Nintendo DS Continues To Set A New Course For Portable Gaming

For 18 months, hundreds of thousands of new players have joined together to disrupt the portable video game market. They proudly identify themselves as owners of Nintendo DS™, Nintendo’s remarkable hand-held system that continues to overturn traditional thinking. As the movement grows and becomes stronger, developers worldwide have taken notice. Both new and traditional players will be well-served in 2006, as more than 100 new games of all kinds hit the market for Nintendo DS.

On June 11, Nintendo DS itself gets a makeover when Nintendo introduces the lighter, brighter Nintendo DS™ Lite in the Americas. The redesigned system features a more compact size and screens with four adjustable brightness levels. The Polar White system will sell as low as $129.99 at retailers nationwide.
“We remain committed to going where others can’t – or won’t,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, during Nintendo’s annual media briefing in Los Angeles prior to the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game trade show. “By grouping our innovative DS games together under the umbrella term ‘Touch Generations,’ new players will easily be able to identify games designed for them.”

To date, Nintendo DS has sold through more than 16 million units worldwide. Nintendo DS demonstrates that marrying improvements to the interface with amazing software results in a dramatic shift in the way that both game makers and the public think of video games. With new ways to play and new categories of software, the success of Nintendo DS is setting the stage for Wii™.

More than 100 games will be available for Nintendo DS this year alone from publishers worldwide. Some of the biggest fan favorites will come from Nintendo:

New Super Mario Bros.®, a new 2-D Super Mario game that anyone can enjoy.

The Legend of Zelda®: Phantom Hourglass builds on the cel-shaded fun of The Legend of Zelda®: The Wind Waker™ with touch-screen controls and wireless competition.

Chibi-Robo™: Park Patrol sends everyone’s favorite robotic helper on a new mission in the great outdoors.

Elite Beat Agents™ brings the cult import hit Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! to the Americas.

DK™: King of Swing DS sends Donkey Kong® on a swinging new adventure.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215™ turns Nintendo DS into a film noir mystery.

Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team for the first time lets users play as a Pokémon, speaking and interacting with other characters in a world populated only by Pokémon.

Gamers also can anticipate creative new Nintendo DS games featuring Star Fox®, Wario™ and Kirby™, as well as a wild adventure set on Yoshi’s Island®.

From the start, Nintendo DS challenged convention, and consumers responded en masse. Nintendogs™ taught people that they could communicate with simulated puppies – and with one another. Mario Kart® DS, Animal Crossing™: Wild World and Metroid® Prime Hunters have attracted millions of people around the world to play via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection. Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day demonstrated that gamers could no longer be defined by age, while both Brain Age and Animal Crossing have expanded the video game market to female customers. The next wave of Nintendo DS games stands ready to capitalize on these triumphs.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems, and upcoming Wii™ console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 360 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.