Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Let's Talk | 30 Comments

Let’s Talk #24: What do you want to see from the next Nintendo Direct?

A few days ago, we finally received official confirmation that Nintendo Directs will continue. But there are plenty of unknowns. We don’t know when the next presentation will air, who will host it, and what it will be about. All of that uncertainty makes for a perfect “Let’s Talk” topic!

If I’m thinking about when we’ll see the next Nintendo Direct, I could see one taking place within the next month. Nintendo could share new information about Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival – two games we know relatively little about even though they’re due out in a couple of months. Genei Ibun Roku #FE is coming to Japan in December, so it wouldn’t hurt to share an update about that title as well. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to showcase Hyrule Warriors Legends, which heads to Japan in January. Maybe Nintendo could help the news about Star Fox Zero’s delay hurt slightly less by showing new footage. And it wouldn’t be a Nintendo Direct without at least one game reveal!

In terms of a host, that’s where things get slightly tricky. Obviously the person replacing Satoru Iwata has big shoes to fill. I personally can’t see Tatsumi Kimishima, Nintendo’s new president, hosting the presentations. Iwata did introduce Mr. Morimoto during Japan’s Direct in May. Even though Reggie has primarily been featured in the North American broadcasts, could he be the main host? Some have even suggested Bill Trinen as a possibility.

Those are just a few thoughts from me. I’d love to hear what you guys think about the future of Nintendo Directs in the comments below!

Highlights from last week’s topic: Have you picked up Super Mario Maker?

Reiianuo

I had the game pre-loaded, so at midnight I immediately downloaded it. This game is really just an amazing package. Even playing the classic Marios (Original, 3 and World) in HD is very charming. With all the tools and content packed in, it is definitely worth the price of entry. The main portion of the game, community levels, can only get better as more players really learn the ins and outs of stage creation. It’s really great even coming up with one idea or theme for a stage, then spending hours fine-tuning that element into a full stage.

I’m gonna throw my stage codes this way too, as it seems to be the way of the land

They Called Me “Jumpman” (New U style)
3643-0000-001C-D72A
A fairly quick stage, my friend had told me I had made this stage “Impossible.” He didn’t realise the New U mechanics included the air-twirl that extends your jump distance slightly. Which is important.

Come On and SLAM with Mega Mario (Classic style)
076B-0000-003A-DB73

The central idea I had worked around with this stage is that being able to break blocks with mega mario can sometimes be a hazard, but also necessary for course completion. I like the tune for the Ghost House theme in the classic style game too!

LittleLynn

Every time I sit down with this game, I love it more and more. But after trying to set up a boss room for the first time, I’ve realized something I’d like to see in the future if there happens to be updates or DLC (besides more boss options). Maybe it’s just all my years of fiddling with RPG Maker, but I’d like to see event flags. For example: you’re in a small, closed room with a boss. There are no exits. However, upon defeating the boss, a door appears and you can progress (or perhaps it just ends the stage, as defeating bosses usually does).

I say this because while setting up this boss room, I basically had to design it in a weird layout that kinda encourages the player to actually defeat the boss before being able to safely reach the exit… but even then, a determined enough player can (and probably will) still circumvent the boss entirely. It’s a teensy bit frustrating.

That little nuisance aside, I think this is definitely shaping up to be one of my favorites that I’ve made. It’s not ready quite yet, but I’ll definitely share the code here when it is. ^_^

In the meantime, here’s a nifty, new (if somewhat easy) costume-based stage I made:
Next Door in the Haunted Mansion – DA41-0000-0031-5AA9

chancetime

I have picked it up and I’m definitely enjoying it so far. I never played NSMB U or Luigi U so I’m getting used to those styles, but the fact that I’ve got pretty much infinite levels for 4 different Mario games is amazing. Having people enjoy your levels is also really rewarding, putting time and effort into your courses will be rewarded by stars and comments.

For me, there’s only two negatives:

1) We need a proper search system. If you only want to play SMB3 Castle levels for example, you should be able to set parameters to search by.

2) No Desert theme 🙁 GH, Undergound and Castle are all fairly dark levels, so it would have been nice to have a bright desert theme to work with, as well as Pokeys, quick sand and the like.

LordDisco

Yes, and I am loving it! Made 4 levels, and I’m pretty proud of a couple of them. One thing I would change indefinitely right now is the search option, which there currently is not one at all. You can’t search by level name, you can’t search by user name, you can’t search your friends list, and you really can’t search for recently made ones. It’s just popular or play 100-Mario Challenge to play random levels. It’s actually a pretty poor way to get around. N++ actually has an amazing system for created levels, categorized by difficulty, recently made, most popular, made by friends, etc. It’s really nice. If Mario Maker had something like that, it would make it a much better experience.

Here are my current levels (Which the level ID is another thing that is garbage):
– Who is King of the Hill? F285-0000-0012-EA5C
– Why So Short? BD84-0000-0015-51EF
– Mad Funhouse 7643-0000-0017-0DEA
– Koopa Tagteam 55D8-0000-001C-AB64

Hope you all enjoy!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 33 Comments

Fans have been on a Nintendo patent hunt over the past few days. A filing for clickable scroll wheel shoulder buttons was found on Thursday, followed shortly after by one involving haptic feedback.

The latest patent we have is for a handheld with outward-facing linear image sensors. This one was filed for in February as well and was published this month. While Nintendo isn’t behind the patent directly, it was assigned to Fumihiko Inoue. Inoue is absolutely connected to the company and is listed as one of the inventors of the Big N’s older patents.

Here’s the abstract from the latest patent:

“An example system includes a housing having at least one surface provided with a display, a linear image sensor located, facing outside the housing, at a side part or a corner part of the housing when the surface provided with the display is viewed as a front surface, and an information processing unit performing information processing based on an image obtained by the linear image sensor.”

Here are some other tidbits from the filing:

– Linear image sensors on all four sides of a handheld device
– Space Pointer Function – For example if the device is positioned on a desk, these sensors can detect location/distance of finger (sliding on desk on side of device) and move cursor/character accordingly
– Side Surface Touching Operation – When holding the device in hands, these sensors can detect touch (e.g slide finger up/down to zoom)
– Figure Detection Function – Sensors can read barcodes (e.g on Amiibos) and detect rotation/distance
– Use Mode Determining Function – Sensors can help with accuracy of acceleration sensor e.g when rotating device to/from landscape/portrait orientation while device is horizontal
– Pulse Detecting Function – Detect user’s pulse rate (based on the reflection/intensity of skin)

You can find more information and images pertaining to the patent here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Those who purchase a select Mario game from the Nintendo UK store can receive a free T-shirt. The selection includes Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, and more. You can check out the full lineup here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 17 Comments

Green Man Gaming and Nintendo UK have teamed up to begin selling digital Wii U and 3DS titles. The initial lineup includes retail titles like Super Mario Maker and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, but also Virtual Console games such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This news is notable since Green Man Gaming is the global number two digital games retailer.

If you’re in the UK, you can find all of the offerings here. There’s also a brief announcement featuring Charles Martinet below.

Source

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 2 Comments

Nintendo has published its third indie interview coming from PAX Prime 2015. In the latest one, the company’s Damon Baker talks with Graphite Lab about Hive Jump. Check it out below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 2 Comments

The Nintendo Sound Selection was among Club Nintendo Europe’s final rewards. You can now watch an unboxing video of the item below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Nintendo will be releasing the first set of Animal Crossing amiibo cards in North America next week. If one GameStop store is anything to go by, they should be pretty well stocked.

The image above shows the unit amount for the cards at one GameStop location. This is a small store, so people are counting on the amiibo seeing similar numbers (if not higher) at other outlets.

Source

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Images | 0 comments

Photos are now available showing the Japanese Club Nintendo 2016 Calendar. You’ll find the full set below.

Source

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

A trio of amiibo are now available for pre-order on Amazon Italy. They are as follows:

Get yours Mega Yarn Yoshi
Standalone Chibi-Robo
Falco

Each one of these amiibo should ship to the U.S. Of course, when actual North American retailers begin taking pre-orders, we’ll let you know!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Image & Form tackles a few more topics regarding the SteamWorld franchise in its second episode of “The Engine Room”. In today’s video, the studio talks about why each SteamWorld game is in a different genre, shares thoughts on SteamWorld sequels, and discusses future SteamWorld genre wishes. Check out The Engine Room #2 below.

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