REDMOND, Wash.– As consumers dig into their holiday shopping this season, they can discover a way to dig for fascinating fossils and encounter some extraordinary virtual creatures. The Fossil Fighters^â„¢: Champions game launches today exclusively for the Nintendo DS^™ family of hand-held systems. The game asks players to use precision to clean ancient fossils, skill to assemble fantasy teams of revived dinosaurs called vivosaurs and strategy to battle those vivosaurs in a grand tournament.

“Fossil Fighters: Champions turns players of all ages into budding paleontologists,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Up to four players can dig in and have fun.”

Fossil Fighters: Champions requires players to excavate and carefully clean ancient dinosaur fossils using the Nintendo DS stylus as a hammer and drill. The more effectively the fossils are cleaned, the more powerful the resulting revived vivosaurs will be in battles. Giant fossil rocks containing complete dinosaur fossils and two-sided fossil rocks are new to the franchise. Players can discover more than 140 vivosaurs. By finding rare golden fossils, they can even transform certain vivosaurs into powerful new “Super Evolver” forms.

Once players have successfully cleaned a fossil skull, they can revive a vivosaur and prepare it for battle. Players then command a team of three vivosaurs in turn-based battles, using their vivosaurs’ unique skills and special attacks. Players can also rotate their vivosaur formations during battle to give them an edge over opponents.

The game contains a number of wireless features as well. Players can compete in matchmaking battles or upload their best team to see how it fares against others. Players with broadband Internet access can use Nintendo^® Wi-Fi Connection to download additional vivosaurs and events that offer unique challenges and surprises, including a number of vivosaurs that cannot be found elsewhere in the game. Using DS Download Play, one player who has the game can connect wirelessly with up to three other Nintendo DS owners within range and cooperate to expertly clean fossils together.

For more information about Fossil Fighters: Champions, visit http://fossilfighterschampions.nintendo.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii^™ home console, Nintendo 3DS^™ and Nintendo DS^™ family of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System^™, Nintendo has sold more than 3.8 billion video games and more than 610 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi^™ and Nintendo DSi XL^™, as well as the Game Boy^™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES^™, Nintendo 64^™ and Nintendo GameCube^™ systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario^™, Donkey Kong^™, Metroid^™, Zelda^™and Pokémon^™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.