If you're planning to pick up a Nintendo 3DS when it goes on sale March 27, you'll have a solid 18 games to choose from for your starter collection -- but they're going to cost a bit more than regular DS titles.
Nintendo has unveiled its launch day line-up for the handheld gaming system as well as a $40 price tag for games -- $5 more than titles for the existing DS platform. The 3DS won't launch with the support of a heavyweight Nintendo icon like Mario or Zelda, but external publishing partners will pick up the day-one slack with some very familiar names, including Super Street Fighter, The Sims, Star Wars, Rayman, and Madden. The system will also come with built-in titles Face Raiders, AR Games and a Mii Maker application.
Nintendo itself will contribute nintendogs + cats, a sequel to its popular pet simulator, along with submarine simulator Steel Diver and Pilotwings Resort. The company seems to be saving its big guns for a little later in the year when there are more 3DS systems in people's hands and the holidays are drawing near. Before the year is out, the company says it plans to release The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and a new installment in the Mario Kart series.
Nintendo plans to expand the total number of games available for the 3DS from 18 to more than 30 by mid-June. To drive demand for the system, the company is planning an extensive promotional campaign, with over 5,000 units in stores and people demonstrating mobile units on the streets of major cities.
The $5 premium for titles wasn't unexpected, but could still make things challenging for the company. While Nintendo has pretty much owned the handheld gaming space for generations, it faces dramatically increased competition from Apple these days, as players have flocked to the iOS devices, where game prices almost never top $10.
Granted, no iPhone offers glasses-free stereoscopic 3D, but analysts question if that effect will, in the long run, be worth an extra $30-$35 to players for games like Madden and LEGO Star Wars.
To help you assemble your shopping list, here are the titles that will be available at launch (plus the two built-in games):
Pilotwings Resort (Nintendo)
Steel Diver (Nintendo)
nintendogs + cats (Nintendo)
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (Capcom)
The Sims 3 (EA)
Madden NFL Football (EA)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D (Konami)
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (LucasArts)
Ridge Racer 3D (Namco Bandai)
Super Monkey Ball 3D (Sega)
Bust-a-Move Universe (Square-Enix)
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (Tecmo Koei America)
Asphalt 3D (Ubisoft)
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D (Ubisoft)
Rayman 3D (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (Ubisoft)
Read More: Yahoo

Alyssa Milano & Husband David Bugliari Expecting; Actress Due In The Fall

Alyssa Milano is pregnant with her first child.
"Yes, it's true. And we couldn't be happier," Alyssa Tweeted on Tuesday afternoon of her news with husband, Hollywood agent Dave Bugliari.

"Thank you for your warm wishes and love!" the 38-year-old added via Tweet.
She is due in early fall.
Alyssa and David, 32, married in August 2009 on the Bugliari family estate in New Jersey - a wedding which was attended by David's friend, Bradley Cooper.
Their nuptials were an Italian-style affair, which was inspired by Alyssa's heritage, she previously told People magazine.
"My Italian family still eats Sunday dinner together every week," Alyssa said, following her big day. "We wanted to capture the same feeling with people passing around beautiful bowls of food and talking and laughing."
A mere month after their wedding, Alyssa shot down reports she was expecting at the time, Tweeting, "Rumors that I am pregnant are still false and still annoying. Please, please, please, refrain from RT'ing such rumors."
Alyssa and David became engaged on December 18, 2008, after more than a year of dating.
The two first met in 2006.
Alyssa's newest film, "Hall Pass," with Jason Sudeikis and Owen Wilson, opens this Friday.
Read More: Yahoo

 

If the latest chatter is true, we may finally get our first glimpse at the next iPad in a little more than a week.

Kara Swisher over at All Things Digital says she has "multiple" sources who claim that Apple will hold a media event in San Francisco on March 2.

Apple has yet to officially confirm an event next week, but according to Swisher, the company "seems poised" to take the wraps off the long-anticipated iPad 2, with the event "likely" to take place at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
The story comes just hours after a flurry of rumors that the next-generation iPad had been delayed, with major news outlets eventually backtracking on the claim Monday.

While Apple hasn't said a peep about the new iPad yet, rumors peg it to be both thinner and lighter than the 1.5-pound, 0.52-inch original, with at least one camera for video chat, a souped-up processor, and more RAM.

There had also been talk that the iPad 2 would arrive with an improved screen similar to the "retina" display on the current iPhone 4, but a recent report in the Wall Street Journal shot down those rumors, noting that the new display may "disappoint customers" hoping for a "significant improvement" in resolution.

The news comes just days before the arrival of the Motorola Xoom, a tablet with a 10.1-inch display that runs on Android 3.0 "Honeycomb," the new tablet-centric version of Google's mobile Android platform.

The next iPad also faces competition from the upcoming, Android-powered LG G-Slate, RIM's BlackBerry Playbook, and the WebOS-powered Touchpad from HP.
Read More: Yahoo