Nintendo DS

Hey Portagame pondskippers! Now's your chance to get in on a little bit of free action. Cell phones are a (evil?) necessity in today's world, so why not buy in on a little fun while you are at it? The biggest online mobile phone shop in the U.K. is offering free game consoles and gadgets with the purchase of select phones. You can qualify for a free Nintendo Wii or DS, an Xbox 360, iPods, Tom Toms, Camcorders and Photo Printers when you purchase a phone and new plan. See the full list of free gifts when you buy a phone.

Too bad this offer only applys to U.K. residents. I'm seriously considering getting a Nokia N95 in the very near future (although I'm not sure if that phone qualifies for any gifts or not). Anyway, if you are a U.K. portagamer and ready to dropkick your old brick for a nice shiny new phone, why not go for the free goods? Get yourself a phone and a free system before they finish this promo.

[Disclaimer: Portagame is not associated with mobiles.co.uk in any way. This is a promotion run soley by them, solely on their site. But its a helluva deal if you ask me and you're Wii-less.]

I was looking around teh good ol' trusty internets to see about breathing some life into Portagame. I really don't have the bandwidth (meaning personal time--I have a job to keep and a family to feed, and a wife who yells at me for being on the computer too much. sob.) to do game reviews. I have in the past said "So this seems cool" about a game or two, but I really enjoyed reporting on the new hardware and accessories for handhelds.

So back to my story. I was crawling the web, looking for things that interested me. I usually look for tidbits that don't already have fanboy gizz all over them, as I don't prefer to contribute to their noise (but have in the past). I decided to look at some the advertisers in my pocket to see if anyone was doing any PSP or DS promos for the holidays. That's when I noticed a promo for GameFly. Yes the GameFly that lets you rent PSP, GBA, and DS games via mail. Looks like they are gearing up big for the Wii launch and giving out a Wii everyday in November. A Free Wii! Did you hear me? A Free WII! (I give up on the fanboy noise thing). So if you are a poor Wii-less gamer (ah geez) who needs a Wii, go check out the ad below. You might just pee a little.

The main way to enter the drawing is to register for a new account. But if you have an account (you smart thrifty gamer, you) and you don't know about this promo yet (not so smart), all you have to do is login to your account and enter the contest. For the rest of us tin-foil hat wearing paranoids who don't like to buy things online, you can relax: THERE'S NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Find the rules page and there is a link to the alternate entry (hooray for legalaties!).

Now in the comments, please be sure to leave us with your best "Wii" pun. Thank you for visiting Portagame. Have a nice day. Buh Bye!

Not to be found in stores, this homebrew is of a different batch. A cloth pouch to protect one your smallest, but most priceless, assets. No, I'm not talking about what's in your pants. I'm talking about your NSMB DS game. This micro messanger-bag is crafted up by the wife of the year 20XX, a NeoGAF forum member. Kudos to the both of you for the idea to do this and the skills to do so.

So, the only question left is, when does mass production begin? I'll put in an order for 200 or so.

[Found here via DSFanBoy]

We've heard all the diseased DS rumors: Dead Pixels, cracked casings, sticky buttons, small stylus, etc. There are millions of Nintendo DS Systems in the public having unprotected networking, so its a good idea to put a silicon condom over your DS while multiplayer gaming in case of any outbreaks.

DS Silicon Protector Case at Lik-Sang

Sliced Gaming was able to get ahold of Ian Dunlop, the indie developer from oeFun to talk in-depth about the addicting time-killer Konductra. Many are comparing the game to a color version of Polarium, but it is much more unique than that. You are pieces that are only two tiles big and you can place them anywhere, in any direction, on the gameboard using your stylus. The object is to line up rows of the same color, connecting to other rows using wildcard tiles, then wipe them out by tracing it with your styles. Yeah, its one of those "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master" puzzle games. Multiplayer is going to be a huge aspect of this game and will be available over Wi-Fi.

The interview includes a nice Dual Screen video at the end of it and definitely worth checking out.

Read the interview.

[Thanks for the link Nick!]

Josh Zimmerman is giving the world an excellent hands on review of Opera for the DS.

Its looking pretty good, but as with the PSP browser, we're hoping this is just a start and not a final offering. (I'm pretty sure the Opera team will continue developing and supporting further versions.)

[via Gizmodo]

Check out our buddies at Gadget Madness where they list 13 noticable differences between the DS Phat and the DS Lite.

Looks like he got most everything. Well, he could have compared it to a ham sandwich and then told us what tastes better with mustard, but this isn't a perfect world.

Before all you fanboys get so excited that you pee a little, I hope you take a brief moment to download the E3TV / PermissionTV Player. This application rocks. It will stream eventually play all three of the major press conferences from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, FULLSCREEN AND FREE OF CHARGE. If you have to go to school or work (What? You used up your vacation already? Call in sick already), the media player will download the press conferences for later viewing. So don't fret about paying Gamespot for a subscription or battling 1UP users for bandwidth. This media gobstopper of a goodie is coming directly from E3Insider.com, the official news site of E3.

Also, if you enjoyed last years Floored and FanCam blogcasts, the E3TV app will work like a podcast retriever and download those episodes for you as soon as they become available.

Hurry, the Sony event is only a couple of hours away. Download now before their server bogs up.

[UPDATE: The player is cool in concept but poor in execution. I still have yet to see the Sony conference available through the player and it has been over for 8 hours. Verdict: Stick with the low-res free Gamespot coverage.]

Need more evidence that New Super Mario Bros is going to be THE definitive Super Mario Bros game? How about Nintendo releasing the NSMB Official Site at mario.nintendo.com? This could have been a portal for all things Mario. Mario Tennis and Mario Kart fans could have made this their daily Mario fix. But in a bold move, Nintendo has basically declared NSMB as the future of Mario, by dedicated his whole subdomain to his new DS game.

There is a new video released there today too. Showing Mario in the dungeons and swimming with a shell. If you need one good handheld gaming reason to attend E3 this year, this game is it!

Nintendo and AOL are tag teaming to offer one lucky gamer the chance to be the first person (of general public stance, that is) to play the actual Revolution with the actual Revolution controller during E3. That winner will also win a Nintendo DS (I dare say it may be Lite) with Super Mario 64, and an all expense paid trip to the Mecca of Gaming: E3. Not unlike the movie Wizard and how it was a PR stunt for Mario Bros 3 to be publicly unveiled during a "contest", the winner here will be playing the Rev in front of a large audience of liveblogging media stuntmen (and bloggers). And it will be the first time a playable Revolution is seen by the press and public.

You can enter starting today at noon! To enter, GO HERE and follow the directions!

Good luck to all--may the best fanboy win!

[via Joystiq]