As I write these words, it’s just past 2pm in Japan and Nintendo is currently in the midst of a press conference revealing details about their upcoming handheld syetem, the revolutionary Nintendo 3DS.

Wanna know what’s in store? When can you put your pre-order down? Hit that jump and meet us inside.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata kicked the conference off by throwing out out some Japanese release dates: January 27th for Mistwalker’s The Last Story and October 28th for a Super Mario 25th Anniversary DSi. He also took the opportunity to show off Pokemon Black and White’s sales — 2.5 million copies to date — and officially confirm the existence of the Wii Remote Plus.

But they know what everybody came to see – the 3DS. During the usual sizzle reel of upcoming releases, they revealed one cool new feature: using the 3D camera, you can transform a person’s image into a Mii character right on the 3DS, which can later be shared via QR codes, which you can import via the 3DS’ camera. Miis will be able to be used in various Augmented Reality games as well. Several of these games will be included with the system at launch.

Various tag mode functions were then shown. All 3DS games will be able to communicate while in Sleep mode. There will be a light on the outside of the unit’s shoulder that shows when you’ve passed another 3DS and exchanged data with them and the system can store tag data for multiple games at once, so you don’t even have to be playing that title when you pass someone to exchange info. Now that is a definite bonus to us poor Westerners who may have lucked out enough to pass someone with a system, but who didn’t happen to be playing the same title as us!

You’ll also be able to back out of games mid-play via the Home button to launch various programs like the web browser or a notepad program, which will definitely make looking up those FAQs online a breeze.

A 2GB SD card will be included with the 3DS hardware, which you’ll no doubt begin to fill up immediately, since Game Boy Classic, Color and Advance titles (some in 3D) will be available via Virtual Console. Not feeling that loss of a GBA slot so badly now, are you?

And while I’m sure we’ll never see anything like this Stateside, Japanese users won’t have to want for WiFi connectivity; Japan’s telecommunications provider, NTT, will be rolling out nationwide 3DS-specific WiFi in 2011.

As for the date? Well, it looks like we won’t be getting our hands on this baby before Christmas. The Nintendo 3DS releases in Japan on February 26th, 2011 and will retail for ¥25,000 (Just shy of $300 at the current conversion rate – it remains to be seen what the final USD price point will be). North America and Europe will receive it slightly later, in March of 2011. Oh, and for you fashionistas? Prepare to accessorize with either Aqua Blue or Cosmo Black.

So what do you think? Was your heart set on a Holiday 2010 release? And how do you feel about that price? Let us know in the comments below.