Nintendo Co. is putting William Shakespeare and Mark Twain alongside “Super Mario” with its new handheld game device.

The Kyoto-based maker of the top-selling Wii console introduced the DSi XL handheld video-game player in the US, adding a book reader similar to products from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp.

The device will be released on March 28 and cost $189.99, Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for North America, said yesterday at an event in San Francisco.

The player, which has a larger screen than the company’s current model, will double as an electronic reader when Nintendo introduces “100 Classic Books” in June.

Nintendo is facing increasing competition from Apple for mobile-game players. The iPad, to be released next month by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, will function as an e-reader and have games from makers including Electronic Arts.