There's already a ton of character customization options in the newly released Tekken Tag Tournament 2 but the Wii U version will be getting fan service of the highest order. Namco Bandai will be releasing themed outfits that turns characters into Bowser, Zelda or other characters from iconic Nintendo games.

TTT2 on Wii U will also a feature a Mushroom Battle mode where the iconic Super Mario power-up let fighters grow to gigantic proportions. If you thought getting your ass kicked by Panda was annoying before, it'll probably be 1000 times worse when he takes up half the screen.

Today's Nintendo news bonanza taught us two things.

1. Nintendo has learned how to use the Internet. Finally.

2. Nintendo is using this newfound knowledge that the Internet exists not just to support games, but to try to take over your living room. It's one hell of a gamble.

Let's flash back to 2006. When Nintendo first released the Wii, they were banking on two things: their robust library of first-party titles and their innovative motion controls. The system had some neat gimmicks, like that weird e-mail replacement that made your console flash blue, but it was hardly an entertainment center. Netflix wasn't added until 2010. You couldn't even use the Wii to play DVDs.

This waggle-only strategy worked, of course. The Wii became the hottest thing since sliced koopa. But what worked three or four years ago won't work in 2012. Today we expect more from our game consoles. We want them to stream shows on Netflix. Live football. HBO Go. We want them to be entertainment boxes.

Nintendo's take on this whole entertainment center thing is Nintendo TVii, a service that's far easier to watch than it is to spell. Nintendo TVii will let you use the GamePad as a hybrid remote-controller-tablet to consume all the television, movies, and sports you can feast your hungry eyes on. And it'll ship free with every Wii U.

I got a chance to spend some time with Nintendo TVii today, and although the reps wouldn't let me physically touch the system for some reason, I did get to see it in live action. It works well. Everything runs smoothly, the interface is intuitive, and it seems to deliver on what it's promised. (The system was slightly laggy, but that could have just been the demo unit.)

According to Nintendo's Casey Lewis, Nintendo TVii will support all of the major cable networks. If you want to run Netflix or Hulu, you'll have to have a Netflix or Hulu subscription. If you want to record shows, you need TiVo or a DVR. But right out of the box you'll be able to use the Wii U to keep track of your favorite shows and see when they're airing, Lewis told me. So you can use the Wii U's GamePad as a remote control and keep track of all of your favorite cable shows.

Cool, right? How many other game consoles let you interact with live TV? Nintendo TVii was built in collaboration with the folks who made i.TV, a program that lets you do some similar things on your phone or tablet. But it ain't available on the Xbox or PlayStation, and even if this sort of thing is supported on next-gen consoles, that won't be for at least another year.

But the coolest part of this system is something that isn't available anywhere else (at least until the other guys copy it). The coolest part of this system, at least in theory, is the way it lets you connect to other people.

Nintendo TVii will let you recommend movies and shows to your friends. It'll let you see what's popular among the people you like (and the people you dislike, but tolerate on your friends lists anyway). It will integrate your Twitter account and let you voice live commentary among your social groups as events happen, which is one of the most appealing things about social networks like Twitter.

Can't you imagine tuning into an episode of Breaking Bad on your TV while you scroll through tweeted reactions on the GamePad that's sitting on your lap? Or watching the Super Bowl while commenting on the GamePad with your friends?

Since the Wii U will know what you're watching, that second screen could help supplement the experience in ways that a laptop or tablet can't. (And although Microsoft has promised similar things with SmartGlass, we haven't seen anything like this just yet.)

There's a lot of potential there. What if your GamePad could update your individual fantasy football scores as you watch games live on TV? What if you could video chat with your friends as you all watch the same episode of Game of Thrones? What if you could watch Netflix on your GamePad while playing Mario on your TV, or vice versa?

As Mr. Totilo has pointed out, Nintendo isn't just taking on other game companies: they're after Facebook too. They're building an ambitious social network that also aims to be your all-in-one media center for TV, movies, sports, and video games. They want you to buy a Wii U and convince all of your friends to buy Wii Us, which could be a challenge. They want you to use the Wii U not just to play, but to watch, interact, and communicate with.

Nintendo is going all in, and there are still lots of questions left to ask. How will the MiiVerse connect your friends, your games and your shows? Are there friend codes? Will the console be ubiquitous enough that it's worth it to take and give movie recommendations on your Wii U, rather than on your PC? Will the Wii U's first- and third-party games be so compelling, the social features so well-integrated that we feel absolutely obligated to play them with our friends? Will Nintendo do a better job of distributing and discounting Virtual Console games?

This sort of move is a gamble, and that $300/$350 price point doesn't help the Wii U's case. I don't think Nintendo TVii will sell many systems by itself. But for families looking for an entertainment device that both plays Mario games and lets everyone watch their favorite shows, Wii U is positioning itself as the only living room device they could ever need. That's a good thing.

These screens are supposed to be showing off the new armored looks Battle Armored Tech (B.A.T.) Mode for Batman and Catwoman in the Wii U edition of last year's hit superhero game. But, really, these shots highlight the fact that Arkham City doesn't look demonstrably better on Nintendo's upcoming console. Honestly: these images look terrible.

Expectations have been that the Wii U would at least match the visuals currently possible on the PS3 and Xbox 360. But these screens look they're hitting the lowest end of those consoles' capabilities. It's worth noting that Rocksteady Games aren't handling the Wii U version of this Bat-game. Instead, Warner Bros.' Montreal studio is handling the port.

Games for Nintendo's new system will cost $59.99, the Mario creators have confirmed to us.

This is an increase from last generation: the standard retail price for Wii games was $49.99.

The Wii U comes out November 18. The base package will run you $299.99.

As we learned this morning, the Wii U will launch on November 18, 2012—almost six years, to the day, after the Wii launched—and it will come in two versions, costing $299.99 and $349.99.

Many of us had running bets or civil disagreements over our best guesses for the Wii U's launch date and price. It's a good thing I didn't place any bets, because I was certain we'd see $249.99 or $279.99. Clearly, I was very wrong.

And yet, it seemed like a reasonable guess, based on Nintendo's history. So how does the Wii U stack up against the launch prices of its predecessors in the current console generation—or what they cost now? First, let's take a quick look at the consoles.

Nintendo Wii

Launched: November 19, 2006
Launch Price: $249.99
First Price Drop: September 2009 (2 years 10 months), to $199.99
Current Price: Wii bundles range from $149 to $199

Xbox 360

Launched: Noevmber 22, 2005
Launch Price: $299.99 for "core," $399.99 for "premium"
First Price Drop: August 2007 (1 year 10 months), to $249.99 / $349.99
Current Price: A 250 GB model costs $299.99; the 4 GB version, $199.99

PlayStation 3

Launched: November 17, 2006
Launch Price: $499.99 for the 20 GB version; $599.99 for the 60 GB
First Price Drop: July 2007 (8 months), to $499.99 for the 60 GB version
Current Price: A 160 GB model costs $249.99

Perhaps the most noticeable trend across all three current-generation consoles is that as prices have decreased, integrated storage space has increased dramatically, showing off just how important hard drive installations, downloadable content, and digitally-distributed games have become.

Of course, the past seven years have also seen a great deal of change in the handheld market, as mobile devices have become dominant and portable gaming systems have tried to catch up with their set-top brethren. So what of the others? Straight comparisons are more difficult, because handheld device generations are much shorter than set-top console generations. Still, there are numbers to look at.

Nintendo 3DS

Launched: March 27, 2011
Launch Price: $249.99
First Price Drop: August, 2011 (5 months), to $169.99
Current Price: $169.99 (with the XL version now available for $199.99)

PlayStation Vita

Launched: February 22, 2012
Launch Price: $249.99 for WiFi-only version; $299.99 for 3G model
First Price Drop: None yet (8 months)
Current Price: $249.99 / $299.99

iPhone

Launched: June 29, 2007
Launch Price: $599
First Price Drop: September, 2007 (3 months), to $399
Current Price: The iPhone 5 launches this month with $199, $299, and $399 versions. The previous generation (the 4S) is dropping to $99—but iPhone prices tend to include cell provider contract-signing subsidies.

In 2012, it seems like the $300 price point has become the magic number for electronics to settle on. Almost everything has landed in that sweet spot between $200 and $300, tabletop and handheld alike. The Wii U finds itself solidly in the middle of the pack. It may cost more than a PlayStation 3, but it's cheaper than an iPhone and not any pricier than an Xbox 360.

The question is, will buyers judge it against its current competition from Sony and Microsoft—or against other, historically cheaper, Nintendo products? Other Nintendo consoles have cost $200-$250 at launch. It's all well and good that the Wii U is competitively priced with the consoles that are now, technically, a generation behind it, but that may or may not still help Nintendo when higher-powered Sony and Microsoft consoles inevitably arrive in a year or two.

In context, all modern consoles, Nintendo's included, are as inexpensive as they've ever been. Gamasutra has a nifty chart adjusting console prices for inflation, and every Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64 fits well into the lower end of it—but so, too, do the PlayStation 2 and both Xbox generations. And adjusted for inflation, the humble NES ($200 at launch) would cost $426 in today's money.

Perhaps where today's price announcement surprised so many was that the Wii U has now crossed a line into the realm that, until now, Nintendo seemed to have been avoiding: releasing different versions of the product with different price points. While the Wii, after six years, now comes in an array of different colors, the hardware in each is still the same. Likewise, while each version of the Nintendo DS (the original, the DS Lite, the DSi, and the 3DS) has come in an array of different colors, each has been the same machine.

As for those hoping to wait out the launch price and score a deal on a Wii U, well, we might have quite a wait. The Wii made it almost three years before cutting consumers a break. Best to start saving those pennies now.

NBA Live 13 is effectively delayed indefinitely. While EA Sports may say the game isn't, technically, delayed because it was never given a release date, the publisher today acknowledged many had expected it to release Oct. 2 alongside competitor NBA 2K13, and said it's giving the NBA Live development team more time to shore up a game that left E3 roundly panned and had gone AWOL in the three months since.

The release of that trailer above, however, at least pushes back speculation that the entire project would be scrapped, the fate that befell its predecessor, NBA Elite 11, back in 2010. But EA Sports provided no guidance on when this game would release, whether that would be in the month of October or even 2012. A release on Oct. 2 would seem to be off the table, though.

An EA Sports spokesman also would not comment on rumors that the game would be released as a download-only version over Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

"The team is making steady progress, and we're continuing our work on NBA Live," Andrew Wilson, the executive vice president in charge of the EA Sports label, said in a statement. "We remain focused on rebuilding this franchise for the future."

Another statement from EA Sports acknowledged that customers had been anticipating an Oct. 2 release but "our plan is to release at a later date. We will share more information in the future."

Questioned by Kotaku, an EA Sports spokesman refused to discuss release format, time frame, or the game's anticipated feature set. Asked why this series, which has been off shelves for three years, couldn't hit an Oct. 2 release date with a 70-man team in place for a year, he said:

"We're not going to get into that level of detail with this announcement. In early April, you saw where we were with this project and how ambitious it was, that they had to take down the code of Elite and rebuild it. Its easy to surmise that also took time, in the development cycle, to get the whole thing up to speed. It was an ambitious project and it is a challenging game to create."

Asked if anyone from the NBA Live team had lost his job, Kotaku was told—apparently as a prepared statement—that EA Sports had "no announcements regarding staffing."

NBA Live 13 was moved to EA Sports' Tiburon studio in early 2011 after NBA Elite 11, the successor to NBA Live 10, was canceled one week before its scheduled release in 2010. Much of the first year of development was spent tearing down the last version of the game and salvaging its parts. The current development team didn't hit full strength until about a year ago.

Canadians who pre-order New Super Mario Brothers U at Canada's Future Shop chain will get a swanky steelbook. Lucky ducks.

Shot at Nintendo's event in New York City today, here's a live look at Nintendo TVii in action. Nintendo TVii is the Wii U service that will allow you to use the second screen to interact with media, follow sports scores, and do all sorts of other random connected and streamy things.

What do you think? Will this convince you to buy a Wii U? Will we ever get used to writing "Nintendo TVii"?

Tokyo Jungle really is a game unlike any other. As a large assortment of different animals, you explore an overgrown and deserted Tokyo, slowly piecing together the mystery of what happened to all the humans. And when I say "a large assortment of different animals," I refer to everything from deer and wolves to elephants and dinosaurs.

The game is best described as a 3D platformer with a locked camera that creates an almost 2D plane—except that you are able to move into the foreground and background at will. The controls are simple and basically break down into the following actions: sneak, dodge, bite, claw, and eat—regardless which of the animals you play. The trick of the game is not mastering the controls, but rather mastering when to use each action.

Tokyo Jungle consists of two modes: survival and story—of which survival is the far more complex of the two. The point of survival mode, as you may have guessed, is to survive as long as possible. But that is only a small part of how the game is played. After you choose an animal, you start the game outside Shibuya station. From there, you hunt animals (or plants if you're an herbivore) for food, mark your territory, and eventually mate with another of your species. But as you spend time in each area, the food supply dwindles and you are forced to move on to richer hunting grounds. Moreover, each new area possesses dangers of its own, whether that be predators from far higher on the food chain or radioactive rain slowly poisoning you to death.

To keep the game interesting, each ten-minute chuck of survival mode comes with its own list of challenges that change every time you play the game: fully claim "X" territory, have children, eat over a certain amount of calories, defeat a mini boss, etc. Also, completing special missions will often unlock new playable animals, while completing all possible objectives in a ten-minute chunk nets you a large experience bonus (which can be used to purchase the already unlocked animals from the in-game store).

Story mode, on the other hand, is far different from survival mode as it shows the human-less world of Tokyo Jungle through the eyes of some of its most heroic animal denizens. One level tells the tale of a pack of beagles finding a home, while another focuses on a cackle of hyenas going on a stealth mission through Tokyo's sewers. There is very much a tongue-in-cheek aspect to the writing as several of the story levels chronicle a tale strikingly similar to the Lion King, while another set follows a pit bull going on a vision quest to learn from his spirit animal. And by the time all these clever and often entertaining stories are done, you will have solved the mystery behind the complete lack of human presence in Tokyo Jungle.

Yet, despite the well-designed gameplay and entertaining stories, Tokyo Jungle still has one major flaw: It is a ridiculously padded game. For anyone interested in simply playing through the story, you can't. Each story mission is locked and can only be accessed by gathering a set of data disks in survival mode. Thus, you are forced into survival mode before each of the 14 story missions. Of course, the farther you go into story mode, the harder it is to obtain the next set of data disks. So you must also spend a fair amount of time in survival mode unlocking stronger animals—and farming the points to buy them—in addition to your time gathering the disks. The final set of disks is in an area so perilous that you will need to have unlocked the top tier of carnivores in the game to even have a chance—something that adds a good six hours of grinding gameplay in and of itself. Still, minus the monotonous grinding, there is a good fifteen hours of solid gameplay in Tokyo Jungle. And for a price of $14.99, that isn't half bad.

Tokyo Jungle is perhaps the most original game to come out of Japan in recent years with its unique concept, entertaining tongue-in-cheek writing, and competent controls. And while some may find it monotonous, completionists will happily spent countless hours unlocking the roster of over 50 different animals. In the end, Tokyo Jungle is not a perfect game by any stretch, but it's very much worth the price tag.

We already knew that main character Connor would be meeting historical figures in Assassin's Creed III, since the game is set during the Revolutionary War. And now, we get a chance to see what some of those founding fathers will look like in the next installment of this franchise. The teaser also highlights the efforts to surround Connor with authentic-feeling Native American characters. And bloodshed. Lots and lots of bloodshed.