Oops, sorry. I got carried away with the adorable puppy. Nintendo’s hired a brand-new “spokesdog,” Uggie, a Jack Russell terrier, to bark the word about Nintendogs + Cats for Nintendo 3DS. He’ll also spread the word about responsible pet/owner relationships during the month, which happens to be Responsible Pet Owners Month (no, I didn’t know it existed, either).

“Uggie didn’t have to sit up and beg for his role as Nintendo’s spokesdog,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “It’s truly our pleasure to work with a star of Uggie’s magnitude, especially to help animal lovers and portable gaming fans discover the fun of Nintendogs + Cats.”

All dog puns aside, this is kind of adorable.

If you want more of Uggie, you can see him in The Artist, which appears to be an awards season favorite.

RENT

I picked up Generator Rex: Agent of Providence with the thought that despite it being for the 10-12 year old set, my five year old son might find it entertaining. I should caveat the rest of this review with the fact that we do not watch the show and had never heard of the series, but I am always up for a new game.

If you, like me, were unaware of the cartoon, here is the general idea: Nanites have infected everything and everyone on the planet, and they randomly mutate creatures. Some creatures manage to deal with the mutations and use them (such as Rex), but most go insane and become monsters. Rex can control his mutations and use them to neutralize the monsters and their mutations. He works for an organization called Providence, and they fight against the E.V.O.s (Exponentially Variegated Organisms). The main enemy is a bad guy named Van Kleiss.

The game is a basic hack and slash with a side scroll. You learn how to use all kinds of different mutations for different monsters and scenarios, such as jumping high or smashing through barriers. As you progress through the levels, you unlock new mutations you can use. When you kill monsters or break objects, you collect nanites that you can use to upgrade your weapons. Most level are a series of mobs followed one after another with an ending boss. There were two levels that did not follow that format: one was a motorcycle ride with a monkey E.V.O. and another that involved a ride on rock tablets through a tunnel while being chased by a huge boulder.

And that is when I quit the game. First, a boulder chasing you? Maybe a 10-12 year old would not understand why I found that irritating, but I am old enough to consider it a bit of a rip off. Second, the level was nigh unplayable for me. It involved a lot of timed jumps, and these are not my strong suit. I kept dying, and my frustration level kept going up. My husband took about five attempts to get through the FIRST section, but neither of us managed to get through the next one. Third, after an initial sense of awe and wonder, my five year old grew quickly bored with the game. He likes jumping and racing, so it had little to no appeal to him (although he did like me killing the monsters and perhaps I should rethink what a good idea this was). He would beg me to play, but he would wander off more quickly each time. Fourth, maybe it was just the DS controls, but I found myself relying on only one or two different weapons (I do not think I even unlocked them all) because switching back and forth required not only the buttons but the stylus and touchscreen. It was overly complicated for what should have been a fun, simple game.

Pokemon owners will now have episodes of Pokemon available to feed that craving whenever they want. On February 6 Nintendo 3DS owners will get access to a Pokemon Section of the Nintendo Zone.

In that section, there will be demos of select Nintendo 3DS games and full-length episodes of the Pokemon TV series.

“Nintendo 3DS continues to deliver fun and engaging new experiences, especially for users who connect their systems to the Internet,” said Zach Fountain, Nintendo of America’s director of Strategic Partnerships. “Nintendo 3DS is our most connected system ever, and Nintendo Zone offers a wealth of exclusive content to users who take their systems with them when they are away from home.”

The Nintendo Zone Pokemon section will have info on the newest Pokemon games, information on the Trading Card game and Pokemon news.

Nintendo saw fit to mention all of the recently-added features available for 3DS in their press release, but a few of those do have some sweet Valentine’s Day uses — for instance, if your sweetie has a 3DS, too, it’s super easy to send them Swapnotes throughout the day to keep the flame alive with the adorable products of your stylus. Not only that, but it’s tons of fun to get racing in Mario Kart 7 so you can, as they put it, “get your hearts and karts racing.” You have to admit it’s a cute rhyme.

Does anyone see a pink 3DS in their future?

I play alot of Mario Kart. Even won a local competition. But I never thought about what a real life Mario Kart would look like. West Coast Customs took on the challenge from Nintendo America to build real life Mario Kart 7 cars for their show Inside West Coast Customs and I think they did a great job.

“When Don” Don James Executive Vice President of Nintendo America, “requested the meeting and he told me he needed us to create some of the Mario Kart 7 cars in real life I was excited and ready for the challenge. Then he said they need to have a hang glider for flying and a propeller for underwater maneuvering I thought, he must be joking!” said Ryan Friedlinghaus, founder and CEO of West Coast Customs.

But the team took on the challenge and created the replicas that would make any Mario Kart fan happy. The karts were displayed at the recent auto show in LA, but you can see them tomorrow, January 22 at 9pm EST on Velocity.

Our demo rollout won’t be nearly as swift as Japan’s, however — and there’s only about a 40% overlap. What, you actually thought that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy would get a demo over here? (Okay, I had hoped that this would happen at some point, but I wasn’t delusional about it like you are or anything.)

Tomorrow, a demo for Resident Evil Revelations will be available, followed by a demo of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games on Jan. 26.

“The demo program allows Nintendo 3DS players to be among the first to test-drive select games,” said Tony Elison, Nintendo of America’s senior director and general manager of Network Business. “Players can try out new genres or series, often weeks before the full versions are available in stores.”

Other demos are also on the way, including one for Rayman Origins and Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D.

There has been recent concern that with the adoption of tablets and smartphones that handheld gaming was a thing of the past. Initial slow 3DS sales seemed to support that fact, but picked up toward the end of the year. International Data Corporation (IDC) announced today in their video game forecasting that handheld sales are going to be very strong over the next few years.

“Especially given the 3DS price drop in mid-2011 and in light of respectable initial demand for Vita in Japan this past December, it appears that 2012 is shaping up to be a rebound year for dedicated handhelds,” says Lewis Ward, IDC’s research manager for gaming. “It’s absolutely true that a mind-boggling number of games have been downloaded to iOS- and Android-powered devices in the past year, but only a fraction of those games were paid for and most of those were of the $1 to $3 variety.”

But IDC believes that the rebound of handhelds will be attributed to premium-priced hardware and software sales with 3DS and Vita. As more developers have access to creating on these platforms in an efficient manner, then the software will assist in keeping the hard ware alive.

“An interesting piece of this story is what’s happening demographically,” adds Ward. “The penetration rate of paying gamers is much higher in the child and teen segment for dedicated handhelds than it is for cell phone or media tablet gamers. As long as dedicated handheld OEMs and physical format portable game developers/publishers can hold serve in the demographic niches where they currently have a substantial advantage, I expect their revenue opportunities moving forward to remain substantial.”

The forecast in terms of numbers for handheld, cell phone and tablet gaming is set to see a rise from $14.7 billion in 2012 to little over $20 billion in 2015. And that is why everyone is scrambling to make games on these platforms.

Nintendo has announced that North America video game fans can purchase tickets to The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses tour. The tour dates are subject to change but have been announced through next September. It’s too bad they won’t be in San Diego during comic Con! If you don’t see your city announced, there is a chance that it will be added later. To find the latest information go to : zelda-symphony.com.

Concert dates and locations are as follows (subject to change):
Jan. 10 Dallas, TX
March 14 Vancouver, British Columbia
March 26 Seattle, WA
March 28 San Francisco, CA
April 7 Denver, CO
April 20 Phoenix, AZ
April 21 Phoenix, AZ
May 12 Atlanta, GA
May 31 Montreal, Quebec
June 22 Austin, TX
July 14 Orlando, FL
Sept. 29* Toronto, Ontario
* tickets on sale March 31

The concert will cover classic sounds from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

@Nintendo tweeted this earlier if you are considering buying tickets:
Buying tickets for the #Zelda Symphony tour? Just enter HOOKSHOT for a 15% discount! http://t.co/TVDut2kD

In the short time Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 have been available, they’ve become “the fastest-selling titles in the history of their respective franchises.” (Could that be because people were happy to finally have games for their 3DSes? Maybe.) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword sold more than one million units, making it the 45th Wii game to do so.

The 3DS itself managed to sell more than 4 million 3DS systems in 2011, but the Wii still outsold it at 4.5 million units.

“One of the strongest software lineups in our history helped Nintendo have a great holiday season and to close 2011 with a full head of steam,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Not only have the new Mario and Zelda titles already broken records, but with strong reviews and satisfied customers sharing their positive experiences, all three are also shaping up to be the latest long-tail titles from Nintendo. Couple that with a massive first- and third party lineup in the first part of the year and the prospects for 2012 are extremely promising.”

It only stands to reason that the rest of the NES exclusives are going to be on the way soon — but at least these blockbusters will make it out of the exclusivity pit so that the rest of the world can have access to them on the go.

Japanese pricing for these titles was set for ¥500, so expect something pretty similar-looking in North America.