Gaming News Round-Up: December 13th, 2004

Today's round-up includes Atari taking the spraycan to some classics for DS, as well as a hint of some rather unexpected extra Mario in EA's NBA Street V3. - Atari has announced Retro Atari Classics for the Nintendo DS, a compilation of ten classic arcade titles made specifically for the dual-screen, touch-sensitive handheld, and featuring new-style design by graffiti artists such as Delta, REAS, and Obey Giant. According to consumer site IGN DS, the games making up the compilation include Pong, Missile Command, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Tempest, Warlords, Gravitar, Lunar Lander and Sprint, and the Taniko-developed retro pack is due to launch in March 2005, although development is only partially completed to date. - According to early box art posted on the EB Games website, it seems that the GameCube version of forthcoming Electronic Arts basketball title NBA Street V3 is going to include special cameo appearances from Nintendo's very own Mario and Luigi. A small portion of the box for the EA-created game clearly shows an 'Allstars' caption next to pictures of Nintendo's favorite plumber and his compadres. However, such a relatively surprising tie-in is yet to be officially announced, though it seems likely there will be some kind of acknowledgment of the bonus characters before the title ships in February 2005.