The Legend of Zelda has to be my favorite video game series of all time.  So, with that said – I was ecstatic to see them release a series of  six great wallpapers for anybody to download.  Each wallpaper comes in the following resolutions:

• 1920 x1200
• 1600 x 1200
• 1280 x 1024
• 1280 x 800
• 1280 x 768
• 1024 x 768

Go grab the wallpaper from Nintendo’s Zelda anniversary website.  I really hope this is a start of a trend for Nintendo to release more high resolution video game art from all of their series.

Steel Diver

Ever want to pilot your own submarine? No? Well, me neither – however Steel Diver still takes the cake when it comes to delivering a fun and unique experience. It is essentially a submarine simulation game that kind of mashes up the gameplay from strategy games and arcade shooters.  The periscope mini game missions (where you can turn yourself 360 degrees to look for ships to shoot) is really fun too.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Fighting games on portable systems usually suck due to lack of features and poor controls.  This variation of Street Fighter though is thankfully the exception to that rule.  Sure, "professional" players might be turned off a ‘bit by it – however the inclusion of the touchpad combos and special moves for me, makes it a much more enjoyable experience.  It keeps the gameplay fast and you won’t have to worry about spamming Hadoukens by pressing the touch screen cause the computer will often counter you quickly.

Pilotwings Resort

Last but not least, you have Pilotwings Resort.  This game (especially with the 3D turned on) is amazing to look at and play too.  The best way to sum it up quickly would be if you took the flying parts of Wii Sports Resort and made them into their own game – plane and simple.  Really fun and there is always the challenge of beating your previous score in many of the missions.

Overall, I am pretty happy with all three game choices.  Each showcases the abilities of the 3DS really well, and should at least be looked into if you are wanting to pick up a few more new games for your new 3DS system.

The 3DS System Itself

The first thing you’ll notice, if you have had one of the other variations of the DS systems before is this one is a little ‘bit heavy in comparison.  It is nothing mind-blowing or anything, but it is a little noticeable.  I also keep wanting to pull the stylus out of the side, even though now it has been relocated to the back of the 3DS.  The buttons and controls feel really solid, not cheap at all.  Some people have said that the fact that it is a little ‘bit bigger than the regular DS Lite is an issue, but for me it wasn’t really noticeable.

The 3DS System Software Basics

Playing around with some of the basic applications and the system itself was almost as much fun as playing the games.  I am sure eventually the novelty of running around the house taking 3D pictures of things might wear off, but right now it’s just really cool.  I’ve also thought about using the 3DS as my defacto MP3 player too.  It does have all the functionality there – but not sure yet if I want to carry it in my pocket with me everywhere I go.  Right now it is more of a really expensive baby I am taking really good care of.

Here is a quick rundown of the built-in software:

• Nintendo 3DS Camera  – Not a replacement for your expensive digital camera, but it is fun to take both 2D an 3D pictures.  There are also a lot of interesting photo effects you an add too.
• Nintendo 3DS Sound – Your standard sound recorder and player.  Comes with a few audio effects you can add too – just in case you wanted to listen to yourself in a tunnel while talking into an electric fan.
• Mii Maker – Creating a Mii from your photo is really the draw with this application.  You also have a few more items to choose from in comparison to the Wii Miis, however facial hair is still rather wonky looking.
• AR Games – A great example of what the 3DS is really capable of.  I haven’t gotten around to playing with all the cards and features, but this one is great to use when you want to show the 3DS off to a friend.
• Face Raiders – I thought this would be stupid and I was surprised by how fun it was.  You pretty much turn around with the 3DS, shooting flying faces you input into the game.
• Activity Log – Here you can check to see how long you have played each game and some other interesting stats.  I really haven’t played with the 3DS long enough to get much to show up here.

I am sure over the next few days and weeks I’ll have more to say about the 3DS, as I get a chance to play with it longer.  Overall, I can sum up the experience like this.  It was the same sort of wow factor I had when I played the Wii for the first time.  You are kind of in awe of the technology – and then realize, they the games are pretty fun too.

NBA Jam has been just about the only sports game (outside of wrestling games) that I can play and actually have fun with.  Like it’s predecessor, the new NBA Jam for Wii is a basketball game for people who may not know all 227 rules you need to know in most basketball games.  It is simplified, when you compare it with other basketball games out there – but that’s perfect for me, because I’m not the world biggest sports fan. 

The game is great for a group of people or as something quick you want to play while you have a little free time to spare. 

Overall, I would say this version of NBA Jam might even beat out the old SNES version I still dust off and play from time to time.  It gives you all the basic features of the old two on two basketball game and tosses in enough new fun modes and un-lockables to get you to keep playing. 

It should be no secret by now, with some of the icons and wallpapers I have shared that I am a big fan of Nintendo and the Mario franchise. With that said, I have found two more great widescreen wallpapers for you to use to decorate your own PC desktop with.

You can download the one you see above from this link here, or check out the one bellow that I am currenly using on my own computer:

You can download the black and white version here.  Both make for great ways to decorate your desktop – and an excellent way to round out the previous week.  Both wallpapers were designed by CodFather over at DeviantArt – I highly suggest you go check out some of his other work too.

• Download the Wario Desktop Icon! (.zip)

The icon is compatible with the following sizes: 256 x 256, 128 x 128, 64 x 64, 48 x 48, 32 x 32, 24 x 24, 16 x 16. It is also in both .ico and .png formats.  Feel free to use, distribute and what not.  Just remember, if you do share it around, please be sure to give me at least a little ‘bit of credit.

This is the last in my three part wallpaper suite.  For free, you can download and decorate your own computer screen with this old school NES box art wallpaper.

The resolution for this wallpaper is 1920×1200, and easily downloaded from this link here:

• Download the NES Box Art Wallpaper – Third Edition! (.zip)

Hope you enjoy this kind of unique way to decorate your desktop.  Also be sure to check out both the first and second NES Box Art wallpaper’s I put out too.

• NES Box Art Wallpaper
• NES Box Art Wallpaper – Take 2

Feel free to use it, share it or print it out and make a funny hat out of it.  All the I ask is you give me a link back, or drop in a comment if you really enjoyed it.  Stay tuned for more digital arts and crafts right here on Mitchelaneous.com.

Who wouldn’t love to have their desktop decorated in old retro video game boxes from the NES era of gaming?  I’m back with another collage of NES box art for your to download and use as wallpaper.

Feel free to download this wallpaper, and use it all you want.  It is 1920×1200 in size (because, well – that is my screen resolution) and I figured that should be big enough for others to re-size as they see fit.

• Download the NES Box Art Wallpaper – Second Edition! (.zip)

I learned a lesson from the first NES box art wallpaper I put out, it was hard to see icons with all the colors and clutter.  So this time around, I made it a little dimmer – so you can still see the box art, but your icons or anything else on your desktop should be more easily read.

Drop in with a comment if you like it, and I might be putting another one of these out from old NES box art images I have been saving from the Web.

Since my wallpaper highlighting old Atari 2600 carts was so popular, I thought I would revisit the idea – but this time I used old NES box art as my source.

Feel free to download this wallpaper (1920×1200) and use it all you want.  It was mainly created because I thought it’d be a cool idea – and hopefully you think it is awesome too.

• Download the NES Box Art Wallpaper! (.zip)

Let me know what you think, or if you would like to see any more box art or cart scan wallpaper creations.  Thanks to all the wonderful (and some not so wonderful) artists of the past for creating these nice, odd and sometimes strange representations of these great NES games.

Still looking over some of my favorite news from E3 2010 here, and this trailer had me all kinds of excited.  I have practically played just about every Zelda game – so I will definitely be picking this one up as soon as it is released.  I really like the fact they have worked in the Wii Motion Plus into the game too.  Those extra dongles I bought are starting to look like a waste, other than having some fun in Wii Sports Resort.