Club Nintendo is Nintendo’s big fan club/rewards program, giving dedicated gamers copious swag in return for video game registrations and surveys. The majority of said swag is in my apartment, and as part of the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., we’re going to take a look at it. Many of these items can be obtained through Club Nintendo if you rack up enough coins, but two of them are special “Elite Status” awards given out every year when you reach a high enough coin level. Take a tour through the Mario museum after the break.

Nintendo held a birthday party-slash-grand-reopening of its Nintendo World Store on Sunday, as part of its ongoing celebration of the 25th anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros. Yes, it’s Mario’s big 2-5, and the shindig was epic. Cake, games, Mario, and hundreds of excited Nintendo fans were packed into the recently remodeled Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center.

Check out Shiggy and Reggie’s surprise visit, the giant Mario cake, and a full photo gallery after the break.

Coming soon, they say? Not soon enough, I say. Kingdom Hearts RE: Coded is a enhanced remake/port of the Japan exclusive mobile game Kingdom Hearts: Coded. The game is set after Kingdom Hearts II, and the plot involves King Mickey’s investigation into an unknown phrase appearing in Jiminy’s Journal. As the trailer shows. RE: Coded will have a variety of gameplay styles, including action platformer, turn based RPG, what looks to be a Space Harrier clone, as well as typical the Kingdom Hearts gameplay. The combat engine looks to be lifted directly from Birth by Sleep, a good thing as BBS is the best combat the franchise has had thus far. Kingdom Hearts RE: Coded comes out in America January 11, 2011. (via KH13.com)

Siliconera is reporting that Nintendo is considering bringing out some of their older titles on DS to countries that haven’t received them yet. Above is the trailer for my number one pick, Soma Bringer. Below is my second choice, Blood of Bahamut. Other than those, I would love to see 7th Dragon and Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED. While we’re at it, let’s just go ahead and confirm a localization for The Last Story and Xenoblade, and announce a DS remake for Mother 3. One can dream…

I have a recipe for you. Take 3 parts Super Mario Bros., 2 parts Metroid (you can substitute Castlevania if you like), and one part Legend of Zelda. Blend together on high for about 10 hours and serve with a large side of belly dancing. If you prepared the dish correctly, you should have the DSiWare sequel to a GBC game. This is Shantae: Risky’s Revenge.

Preorder bonuses tend to be pointless. You might get a code for a unique costume, or maybe an extra multiplayer map, or maybe a variant weapon. Sometimes, though, you can get something more. Something tangible. Something awesome in its sheer ridiculous. In the case of preordering Sonic Colors from Gamestop, you get just that.

This is a Sonic the Hedgehog hat. It’s a head-sock covered in giant blue felt spikes. You can wear it on your head and look like a crazy person. It’s freaking awesome.

Sonic fans are a hard bunch to please. This year we have multiple new Sonic games on the way, but we’ve gone to step 2 and 3 on the Sonic Cycle. The nostalgia-destroying HD-upscaled re-release of Sonic Adventure has even further sullied the blue blur reputation amongst the gaming faithful. But fortunately, even if by some disastrous coincidence all 3 Sonic games (Sonic Colors is a completely different game on Wii and DS) are colossal disappointments, we still have the fans. Below the break are trailers galore for the new, real Sonic games, fan-made games, and even just fan-made concepts.

The DSi sequel to beloved GameBoy Color game Shantae finally has a release date. On October 4th, the newest entry in the series will be “ret-2-go!” The original Shantae is a platformer based around a half-genie in charge of protecting Port Town, a small fishing community. After nefarious pirate Risky Boots steals a prototype steam engine, Shantae quests through all of Sequin Land to get it back, utilizing her ponytail as a whip and transforming into various animals. And she belly dances too.

The Shantae series is yet another series that I’ve felt rather bad for. Despite its quality, it’s never gotten the respect it deserves. It came out a good deal after the GameBoy Advance had already taken over as the prime handheld, and the less than amazing sales of the first game did the sequel no favors in getting made. In fact, the sheer existance of this game in a testament to the fanbase and to Shantae creator Matt Bozon. Matt Bozon actually created Shantae in his spare time and also did much work on an unreleased GBA sequel titled Shantae Advance. But due to the low sales of the original, retailers and analysts recommended multiple platformed release or some type of cross-media tie-in.

In a 2007 response to an IGN fanmail, Bozon mentions how they would make a version of Shantae everytime they got a new platform. Shantae has been made “on Gamecube, GBA, DS and Wii, and a few other dabblings in mobile and Plug and Play, and web, and somewhat of a false start on PSP.” Nintendo Power had previously revealed that this was the first in a trilogy, though I don’t know if this is still true. Hopefully, this eight year lapse will herald a glorious return for the franchise.

File this under fake-but-cool. Shogun Gamer posted a video they got in their email of a gritty live-action reboot of the Pokemon movie franchise. I don’t buy it one bit, yet I would totally go to a midnight showing of this if it actually happened. It almost makes up for no Pokemon MMO.

The Nintendo DSi is a versatile piece of hardware with some pretty fun and addicting games. Some are better than others and just keep players coming back for more and more. If you’re looking for some cool new games and you’ll never put down while on the subway or in-between breaks, check out this list.