We have less than two weeks before the Nintendo 3DS will make its way to U.S. and U.K. shores with it’s glasses-free 3D gaming. But there’s one feature you are sure not to like and that is backward-compatibility loading times on old DS games.

The 3DS is cutting edge handheld gaming right? So it should be able to provide faster loading times, even for the old DS games. Nope. Gamespot managed to get its hands on a Japanese 3DS from last month’s launch and they compared the load times of several DS games on the new 3DS with the old DS Lite.

The Nintendo 3DS might not be available in the US yet, but we still have to prepare for its arrival by stocking up on accessories. To that end Power A is releasing the Official Expedition Case for the 3DS, licensed by Nintendo themselves.

The Expedition Case is designed to protect your 3DS from bumps, bruises and shocks and can hold up to 6 Nintendo 3DS games and 2 extra styluses. It’s available for pre-order now and will cost you just $14.99. The Nintendo Official Expedition Case ships on March 27.

Japanese retailer Enterking has announced that it will not accept Nintendo 3DS gaming consoles that have been used with a hacked memory card for trade-in. So how will the retailer will know? Simple. Because the portable gaming console logs all activity, which can then be retrieved by those in the industry who know how. It is an attempt by Nintendo to deter pirates.

The most common card used is the R4 and some Japanese hackers can already install illegal DS ROMS but not games. Since the system keeps track of any and all hacks and has a Wi-Fi connection, it could also let Nintendo block pirated devices from accessing online services and games.

Nyko has announced some accessories for the upcoming American launch of the Nintendo 3DS, which should help the device’s battery life. The Power Pak+ plugs into the 3DS and will deliver about double the battery life. It adds extra bulk, but has a debossed surface to improve your grip.

You can also opt for the Charge Base, which powers up the 3DS directly and comes with a Power Pak+ of its own to extend battery life. Both can use the official 3DS AC adapter for a recharge. The Power Pak+ should be available on March 27 for $20. The Charge Base will be ready soon after and should cost $30.

So after its 3D capable handheld protable gaming device, which is all the rage, Nintendo is now incorporating glasses-free 3D technology into the Wii gaming console. Nintendo Producer Hideki Konno showed a demo of how Wii Nunchuck can be used to control the 3D depth effect in a special version of Mario Kart Wii.

The demo was shown at the GDC 2011 event in San Francisco. There’s no word on how soon gamers will be able to play 3D on their Wii, but we would guess it won’t take very long before you are racing Mario and friends in 3D.

If you have some spare time on your hands, why not turn your Nintendo Entertainment System into a breathalyzer called DrunkenNES? That’s what this Engineer did. He turned an NES cartridge into a working breathalyzer unit, and coded a program on the NES to calculate the readings from the controller.

Now everyone will know just how buzzed you are as you try to rescue Peach from Bowser’s clutches. As a bonus, after analyzing the breath of a “player”, they get a score and a rating such as “Buzzy Bee” or “Party Kitten” to show how drunk they are. An “Alco-hall of fame” also ranks you like a hi-score chart. Sounds like a wild mod.

At GDC 2011, Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime revealed a ton of info about the 3DS. As far as video content, the news is that the 3DS will get Netflix this summer as well as the ability to pause a video on your handheld and continue watching on your Wii.

We aren’t sure but we assume that you can also do the same with an XBox or PS3 as well. Nintendo is partnering with AT&T to provide free WiFi access at 10,000 hotspots starting in late May. It will also use the SpotPass passive connection feature that works even when no game is in the system and when its in sleep mode, to download new content.

In the US we have to wait for the Nintendo 3DS still, but those who already have the handheld have just gotten a firmware update for the device. There are some bug fixes and enhancements and the update also comes with a 3D music video of a band performing the “Super Mario Bros theme”.

Odd content for a firmware update, but at least you will have something extra to show your friends in glorious 3D. Mario fans will be delighted.

Sadly we can’t head out to our local GameStop for another month yet, but the Nintendo 3DS had a launch in Japan today. Reports indicate that the entire initial shipment of 400,000 gaming handhelds were sold. Some of the lines were up to 2,000 people long.

But those lines were only at a few places as most Japanese retailers sold out when the 3DS went on pre-order over a month ago. The device is already a success, though that isn’t surprising. We all love our Nintendo.

Need to spice up your office space? How about this hand-crafted Nintendo GameCube desktop organizer? These are made by Etsy seller GreenCub , who removes all of the GameCube’s innards, adding pencil/pen slots where its power and reset buttons once were, and controller ports that are now a drawer.

The disc tray is now a storage tray. Even the side vents are converted into a magnetic paperclip holder and the carry handle is an iPhone/iPod holder. He did a great job and now I want one for my desk. There are three colors available with prices starting from $40 to $50.

The Nintendo 3DS was torn apart before it was even official and now a Chinese site has been able to get their hands on another 3DS before the official release in Japan. They have done their own teardown, revealing all its secrets.

Tearing apart devices is fun and can’t be done too many times after all. The official launch of the Nintendo 3DS will be March 27 in the US with the console priced at $249.99. Europe will get it a few days earlier, for an unknown price.

Forget the i-Dog. Check out this toe tapping robotic dog called Wappy Dog from Sega Toys. Sega Toys and Activision will be releasing this new robotic mutt alongside a video game for the Nintendo DS. Wappy interacts the video game and your child alone.

You can talk to the dog and pet it and Wappy will respond by making noises, moving or glowing with it’s colored lights. Sound is actually what makes Wappy tick. The beeps fromthe video game will have Wappy reacting in various ways.

We’ve seen other hacks where the Kinect uses a Nintendo Wiimote, but the creator of this hack used the FAAST emulator for the Kinect and GlovePIE for the Wiimote, allowing you to have some pretty interesting Dead Space 2 games.

One interesting aspect of this hack is the ability to stomp on your the aliens in the game, which looks very satisfying. I’d love to play DS2 like this. Looks like a lot of fun.

You may be buying a 3DS to play 3D games glasses-free, but the 3DS has another bonus in store for you too. Nintendo has made it tougher than all of their other DS consoles. The 3DS is now easier to open than the DS Lite and it doesn’t have to worry about cracked hinges since there are now 3 layers. This also makes it easier to grip, thus preventing you from dropping the 3DS.

There’s also a new glass-fiber resin to reinforce the 3DS case. Even the insides have been rearranged so that if you drop it, damage will be minimized. Sounds like they went above and beyond with this one. Let’s hope it is as good as it sounds.

We already knew that LG was working on a glasses-free 3D display which will be featured in the Optimus 3D, and now we the first live images. The display looks larger than 4 inches, though we don’t know the exact size. It will also come with a dual-core processor and have multi-channel RAM. Sounds good to us.

If you find yourself in Barcelona this February for Mobile World Congress 2011, why not check it out for yourself? All signs point to LG will be making an official announcement there. Will it be a Nintendo 3DS competitor? Who knows. Should be interesting.