The latest trailer for Pokémon Black and White covers all the stuff you can do with your enslaved critters when you’re not sending them out to fight for their lives.

New to Generation V are events called Pokémon Musicals. If the Super Contests from previous games were the color purple, then the Musicals just turned that up to an intense shade of lavender.

Judging from the video, trainers can accessorize their pokémon and have them perform on stage, possibly for ribbons or other nonsensical trinkets.

The internet functions of B/W were also elaborated on. Dubbed Pokémon Dream, trainers will be able to upload pokémon to a special website that lets you grow berries or encounter other pokémon that you can engage in battle back on the DS.

A few new characters were introduced, most notable being the two grunts for the new “bad guys” Team Plasma (seen at the :40 – :41 mark). A bunch of minor trainers you’ll encounter in Isshu were also shown near the end of the trailer. It looks like we’ll get to cross paths with bakers, football players and nurses.

For more details on some of the other aspects featured, Bulbagarden has an excellent summary of the new trailer.

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The team behind Metroid: Other M must really like their work on fleshing out Samus’ backstory because, after beating the game once, players will unlock “Theater Mode,” which lets you watch all of the game’s cutscenes, back-to-back, in a two-hour movie format.

As ludicrous as it may sound to watch nothing but a game’s video, it may be a decent chance to really soak in the game’s story. I know when I play games with cutscenes interspersed between action segments, I tend to zone out and focus more on getting back to the action than paying attention to the story.

At the very least, slogging trough the two-hour long movie is optional (coughcough Metal Gear Solid 4 coughcough).

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A couple of months back, I said that there was a new Advance Wars game in the works. As it turns out, I was mistaken. What was listed as “Famicom Wars DS 2” in Nintendo’s Financial Briefing document was actually the Japanese version Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which wasn’t released in the region.

And now, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it ever will. The title was absent from the company’s Q1 earnings report released yesterday, and today, Inside Games reports that plans to publish the successor to Dual Strike in Japan have been canceled.

Source [via Siliconera]

Nintendo released their First Quarter earnings report for the Fiscal Year 2010 today, and despite titles like Super Mario Galaxy 2, Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii all selling over a million copies worldwide, the company’s net sales are down from the same period last fiscal year.

Hardware sales are a mixed bag. The DS family saw a harsh drop in sales as it went from 5.97 million units sold last year to 3.15 million; a drop of nearly 50%!

As for the Wii, hardware sales actually went up from Q1 2009. This time last year, the Wii sold 2.23 million units, but this quarter, sales jumped up 36% to 3.04 million units.

The total software sales for both the Wii and DS were both down in this quarter. DS software sales dropped 23% from 29.09 million units to 22.42 million units. Wii software saw a 9% drop from 31.07 million units to 29.17 million units.

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Mark those calendars, folks! Nintendo recently confirmed to Bloomberg Japan that they will announce a release date and pricing details for the 3DS on September 29.

It was also announced that the company expects the handheld to ship out this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2011.

Time for the rumor mill to go into overdrive…

And for the record, I’m guessing $189. No more than $200.

Small window, I know.

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Craving more Treasure Maps in Dragon Quest IX? Well, Nintendo just announced some new dates and locations of stores giving away maps via Tag Mode.

Joining GameStop in distributing exclusive maps are Best Buy and select Simon Malls. Each location has a different map, meaning you have to trek it to all three places to get them all.

Each location will also give people new to the series a chance to try out DQIX, with representatives on-hand to help you out.

We’ve mentioned the GameStop event before, but it’s worth going over again, for the sake of convenience. On July 31, walking into a participating GameStop with your copy of DQIX in Tag Mode will get you map number one. Find a participating store here.

August 7 is when Best Buy will give away map number two. Their list of participating outlets can be found here.

The Simon Mall events will be handled like a mini mall tour. Starting from August 7 and continuing until September 19, different Simon Malls across the U.S. will host their own map event. A list of dates and mall stops are posted here.

According to the Dragon Quest IX Events page, these locations are the FIRST places these maps will be available. It’s possible that these three events won’t be your only chance to score these exclusive maps.

A ruling against importer Playables Ltd. in London’s High Court has established a precedent in the UK, banning the import, sales and distribution of flash cart devices, like the infamous R4.

The devices allow for the use of homebrew applications on the DS (which are technically not illegal), but they also allow for the storage and access of licensed software (obviously illegal).

Needless to say, this ruling is a big win for Nintendo, who has been openly opposed to piracy and the use of these devices. According to Gamasutra, the company recently won another case in the Netherlands against 11 online retailers over property infringement.

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A new Metroid: Other M trailer has surfaced, and this one is heavy on character introductions and story presentation.

Most of the trailer contains video from the game’s early cutscenes, but unlike the ones in the demo, this trailer actually gives you the names of the other Galatic Federation soldiers. you are given a bit more background information on Adam and Anthony.

August 31 isn’t that far off!

It was revealed in this week’s Famitsu that Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition is only 10% complete at this time. Even though the game is still at such an early stage, it was confirmed that it will have SSFIV‘s full 35-man(and woman) roster.

Producer Yoshinori Ono was interviewed in the issue and shed some light on the portable adaptation of the successful fighter.

The reason the game was chosen for the 3DS was because, after looking at both the PSP and DS, their team realized that they would not be able to create what they wanted at the level they wanted.

While Ono wouldn’t give any specifics regarding 3D effects, instead only mentioning that they were “experimenting” with it, he did say that it wouldn’t effect competitive play and that the gameplay would remain intact from Super Street Fighter IV.

As for the rest of the game’s features, Ono said that, if there is space, they would like to keep the game as feature-rich as its console cousins, like wireless play. This doesn’t mean that it will be a straight port, however. Ono also said that they would like to include original bonus content, like costumes.

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A little late to the party on posting these trailers, but Comic-Con jumbled up my schedule this weekend (I’m still trying to correct my sleep schedule).

Anywho, Atlus put out a couple of new trailers introducing players to Etrian Odyssey III‘s character creation mode and new naval exploration sections (not to be confused with “navel” exploration, which is… disturbing, to say the least).

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City is set to sail on September 21, 2010. Remember, pre-ordering at a participating retailer will get you a limited edition, 60-page art book featuring art (duh) from the entire series.