Altered Beast is about to wise fwom its gwave on 3DS. Sega has announced that Altered Beast 3D will arrive on the eShop next week in Japan, bringing with it several new features, according to Tiny Cartridge. Like the Japanese eShop re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast 3D will include both the Japanese and western versions of the game, button remapping and an optional mode that emulates CRT monitors.

None of Sega's 3DS re-releases have been confirmed for a North American release, including Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, Sonic the Hedgehog and, now, Altered Beast. Tiny Cartridge does note, however, that Space Harrier was recently confirmed for Europe, so there may be hope the game will be added to North America's growing Sega eShop library.

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In lieu of an E3 press conference, Nintendo is going to present a Nintendo Direct before E3, showcasing the "new Smash Bros., 3D Mario game, Mario Kart and other Wii U titles."

The company previously announced that all three games would be playable at E3. This means for those not attending the show, the games may be playable at Nintendo's special Best Buy E3 demo extravaganza (note: fullness of "extravaganza" is TBD).

The most recent Nintendo Direct held last week covered the company's summer plans and Hedgehog snuggles.

In our 2010 review of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii, our own JC Fletcher admitted a terrible truth: He had used the Super Guide. Nintendo gave us the nefarious innovation a few years ago, ostensibly a tool to help less experienced players navigate the trickier parts of its games. Seasoned players recognized it for what it really was: A taunt, a gently whispering devil on your shoulder.

Resisting the shiny, candy-like allure of the Super Guide is still a major component of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Monster Games' 3DS rendition of Retro Studios' Wii platformer. A new difficulty setting tries to soften the Wii version's sharp edges, but the brutal structure of its levels remains intact, and no amount of extra health is going to change that.

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This morning's Nintendo DIrect, hosted by the ever gracious Satoru Iwata, covered NIntendo's plans for the summer. The company has another Nintendo Direct planned closer to E3, since it isn't holding a press conference at the mega show. Here's the highlights from this morning:

• Sonic: Lost World was confirmed as a Wii U and 3DS exclusive. This comes after yesterday's trademark, domain registration leaks.
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons will be discounted at $4.99 for the first three weeks after launch on the Nintendo eShop May 30.
• Mario and Sonic are teaming up again to sell millions of copies in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. No release window was given.
• Super Luigi U is both downloadable content and a standalone product.
• The Wonderful 101 are set to save the Wii U the best they can on September 15 in North America, flying into Europe on August 23.
• Sega's Game Gear lives again with several more games for the 3DS virtual console.
• And, finally, if you can't attend E3, Nintendo will hold special demo sessions of unreleased games at Best Buy. Specific locations will be detailed in the future.

During this morning's Nintendo Direct, company CEO Satoru Iwata announced more titles from Sega's Game Gear handheld were on their way to the 3DS via the Virtual console service. We've placed the announced line-up after the break.

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons was previously announced to launch on the Nintendo eShop on May 30, but now we know its price, which will be discounted for a short time.

The game will launch on May 30 for $5.99, but for the first three weeks it'll be one dollar off. From May 30 until June 20 it will cost $4.99, so get the complementary Zelda games for $10. Although complimentary Zelda games sounds so much better.

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Sega and Nintendo have entered into a "worldwide partnership" on three upcoming Sonic games, and the first fruit borne from it is Sonic: Lost World. It's coming to Wii U and 3DS, and there'll be more news on it prior to E3.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said on this morning's Nintendo Direct: "Sonic: Lost World is a brand new action-adventure platforming game that will launch exclusively on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS."

We're not sure today's Nintendo Direct will announce much in the way of new Wii U games. Well, it' unlikely to reveal any new EA ones, anyway. What we do know is that the North American broadcast covers Wii U and 3DS games coming in the summer.

As ever, the North American stream intertwines with simultaneous ones from Europe and Japan. Ninty's Euro division says its stream is about spring and summer Wii U games. Should you prefer, you can find both those streams after the break.

We hope you're ready to rumble, because this summer party gets started at 10AM ET (7AM PT, 3PM UK) right here on this post, right here on this Joystiq. We'll have all the news for you as it's revealed, like lots of little suns peeking out from behind an Iwata-shaped cloud.

Update: It's all over, friends. And there was a new game...

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Nintendo's 3DS is holding on strong to its place in the hardware charts, backed up by some successful software – and by "some" we mean "2.1 million first-party titles" in the first four months of 2013, in the US only. This is an increase of 52 percent over the same period last year.

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold 94,000 physical and digital copies in the US since its launch on April 24 and hit No. 9 on the April NPD chart. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sold 140,000 units in April, for a lifetime total of 530,000 in the states.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter expected the 3DS to be the only major console with sales up from April 2012, with the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and Vita down year-over-year. Pachter found the Vita down 57 percent, while the 3DS was up 46 percent with 185,000 sales.

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Another hot, fresh loaf of financial data has been pulled out of The NPD Group's analytical oven, and its buttery goodness contains sales information for the four week period between April 4 and May 7, 2013. During that time, the physical retail sector of the games industry was down 25 percent when compared with its performance over the same four weeks in 2012, pulling in a grand total of $495.2 million. It's worth noting, however, that this figure does not include the sale of PC games.

Hardware sales brought in $109.5 million, a 42 percent decrease from the $187.8 million seen last year, with the Xbox 360 once again enjoying the highest sales with 130,000 units moved. Meanwhile, the brief reprieve from year-over-year decline seen by the Accessories segment last month was short lived, as in April it by dropped 19 percent to a total of $131.4 million.

Software sales (including PC games) topped out at $267.8 million, with NetherRealm Studios' Injustice: Gods Among Us taking top honors as the best-selling game for the period, the first time a fighting game has finished in first since 2011's Mortal Kombat. Dead Island: Riptide and BioShock Infinite rounded out the podium in spots two and three respectively – meanwhile MMO/Syfy series Defiance debuted in fifth. As always, scope the full list after the break.

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The Starship Damrey, the first Guild02 game from Level-5, is available for download in the 3DS eShop today for $7.99. A sci-fi horror adventure game from Kazuya Asano and Takemaru Abiko, The Starship Damrey awakens players in a mysterious place and tasks them with finding out where they are, and who they are.

Kazuya Asano and Takemaru Abiko are influential writers whose prose can be seen in a multitude of visual novel games and text adventures in Japan. The two are known for leading the charge of the "Sound Novel" genre.

The Guild02 collection was a series of games, bundled together in Japan, featuring several notable contributors. Rather than being bundled, each game will be sold piecemeal in the US. It is worth noting, however, that all of the games from the Guild01 series eventually went on sale at the same time, forming a kind of cheap bundle. If you're patient, you might get lucky.

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A number of YouTube members report that Nintendo is issuing "Content ID Match" copyright claims en masse for videos featuring gameplay from its published titles.

The move appears to target the "Let's Play" community, in particular. Let's Play series authors often produce full video walkthroughs of featured games, with voiced or subtitled commentary accompanying gameplay.

When a "Content ID Match" is claimed for a YouTube clip, the claimant is given the right to place an advertisement at the beginning or the end of the video. Content ID Matches differ from DMCA takedown notices or outright video removals, in that matched videos remain viewable by the public and do not count as a copyright strike against their producers. All revenue earned from views, however, will go to the content's copyright owner, rather than the video uploader. The act is common for publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts, and Square Enix, but it's only recently that Nintendo has joined in the practice.

Multiple affected authors have come forward on Reddit to confirm Nintendo's new policy. To date, Nintendo's Content ID Matching spree seems to focus on recent releases like Super Mario 3D Land, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and New Super Mario Bros. U. Currently, Let's Play videos for older Nintendo-published games are unaffected.

Nintendo explains its position in a statement issued to GameFront: "As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database.

"For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property."

British publisher/developer System 3 has announced an enhanced remake of its blue-blob-based action platformer Putty Squad, available sometime this summer on Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Vita, 3DS and Windows 8.

The original Putty Squad was initially released on Super NES back in 1994, as a sequel to 1992's Putty for the Amiga. A demo was also released for Amiga and DOS systems, but the full game never dropped for either of those platforms. This new version, beyond offering obvious graphical improvements, will also include free downloadable levels and "location-based services used for extra content."

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Nintendo of America tell us it's got a Direct for tomorrow that's focused on summer Wii U and 3DS games. The company's Euro division also has a Wii U-focused Direct scheduled for the same time. Just to be different, its Direct is on spring and summer Wii U games. We've no confirmation of one for Japan yet, but chances are tomorrow's another worldwide triforce of Directs.

Nintendo of Europe also announced there'll be a Direct broadcast around the time of next month's E3 conference, and that one will cover Wii U games for "autumn and beyond." Nintendo recently revealed it'll have two closed events at E3 in lieu of the traditional presentation. The company noted "Nintendo Direct videos in the run up to E3," so there may be more pre-E3 broadcasts beyond the autumn one.

As ever, you'll be able to tune in to tomorrow's streams here on Joystiq, so we recommend you move precisely no muscles for the next day or so. Well, the streams will be in a new post, so you'll have to move some muscles. Apart from that, we'll see you right here(-ish) at 10AM ET (7AM PT, 3PM UK) tomorrow.

The ol' eShop gets a double dose of "super" this week with the release of both Super Metroid and Super Ghouls N' Ghosts on the Wii U. And, don't forget that Super Metroid is only $0.30 until June 12. The Blue Bomber continues his assault on the 3DS Virtual Console with the debut of Mega Man 5, along with the original Harvest Moon. Also available is a new 3DS port of Swords & Soldiers from Ronimo, creators of the excellent Awesomenauts.

Meanwhile, the Wii gets some love this week with a Virtual Console release of King of Fighters '99.

Finally, there are a couple of sales. Runner 2 is available for 25 percent off its usual $14.99 price. Also, those who purchase (or already own) Super Mario World on the Wii U Virtual Console can pick up Super Mario Bros. 2 for half price.

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In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. This week, Bob returns to the world of Monster Hunter.

Since I don't play MMOs, it's a rare occasion to see the timer on any of my games roll past that magical 99:59 mark. Still, it's happened more times than I'd like to admit; whenever an especially deep or content-rich RPG hits me during a particularly inactive time in my life, I'll focus on it and it alone. Since I've chosen a career path laden with vast periods of inactivity, RPGs Fallout 3, the Persona and Dragon Quest franchises, and Dark Souls have done a fine job of soaking up free time that would have otherwise gone to waste on frequent power naps or community service.

Chalk it up to fate if you want, but Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate found me in the familiar condition of "nothing better to do," and for the past six weeks, Capcom's hardcore action-RPG has given me a whole new set of complex mechanics and arcana to obsess over with thousands of my fellow monster-hunting fans. Now that I've reached that monumental 100-hour mark, it's time to ask myself one question: Did I invest my time wisely?

Short answer: no, but I'll save regrets over playing too many video games for my death bed.

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The never-ending march of LEGO games from Warner Bros. and Traveller's Tales continues with LEGO Friends. Based on the toy line of the same name, LEGO Friends is aimed at young girls and offers lots of activities as the titular friends explore Heartlake City.

Players can customize their character and living space – right down to the choice of pet and pet accessories – and work to build relationships with their friends, hoping eventually to reach "True Friend" status (aren't we all?). Activities include things like horse riding, photography, pet training, dancing and, our personal favorite, delivering cupcakes.

LEGO Friends heads to DS and 3DS this fall.

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Capcom VP Christian "Sven" Svensson has shed some light on why Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies is destined solely for the 3DS eShop in the west. Responding to users on the Capcom-Unity forums, Svensson stated that while he understands "the value" of owning a physical copy of a game, "it is a sign of the times that increasingly our business is going digital and not everything is going to be in both formats."

"Not every game is appropriate for both formats given the economics involved," he wrote, pointing to games like Darkstalkers Resurrection, Resident Evil 4 HD and Okami HD, which were released physically in Japan but digitally in the west. "Their COGS (costs of goods sold) and retail margins and reserve issues are entirely different there given the market differences," wrote Svensson. "It's a sad fact, but it's still a fact."

He added Capcom's US operation "worked very hard" to see Dual Destinies released in the west. "If we'd said 'no, it's not coming', it would have triggered the inevitable 'please bring it to eShop, at least' cries. Instead we shortcutted that and brought it straight to eShop."

In other gavel-banging news, a playable browser demo of Dual Destinies is now available on the game's Japanese website. Just make sure your Kanji is up to snuff if you hope to make heads or tails of it. Finally, Gematsu reports that the latest Famitsu confirms that both Miles Edgeworth and Trucy Wright will make a return appearance in the game.