Nintendo press release:

The new Netflix application for Nintendo 3DS displays movies and TV episodes in 2D on the system’s upper screen. Users will soon have access to an additional library of select movies that can be viewed in 3D without the need for special glasses.

(via Engadget)

We knew that the 3DS was not going to have very good battery life — Nintendo promised 3-5 hours of juice for 3DS games, 5-8 for regular DS games — but the folks at Engadget have gotten their hands on a Japanese 3DS and played around with it for a week, and they say that the battery life is consistently on the very low end of that spectrum, topping out at 3 hours, 15 minutes.

The biggest 3DS disappointment is absolutely the battery life. The 1,300mAh battery is 30 percent larger than the one in the DS Lite but simply cannot deliver the same sort of longevity we’ve come to expect from previous Nintendo consoles, topping out for us at three hours and fifteen minutes with WiFi enabled. Compare that to the 15 hours the DS Lite could manage and you can see why we’re disappointed. Disabling WiFi added about another half hour.

Odds are, when the 3DS hits American shores on March 27th, the battery life will not be substantially better. A company called Nyko hopes to solve the problem by releasing a $20 battery pack that it claims doubles the battery life of the 3DS. Maybe so, but a) that’s extra money on top of an already expensive machine, and b) in our experience, even when they work, external battery packs tend to be rather clunky affairs.

(via Engadget. title pic via GameRant.)

Punch Time Explosion, a game coming out for the Nintendo 3DS, is a Super Smash Bros. style brawler, except it features prominent Cartoon Network characters. No, sadly, not ones from Adult Swim. This isn’t the first time Cartoon Network has made a mashup game featuring various characters from their universe (see: FusionFall), but Punch Time Explosion is most likely more accessible, considering it’ll be on a Nintendo handheld and the Smash Bros. gameplay is designed to be simple.

At the moment, the only trailers available are a few character profiles, one of which can be seen above, mainly because Bubbles is adorable. Other fighters featured in the game include characters from The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Chowder, Ben 10, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. There are also supposedly assist characters in the game, and the full fighters list doesn’t seemed sussed out, so no reason to worry that your favorite (or more obvious) character hasn’t made the roster as of yet.

Here’s hoping that Punch Time Explosion receives a WCW vs. NWO style sequel where the Adult Swim characters invade and fight the Cartoon Network guys.

(via Topless Robot)

5 Essential Super Bowl Recipes (SportsGrid)

Comic-Con gets 33,000,000 hits, sell out, only partially because of Twilight (Bleeding Cool)

Fan-produced Star Wars documentary (JambeDavdar on YouTube)

Angry Birds officially invading 3DS (3DS Focus)

Minecraft and Half-Life 2: Together at Last (Robbaz on YouTube)

A hymn to evolution (Ben Hillman on Vimeo)

Pigeons in zero gravity (Airboyd.tv on YouTube)

(pic via Look At This Frakking Geekster)

At today’s launch event in New York City, Nintendo is finally treating fans to some long-awaited details about its 3D-capable 3DS handheld system.

The 3DS will be $249.99, and it will launch on March 27 across the US.

Here’s what else we know:

*The system will launch in aqua blue and cosmo black.

*The system will come with a 2GB SD card and a charging cradle.

*The 3DS coin/pedometer reward system has been confirmed. Other preinstalled software includes a camera-powered Mii Maker, augmented reality games, an “enhanced Internet browser,” and a 3D video player app.

*Lots of classic Game Boy and GBC games will be downloadable from an e-shop.

*In the period between the 3DS’ launch in March and E3 in June, Nintendo hopes to have more than 30 games launched.

(via Kotaku, GoNintendo)

Before I get into the article, I must first point you to the post category tag and reiterate this is currently speculative, as a proper, detailed source hasn’t really turned up yet. Secondly, I must disclose that I can’t read Japanese, and have no idea if those screenshots are indicative of the 3DS Coins, but they were posted on a site that seems to know what’s up regarding said Coins. So, as the story goes, the upcoming Nintendo 3DS is said to include “Game Coins” which are accumulated through a pedometer via walking (or, let’s be honest, cheating and shaking the 3DS), that can be used to unlock in-game content. The coins are also said to be universal, allowing any game on the portable to use the system.

The 3DS Has a Japanese Launch Line Up (That Videogame Blog)

Fight Club… The Musical? (Bleeding Cool)

US Government Strategy On Preventing Leaks Gets Leaked (Techspot)

How To Start Watching Doctor Who (Spinoff Online)

This Man Has A Justin Bieber Tattoo, We Don’t Know What Else To Tell You (Stylite)

A Steampunk Etch-A-Sketch (Bit Rebels)

The Narrative Philosophy Behind The Cape (Inside TV)

(pic by Rob Cham, via Laughing Squid.)

How To Watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report if You’re in the UK (Bleeding Cool)

A Creeper on OKCupid (ATTENTION: MINECRAFT JOKES) (Reddit)

Screens From Ocarina of Time on the 3DS (Kotaku)

Can Gaming Help “It Get Better?” (GameInformer)

The Plot of the New Torchwood (Bleeding Cool)

Things Gamers Should Relax About (Destructoid)

The 3DS Has a Battery Life (Joystiq)

(pic by jjengo, via the fallen blue.)

A worker claims he was able to smuggle a Nintendo 3DS out of a factory, and seemingly having experience with the Internet, took a bunch of pictures to prove the widely popular Internet guideline: If: Pics, Then: Happened. The 3DS doesn’t seem to do much other than be a plastic model of what a 3DS will look like, as well as display a black screen with the SDK version and memory details.