From a March 10th press release, Nintendo announced that they would be mounting a cross-country major city Nintendo 3DS promotional campaign in which "Pods" would be showcased in metropolitan areas around the United States (and Canada). Living in one of those major cities, I moseyed over to San Francisco's Pier 39 to check out what was going on.

The Pod has 8 play-testing spots with different games at each one. The games at the SF location included AR Games, Face Raiders, Street Fighter IV, Madden, Pilotwings, Steel Diver, and the much anticipated Nintendogs + cats. The latter is a Tamigotchi-style virtual pet raising game, in which you can pet your pets with a cursor, feed them, take pictures of them, post them to various social netoworks and even hold in the palm of your hand (thanks to an AR Card). Nintendo is also providing a Mii-maker kiosk adjoining the Pod, where you can make a Mii based on a couple default settings and an intuitive process that adds features based on a self-photograph. As you could post this to Facebook or send this to up to 3 email addresses, many people were enjoying this feature, including Mii. I mean, me.

Most popular game to demo was a three-way tie between Face Raiders, AR Games and Nintendogs + Cats. All of these games have AR elements or are entirely AR based, so this bodes very well for Portable AR experiences in the near future.

Make sure to check out the gallery for more photos, or if you're in any of the following major cities, make the trek and check it out yourself:

New York City: Grand Central Terminal (Vanderbilt Hall, West Side)

o Running March 11-30

o Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

o Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

Chicago: Citigroup Center (entrance to Ogilvie Transportation Center)

o Running March 11-April 3

o Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

o Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

San Francisco: Pier 39 (Main Entrance Plaza)

o Running March 11-April 3

o Monday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Los Angeles: Third Street Promenade (1300 block)

o Running March 11-April 3

o Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

o Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

o Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.