This morning’s Nintendo Direct video featured a pleasant surprise for fans of the company’s original 3DS eShop games: Dillon’s Rolling Western is available for purchase right now.

First impressions: It looks great, controls well, and the gameplay’s fun. The terrific main character is saddled (not literally) with an incredibly annoying sidekick/helper. One concern is the lousy tutorial intro that throws you into battle with very foggy details regarding how to accomplish your goal. Overall, it shows a lot of promise; I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.

Is this action-adventure/tower-defense/western/fantasy worth $9.99? Stay tuned…

Ever since E3 last, I have been skeptical of Kid Icarus: Uprising. The controls just didn’t seem quite right and the voice acting left a lot to be desired. This new trailer for the game, however, has got me wanting to play the game, and may even get me to put money down for a preorder. Not sure what it is about the trailer that got me excited, but the game does look like it will be fun, even if the story might not entirely grab me.

None the less, it is great to see more games coming out for the handheld. Although I have been bogged down with titles as of late, and am having trouble finding time to finish all the great games! What about you? Are you planning on picking up Kid Icarus next month?

If you like this post, be sure to follow me on Twitter @infendo_eugene and check out my personal blog at Nintentunes.com!

In an unexpected twist there is a growing trend by developers to invest more efforts into the 3DS and ditch Sony’s new handheld system. This would buck the tradition of game developers moving to the newest big thing and focusing on a previously released system.

The Japanese newspaper Nikkei is reporting that game developers are disappointed with the Vita, which has had a sluggish start with slow sales and technical issues. Great news for Nintendo! What do you think, is the 3DS going to be a big hit after what seemed initially to be a disappointment? It looks like Nintendo may have a leg up. It about time we hear some positive Nintendo news.

Being a North American gamer was once such a hassle. Before western game developers became so prominent in the console space, most of the games available on home consoles came from Japanese development houses which ment long delays between a Japanese and a Western game release. Just look at Final Fantasy VII. The Japan to North American release window was a good 8 months, and that’s for one of the most revered RPGs of all time. Kingdom Hearts 3D is looking to follow a similar timetable, but at least we have a general idea about when the game will be released…sort of.

Siliconera has reported that the English voice recording for Kingdom Hearts 3D is well underway. According to the site, some voice actors have already finished recording their lines, which bodes will for a 2012 release for the game. KHInsider has reported that Vincent Corazza, who plays the voice role of Zexion/Ienzo, is all done with his recording for the game. Seeing as how the game launches in about a month in Japan (March 29), this is very good news for those optimistic about the game.

While Dream, Drop, Distance isn’t exactly Kingdom Hearts 3, I am super excited about the game, especially since I have just recently completed Kingdom Hearts 2 and loved it. here’s hoping that the game sticks to the Kingdom Hearts formula and is able to capture the magic of the original. Honestly though, as long as the game has Sora and contains Disney characters, I know it will be a day one purchase for me. The only question is, when will day one be?

If you like this post, be sure to follow me on Twitter @infendo_eugene and check out my personal blog at Nintentunes.com!

Metal Gear’s free demo download wasn’t the only reason to check out eShop this week: Super Mario Brothers became the first of the ambassador NES games to become available for purchase to all North American 3DS owners who bought their systems after the hardware price drop. It’s priced at $4.99.

Super Mario Brothers has been updated to include Restore Points, and will now dazzle your eyes with a wonderful rotating NES console as the new 3D screen menu icon for the game. These updates are also available to ambassadors via a free downloadable upgrade.

Most of us figured Nintendo had to make the Ambassador NES and GBA games available to all 3DS owners at some point. I’m hoping the rest of the titles get released at a steady clip!