At last week's Nintendo press conference in Amsterdam - where Nintendo announced the 3DS' UK release date - Aardman Animations, the creators of the famous Wallace and Gromit, Morph - and of course, Shaun the Sheep - announced that they would be partnering with Nintendo to make a series of 1 minute long 3D 'shorts' for the console, starring everyone's favourite sheep.
It's Shaun the Sheep. It's Shaun the Sheep. He's on your 3DS with all his friends that bleat.
Designed to promote the 3DS' 'SpotPass' functionality, which allows the handheld to automatically download new levels, add-ons, and, of course, videos over WiFi, the Shaun the Sheep shorts will be downloaded to your 3DS as soon as your console has a wireless connection, no matter where you are, or what you may be doing, with a handy Notification L.E.D lighting up in the top right hand corner of the 3DS whenever it receives a new file.
Or, as Laurent Fischer, Nintendo of Europe's Managing Director of Marketing and PR (try saying that five times backwards) explains, all this happens "when you are not aware of it, no matter what game is currently installed in your game slot. Even during the system's sleep mode your Nintendo 3DS can access the internet and receive a wide variety of content.". Sounds good to us lazy folks at Everybody Plays.
It's not the first time Aardman Animations have worked with Nintendo either - for those of you that have a DSi, you might remember the free application, Flipnote Studio, that lets you create your own flip-book style animations. Designed to show off the flexibility of the package when in the hands of professional animators, Aardman created a series of 12 shorts, using only the power of the Flipnote Studio application - and you can find the first one of the series, entitled 'The Sandwich Twins', below:
Aardman aren't the only ones Nintendo have got on board either, even if they are the one's we're most excited about - they also boast deals with Eurosport and Sky 3D, with both providers having signed up to provide 3D video straight to your 3DS. If the Sky Player application on the Xbox is anything to go by, you'll probably need to have a Sky subscription before you're able to use it, but we're hoping the Eurosport videos are free for all. Hopefully, Nintendo will have more information on what goodies we'll be able to get from SpotPass in the coming weeks, as we approach the launch of the 3DS on the 25th March - so make sure you keep checking back.
