Five 2012 3DS Games We're Most Excited About

As the dust settled following Nintendo's recent press conference in Japan, one thing was abundantly clear: for 3DS, 2012 should be a banner year.

The company has a wealth of quality titles lined up, where if things neatly fall into place, we'll receive a new hit game each month, from January through the busy holiday shopping season.

Even better, there's more on this list than just Nintendo games. Third parties will step up in a big way for the dual screen system, delivering a variety of titles you won't find anyplace else.

That said, we decided to list the five 3DS games we're most looking forward to.

Resident Evil: Revelations

Critics argue that 3DS can't stand toe to toe with Sony's PlayStation Vita in the graphics department.

Apparently, these folks have yet to see Resident Evil: Revelations. Capcom's stunning adventure, which takes place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, looks phenomenal, with highly detailed environments (like a creepy cruise ship), terrifying monsters and heroes Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Everything about this survival horror romp screams high quality, and we can't wait to play the final version.

Mario Tennis 3DS

Mario and friends hit the court for what should be an excellent addition to the celebrated sports series, complete with singles/doubles play and a cast of familiar faces from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Thankfully, Mario Tennis developer, Camelot, is apparently in charge of this promising title.

Kid Icarus: Uprising

Action packed, intense and gorgeous. All of these apply to Pit's latest journey. Originally slated for a 2011 release, Nintendo pushed Kid Icarus: Uprising to next year in order to make necessary tweaks to the game, which is fine by us. After a 20 year hiatus, there's too much riding on this highly anticipated title.

Luigi's Mansion 2

We imported GameCubes in 2001 (and spent way too much cash) to enjoy Luigi's ghost busting antics, so you can imagine our surprise when Nintendo unveiled the sequel.

Although the E3 demo was a bit choppy, it's clear the developers retained what made the original Luigi's Mansion great in the first place, with secrets, tons of ghosts to capture and cool special effects like cloth billowing in the wind. Fun stuff.

Animal Crossing 3DS

It's been a long time since we've enjoyed some Animal Crossing, and the 3DS edition could be the best yet, thanks to new abilities, StreetPass support and the ability to take charge of a town and improve its characteristics. We just hope the game lets us create random holidays at will. There will be fireworks on a nightly basis.