Following the highly-demanded NES Classic Edition, the SNES Classic Edition has just been announced. This miniature console is shaped like a Super Nintendo Entertainment System and comes with 21 games, a smaller number than the 30 games packaged with the NES Classic Edition. Among the 21 games is Star Fox 2, a previously unreleased SNES game. The remaining 20 classic games include:

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• F-Zero
• Final Fantasy III (known as Final Fantasy VI in Japan)
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Street Fighter II Turbo
• Super Castlevania IV
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out!!

The SNES Classic Edition will be released on September 29th, 2017 with a retail price of $79.99.


(Image: Nintendo)

Nintendo just announced the newest addition to its family of 3DS consoles: the New Nintendo 2DS XL. The New 2DS XL can be seen as a counterpart to the New 3DS XL but without the autostereoscopic 3D display, much like the relationship between the original 2DS and 3DS. However, unlike the original 2DS, the New 2DS XL will feature a flip screen like most other 3DS models. More details regarding the New 2DS XL can be found in the following video:

The NES Classic Edition, the portable console that contained 30 classic NES games, has reportedly been discontinued by Nintendo. According to a statement given to IGN, the console was not meant to be a long-term product, and a greater supply than expected was produced to meet the growing demand.

Similarly, the Famicom Classic Mini has halted production in Japan, but Famitsu suggests that this halt is temporary. Both products have been exceedingly popular in their respective regions, with the NES Classic Edition selling out soon after its release.


(Image: Nintendo)

In late March, Billings Farm and Museum, located in Vermont, issued a challenge to Nintendo regarding who can milk cows faster as a response to the "Milk" minigame in 1-2 Switch. According to a March 24th Facebook post, Billings stated:

It seemed unclear how this challenge would play out, as media outlets previously suggested that Billings and Nintendo would compete to see who could milk actual cows faster. It turns out that the competition focused only on the Nintendo Switch game, but Nintendo representatives did get a chance to milk a real cow. Results of the competition can be found in the following video:

One month since the Nintendo Switch's release, sales for the new console have been going strong. A recent report from Famitsu indicates that 524,371 units of the Nintendo Switch were sold in Japan during the month of March. Strong sales and rave reviews of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have likely contributed to the console's sales, as 307,621 copies of the game have been sold in Japan last month.

Worldwide, figures from SuperData state the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 1.5 million units halfway through the month of March. There are currently no reports if the Nintendo Switch reached its goal of 2 million sales by the end of March, but given this trend, it certainly isn't impossible. As shortages continue, Nintendo will need to boost production numbers to continue their remarkable sales trend.


(Image: Nintendo)

For the past few weeks, the Nintendo Switch Preview Tour has made its way through a few cities, giving the general public a chance to play with the Nintendo Switch before its release. On February 26th, I attended the San Francisco event and recorded my experiences with the new console.

Arrival
At 5:51am, I arrived at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, ready to experience the Nintendo Switch for the first time. Although the Nintendo website stated to not arrive before 6am, there were already about 100 people lined up ahead of me, some of whom waited since midnight!


The wait wasn’t very long; the event staff began distributing wristbands to the first 250 visitors in line to attend the first session. Each session lasted 90 minutes, so I just needed to report back before 8am. Different colored wristbands represented different sessions, and it’s fitting for the first session color to be red, the motif color of Nintendo Switch media.


First Games
The first game I played was Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. This latest upgrade to the retro fighting game felt just like playing the original Street Fighter II on the SNES. The classic arcade and HD remix graphic options allowed players to either feel nostalgia from their arcade childhoods or experience a modern twist to a classic game.


Afterwards, I played Arms, an evolved fighting game that implemented the new technology of the Switch. Rather than mash buttons to fight my way to victory, I focused on tilting each Joy-con to perform certain actions, such as moving or blocking. The HD rumble feature of the Joy-con was very sophisticated, as different parts of the controller rumbled throughout the match.


Play Styles
The Nintendo Switch trailer showcased various play styles to provide both home and portable console gaming experiences. Each play style was represented...

Mass Transit is the latest expansion for Cities: Skylines, the award-winning city-building game, and it brings several new systems into play to help citizens traverse their towns in speed and style.

Nokia will be streaming a 360 degree video of its press conference live from Barcelona during the 2017 Mobile World Congress.

Samsung will be streaming their press conference live from the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
on February 26 at 7pm CET.

SAN FRANCISCO
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced the global launch of AMD Ryzen™ 7 desktop processors, with pre-orders starting today from more than 180 global etailers and boutique OEMs, to the delight of PC gamers, content creators, enthusiasts, and fans worldwide. After four years and more than two million engineering hours of development, Ryzen is ready to unleash its powerful purpose, shake up the market, and connect millions more people to high performance personal computing.

"Four years ago we began development of our 'Zen' processor core with the goal to deliver unprecedented generational performance gains and return choice and innovation to the high-performance computing market," said Dr. Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD. "On March 2, enthusiasts and gamers around the world will experience 'Zen' in action, as we launch our Ryzen 7 family of processors and reinvigorate the desktop computing market."