First up, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that the popular Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games franchise will be back in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The game will be the first time the series has debuted on the Wii U with improved graphics and gameplay. The highlight was a curling minigame that takes advantage of the Gamepad.

In even bigger news, Iwata said that Nintendo has entered into a partnership with Sega that will see the next proper Sonic game – Sonic Lost World – released exclusively on Wii U and 3DS.

The final bit of news from Nintendo’s new partnership from Sega revealed that more Sega Game Gear games will be released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in the near future.

Iwata then turned it over to Nintendo of America where they announced that The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons will be launching on May 30 for the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Each game will cost $5.99, but the price will be reduced to $4.99 each for the first three weeks to ensure that everybody can experience the game connectivity features.

They also announced a number of release dates for other Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, which features a new world exclusive to the 3DS version, will be out on May 24. Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be out on June 9. The sole Wii U game from Nintendo of America was Game and Wario, which they say will be out on June 23 for only $39.99.

Nintendo of America gave the mic back to Iwata where he announced that New Super Luigi U, the Luigi-centric spin off of last year’s New Super Mario U, will be out on June 20 on the Nintendo eShop. The game will feature multiplayer, but will not have Mario. Instead, the game will include Nabby as a playable character. Players of the original game may remember Nabby as the character that stole items from Mario. As a playable character, Nabby is not affected by power ups, but he is also immune to all enemy attacks. Iwata says that he’s meant for players who find 2D Mario platformers to be too challenging.

As an added bonus for fans, Nintendo will be releasing a separate retail version of New Super Luigi U at retail on August 25. The retail version of the title does not require the original New Super Mario Bros. U to play. The DLC version releasing on June 20 will cost $19.99, and the retail version will cost $29.99.

Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101 will be out on September 15. There was no price announced, but you can assume that it will be probably go for the full $59.99.

Iwata also dished out some new details on Pikmin 3. The game will feature three new protagonists – Alph, Brittany and Charlie – who are trying to collect food for their dying homeworld. As such, players will have to collect fruits and turn them into juice if they want to keep exploring. There is no time limit this time around though, and players can replay previous days to collect more fruit. Pikmin 3 will be out on August 4.

On a final note, Reggie Fils-Aime announced that Nintendo has partnered with Best Buy to bring the E3 experience to gamers in America and Canada. During the week of E3, select Best Buy locations will have exclusive E3 demos in stores for fans to play.

The next Nintendo Direct is scheduled to take place in June before E3. We’re likely to not hear much on the Nintendo front until then.

If you want to watch the Nintendo Direct yourself, you can do so below:

Nintendo announced today that it will be holding a Nintendo Direct tomorrow at 7 a.m. PST/10 a.m. EST to discuss upcoming Wii U and 3DS games. This particular Nintendo Direct will only focus on the games coming out in the Summer so that means any releases from now until August. As such, you can probably expect to see more details on Pikmin 3 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

There’s always the potential for a surprise, however, and Nintendo may just have one in store for us tomorrow. The last Nintendo Direct seemed like it would be pretty ordinary, but the company used it as a platform to announce a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the 3DS.

That being said, I don’t think we’ll see any new game announcements tomorrow. Instead, we can only hope that Nintendo decides to announce some release dates for its other promising titles like The Wonderful 101.

Nintendo will be announcing some new games next month though at another Nintendo Direct that’s scheduled to go up before E3. The company had already said that it would be going against the trend of hosting a major press conference this year by holding smaller, separate events for gamers, the press and investors. June’s Nintendo Direct will be squarely aimed at fans, and we’ll probably get to see the promised new 3D Mario game and maybe even a new Metroid that doesn’t transform Samus into a sexist stereotype from the 19th century.

As always, we’ll be bringing you all the updates from the Nintendo Direct tomorrow. If you want to watch it yourself, it will go live here.

Namco announced that it will release a new 3D platformer later this year called Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures this fall. Check out the first trailer below:

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures will be out this fall on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC and Nintendo 3DS.

Besides the 3D visuals, the game will be bringing a number of new features to the long-running series. The biggest addition are the cinematic 3D battles that are reminiscent of Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64. The title will also apparently let trainers ride larger Pokemon. Whether this means that Pokemon will finally be as large as their Pokedex entries state remains to be seen.

Pokemon X and Pokemon Y will be available exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS in October.

Nintendo announced that the Rayman Legends Challenges App is now available on the Wii U eShop. The “demo” challenges players to compete in online challenges across randomly generated levels. It’s a free download, and will remain on the Wii U eShop until the game’s full release in September.

The other major release this week is Mega Man 4 on the 3DS eShop virtual console. The fourth entry in the classic Mega Man series is generally considered the point where the series started to go downhill, but it’s still a solid game.

Here are the other releases coming to various Nintendo platforms this week:

The Nintendo Download is a little sparse this week, and probably will continue to be leading up to E3. Nintendo may not be hosting a large press conference, but we’ll hopefully hear news on what the company has planned for the eShop in the coming months.

Nintendo announced today that the Wii U has sold only 3.45 million units since its launch last November. The company originally had hoped to sell 5.5 million units, but it lowered its forecast to 4 million after a less than great January.

Of course, the really bad news is that the Wii U only managed to sell 200,000 units in the first three months of this year. As Kotaku points out, the Xbox 360 sold more than that in March alone.

Nintendo recognizes that the Wii U is underperforming and takes full responsibility for that. The company had recently delayed a number of key titles for Wii U to later in the year. Nintendo hopes that it can revitalize the Wii U when a number of certifiable hits launch later this year:

For the “Wii U” system, launched in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, there were some delays in software development that resulted in intervals between new software title releases at the early stage of this year. Taking this into consideration, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, we plan to concentrate on proactively releasing key Nintendo titles from the second half of this year through next year in order to regain momentum for the platform. Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called “Miiverse,” which offers an environment where people can empathize with others and share their gaming experiences. We also strive to reduce costs to improve hardware profitability.

As for the 3DS, it’s doing much better than the Wii U. The system sold 5.7 million units in Japan alone. It also sold 4.3 million units in North America, and 4 million units in the rest of the world. Nintendo did, however, sell less 3DS units in North America and Europe this year than it did last year. The only territory to see a sales increase was Japan.

With the release of Monster Hunter 4 later this year, Nintendo’s dominance in Japan is assured. What about the North American and European markets though? Nintendo says that it will continue cranking out key software titles while helping to bring over Japanese games, like the recently announced Bravely Default, to broaden the appeal of the 3DS in the West:

For “Nintendo 3DS,” in order to set in the overseas markets the same trend as in the Japanese market, we will concentrate on proactively releasing key Nintendo titles. “Animal Crossing: New Leaf,” a hit title which contributed to sales growth in Japan, will be released in the U.S. and Europe in June 2013, and the latest titles from the Pokémon series, “Pokémon X Version/Pokémon Y Version,” will be released globally in October 2013. In addition, we are planning to more actively support the Japanese software developers in distributing their key titles overseas. In Japan, we continuously strive to stimulate the market by releasing new titles such as “Tomodachi Collection,” launched on April 18, 2013 as a sequel to the popular “Nintendo DS” version of “Tomodachi Collection.” Furthermore, in overseas markets, we will more actively attempt to boost the sales rate of the downloadable format of packaged software, a sales method that we started last summer, in order to increase the number of new sales opportunities and improve our profitability.

Now this might look like gloom and doom to some, but Nintendo actually had a pretty good year. The company may have posted an operating loss of $366 million, but it made a small profit of $71 million thanks to the depreciation of the yen. The company is still not making a profit with hardware sales so the pressure will be on Nintendo to rejuvenate the Wii U this year.

We can only wait until later this year when Nintendo starts rolling out the heavy hitters to see if the Wii U can get on its feet after such a disappointing launch period.

First up is LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, the prequel to LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U. The game will be available starting April 21 at retail and on the eShop.

At the Nintendo 3DS Direct event yesterday, Nintendo announced that it would be localizing the next three games in the Guild series from Level 5. Before those come out, you can now grab the first games in the Guild series at a reduced price this week. Liberation Maiden and Crimson Shroud are both $4.99 while Aero Porter is $2.99. Aside from the Guild series, Dress to Play: Cute Witches will also be on sale for $1.99 this week.

The following games will also launch on the 3DS eShop this week:

On a final note, the season finale for BearShark will air on Nintendo Video this week.

The above games are all newly announced for the North American market. What about the already announced games though? Nintendo had more details to share on those as well, including new trailers.

The first trailer is for Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. The latest title in the successful, and very funny, Mario & Luigi RPGs follows the exploits of Mario and Luigi as they attempt to rescue Princess Peach from a dream world. The only way to enter said dream world, however, is through Luigi’s dreams. Inside his dreams, Mario will be battling enemies with Luigi who gains almost god-like powers thanks to his newfound dream abilities.

Up next is Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. This particular title is a remake of Retro Studio’s wonderful Donkey Kong Country Returns that debuted on the Wii in 2010. Most of the title is a straight up port, but it does have a few new features. For one, the original game was incredibly difficult in later areas so Nintendo is upping the life bar of Donkey and Diddy Kong for players that aren’t ready for the challenge of the normal mode. There’s also a new world with eight new levels to be unlocked for those who beat the main game.

The third is for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The latest entry in Nintendo’s popular life sim looks to bring more of the Animal Crossing experience that fans have come to expect with the added gameplay feature of the player now being the mayor of their town.

Finally, Nintendo released a new trailer for LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins. The prequel to Wii U’s LEGO City Undercover, this new title brings the open world gameplay of the console title to the 3DS. Expect more of the zany LEGO humor that you’ve come to expect from the series.

In this week’s Nintendo Download, Toki Tori 2 for the Wii U eShop is definitely the star of the show. The game is the same puzzle solving adventure as before, but with expanded play mechanics. The game sells for $14.99, but will be 10 percent off until April 19.

The Nintendo 3DS eShop will also be getting plenty of new content this week with an update to the virtual console being the highlight. The original Castlevania for NES is now available for download on the service. If you’re looking for a punishing, but fair, NES action-platformer, this is your game.

Other games hitting the 3DS eShop incude Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D, Gabrielle’s Ghostly Grove 3D, and update to Colors! 3D. As for the weekly 3DS sale, hardcore action game escapeVektor is on sale for $4.99 this week.

Finally, the Wii Virtual Console gets a single update in the form of NAM-1975, a shooter released by SNK in 1990.

In this week’s Nintendo Download, BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien is the sole game to hi the Wii U eShop. It’s an excellent title though, and I’ve been having loads of fun with it on the PC. The Wii U version should be just as good.

The Nintendo 3DS eShop is getting a few releases this week as well. The first is the demo for the highly anticipated Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. The sequel to the original Lords of Shadow sets up the plot of the sequel coming out later this year.

Other releases this week on the Nintendo 3DS eShop include Mahjong Mysteries – Ancient Athena, Coaster Creator 3D and Easter Eggzstravaganza.

Two 3DS games are also running promotions this week. Fractured Soul, a hardcore action platformer for the 3DS is on sale this week for $7.99. The free Fire Emblem Awakening DLC map will remain that way until March 6. After that, it will go up in price to $2.50. New DLC in the form of the EXPonential Growth map is also available today for $2.50.

Finally, the Wii gets treated to a single WiiWare game today in the form of Retro City Rampage. The title comes highly recommended to those who haven’t yet played it on the PC, Xbox 360, PS3 or Vita.