Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 10 Comments

Nintendo has announced a restock for the Splatoon amiibo in Japan. On July 9, consumers will be able to find the Boy and Girl Inklings. There are also plans to make more Squid figures later this month. The one thing that will not be restocked is the 3-pack, which has been discontinued.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Let's Talk | 26 Comments

Let’s Talk #14: What are you playing? – July 2015

Summer is here, and it’s the start of a new month. Given that – and the fact that we’re a games-oriented website – I thought we should host a “what are you playing” topic for Let’s Talk this week. It may actually be something that we do at the start of each month going forward depending on how the discussion goes this time around.

So tell us in the comments below: what are you playing right now? It’d be great if what you mention is Nintendo-related, but I don’t think it’d be fair to exclude others from Let’s Talk if they’re currently playing on a different platform. That means anything is fair game! I’ll start the discussion off below.

I’ve been playing a whole lot of Mario Tennis on the 3DS Virtual Console lately. Nintendo put the game on sale in North America a couple of weeks ago, and while it was only about $1 less than the normal asking price, I decided to grab it and jump right in.

I played Mario Tennis a ton back in the day on the Game Boy Color. I still have my original system and the game cartridge in fact!

I have so, so many fond memories of this title. It’s really as a good as I remember it, and it sort of makes me wish that the Mario Tennis games these days were a bit more like it. Mario Tennis Open on 3DS was alright, but this one is much better in my opinion.

The main draw of Mario Tennis on the Game Boy Color was definitely the story mode. You can play as either Alex or Nina (plus a partner of Harry or Kate depending on if you select doubles), and level up/improve stats along the way.

Thus far, I haven’t even touched that mode even though I loved it greatly. I’ve just been spending a lot of time in exhibition matches thus far. Something about the core tennis gameplay feels perfect. I have a feeling I won’t be putting the title down anytime soon!

Highlights from last week’s topic: Your thoughts on Nintendo’s E3 2015 performance

bakedapplepie

Overall I think it was a pretty good show. Ya a lot of what we knew already, but the Starfox reveal, interviews, and muppets/puppets were great. I thought the Treehouse team did a great job really showing the viewer more depth to all the games mentioned in the digital direct and showing some games that were not mentioned (Fatal Frame). Also the return of the Nintendo World Championship was a lot of fun to watch. The one thing that I was seriously disappointed in was their was no announcement for a new HD Zelda remaster for the Wii U. I truly expected that they would announce Twilight Princess HD, since they delayed Zelda Wii U and they did such a good job on Wind Waker. I’m still hoping that this comes true.

Kimite

I think it was the way Nintendo presented their games and some of the interviews were a bit long than they need maybe. Still am not too sure if it was a good idea too show all of the new upcoming stuff right before E3 ;^^. I mean they had their Nintendo Direct about 3 weeks ago and their Smash presentation last Sunday, and I think it would be better if they included some of those games in the Digital Event too.

Still most of the games Nintendo featured in the Digital Event is probably going to be good if not amazing ^^. I mean I am looking forward to 4-5 of the games they showed as I am a Zelda fan and I RPGer. (Really looking forward to Triforce Heroes ^^).

I mentioned it below in a comment, but I think the reason why Devil’s Third and Fatal Frame wasn’t shown in the Digital Event is because of a/the same law in Europe that forbid people to buy 18/M rated games before 11PM ;^^. (Don’t ask me why Europe has laws like that :-/).

The reason why I think there will be a Nintendo Direct in August is the amount of content Nintendo are releasing then. Like: The Match making mode for Splatoon (and Rainmaker mode), Tournament mode in Smash and Devil’s Third.

Right now I think the best thing we can do is wait for the good games to come and we are actually getting both Legend of Kay and Art Academy this month, so I don’t think we should be bitter for too long as there are plenty of games that are coming with are really good :-).

LittleLynn

Nintendo’s Digital Event was kind of completely terrible. There was entirely too much fluff. I totally zoned out when Miyamoto blabbed on about the inspiration for Star Fox for entirely too long. And I actually passed out while Reggie was asking how Donkey Kong and Bowser got into Skylanders (only to wake up and find them still talking). Whoopie. I thought this was supposed to be about games?

I’m sure that kind of stuff is interesting to somebody, but I think even they’d agree it’s not really the time or place for it. One of the things I tend to appreciate about Nintendo’s presentations over the others is that usually Nintendo doesn’t spend so much time patting itself on the back. This year, not so much.

That and a lot of bizarre game choices. From the weird Metroid sports thing to two new Animal Crossing games that did nothing but offend Metroid and Animal Crossing fans alike. And I’ll probably just skip Triforce Heroes, as someone who really couldn’t get into Four Swords. I’m not into Star Fox. I’m not into Skylanders. I’d play Mario Tennis at a friend’s place if they had it, but I couldn’t imagine myself getting and playing it on my own.

I think Hyrule Warriors Legends was probably the best new(ish) announcement. I’d been waiting for a price drop before I picked it up, but a new portable version, with all the DLC, at the price of a 3DS game? Good enough price for me. I just wish it weren’t spoiled beforehand.

But seriously, no third version for Pokemon XY? I thought for sure they’d announce that.

It’s not to say everything out of Nintendo sucked though. Rather, all the games they showed that I’m looking forward to, are ones we’ve already known about for a while: Yoshi’s Woolly World, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fire Emblem Fates, and Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem (or whatever they’re calling it now). That’s a lot of games to be excited for actually, but I already knew they were coming. And the new videos mostly offered next to no new real information about any of them (excluding Mario Maker, which actually got a lot of new details). For the most part, there weren’t really any surprises. Honestly, I think they should’ve saved both the Micro Direct from a few weeks back, and the Smash Direct (and maybe even Earthbound Beginnings) from last weekend for the Digital Event. It’d have had a lot more substance if they did.

Exy

I think it would have been a better show if they didn’t sabotage themselves in the six months leading up to it. The Nintendo Directs, the Nintendo World Championships, and the DeNA announcement and the NX reveal accompanying it all took away things that could have been much bigger deals at E3. They should have put, say, Metroid Prime: Federation Force in some Nintendo Direct if they had a clue how people would react to it, but they didn’t because they absolutely had to have a surprise game in the championships. For each big reveal and deconfirmations leading up to E3, expectations went higher and higher and they just made it impossible to get anything other than the reaction they got. That said, they’ll be fine, even if the show did feel oddly 3DS-centric. They’ve survived a few “losses” and this one is being blown out of proportion.

As for me, I went in expecting only a ton of Mario Maker stuff and that’s what I got, so I was satisfied. And they showed a bunch of gameplay whenever possible, unlike some other shows this year as usual. Also Muppets.

Boss Jelly

Underwhelmed as a whole, it just seemed like variants of things we already knew about. I think Paper Jam, Star Fox and Tennis look pretty cool though. I’m not INCREDIBLY angry about the Metroid game but I’m a little disappointed after 5 years that this is the return of the series…Amiibo Festival on the other hand…

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 39 Comments

In an interview with Wired, PlatinumGames’ Yusuke Hashimoto spoke about what it’s like working with Nintendo in creating Star Fox Zero. On a similar note, Nintendo’s Yugo Hayashi commented on how it can be working with legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Here’s what the two shared:

“This is the first time I’ve ever done this kind of collaborative design. It’s not just with Mr. Miyamoto, but also with Mr. Hayashi here. I’m struck by how fast this goes. The turnaround between the exchange of the two parties is very quick. It’s a kind of development speed I haven’t really seen before.” – Hashimoto

“The three of us are always working together and it’s very fun, but obviously when Mr. Miyamoto shows you something and is like, what do you think of this, and you have to come up with a good answer, it’s very nerve-wracking.” – Hayashi

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, Videos | 1 Comment

Aksys Games held a Zero Escape-focused panel at Anime Expo 2015 last night. The full recording has now been uploaded online, and we’ve posted it below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments

The latest interview with Reggie Fils-Aime has been published by The Washington Post. Nintendo of America’s president commented on the company’s approach to having its IPs shared with others, deciding on giving games local multiplayer as compared to online, new IPs, and more.

You can read up on what Reggie had to say after the break. There are also some additional comments about amiibo on The Washington Post here, though it’s mostly rehash of what he’s stated previously.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 23 Comments

Update (7/4): Bumped to the top. Red Ash is pretty much what we all thought it’d be – a Mega Man Legends spiritual successor.

There are two Kickstarters going currently – one for the game and one for the anime. The game is the main one we care about, but platforms are unconfirmed aside from PC. So our coverage of Red Ash will be ending unless we hear about any versions for Nintendo platforms.

Comcept and Japanese animation company Studio 4°C are teasing a new project titled “Red Ash”. A debut teaser for the title was uploaded today, and we have it below.

A post on the Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter page reads:

Now what in the world could this be…?

Well…whatever it is, we decided to give our backers a special first look at it!

If you want to know more, you are all just going to have to wait until Independence Day to find out!

We can’t say anything more until then, but we think you get the idea.
Please share this video with all your friends, and help spread the word!

We’ll be hearing more about Red Ash at the Anime Expo this weekend. Keiji Inafune is holding a panel at the event, and he’ll be making a special announcement that “may interest Mega Man fans.” It’s being speculated that Red Ash is a spiritual successor of sorts to the Mega Man Legends series.

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

Yesterday, the Aksys Games Panel was held at Anime Expo 2015. Zero Escape 3 was the big highlight, but we also heard about some eShop titles as well. You can watch the full recording below.

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

This week’s episode of Nintendo Minute has a special guest – it’s none other than Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime! Reggie, along with Kit and Krysta, share some memories from this past E3. Check it out below.

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

Earlier today, a member of Reddit posted images of what seems to be a SNES PlayStation prototype. That same person has now shared a video of the system as well. Check it out below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments

Nintendo’s own Bill Trinen will be participating in a Smash Bros. tournament at EVO 2015. Trinen’s starting pool is D46, which can be viewed in full here.

Trinen officially confirmed his participation for EVO 2015 through the following Twitter message:

EVO 2015 is happening tween July 17 and July 19. Trinen will be one of nearly 2,000 gamers taking part in the Smash Bros. Wii U tournament.

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