When it’s all said and done, Epic Mickey still did good business for Disney, despite some disappointing sales. It was also probably one of the best-selling Wii titles last holiday, so chances of a sequel are fairly high. That being said, Disney seems to be focusing less on full retail releases lately, so if this project is happening, there is a possibility it’ll never see the light of day.

Mickey Mouse is still the type of franchise icon that will sell whatever he stars in. Epic Mickey wasn’t a bad game, and it racked up pretty good sales for a third-party Wii title. Now that somewhat-similar control schemes are available for the PS3 and Xbox 360, it seems a sequel should sell well enough to warrant release.

“In the works,” huh? Yeah, I’d say that. We may not see it until Holiday 2012, but guess what? Sequels are cheap, and sequels that re-use all the assets are very cheap. We’ll get one, it’ll be mediocre and we’ll all move on with our lives.

There are some games that will support the add-on, like Metal Gear Solid 3D, which will be launching in the States, so it seems pretty likely that it’ll be released here. Plus, if the next Monster Hunter requires it, it seems like a no-brainer to release it here (in a Monster Hunter 3G bundle, most likely).

Considering the list of big titles that are planning to use the Slide Pad, it seems to me to be a foregone conclusion that it will eventually make its way over here, especially with the fairly reasonable MSRP in Japan. Hopefully it will reduce Nintendo’s inherent need to fiddle with and redesign their handhelds.

If we get Monster Hunter, we will get this. That simple, really. It’s weird for me to want a peripheral to fizzle, but I’m hoping this goes the way of the GBA-to-GameCube cable or the Wii Zapper.

This might be against my better judgment at this point, considering what company we’re talking about, but I’m going to call BS on this rumor. I know it’s kind of the thing Nintendo does with handhelds, but I don’t think they’ll resort to redesigning the 3DS for at least another couple of years. If they release a redesign of the 3DS, they are just screwing themselves out of more potential sales. The DS could get away with the constant redesigns, it was such a significant and successful handheld; the 3DS is not, at least not yet. So yeah, Nintendo would be absolutely crazy to do this so soon. At the same time, this is Nintendo we’re talking about, so at the end of the day I wouldn’t be surprised if it still happens.

With the add-on released for what seems like a reasonable price, I don’t think Nintendo will redesign the 3DS to have 2 Slide Pads. (At least not yet.) However, I wouldn’t put it past them to release a 3DS XL next Christmas. Like Andrew, I’m torn on this one… I’ll also vote against my gut and say it won’t happen.

I’m firmly against those rumors that a redesign is coming soon. That said, Holiday 2012? Not that soon. We could definitely see a tweaked 3DS launched alongside the Wii U, sporting a similar aesthetic and enhanced battery life. (And maybe more buttons, but I’m hoping beyond all hope that it doesn’t have ’em.)