Nintendo will host a Nintendo Direct broadcast "before the start of E3," to discuss new Smash Bros., 3D Mario game, Mario Kart and other Wii U titles, according to a tweet on the company's official Twitter account. #IwataSays We will discuss new Smash Bros., 3D Mario game, Mario Kart and other Wii U titles in our #NintendoDirectNA before the start of E3 — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 17, 2013 The company's most recent Nintendo Direct focused on the summer of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games. It revealed a partnership between Nintendo and Sega to bring the next three Sonic the Hedgehog games exclusively to Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS. It also announced three different control schemes for Pikmin 3 on the Wii U, and that New Super Luigi U will be released as...

Vocaloid rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 will hit Nintendo 3DS in Japan this fall with more content than its predecessor, Satoru Iwata announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation today. The game will feature brand new songs and additional features that were not present in Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai, which launched for 3DS in March 2012. Songs will be playable two ways: using the 3DS buttons and tapping the 3DS' bottom touchscreen. The game will also include new costumes for playable characters, and the nendoroid design — which makes characters look like small toy figures — has also been given a graphical overhaul. All songs used will also be the full-length recordings. Currently confirmed songs include "Koneko no Payapaya" by One-cup P and...

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, two Zelda games originally released on the Game Boy Color, will launch May 30 on the 3DS Virtual Console on sale for a limited time and offer additional content for those who own both copies, Nintendo announced today during a Nintendo Direct event. Both games will retail for $5.99, but from May 30 through June 20, the games will be discounted to $4.99 each because Nintendo wants "as many players as possible to experience all of this great additional content." The games will also include a "link system" that allows players who own both versions to unlock additional content, like a new final boss. You can check out new trailers for Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons below.

Nintendo sold 2.1 million first-party Nintendo 3DS software units in the U.S. during the first 18 weeks of 2013, an increase of 52 percent over the same time period last year, Nintendo reports. Since its launch on April 24, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold almost 94,000 physical and digital copies. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sold more than 140,000 physical and digital units in April in the U.S.. The game sold more than 530,000 units in the U.S. since its launch on March 24. New Super Mario Bros. U for the Wii U, which launched in November last year, shifted 770,000 physical and digital units in the U.S. to date. Nintendo notes that data of physical sales of games in April are sourced from the NPD Group and digital downloads of games data is from Nintendo's internal sales...