Kid Icarus: Uprising - The Final Showdown

This Saturday saw the grand final of the Kid Icarus: Uprising Battle Events take place in Central London. For the past eight weeks, the series of competitive Nintendo 3DS events have been touring the length and breadth of Great Britain, giving the general public the chance to take on pro-gamer Russki in a tournament to win a trip to IPL 5 in Las Vegas this November.

On Saturday, 24 finalists descended on the Century Club in Soho, (some coming in from Scotland) to duke it out in front of an audience of Nintendo fans. While only one person was going to be walking away with the main prize of the trip to Vegas, five runners up also managed to get their hands on a full deck of Kid Icarus: Uprising AR cards (400 of them!).

A victorious James Rushton

Fighting off fierce competition, James Rushton was the overall winner of the tournament, and he'll be jetting off to Vegas later this year courtesy of IGN and Nintendo. We'd like to thank everyone who took part across the country and those who came down to cheer on the competitors this weekend. Check out the snaps of the event below – a massive thank you to Ace Ashun for supplying!

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Wii U Release Date: More Leaks Suggest Mid-November Launch

While Nintendo prepares for its Wii U Preview Event in just 2.5 weeks, more leaks continue to suggest the publisher is planning on launching the system November 18. This time the information comes from the GameStop Manager's Conference, where peripheral maker PDP reportedly revealed it plans on releasing Wii U accessories on the Sunday date.

This isn't the first time we've seen suggestions of a November 18 release date. Furthermore the weekend timing and proximity to Black Friday/Thanksgiving in the United States fits Nintendo's pattern of home console debuts for the past decade (Wii launched on November 19; GameCube on November 18).

To add a healthy bit of skepticism to the mix though, PDP's plans do not necessarily have to align with Nintendo's. Accessories frequently ship prior to console launches, and there's nothing to say that PDP might arrive after the system arrives at retailers. Until Nintendo outright reveals its plans, we won't know for sure. Fortunately we don't have long to wait.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

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Dust 514 Beta Headed to PlayStation Plus

CCP has announced a new beta period for Dust 514 exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Access will run two weeks, beginning on August 24th and ending on September 4th. While no new beta codes will be sent out during that period, people with All-Access Passes will still have access to the beta.

PlayStation Plus members will also receive a 50% discount on Dust’s Mercenary Pack, which is normally $19.99. The pack offers 4,000 Aurum, a 30-day active skill booster, and exclusive in-game items including a Dragonfly Scout dropsuit and Toxin ICD-9 submachine gun.

August 21st will also mark the launch of Dust’s Precursor update, which CCP detailed last week. In addition to live Dust 514 and EVE Online integration Precursor will also add Orbital Strikes, instant battle matchmaking, new environments, keyboard and mouse support and more.

Dust 514 will enter open beta later this year. For more about the game, read why it’s the deepest first-person shooter we’ve ever played.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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WWE Launching New Saturday Morning Series

WWE RAW is now, as of a few weeks ago, three hours long. So that, plus two hours of Smackdown on Fridays and the upcoming Wednesday night show that the WWE will have on ION TV will soon place them at...carry the two...a flaflillion hours of TV a week!

So...much...WWE.

But it doesn't stop there. It was announced today that for the first time since 2001, the WWE will have a program during a popular TV kids' time slot on Saturday morning.

A new, weekly half-hour show called WWE Saturday Morning Slam will debut in two weeks on August 25 at 10 a.m. as part of the television premiere of Vortexx, a Saturday morning kids' television block, reaching 114 million U.S. television households on The CW. Vortexx on The CW is run by Saban Brands, the company that brought the world the Power Rangers.

Somebody call my mini-momma!

No, I suppose those of us IGNers who watch the WWE don't necessarily need to make Saturday Morning Slam part of our balanced breakfast. It's going to skew younger and focus on the elements of the WWE that are kid-friendly. It will still have in-ring action, but it will also incorporate behind-the-scenes footage and include highlights from WWE’s Be a STAR anti-bullying campaign and other community initiative. It also promises to be the "most energy-filled half-hour on television."

“We are extremely excited to partner with the WWE to bring their world-class brand of entertainment to Vortexx,” said Joel Andryc, Co-President, Vortexx. “With a focus on action, adventure and comedy, Vortexx is the perfect home for WWE Saturday Morning Slam and will definitely excite our fans.”

“WWE has a long history on Saturday mornings, and we’re thrilled to make our action-packed return on Vortexx with WWE Saturday Morning Slam,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO. “The new program enables us to further engage kids and families, a vital component of WWE’s passionate and multi-generational fan base.”

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PlayStation All-Stars Beta Goes Public This Fall

The PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta is already raging for a select few, but Sony has revealed that the beta will reach a wider audience in the weeks leading up to its release in late October.

SuperBot Entertainment President Chan Park wrote that “while [the beta accommodates] just a small group now, in the coming weeks we will continue to send out batches of codes as we gradually expand the beta; so keep your eyes open. You just might receive an invitation to join! Keep checking back with the blog for more information around the public beta, starting with early access to PlayStation Plus members.”

So it looks like everyone will eventually gain access to the beta. But PlayStation Plus members will get priority once the closed beta ends.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

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Win a Signed Copy of The Last Story

After a long, long time of waiting, The Last Story is finally on its way to North America in just a couple of weeks. The game will be available to purchase on August 14 - and to celebrate, we’re giving away five standard edition copies of the game. But that’s not all - all five copies are signed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game’s director and the creator of the Final Fantasy series.

So how do you win? Just send us the answers to the five questions below to nintendo@ign.com. DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS - unless you want to seriously destroy your chances of winning. The first five people to correctly respond to all five questions will earn themselves one of the signed copies of the game. Winners will receive their copy on launch day, so if you win you can still dive into the adventure right away.

Once we have selected the winners, we’ll update this article to announce who the lucky gamers are. Please note that this contest is only open to readers living in North America. And again - this is just for a standard boxed copy of the game. If you're waiting the special edition that includes the art book, or you want the pre-order incentive soundtrack, you'll have to head to the store on August 14. But those won't be signed by Sakaguchi... Decisions, decisions.

Now for those questions…

1. What is the name of the main hero in The Last Story?

2. What was The Last Story’s Japanese release date? Be specific - month, day and year!

3. What was developer Mistwalker’s first game?

4. Which movie marked Hironobu Sakaguchi’s debut as a film director?

5. Name the legendary composer of both The Last Story and the Final Fantasy series.

Good luck, Koopalings! The contest starts... NOW! Go! E-mail!

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!

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Over 100,000 Sign Up for The War Z Beta

Over 100,000 people have signed up for the upcoming beta for the zombie survival game The War Z. Announced less than two weeks ago in an exclusive interview with IGN, The War Z has proven to surprise even the team. "The response in the first week since we announced the game has been incredible and it’s totally inspired the team,” said senior game designer Eric Nordin.

The War Z is currently in an alpha state,with no firm date given for the start of the beta. While gameplay-wise the team admits that The War Z has more than a little in common with the incredibly popular mod DayZ, The War Z is not a mod, but a full retail product that will cost $30. You can sign up for a chance to be in the closed beta on the official website. For a ton of information and images of the game, check out our lengthy and detail-rich interview.

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Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog Gets CW TV Premiere Date

As we learned a few weeks ago at Joss Whedon's Comic-Con solo panel, a sequel to his popular online musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was making some serious headway in getting off the ground. Additionally, Whedon announced that the original Dr. Horrible would soon be airing on The CW.

Today, at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, the network revealed that the series (presented online in three segments) will be making its television debut on Tuesday, October 9 at 9pm ET. While Dr. Horrible has been available to view online since 2008, it is still pretty notable to have an independently produced internet project such as this make its way to television. This could serve as a launchpad for introducing the series to a broader audience, especially now that a sequel is in the works.

The CW's president, Mark Pedowitz, said that Dr. Horrible would be edited to fit the 42 minutes needed for a one-hour primetime broadcast (with commercials). He added, "Hopefully if Joss does another one, we’ll get a crack at doing it."

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was directed by Whedon, who co-wrote the project alongside Maurissa Tancharden, Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. The series stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

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