Late last year Nintendo started doing these “Nintendo Direct” presentations — short streaming videos put out every few months that hype what’s coming up on Nintendo platforms with a few announcements mixed in here and there. They’re basically, mini, less flashy E3 presentations.

Well, there was a Nintendo Direct early this morning, and while it mostly focused on stuff we already know about, there was some interesting info to be gleaned.

- We learned more about the Mario Tennis game for 3DS. It’s going to be called Mario Tennis Open and it looks much closer in style to the awesome N64 Mario Tennis than to the over-elaborate, power-up focused Gamecube game.

- A remake of Fatal Frame 2 is hitting the Wii, and unlike the last Fatal Frame game on the system, this one’s being translated into English. So far only a European release is confirmed, but hey, even if it doesn’t officially arrive in North America, it’s not like hacking your Wii to play European games is a particularly well-guarded secret anymore.

- Capcom, Sega, and Bandai are all teaming up to make a game on the 3DS. Could be something interesting, could just be some anime adaptation nobody outside of Japan will care about. We shall see.

- A nutty-looking new game in the Brain Training series is coming out. Apparently it’s going to be called Devil Training, beeecause it’s extra hard I guess? Or maybe because knowledge is the root of all evil. I dunno. Nintendo’s going to have a hell (heh) of a time localizing this one for America.

As if this guy wasn’t scary enough already.

- The Last Story, the latest title from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, and one of the games that inspired the Operation Rainfall movement, is finally coming to North America. Interestingly, Nintendo will be handing publishing duties over to XSEED.

You can check out the Nintendo Direct videos for yourself after the jump…

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So, anybody pick up Alan Wake when it came out last week? I know what some of you are probably thinking — “Last week? I thought that game came out a couple of years ago!”

Well, it did — on the Xbox 360. What we’re talking about now is the PC version, which finally saw release this past Thursday. Releasing a PC port of a nearly 2-year-old console game sounds like a waste of effort, but apparently it worked out well for Wake developer Remedy Entertainment — they made back all the money they spent on the port in a mere 48-hours.

It seems like digital distribution services like Steam are starting to breath some life back into the PC gaming scene. For years publishers largely wrote-off PC gaming due to piracy, but successes like Alan Wake may mean we see more console-to-PC ports in the future.

Of course hackers and pirates will scare off game makers again soon enough, but for now let’s enjoy this brief window where the PC is a viable games platform again.

via Kotaku

Nothing causes Nintendo more pain than watching a perfectly good character or franchise go unexploited. Of course Nintendo’s own characters have all been squeezed to their last drop, but what about the properties of other companies? What about all those potentially profitable series being squandered over at Sega, Capcom and Konami?

Well, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Nintendo is so serious about getting 3rd party support for the 3DS and their upcoming WiiU that they’re planning to partially fund and help develop sequels to properties owned by other companies. Top on Nintendo’s list of other people’s stuff they want to revive? Sega’s weird pet sim Seaman.

So yeah, this certainly opens up some interesting possibilities. What neglected and/or mistreated properties from other companies would you folks like to see Nintendo revive? There’s about a dozen horribly mismanaged franchises at Sega alone — Toejam and Earl in 2012!

via  GoNintendo

Hey guys, thanks to science one of Spider-Man’s abilities could soon be yours! No, sadly not his ability to score an endless series of well-off, attractive women despite being a freelance photographer who lives with his withered aunt — I’m talking about his ability to stick to walls.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have been studying how gecko’s feet work, and have created a new substance they’ve dubbed “Geckskin”. A small piece of this Geckskin measuring only 4-by-4 inches can securely hold a 42-inch flatscreen TV to a wall. Removing the TV from the wall only requires a gentle pull, and no stickiness or residue is left behind. Apparently under ideal conditions this stuff can support up to 700-pounds.

I have a feeling we may never see this stuff in stores. I foresee too many folks hitting up the K-Mart for packs of Geckskin and mittens. There’d be more high teenagers climbing the walls of the Empire State Building than people working inside.

via Blastr

If you owned an N64 back in the 90s, you’ve played more than your fair share of GoldenEye — partly because it was a classic, partly because it was like, one of only four good games to come out in the N64′s first year. As good as GoldenEye was, I think there’s something all fans of the title can agree on — the game’s escort missions were a pain in the dick.

Well, some folks got together and made a YouTube video that recreates the GoldenEye escort mission experience using real people and I warn you guys, this thing is so well done you’re going to be hit with all sorts of angry, frustrated feelings from when you were 15. At least I was. It’s also pretty funny, so hit the jump to check it out…

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So, the most talked about gaming story of the past week has been Tim Schafer’s Double Fine collecting, as of this writing, nearly 2-million dollars via Kickstarter to make a new adventure game. Which is great — hopefully this proves to be a huge shot in the arm to both the adventure genre, and indie game development in general. Here’s what nobody seems to be asking though — what’s the game actually going to be like?

Don’t get me wrong, I love Tim Schafer, but none of his games have been perfect. His games stick with you because of their memorable worlds and endearing characters, but when you get past the great writing, the games themselves are often pretty flawed. Schafer’s classic 90s adventure games had their share of issues, and those issues are going to be all the more glaring if they’re still present in 2012 (or 2013, or whenever this game comes out).

If Schafer wants to truly take full advantage of the opportunity fans have given him, he should consider the following…

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