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Just a reminder, because there's no way you'll get this from the trailer: This cel-shaded, unmistakably anime game about a plucky teen and his robot ... is a Lost Planet spinoff. The PS3/3DS action game E.X. Troopers is even more implausible in motion than when all we had was a text description.

#extroopers E.X. Troopers is the upomcing Lost Planet spin-off for the PS3 and the Nintendo 3DS. This debut PS3 trailer provides a good idea of what to expect—a comic book take on sci-fi action game Lost Planet. More »

Epic Mickey's first foray was a Wii-exclusive affair. This time around, Junction Point is bringing Mickey's epic-ness to what it's calling "next-gen consoles." We might call them "7-year-old consoles," but, well, Mickey's best bud is from 1920, so we can appreciate the anachronism at play here.

We certainly didn't expect a 3DS spinoff of Lost Planet ... and we definitely didn't expect a 3DS-slash-PS3 spinoff. EX Troopers, revealed in this week's Famitsu magazine, is also unexpectedly anime styled, featuring manga panel cutscenes and a theme by Jpop star May'n.

EX Troopers takes place on EDN-3rd, in some kind of academy. Bren Turner is new in school, and seems to jump right into the Akrid fighting in what producer Shintaro Kojima describes as a beginners' action shooter.

No official images have been released yet (above is Lost Planet 3), but expect to see a lot of this, as Capcom indicated plans to use this IP outside of games, like its other "Single Content Multiple Usage" initiatives.

#japan If Japan uses the Nintendo DS in schools, then why not in cars? Toyota's newest Smart Navi car navigational system enables drivers to turn the Nintendo DS into a navi remote control. More »

#projectxzone Project X Zone is an upcoming 3DS collaboration between Capcom, Namco Bandai, and Sega. The game features characters from all three! More »

#3ds Newly announced action shooter E.X. Troopers might not be familiar yet, but its setting should be. The Capcom game shares the same world as sci-fi game Lost Planet. However, Ex Troopers looks very different. More »

#3ds Last summer, Nintendo's 3D television service "Itsu no Ma ni Terebi" launched in Japan. It featured short two-minute 3D clips that were free and exclusive to the 3DS. More »

#3ds Do you own an Aqua Blue Nintendo? You might own a bit of history. Nintendo Japan's website reveals that the color will soon no longer be in production. More »

While we wait for Sega's "Monster World Collection" to debut the previously Japan-only (and acclaimed!) Monster World IV on PSN and XBLA, Sega went ahead and deposited the game on Wii Virtual Console today, causing even more surprise than other, increasingly rare, VC releases.

If you have the Wii Points kicking around, you can build a pseudo-complete Wonder Boy collection now - bolstered by Sega's simultaneous release of the arcade version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. At least one version of each game in the series is available.

In non-interactive news, Dinosaur Office returns to Nintendo Video tomorrow.

#nintendo The Wii Virtual Console springs back to life this week with two classic games from the fine folks at Sega, including one that never even made it stateside. Time for some old school action role-playing! More »

#transformers While the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 get what's shaping up to be a pretty spectacular Fall of Cybertron, Nintendo Wii, 3DS and DS players get this. More »

#3ds It's only May. I know. But I sincerely doubt 2012 will produce freakier 3DS box art than what this Kobito Dukan game unleashed. More »

Activision Blizzard has released its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2012, posting total net revenue of $1.17 billion for the period ending on March 31, 2012. This is a 23 percent drop over the same period in 2011, where Activision Blizzard posted a net revenue of $1.44 billion. Net income was also down year over year, with the pub/dev reporting a remainder of $384 million for Q1 2012, as compared with $503 million in Q1 2011.

Breaking that down a little more specifically, Activision itself was responsible for 23 percent ($271 million) of segment net revenues, down 19 percent form the $323 million it was responsible for in 2011. Blizzard accounted for 21 percent ($251 million) of segmented net revenues, down 42 percent year-over-year vs. the $357 million it posted for Q1 2011.

Many of Activision and Blizzard's major releases are still pending, including Diablo 3, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Looking forward, Activision Blizzard expects to report a "record" non-GAAP Q2 net revenue of $805 million due to Prototype 2, Amazing Spider Man and Diablo 3. As for the rest of the year, the company expects to end fiscal 2012 to the tune of $4.2 billion in net revenue.

#3ds Asked straight up most people's response would be "no, stupid", especially since it doesn't have java or flash. Where you or I would see that as an impediment, however, the folks behind Project Triniate see it as a challenge. More »

#nintendo Over at Yahoo (or maybe The Week), some unnamed editor has rounded up the opinions of four other writers to alchemize a theory or four about why Nintendo lost more than $400 million last year, the company's first annual loss. More »

The DS Lite could see society's next great advancement in GPS technology, at least in tourist-heavy areas such as museums and haunted-home expeditions, a patent from Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto suggests.

The patent describes a system where an overhead grid of infrared "positional information transmitters" reads a user's DS to light up floor patterns and potential walkways. The user can then pick which route he'd like to take, reading tourist facts along the way.

Nintendo has already infiltrated the museum scene with the 3DS giving guided tours in the Louvre, and it's doing a pretty great job, from what we hear. There's no guarantee that a patent will translate to an actual product, but the thousands of infrared beams hovering over the Mona Lisa fulfills a few of our own spy fantasies, so we'll hope this one works out in some way.

If you can't wait to spend some of those coins, Nintendo is offering new rewards for its Club Nintendo program. Four new downloadable games have been made available for May, including a pair of 3DS titles and two WiiWare games.

Art Style: Pictobits is the frontrunner for our hard-earned coins, a delightful DSiWare puzzle game ported to the 3DS. Pictobits debuted next to Majora's Mask, so you may not remember it. The other high-profile game is a 3DS port of Urban Champion, the first fighting game to appear on the NES and quite possibly the worst game to appear on the NES.

The two WiiWare games are Snowpack Park and Eco Shooter: Plant 3D. All four games will be available for download until May 31.

[Thanks, Dali.]

#nintendo Evoking images of lilacs, hyacinth and GameCubes, Nintendo's Midnight Purple 3DS launches on May 20 in North America, giving fans another way to "customize the look of their systems". More »

After two weeks of absolutely nothing in new Wii downloads, Nintendo dropped a new Virtual Console game on us. And not just any new Virtual Console game, Super Street Fighter II ... with online play. Even after being released in Japan last November, and being announced locally by Capcom the same month, it's still surprising to see extra functionality.

It's still surprising to see a Wii Virtual Console game.

Collectible toy company Hot Toys is producing versions of Metal Gear Solid 3's Naked Snake and The Boss that are even more detailed than those found in the HD Collection - and much more 3D.

The company is making one-sixth scale versions of The Boss (as seen at the end of the game) and Naked Snake in his prototype Sneaking Suit, each with a number of game-appropriate accessories including a cardboard box, several guns and knives, a cloak, a grim, terrifying visage, and a kind of upsetting point of articulation bisecting The Boss's scar.

There's no announced price for these, but don't expect to pay a 1964-era price. Other Hot Toys figurines retail for upwards of $150 each.

#importpreview Girl's RPG Cinderellife is the newest 3DS title from Professor Layton creator Level-5. Marketed as a "girl's RPG," Cinderellife is the story of a plain girl coming to live in the big city for the first time. Before long, she is working in a Japanese hostess club and dreaming of finding true love amongst her clients. But does Cinderellife hit its mark as a girl's RPG or does it fly straight into a minefield of questionable content? More »

#psvita Even when you're at a a fan convention packed with wall-to-wall gamers, it can be hard to find people playing Sony's newest handheld. The fact that the Vita is so difficult to spot is just one bit of anecdotal evidence that the gaming portable is having a rough time. But does this mean it's time for the price of the Vita to get slashed? Not necessarily. More »

Kickstarter has, for better or worse, blown up the entire indie gaming scene, with everyone and their dog taking to the service in the hopes of being the next Double Fine. Kickstarter does have one major thing holding it back, however, and that's the fact that U.S. residency is required to enroll on Amazon Payments - the e-commerce backbone that powers the website.

European indie developers may have an alternative fairly soon, albeit with a few fundamental differences. Dutch company Gambitious seeks to fill the crowdfunding void across the pond with its own service, but rather than donating funds to receive gifts like a pledge drive, Gambitious users actually purchase shares of a game's development. Upon successful completion of the game, the user receives dividends like a traditional investor, rather than a copy of the game or a lunch date with one of its art directors.

The service is scheduled to launch sometime around E3, and while it will initially be limited to European territories, international expansion is part of Gambitious' long-term game plan.

#pokemon More news from last night's Nintendo Direct announcement event: While Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are DS games, playable via the 3DS' backwards compatibility, there will be some apps released (in Japan, as of now) to enhance the 3DS experience. More »

#blip Inexplicably thin on details for a game announced two years ago in Los Angeles, Animal Crossing's 3DS version will release this fall in Japan, Nintendo said in tonight's "Nintendo Direct" news event. That's a screen above; here's a video from E3 2011. More »

Nintendo 3DS systems in North America will be able to get a firmware update on April 25 that will allow system owners to organize games and apps saved into the system in folders. It will also support software patches. More »

#impressions If you think Nintendo is just an assembly line of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon , you're probably missing some of their most interesting games. Take Ketzal's Corridors, for example, an excellent new puzzle game from Nintendo and developer Keys Factory. It's available for download on the Nintendo 3DS' eShop. More »

#opinion Earlier this week, I wrote about my first hour playing Girls RPG: Cinderellife. For a laugh, I poked and prodded the game, pointing out its less-than-inspiring portrayal of women—though this is nothing new when it comes to games or any other popular media really. More »

#girlsrpgcinderellife Originally, Girl's RPG Cinderellife was going to be a 3DS version of the popular cell phone title Kyabajoppi. In Kyabajoppi you manage a host club that is frequented by many famous anime characters. And while, Cinderellife now has you living the life of a single hostess instead of managing the club, the anime characters still drop by. What's more, you can date them. So which of these handsome prospects would you try to woo? More »