Kid Icarus: Uprising AR cards will consume your life, starting this weekend

Nintendo's given some details regarding the hefty complement of augmented-reality cards it's about to release alongside Kid Icarus: Uprising next week. The company says it's got “hundreds” of different AR cards for fans to look out for; when a card's placed before the 3DS' camera, a monster instantiates! Um, or a video, a weapon, a piece of bonus content or some other treat. So where do you get them?

Six cards, randomly chosen from a starter set of 20, will be included with every copy of the game. You can get three more now from Club Nintendo, in exchange for nothing more than your email details and pledge of undying loyalty. Aaaaand then things get tricky.

Want the Three Sacred Treasures cards? Show up at Nintendo World in New York on the game's March 23 launch date. Then pick up the April issues of Game Informer, Nintendo Power and Best Buy's in-store magazine, @Gamer, for another seven cards. Then, you'd better head to a GameStop between the hours of 1 and 4pm on April 14 for another four cards; while you're there, make sure you know when the chain's NYC and LA stores will be holding their next Uprising tournament. There'll be more cards at these in-store meet-ups, as well as at events such as PAX East and this weekend's WonderCon in Anaheim.

Or you can just wait for the cards to show up on eBay – but it's hard to imagine that being anywhere near as much fun.