Electric Blue Nintendo DS Slated For U.S. Release

Nintendo has announced the first variant color for the Nintendo DS in America, giving buyers a choice other than the standard metallic silver. The Electric Blue model will join the existing silver color on shelves in June, alongside two anticipated DS games. Although Nintendo could have released one of the existing Japanese variant colors in America, the Electric Blue DS is a different shade from any previously released version of the system. It's a darker hue than the recently-released Turquoise Blue model sold in standard Japanese retail chains, and also subtly different from the Pepsi DS available only as a promotional item through a joint contest between Pepsi and Nintendo. Other released colors in Japan, such as Candy Pink or Black, remain unaccounted for as well in the U.S. One first-party game and one third-party game will be released in the same time period as the Electric Blue system. Kirby: Canvas Curse, in which players control the pink puffball by drawing lines on the screen, with the goal of crashing into enemies to absorb their powers, will come out from Nintendo on June 13th; Bandai, for their part, will release Q? Entertainment's Meteos, a galactic-themed puzzle game created by famed ex-HAL Labs designer Masahiro Sakurai on June 27th. In announcing the new hardware and software, Nintendo VP of Marketing George Harrison also alluded to the system's sales performance to date: "Nearly 2 million Nintendo DS owners in North America alone have demonstrated they want something new from a hand-held video game system. Soon, consumers will have two popular choices for the innovative dual-screened Nintendo DS, which features touch-screen control, voice recognition and wireless play."