Last night Nintendo of Japan held a press conference detailing their plans for the future of the Nintendo 3DS. Here is what they announced:

The ugly slide pad extension that was revealed last week was detailed and priced by Nintendo last night. Dubbed the “3DS Expansion Slide Pad” the peripheral will launch in Japan on December 10th and retail for ¥1,500 ( US $19, €14.28 ). The add-on will be powered by a single AA battery. Games to utilize the add-on will be the newly announced Monster Hunter, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, and a future Kingdom Hearts game.

Kid Icarus: Uprising will not be making its planned release at the end of this year. It will now see an early 2012 release in Japan and sometime after that for other regions. The new Kid Icarus game has been in development for a while now and was originally intended to be a launch title for the new handheld; it really could have used a game like Kid Icarus at launch.

2012 will also see the release of a new Mario Tennis game as well as the previously announced Paper Mario and Animal Crossing. Also shown at the conference were screenshots of new Fire Emblem and Style Savvy games. These 2012 releases are currently only for Japan but I’m sure the rest of the world will see these titles in 2012 as well.

One feature that I’m excited about, that was announced by Nintendo last night, is the ability to capture 3D video footage using the 3DS’s two front-facing cameras. This feature will come in a system update this November.  Also in that same update, 3Ds owners will see a new experience with their StreetPass challenges. There wasn’t much detail given about these, but hopefully it will be new games and new puzzles to collect.

Finally, Nintendo gave some behind-the-scenes details of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The game took 5 years and 100 people to develop, and the adventure will take anywhere from 50 to 100 hours to complete.