Rumor: Early speculation about Palutena amiibo being a retailer exclusive
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 4 Comments
The silver Mario and Dark Pit amiibo have now been added to Best Buy’s system. However, Palutena – who launches alongside Dark Pit in July – is nowhere to be seen. This has led to early speculation that Palutena will be an exclusive at a different retailer.
Take this news with a grain of salt for now. The situation should become clearer within the next couple of months.
More: Amiibo
HAL Laboratory working on some non-Kirby projects
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Over the past few generations, HAL Laboratory has primarily worked on Kirby games. We’ve seen a few non-Kirby titles here and there (most recently with BoxBoy!), but that character is certainly the studio’s bread and butter. Interestingly, BoxBoy! director Yasuhiro Mukae recently informed Kotaku that “several” projects are in the works that are unrelated to the character.
Mukae mentioned:
Certainly, as you say, the Kirby series is HAL Laboratory’s main development focus, but we actually have several other projects proceeding along in parallel (not that I can give details on them right now, of course). We also have a few experimental projects in the works with smaller teams, so there certainly isn’t any rule that we must be involved with Kirby projects. Like I discussed in the first question, BoxBoy got its start as an experimental project along those lines.
I was involved in the development of Kirby: Triple Deluxe, but I was also working on the BoxBoy experiment at the same time. Handling both projects simultaneously presented some big challenges, but creating a game with a new character like Qbby made me feel happier than I’ve ever felt before.
Once Kirby: Triple Deluxe development wrapped up, I was able to devote myself fully to BoxBoy. This happened right when it went from an experiment to an official development project, and full-on development began at that point. Some of the Kirby: Triple Deluxe team also joined the BoxBoy project right about then.
As I wrote earlier, our development efforts may be chiefly devoted to Kirby, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule that everything has to be related to Kirby titles. I’m getting the chance to be involved a lot more often with non-Kirby things, such as this BoxBoy project—though, again, I can’t give details quite yet.
Below are some other noteworthy tidbits shared in Kotaku’s interview:
More: BOXBOY!, HAL Laboratory, interview, Kirby, top, Yasuhiro Mukae
SEGA won’t have a booth at E3 2015
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
SEGA will not have a booth at this year’s E3, the company confirmed to Game Informer. An official statement reads:
Over the next months, SEGA of America will be focusing on the restructure and relocation to Southern California, and we have decided to not attend E3 with our own booth this year,” a representative told us via email. “With the majority of our bigger titles launching later in 2015/2016, particularly those from our AAA studios Relic Entertainment, Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly, we are concentrating our efforts for some of these major announcements after our relocation. Instead, we will be collaborating with our various business partners for this year’s E3 show.
This shouldn’t have too big of an impact on Wii U and 3DS owners. The only upcoming Nintendo games SEGA has confirmed for North America and Europe are Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (which will be out later this month) and a few 3D Classics. Still, it’s a tiny bit sad that SEGA won’t be appearing at E3!
UDON Entertainment bringing out Senran Kagura: Official Design Works
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
UDON Entertainment has announced that it will publish the Senran Kagura: Official Design Works. The art book contains illustrations from different games in the series, including the original Senran Kagura and Senran Kagura Burst.
Below is overview straight from UDON:
UDON Entertainment’s translation of SENRAN KAGURA: Official Design Works is faithful to the original Japanese book and is chock-full of illustrations of beautiful ninja girls! In addition to character designs, pinups, in-game artwork, and character profiles, the book also features an exclusive interview with the game’s creators and a detailed glossary of important SENRAN KAGURA terms – both of which are must-reads for hardcore fans of the series!
UDON will have a full page preview of Senran Kagura: Official Design Works soon. Pre-orders are up on Amazon
with roughly $14 savings.
Nintendo apologizes for amiibo shortages, will increase amount shipped to retail, out-of-stock figures will return
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 46 Comments
Nintendo of America issued an official statement about the status of amiibo over on its Facebook page just a few minutes ago.
In the lengthy message, the company apologized to fans who have been frustrated by the inability to find certain figures in stores. It was also reiterated that sales of figures exceeded Nintendo’s expectations.
As for what will be done to remedy the situation, Nintendo says that the company is “trying to meet the demands of our fans and consumers by increasing the amount of amiibo we manufacture and ship to retail.” There are already plans in place “to bring back some currently out-of-stock amiibo figures.”
Head past the break for Nintendo’s amiibo statement in full.
Poking around Next Level Games staff profiles for clues about the studio’s next title
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
It’s well known at this point that Next Level Games has been hard at work on some sort of new game since releasing Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. It’s also known that this will be a title published by Nintendo. So what could the team be working on? That’s completely unknown at this point, but minor findings from the LinkedIn profiles of a couple of staff members may give some clues.
Emily Rogers noticed that programmer Gary Shaw lists “Online [programming]” for secret projects at Next Level Games. He previously programmed the online functionality for games including Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Mario Strikers Charged.
Rogers also poked around the profile of presentation/level designer Diego R. Pons, who has been at the studio for eight and a half years. Whereas “Collectibles” are listed for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Spider-Man, it’s not listed for Next Level Games’ unannounced project. Pons also lists “Story” for the new game, and it seems that his responsibilities focus more on mission-based games/more open environments.
Admittedly, this doesn’t tell us too much. But given that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon shipped in March 2013, there’s a good chance that Next Level Games’ new project will be shown at E3 2015 next month. That would definitely be an interesting reveal!
More: Next Level Games
Rumor: Japan’s Villager amiibo reprint comes with minor changes
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 12 Comments
Nintendo has started reprinting the Villager amiibo in Japan. I’m marking this as a rumor to be safe, but it’s looking like a few, small changes were made to the figure.
As pointed out by My Amiibo News:
The original Villager’s eyes appear more elongated and are placed evenly between the hairline and the nose. The reprint shows changes in the eye shape and placement. Its eyes look somewhat rounder and are placed lower on the face, hugging the nose a lot more.
How do you guys feel about the changes? Which version do you prefer?
Walmart lists new LEGO Dimensions packs – The Simpsons, Portal, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
A couple of weeks ago, we heard rumblings about The Simpsons and Portal possibly coming to LEGO Dimensions in some fashion. Listings on Walmart have now made this practically official.
The Simpsons and Portal are being featured in LEGO Dimensions as new Level Packs. Walmart also reveals the existence of Jurassic World and Scooby Doo Team Packs, as well as a few Chima Fun Packs (Cragger, Eris, and Laval).
LEGO Dimensions arrives in late September. Warner Bros. will be making official announcements about the game leading up to launch.
Nintendo Minute – “AMAZ-INK MAY Splatoon Art Contest”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 1 Comment
This week’s episode of Nintendo Minute kicks off a month-long focus on Splatoon. The latest video, which features Nintendo’s new art contest, is posted below.
More: Nintendo Minute
Playtonic talks a bit about bringing Yooka-Laylee to Wii U, still interested in amiibo
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
Playtonic intends to create 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee for various platforms, including Wii U. One of the reasons this has been made possible is due to the Unity engine (which the game is built on), as it allows for a great deal of flexibility. Playtonic may encounter some issues along the way, but the team is “looking forward” to bringing Yooka-Laylee to Nintendo’s console, and the team’s passionate Wii U technical director should help in getting it up and running.
The studio’s Gavin Price told MCV:
Our engine, Unity, is multi-platform. But we will see what happens when we try switching on all the dev kits we will be receiving in the future. We have still got that hurdle to come across. But we are looking forward to it. We have a very good technical director, and he is a big Wii U fan. So we will be looking for parity across all the platforms if we can. And it would be nice to take advantage of a few platform features or exclusive content.
The possibility of amiibo support is something that Playtonic has mentioned before. It’s something that the company still hopes to pursue, but there’s no news on that front just yet.
With any big company, these discussions don’t happen as fast as us as a team of seven would like. When we want to do something, we can do it tomorrow. But when you are working with partners, we have to work with them at their speed. So something in that area is still very much in our plans, and there is nothing that is impossible to overcome, so what we do with that we will reveal at the right time. But we know what our own expectations are, because we are fans of this stuff ourselves, so we know what is right and what is expected.
