That Nintendo is still in business let alone thriving is newsworthy in its own right. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s it was somewhat of a Luigi, playing second fiddle to the Sony PlayStation juggernaut and the Microsoft XBOX hoopla. Financials were a mess largely thanks to the last generation GameCube which flopped. But, my, how times have changed. Zelda on Nintendo: A popular franchise No doubt, Wii is a smash hit. And it’s the number one family choice, with stars such as Zelda, and Mario leading the way with ear-to-ear grins. Now you can add Mickey Mouse to that list of iconic heroes. At E3, Epic Mickey, a new game based on the big-eared Disney character was just one of several strong announcements. The biggest news news our of team N is the 3-D portable called the Nintendo 3DS. Remember what I mentioned earlier about 3-D? Well now kids want it too, in their hands, on the go. Using a “parallax barrier” LCD screen, whose pixels are aligned so your left and right eyes see different portions of the image, the system will not require the use of special glasses. Depending on your fashion sense, this could be a great disappointment. No word on price for the 3DS, but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said Nintendo “blew people away.” Scorecard: B+. Solid announcements that reinforce the brand with a stable of new video games (Epic Mickey) and updates to classics (Zelda, Kirby, Donkey Kong). Potential to lead 3D handheld market with 3DS, but will consumers buy into it …