Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 have not only seen a change in their names from Super Mario 3D and Mario Kart 3D respectively, they have also been given official release dates by Nintendo.

Super Mario 3D Land will be released this November in Japan and North America, and Mario Kart 7, which is the first numbered installment in the series, will be releasing the next month, in December, in both the regions. Nintendo also announced that Kid Icarus: Uprising will be released this year, as it has always been planned.

Nintendo recently announced that they will also be making a huge $80 price cut to the 3DS next month. Those who have already purchased the 3DS at its original price of $249, will be getting 10 free GBA and 10 free SNES games from the 3DS’ Virtual Console. See the entire story here.

Nintendo showed off many games for their 3DS today in a video- Mario Kart 3DS, Mario 3DS (which is a 3D 2D platformer), Kid Icarus, Luigi’s mansion. Many more will be shown. More info as it comes.

Oh, and Star Fox is back- hell yeah!

Mario Kart 3DS- The game looks really great from the demo they showed on stage- the return of coins, many tracks (old and new), kart customization, underwater racing, gliding, new items and  a shitload of other awesome stuff. Releases this Holiday season.

Star Fox 3DS- You can control the game with either the buttons or with the gyroscope. The game features video chatting. Arrives in US stores this September.

Super Mario 3D– This has to be one of the best demos ever shown in any conference. Typical fun Mario stuff, Mario outfits, a funky music theme in the background, awesome graphics… this game seems to have it all. Releases in 2011- “before the year is over.”

Kid Icarus: Uprising- The gameplay looks stunning, and so do the graphics. The game also has some pretty great voice work. There’s also multiplayer. You can battle other players. 3 on 3 MP action. This looks amazing. Kid Icarus AR cards are also coming soon. Comes later this year.

Luigi’s Mansion 2- Great gameplay was shown, exactly what you expect from a Nintendo game. Luigi travelling through this haunted mansion with his torch, collecting coins, and other stuff. It’s not a “simple revision”, rather an entirely new game, making great use of the 3D, and featuring more than one mansion.

It’s almost time folks. E3’s less than twenty four hours away, at the time of this article going live, and the excitement is palpable.  This year’s E3 is looking to be the best ever yet – the run in seems to be afloat with rumors, that range from the genuinely believable, to the mildly incredulous, to the outright impossible, with everything from a new Grand Theft Auto and Star Fox game to the revival of retro favorites such as Road Rash and Killer Instinct, along with the reveal of Half Life: Episode 3, having been discussed as being revealed this E3. However, even without all the mad rumors, there’s a lot of stuff that is definitely confirmed to make an appearance at the conferences that is exciting. Sony’s NGP, for example, their new super powerful handheld that will join Nintendo’s 3DS in the newest round of the handheld wars. Nintendo, on the other hand, is unveiling their newest console, rumored to be codenamed Project Café, which will mark their foray into HD gaming. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the Café will reportedly also be more powerful than any other console till date, be supported extensively by third parties, have a traditional controller (although with the usual Nintendo twist), have a robust online service, and will mark the return of several Nintendo franchises long given up as dead. That sounds too good to be true.

On the games front, we know stuff like Gears of War 3, RAGE, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will all be making an appearance. In addition, we know we can count on some surprises from Sony and Nintendo (Nintendo more than Sony, since there are bound to be some unexpected titles on their new console), and Microsoft for the Kinect, if you’re into that sort of thing.

It all sounds exciting, doesn’t it? You’d be right if you answered with a yes: E3 is probably the best time to be a gamer, and it is a time when all of us come together regardless of our fanboy alliances to celebrate the advancement of gaming together-

No, wait. That’s not what we do at all. Actually, we gamers somehow manage to reduce what is merely a series of media briefings followed by a grand convention to a competition, somehow declaring a ‘winner’ every year out of the three platform holders. Huh, it’s weird, but we’re gamers, all we do is compete, whether against the computer or against each other, so what do you expect?

So, what with me being two things: a gamer, and a true blue Nintendo fanboy – I hereby present to you my list of reasons/rumors/whatever that will definitely win Nintendo this E3. Mind you, if everything I write here happens, it might be too awesome to be contained within one universe, setting off a chain of events that shall ultimately end in a cataclysmic doomsday on the 21^st of December, 2012.

… the list, then.

PROJECT CAFÉ

Certainty: Confirmed

If Nintendo gets the specs right, the Cafe could legitimately steal away a lot of wind from Microsoft and Sony's sails

Okay, so there are five things Project Café needs to do to be an uncontestable success, one of which is assured. It needs to have great first party games; it needs to have proper third party support and all the multiplats that will be released, as well as some exclusives if it can get those; it needs to have a robust online service, at least on par with PSN (albeit without the entire ‘your credit card data has been stolen’ part); it needs a proper, traditional controller, with two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons; and most of all, it needs to outpower current generation consoles if it wants to be taken seriously, and remain relevant.

So, the one thing that, above all else, would win Nintendo this E3 would be an exciting reveal for their new console? A proper controller, HD capabilities, on par online, assured third party support… now that would be the ultimate console, wouldn’t it? With all the third party multiplats and exclusives, in addition to the incredible first party backing of Nintendo exclusives, that are arguably without equal?

The ball is in Nintendo’s court, and they’re in the perfect position to perform a coup de ètat. They just need to play their cards right. All the pieces need to fall into place. Everything needs to go right, and that is something that hasn’t happened for Nintendo since 1996.

Still, it’s high time it happened now. If it did… well, that’s an easy E3 victory for Nintendo.

Shigeru Miyamoto has said the Super Mario title he is working on for 3DS will skip out on the console’s StreetPass functionality unless “a spectacular idea comes to mind.”

Miyamoto said the title will also feature motion controls, using 3DS’ built-in gyro sensor instead of a second analog controller.

“Sometimes people ask why the 3DS isn’t double stick,” said Miyamoto. “One is normally used to control the camera, but having the gyro sensor, you can replace the analogue stick by moving the console, which is very intuitive.”

Let’s hope we’ll se more at E3 in June.

Thanks to NintendoWorldReport for the info.