We knew it was coming, it just made sense. Every time the Zune got an upgrade the rumors came flooding once more. “Microsoft is making a handheld!” Well of course they are but up until now it wasn’t anything but business logic and rumors. No more though! Shane Kim, a MS VP recently declared in an interview that "For us, it’s a matter of focusing on ‘when’". That, right there, is an admission of what we all knew was going to happen. He went on to say:

"because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like instant-on 1080p HD, Facebook, Twitter, Project Natal … And so we’ve chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we’re building a service in Live that will… extend to other platforms. No question about it."

Oh, cool stuff Microsoft, so not only are you confirming that you will eventually release a handheld but that it will run Live? Well color me shocked! What’s next, are you going to announce this device will use electricity? Oh right, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself, an announcement like that will probably take another 2 years.

[Gearlog]

The DS is a great handheld device. True it may not be as powerful as the PSP, but it has a good deal more battery power per charge. However, watching any multimedia is quite a laborious task. A special DPG video format, time encoding your files; it’s all a big hassle just to watch some video. A new product aims to take all the frustration and guesswork out of this process, simplified in a handy DS cart.

The iPlayer is a video hardware decoder supporting multiple video formats (AVI, RMVB, RM, FLV, ASF, MPG, WMV, MP3,DivX, and XviD) and a MicroSD card up to 32GB. It also plays MP3s and homebrew (this makes me think it’s an upgraded R4 cart). E-tailers are selling it for around $45 bones. This isn’t designed to replace a video player like an iPod, but makes for a good solution when you’re trying to cut down on multiple gadgets.

[Geek]
[iPlayer]

ARhrrrr is a new Augmented Reality game design project from Georgia Tech and Savannah College of Art and Design. It runs on the Tegra, a new handheld by nVidia that claims to support ‘high end’ 3d graphics. Now, I didn’t know high end meant N64 era graphics, but the augmented reality portion of the game seems ingenious enough.

You play on a small 3D city simulating a helicopter ride, then you take out zombies that try and eat the few remaining survivors. That seems simple enough until you integrate skittles, yes, not only can you taste the rainbow, you can apparently also use it to kill the undead. The integration of everyday objects may not yet be Frantz Lasorne’s vision of augmented reality but its still inspiring. AR games come a step closer to the mainstream with ARhrrrr.

Now here’s my question. Why did nVidia have to make a silly bulky handheld for anyone to give this a try when we’ve got the Nintendo DSi which not only has one but two cameras? Is the DSi not powerful enough for those high end graphics?

[ARhrrrr  / Via Offworld]

Last year when apple bravely proclaimed the iPod Touch/iPhone to be officially a handheld gaming device we laughed it off as all the iPod really had were some casual games and a Doom port. Fast forward a year later and here we have Kill-Test, a full 3D First Person Shooter game for the iPhone/iPod touch, and guess what? It’s not looking bad at all!

In fact this is pretty impressive for what’s basically a cell phone game. Now that the iPhone is fully 3D capable and has a big multi-touch screen all bets are off. If Apple can get its hands on a couple of key developers we’ll have to acknowledge a serious 3rd player in the handheld market.

A new trailer for Konami’s upcoming Suikoden Tierkreis surfaced this morning and I must say that not only does the game look fantastic, it caught me completely off guard. And by this I mean that I haven’t heard much about the game since TGS ‘08. Allbeit Q4 2008 was packed with some heavy-hitting AAA console titles, but there should be no reason for Konami to be hiding/holding this potential handheld gem back, especially if it can hold up to its claim to be the “deepest handheld RPG of all time.” We’ll see if it can hold up to this bold statement come this March when Suikoden Tierkreis hits the Nintendo DS.

We want to hear what you have to say. What is your take on handheld RPGs? Does Suikoden Tierkreis look like a game that you could find yourself becoming obsessed with?

According to a report in the Nikkei newspaper posted in the NeoGaf forums, a new Nintendo DS is on the way. Nintendo have been denying a new DS revision all year, but folk in the games industry deny for a living. Making games is secondary.

According to said report, the new DS is set to include: A digital camera, games which will make use of said camera, music playback functionality, larger screens and an SD card slot. The revised DS is also slated for a release in Japan by the end of the year and will retail for under 20,000 yen.

I was actually believing this until I saw ‘Music playback functionality’. Nintendo won’t even allow CD playback on the Wii, would they really allow any form of music playback on the DS unless it’s a video game sound test? I guess we’ll see. I don’t think Nintendo need to worry about a DS revision just yet. The DS lite still looks as slick and sexy as it did 2 years ago. I think they need to focus on the Wii; sorting out storage issues, true HD output and trying to coax third parties into releasing decent games, as well as a possible revision. Sure, the Wii is only 2 years old; but already the graphics are looking like shit and as a Wii owner it’s near unbearable seeing the amount of games that the Wii is missing out on as a result of it being so badly underpowered.

A new DS which features all of the aforementioned features would be really cool, but I’m skeptical until I see an official statement confirming this from Nintendo themselves, accompanied by a picture of the new DS.

[NeoGAF]

When Square Enix put up their teaser website for Chrono Trigger, many fans worldwide wet themselves. Now we’ve got the trailer, I’m sure many fans have wet themselves a second time. It’s now a reality that the world well get to experience Chrono’s adventure all over again.

I thought Square would’ve done the graphics up and updated it as they have a couple of their handheld Final Fantasy adventures. But we’ll be getting a faithful port of the SNES classic, which I’m sure is no bad thing for many. I only played the beginning of this game around 5 years ago, so I’m keen to give the game a through play through and see what the fuss was about and why many hold this game in such high regard. Square Enix haven’t indulged on any details about this game. So it’s unknown as to whether Europe will get a release, if it will feature stylus control or if indeed the final version of the game will feature some enhanced graphics.

Between Blue Dragon’s emergence on the Xbox 360 and now Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger making a revival, Akira Toriyama must be receiving some nice pay cheques for his character designs and artwork. Not that he’s strapped for cash or anything.

A new service will hit the DS by which movie’s and lots of other content can be downloaded to the Nintendo DS! The technology and system will be known as DSvision. Naughty folk on the homebrew and flash card scene have been putting movies, music and downloaded DS games on their DS’s for years – but at least now there is a legal option.

DSvision will be made available really soon and the DSvision pack will come with a microSD card, as DS cartridge adapter and a USB adapter. When the service launches, users will be able to setup an account and purchase content from the site which can then be transferred to the DS. It’s looking like this is a Japan only thing. But given the DS is region free I’d assume you could just import ya DSvision and go nuts. And if DSvision takes Visa and you own a Visa card, you’re good to go!!

I think it’s great the DS is being made to showcase it’s greater potential. The gaming scene on the DS is pretty much safe sailing and Nintendo and third parties have that scene completely covered – so why not push more life out of the DS by allowing movies to be played off of it! If this really takes off and Nintendo play up the Wi-Fi capabilities and also work in some DS to Wii connectivity, they could really put some extra pressure on Sony’s PSP and give folk yet more reasons to go and buy themselves a DS lite.

DSvision was announced back in November and I only heard about it today?! Damn. I guess I need to show my DS more love. It has been sat in a drawer with a dead battery and near un-played copy of Phantom hourglass since last November.

Official website: DSvision

[Slashgear]

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Too cheap to buy a DS lite? Want to keep your little brother from getting his candy stained hands on your hardware? Get the Nintendo DS water game! Its super cheap, super simple and there’s 3 games for it, Mario coins, Mario fireballs and Luigi Tetris.

I remember playing GameBoy Advance water gamer, the graphics were impressive back then, imagine now!

[Rakuten / TokyoMango]