Nintendo 3DS - Nintendo Nintendo's latest handheld is a hit in its home country.

A big hit.

The Nintendo 3DS went on sale Saturday in Japan and has already virtually sold out throughout most the country, with more than 371,000 units reportedly purchased in the first two days. That puts the system on a faster sales track than the indomitable Nintendo DS, according to some calculations.

Famitsu, a Japanese consumer site, notes the company sold 441,000 DS units in the first four days of availability, which set a record for portable devices, says Gamasutra. If Nintendo can keep up with demand, the 3DS has a chance at topping that number.

That bodes well for the North American launch of the 3DS, which is set for March

Back in the Day: Oldest Video Games

Think Mario is old-school? In the grand scheme of things,
he's a regular newbie. With roots reaching back to the middle of the 20th
century, the earliest video games were crafted by risk-taking inventors who
toiled away in anonymity for the sheer sake of technological progress. Take a
trip through time and check out gaming's true classics.

Whose turn is it again? It's designed to be unwinnable, has the strategic depth of Jersey Shore, and stops being entertaining right around when you stop
believing in Santa Claus. As a kid's diversion, it's genius, but as a grown-up game, it's the pits.

It's tic-tac-toe, the definitive zero-sum game.

But it's more interesting than you think.

It ruffled PETA's feathers.

Appearing in numerous casinos over the years, the "Tic-Tac-Toe
Chicken Challenge" pits a live chicken against hopeful gamblers in a good,
old-fashioned game of tic-tac-toe. Confined in a glass cube, the chicken goes
first, pecking away at an X or an O while the human taps out a retort on a
video screen. Several moves later, and we have a winner

Duke Nukem Forever - 2K Games Warm up your trigger finger and load up on bubble gum -- Duke Nukem Forever, the definitive vaporware video game, is headed back to your living room in a few short months.

Really.

2K Games and developer Gearbox announced Friday that the legendary first-person shooter will be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on May 3rd and internationally on May 6th -- a mere 14 years and one month after being announced.

"The moment fans all over the world have been waiting for is almost here," 2K prez Christoph Hartmann proudly proclaimed in a statement. "May 3, 2011 marks Duke's return as he unleashes his brash and brutally honest wit on the world. His return is going to be epic and

cnbc.com

As the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers clean out their lockers and the nation debates which Super Bowl commercial was the best, there's a big cloud hanging over the 2011-2012 NFL season.

A work stoppage is looking increasingly likely — and the effects of that could reach far beyond the gridiron. One company that's undoubtedly monitoring the situation closely is Electronic Arts.

As the exclusive rights holder of NFL video games, EA relies heavily on its long-standing "Madden" franchise to make its numbers. Regardless of the situation on the field next year, there will be a new installment of "Madden," but the company isn't holding out much hope that we'll see a lot of real world

Smell your way through games Love the smell of napalm in the morning? You might catch a whiff of exactly that the next time you hurl a fireball in World of Warcraft.

At least that's the hope of Scent Sciences Corporation, the outfit responsible for creating the ScentScape game peripheral. Due out worldwide this coming Christmas, it's designed to help immerse gamers even further into interactive experiences by blasting them with -- terrifying as it sounds -- game-oriented aromas.

Via a USB connection, this newfangled attempt at smell-o-vision packs 20 'scent wells' into a cartridge that emits odors -- such as pine, ocean and smoke -- based on feedback from the particular game you're playing. No word if that includes

3DS, coming soon. - Nintendo It's no secret that Nintendo is trying to shake up the gaming world with the 3DS -- and if history is any indication, it's probably going to have plenty of initial success. Gamers and mass-market consumers have shown an extraordinary level of interest in innovative gaming advances over the past few years.

The problem is, Nintendo devices tend to fly off the shelves at a rapid clip. And even if you manage to find one, spending $250 on blind faith is a pretty daunting task these days. So how can you find out if the 3DS -- a handheld gaming device that allows users to play games in stereoscopic 3D without the need for special glasses -- is something that should be on your "must-have" list?