Animal Crossing: Wild World Highlights Nintendo's Hand-Held Holiday. Popular Franchise Leads This Week's Launch of 3 Portable Games From Nintendo.

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Whether your hands are outdoors covered in gloves or indoors roasting by an open fire, Nintendo has a game to keep them happy. Today the second installment of the extremely popular Animal Crossing franchise makes the leap to Nintendo DS, with Animal Crossing: Wild World, a new community-building game that incorporates use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, Nintendo's new wireless gaming service. Game Boy Micro and Game Boy Advance SP owners will get to enjoy two new titles, Mario Tennis: Power Tour and the combo puzzle package, Dr. Mario & Puzzle League.

Fans in Japan already have assured that Animal Crossing: Wild World will enjoy a huge success. The game debuted at No. 1 on the sales charts, and Weekly Famitsu, Japan's tough-as-nails video game magazine, scored Animal Crossing: Wild World a 37 out of a possible 40 points.

"The original Animal Crossing for Nintendo GameCube became a huge sleeper hit, selling more than 1 million units," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "The Wi-Fi capabilities of Animal Crossing: Wild World will create a fun, expansive community that will entice even novice players to check it out."

Animal Crossing: Wild World lets players move into a village and have fun fishing, catching insects, remodeling their homes and interacting with their neighbors. Best of all, the game makes use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which lets users near and far connect with their friends via certain Wi-Fi hotspots at no additional charge to visit one another's towns where they can find exotic fruit, hunt for new animal species or just hang out with their friends. For more information about the game, visit www.animal-crossing.com.

After just three weeks, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection has logged almost 3 million connections worldwide. Already nearly 200,000 unique visitors worldwide have signed on to play Mario Kart DS and other games. The next Nintendo game to make use of the service will be Metroid Prime Hunters on March 20. For more information about Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, visit www.nintendowifi.com.

Not to be outdone, the video game industry's most beloved character, Mario, appears in two Game Boy Advance games being released today as well. Mario Tennis: Power Tour takes players on a role-playing adventure as they rise through the ranks to become tennis pros. It's a great way to keep tennis skills sharp during the cold winter months. For more information about the game, visit powertour.mariotennis.com. Fans of puzzle games will spend countless hours this holiday season playing through the addictive fun of Dr. Mario & Puzzle League, a combination of two classic puzzle games on one cartridge. For more information about the games, visit www.puzzleleague.com. Both games look great, whether users play them on the hip new Game Boy Micro, the new Game Boy Advance SP, which sports a brighter, backlit screen, or the secondary slot of Nintendo DS.

Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mario Tennis: Power Tour and Dr. Mario & Puzzle League are all Rated E for Everyone.