New Year’s dev drawings – Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Splatoon, Fire Emblem, more

Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream is celebrating the start of 2016 in its latest issue. Various game developers and other key members related to the industry contributed handmade drawings, including representatives from Nintendo, Capcom, Square Enix, and more.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing the various images featured in Nintendo Dream. The first set of drawings, rounded up in the gallery below, features The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Splatoon, Fire Emblem, and some others. We also have text accompanying the shots after the break.

Nintendo – Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

Let’s hype up 2016 with Tri Force Heroes which has become even more fun after updates! The illustration which had Mr. [Eiji] Aonuma & co. dressing as the three heroes & Lady Maud is also cute.

Nintendo – Splatoon

[This is] Nintendo’s new face which stirred up a big whirlwind in 2015. Could there be many readers who have reached S+ rank within 2015…? The card’s illustration is drawn by this game’s art director, Mr. Seita Inoue. Keep coloring in 2016~

Nintendo – Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

Isabelle & Lottie are greeting with station attendant’s costume to coincide with the year of the monkey. The one who drew this cute illustration was the one in charge of character design in this game, Mr. Koji Takahashi. Since it also links with Wii U’s “Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival”, creating homes in 2016 will become a hot thing too!?

Note: Below Moro’s signature there’s an interesting thing written: contests are still continuing, guys!

Nintendo – Rhythm Heaven The Best Plus

That’s right, the girl from the rhythm game “Idol” had many monkeys as her guests. This illustration drawn by Mr. Kou Takeuchi (character designer) is also good, and the small drawings from others also worked out as joke materials.

Nintendo – Fire Emblem Fates

Continuing from “Fire Emblem Awakening” is “Fire Emblem Fates” which has charmed a lot of fans. Nintendo Dream also helped with many projects in 2015.

Nintendo – Fire Emblem Cypher

A card game developed solely by Intelligent Systems. Look forward to the world being expanded continually by new cards in 2016 too. The illustration is Marth which is drawn by Mr. Izuka!

Game Freak – Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

Junichi Masuda’s comment: Happy New Year! On February 27, 2016, “Pokemon” will celebrate its 20th anniversary. On this day, Virtual Console versions of “Pokemon Red, Green, Blue & Yellow” will be released, so if we can hype it up with everyone while feeling nostalgic with the past, I’ll be glad! And this year I think we’ll give a feel of the future with “Pokemon GO”! We’re challenging [ourselves] so that the 20th anniversary will be fun for everyone in the world, so please keep up your continuing support. The ring of Pokemon is still getting bigger! I look forward to work with you all this year!

Shigeru Omori’s comment: Happy New Year! 2015 was the most hyped year since there was a battle event with Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire all around the world. 2016 will be finally 20th anniversary of Pokemon Red & Green releasing [in Japan]! We have come this far thanks to support from a lot of people. Please expect Pokemon from hereafter too!!

Creatures – Pokemon Card Game

As written at the bottom right of this card, the illustration was drawn by Ms. Rina Hanakawa, a staff member at Creatures.

Atsushi Nagashima’s comment: Happy New Year. We’re still developing more new products in 2016 so everyone can further have fun! This year in the spring there will be a large event “Blastoise Mega Battle”, then in summer the top placers in the aforementioned event can participate in “Pokemon World Championships 2016” which will be held in San Francisco. Please expect a heated expansion to “Pokemon Card Game” on this year too!

Kenichi Koga’s comment: Happy New Year! This December, the expansion pack “Wrath of the Heaven Destroyer” was released, Mega Gyarados EX and Greninja BREAK were appearing, and a new story is progressing. We’re currently thinking of an expansion that will surpass everyone’s predictions, so please expect on it! Furthermore, on 29 January a new concept pack “Pokekyun Collection” which is packed with cute illustrations not unlike anything before it will be released, so look forward to it! Best regards to “Pokemon Card Game” in 2016 too!

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