General Nintendo

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

At Comic-Con last week, Mattel showed off a Mario Kart version of its Hot Wheels AI Intelligent Race System. It features a track that can keep Mario and co. on the road while players shoot virtual hazards at each other.

CNET has a report on the toy. According to the site’s article, you can enable “RC Mode” to go off-road. You’ll also hear sounds while racing, including character voices and the same tones played when a race begins in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You’ll also be able to place bananas and fire shells to slow down opponents, but it won’t be possible to see these on the track.

A starter kit will be sold that contains a 26-piece track plus Mario and Yoshi cars will be sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us in October for $135. A kit with Luigi is also releasing during the same month for $25. Bowser and Princess Peach will arrive before the end of 2017.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments

ThinkGeek currently has the NES Classic Edition back in stock. However, hardware is only being included in various bundles. Bundles start at $140 and go up until $220.

We generally don’t like to promote these sorts of bundles, though this might be one of your last chances to secure yourself an NES Classic Edition. You can see the bundle offerings here.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments

Here’s something a little interesting about the development of Dragon Quest XI. During its early days, Square Enix tried making a part of Dragon Quest III using Unreal Engine 4.

The vertical slice was the area where you find the castle town Aliahan. It wasn’t recreated entirely, but the team was able to take a serious look at the classic NES RPG while working on Dragon Quest XI.

According to director Takeshi Uchikawa, the team was able to more easily understand the likeness of Dragon Quest. It let the developers see conversations and the people of Dragon Quest III.

We may get a look at the Unreal Engine 4 version of Dragon Quest III one day. Producer Yosuke Saito hopes to have an opportunity to show it in the future.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

Walmart had pre-orders open for the Super NES Classic Edition late Friday night. Whether or not those reservations are kept remain to be seen, as there has been some uncertainty about the retailer cancelling orders altogether.

Your next option might be Target. A representative from the store told Polygon, “We will have the Super NES Classic, and it will be available for pre-orders on Target.com at a later date.”

This is similar to what we heard over the weekend. The AskTarget Twitter account said that pre-orders would be available, though later told another consumer that it had no information. Now that we have an actual response straight from the retailer, it does seem that pre-orders for the Super NES Classic Edition will eventually open after all.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

With a new Pokemon game comes new merchandise, and Takara Tomy will be producing new figures for the two games later this year. Pokeshopper has the scoop on what’s to come.

Apparently, new secrets will be revealed this November, which is a month after the first Silvally figurine releases. A listing notes that a new form will exist in November, though it’s unclear if it pertains to a new Ultra Beast, or references Lycanroc, Togedemaru or Mimikyu.

Here’s the current lineup of figurines:

– Silvally M Figure – 1,200 yen October release
– Necrozma L Figure – 1,500 yen November release
– Three secrets (Reference form change)
– December – Nihilego, Tapu Bulu

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Let's Talk | 19 Comments

Nintendo issued a new Wii U firmware update this week. The system hasn’t seen the addition of any new features in quite some time, so normally this wouldn’t be big news. However, it ended up being fairly significant after dataminers apparently found text that mentions the end of Miiverse.

First thing: we can’t say with absolutely certainty that the datamined text is accurate. Second, assuming it’s true, it may take time for Nintendo to pull the plug on Miiverse. For all we know, it could be a year, two years, or longer.

However, we can’t deny that Miiverse isn’t as prominent these days as it once was. It’s not a part of Switch at all. Wii U is still used by many players, but it’s not in the spotlight now. And the 3DS does feature Miiverse as well, though you could argue that it isn’t as significant there as it is on Wii U.

So let’s take a moment or two to look back on Miiverse. How do you feel the community as a whole? Do you think the original idea was good for Nintendo to put in place? How active were you on Miiverse, if at all? Do you have any memories in particular? Let us know in the comments below.

Highlights from last week’s topic: What are you playing? – July 2017

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

After finding out about Playing with Super Power: Nintendo SNES Classics earlier this week, pre-orders have been discounted on Amazon. Savings are available in the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Amazon US has Playing with Super Power for $18 off. On Amazon Canada, the same book has been discounted by $23. Amazon UK has lower savings, but it’s still £6.62 off. 

Playing with Super Power: Nintendo SNES Classics will be available on September 29 alongside the SNES Classic Edition.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments

Update: We’re back to where we were originally, with Target may (or may not) taking pre-orders. The same Twitter account now writes the following:

Original: Last night, Walmart unexpectedly began taking pre-orders for the Super NES Classic Edition. If you weren’t playing Splatoon 2, perhaps you were lucky enough to get an order in. Reservations were up for about 40 minutes before Walmart pulled the plug.

In one way, this is already a win over the NES Classic Edition. For that hardware, retailers did not take any pre-orders.

Walmart looks to be done at this point. But what about other retailers? Based on one tweet from Target, the store will be taking pre-orders. We don’t know when, however.

Technically this isn’t an official announcement from Target, so we won’t believe it until we see it. If and when Target does open pre-orders, we’ll let you know.

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Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

The first Shantae figure was sold at Anime Expo earlier this month. Series creator Matt Bozon said that if it sold well, Volks would be more interested in making it available online as well.

Volks now has a pre-order page up for the Shantae figure on its website, so it looks like interest at Anime Expo was very high. Orders placed now will be delivered on August 18. Pricing is set at $75.

You can pre-order the Shantae figure here.

More: figure, shantae, WayForward

Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 16 Comments

Harvey Atkin passed away this week after losing a battle to cancer. He was 74.

Some of you may be unaware of this, but Atkin played a big role in the Super Mario Bros. cartoons way back in the day. Atkin voiced King Koopa in three different animated shows in the 80’s and 90’s. Interestingly, he was the only one to play the same role in each series. Atkin was involved with The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and The New Super Mario World series.

Rest in peace, Harvey Atkin.

Thanks to Clyde_BlueSnake for the tip.

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