Nintendo Australia is sending word that it will be holding a beginner class this Thursday for DS owners in their region. The class will teach visitors about the basics of handling titles like Animal Crossing, and Nintendogs. Further details are available in the full article.

Want some good ideas for gift-giving this holiday season? Nintendo offers a couple of good gift items that may brighten up someone's day, in purty colors: the limited edition Metallic Rose and Gold DS Lite bundles, both packed with great games such as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Nintendogs: Best Friends. Check the full article for more details!

A keen poster over at NeoGAF noticed some Wi-Fi activity for two games that are known to be offline-only games: Nintendogs and Yoshi's Island.

The poster has reported about six Wi-Fi connections made for Nintendogs last Saturday, while Yoshi's Island clocked in with four Wi-Fi connections last Friday and Saturday. How can he tell? It has something to do with checking out the game code (found on the cart), and comparing it to the Wi-Fi chart in Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection site. Specific details on how to do it can be found in the Via link.

Nintendogs and Yoshi's Island on Wi-Fi? Certainly a very interesting prospect. Swap cute puppies over the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection! Interact with friends in minigames in a Yoshi's Island title! The possibilities are quite...shall we say, endless. 

More updates as they come!

Nintendo of Australia has announced that new downloadable demo games for the Nintendo DS have finally gone live at Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection hotspots all around Australia. Aussie DS owners can just grab their Nintendo handhelds and leg it on over to the hotspots. There, you can test drive games such as Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Elite Beat Agents.

The hotspots also feature some unique Animal Crossing items that you can download to your copy of the game. A special Nintendogs function that allows Nintendogs owners to experience the joys of Bark Mode without having someone else physically there to play with is also available. For a list of the hotspots near your area, you can check out the Nintendo Wi Fi Connection hotspots list by clicking on the Read link below.

As expected, this year's Golden Joysticks Awards held at the Park Lane Hilton hotel in London, was a real blast. There are a total of 16 awards given, 15 of which were decided by the gaming public. Winner of the Editors' Choice Award, on the other hand, was selected by a panel of the industry's journalists. Titles that came out on or after August 1, 2005 until July 31, 2006 were all contenders.

Rockstar Games continued on its winning ways as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories took home the Handheld Game of the Year award. It would be remembered that just last year, San Andreas also emerged victorious in the said award giving body. Accolades were then given to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by 2K Games as it grabbed three trophies: PC Game of the Year, Xbox Game of the Year and PLAY.com Ultimate Game of the Year.

Nintendo also shared the limelight as it won in three categories as well: Nintendogs for The Sun Family Game of the Year and Bliss Girls' Choice for 2006. New Super Mario Bros., on the other hand, won the Nintendo Game of the Year trophy.

Other winners are as follows:

• T3 Innovation Award - Xbox Live Marketplace (Microsoft)
• 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts)
• Nuts All-Nighter Awards - Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Konami)
• PlayStation Game of the Year - Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Intel Online Game of the Year - Age of Empires III (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Retailer of the Year - GAME
• CVG's The One to Watch for 2007 - PlayStation 3 (Sony)
• Publisher of the Year - Electronic Arts
• Editors' Choice Award - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)

Who says pink are just for girls? Even the Japanese fell in love with it - a pink DS Lite, that is. After conquering the U.S. shores, Nintendo has confirmed that the beloved pink DS Lite will again try to charm Australians, November 2 this year. Yep, it will be available for the SRP of $199.95. Nintendogs fans will also be delighted to know that the pink DS will be bundled with a new Nintendog game called Nintendogs Dalmatian and Friends.

According to Rose Lappin, Director of Sales and Marketing, "A Pink Nintendo DS and a new Dalmatian version of Nintendogs is a powerful combination in the lead-up to Christmas". Hmmm, let's see if our spotted friends debuting in a pink DS will do wonders for Nintendo in the Australian market.

Buy: [Nintendogs Labrador Retriever and Friends]
Buy: [Nintendogs Daschund and Friends]
Buy: [Nintendogs Chihuahua and Friends]
Buy: [Nintendogs Dalmatian and Friends]

So. Are you done staring at the cuuute puppy pictures yet? Do you need more time melting in a slur of warm and fuzzy feelings? Well, whether you're done or not, we're bringing in an update of the sales and figures of Nintendogs. It's not much of a surprise, but the numbers are barking like whoa.

Globally, sales have reached more than 7,000,000 (yup, that's seven million) units in total. Now if you split that number by countries, you'd have the following results, from highest to lowest:

• 4 million: Europe
• 2.2 million: US
• 1 million+: Japan

Looks like the Europeans like them puppies. Well, who could blame them? Who could blame anyone? Nintendo struck a gold mine with a pet sim, and the upcoming Dalmatian and Friends version is sending Cruella de Vil up a tree. Now, let's look back on the other Nintendogs versions that are available on the shelves.

Buy: [Nintendogs Labrador Retriever and Friends]
Buy: [Nintendogs Daschund and Friends]
Buy: [Nintendogs Chihuahua and Friends]
Pre-order: [Nintendogs Dalmatian and Friends]

Oh, Cruella de Vil. Wouldn't you just love to sink your claws into this puppy. In fact, we'll bet you're just dying to sink your claws into one hundred and one of these adorable little puppies. But no, we won't let you, not only because you're a bad ol' meanie, but also because those manicured claws of yours could permanently damage our DS touchscreens.

But since you're not Cruella de Vil, we'll treat you to screenshots of Nintendogs Dalmatian and Friends in all their spotted, tail-wagging action. The dalmatian used to be the hidden dog in previous versions of Nintendogs, which required the player to find the fireman's hat item. Now it's the star of its own Nintendogs packet. They've been set loose all over Europe last June as the first of the Touch! Generations series there, and now Dalmatian and Friends is set for an October 16 Stateside release.

      
 

Okay, first things first. Will we get our hands on the Wii before the year ends? Yeah!

At least that's what Nintendo confirmed during their press conference at the Leipzig Games Convention. What else did Nintendo say? Let's find out.

Dr. Bernd Fakesch, General Manager of Nintendo Germany, opened the event with the so-called typical Nintendo speech. Basically, he emphasized the gaming possibilities that Nintendo would and will offer in the future for an expanding audience. He goes on to cite the success of Nintendogs and Brain Training, which go beyond the "usual games" category.

A pink DS Lite was also shown onstage, to confirm the said product's release in Germany on October 27. As for other announcements, an "English training" game would be released on October 13th, which would hopefully aid people in learning the language.

Of course, we cannot forget the various games showcased on the said event: Super Mario Strikers, Red Steel and a bunch of other titles for the Wii; as well as upcoming DS games like Tenchu DS, Yoshi's Island 2 and Tomb Raider.

It seems that Nintendo has much in store for both fans and curious new users alike. "End of this year" is just a few months away, so we do the waiting game.

European canine lovers will be ecstatic with the release of the much-awaited Nintendogs Dalmatian & Friends Edition, with the previously hard-to-unlock Dalmatian amongst the initial choices.

Just like in the previous editions, players get to purchase their favorite puppy, take good care of it and teach it various tricks with the Nintendo DS's touch screen and microphone. Training your puppy will come in very handy, when you enter them in competitions that will earn you prize money. They could be champions in an obedience trial, a frisbee-catching contest and an obstacle course.

Bark Mode, allows players to share their adorable new Dalmatian with friends. Owners search for other Nintendo DS’s running in the same mode using its Wi-Fi functionality. If another console is discovered, the DS will emit a ‘barking’ noise, alerting owners that a playmate has been found. Interacting with another puppy automatically unlocks that breed in another players version of Nintendogs.

Both players then can exchange contact cards, allowing them to interact with each others puppies and give exciting gifts if they wish to. Nintendogs will wag their tails at stores on June 16, 2006 for an estimated retail price of around £29.99.