News

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

Nintendo Life recently had the opportunity to speak with John Graham, the co-founder of Humble. Graham was asked all about the Humble Nindie Bundle, including the lineup, region-locking issue, and more.

Head past the break from some excerpts from the interview. You’ll find the full discussion here.

On whether he was surprised Nintendo came through…

You know, I wasn’t sure how things would play out, but I think with anything like this it needs somebody that believes in the promotion idea on the other side. We’ve been working with great guys at Nintendo that figured out what this opportunity was, and I’m very proud of its performance so far.

We try to be the friendly guys that talk to everyone and we strongly believe that, where there’s valuable digital content, Humble Bundle can be very useful.

On the Humble Nindie Bundle performance thus far…

I’m a little superstitious so I try not to make too many hard bets in advance. It gets interesting because this is a promotion only for people in the Americas, and we weren’t quite sure ahead of time exactly who in our existing audience is in the Nintendo community. So there are a couple of X factors here, but I’m very proud of the performance of this promotion; it’s doing really well, and I think it’s meeting my expectations if not exceeding them.

On the Humble Nindie Bundle lineup…

Certainly. We’ve got a great set of Indie games here, so it’s in line with our Humble tradition of promoting amazing Indie games, and when we saw the intersection of that with what’s on the eShop, we realised we probably had something and should go for the promotion.

On any challenges with the Wii U/3DS eShop platforms…

Since Humble Indie Bundle 1, when customers asked whether we could include Steam keys, we’ve had some infrastructure for just administering keys that unlock digital content. Nintendo just generated a batch of keys on their side and that’s all it takes.

The key component is on the curation side – have we got a batch of content that people are going to value and get excited about? That’s always the more interesting challenge, the game key part was easy and Nintendo was easy to work with.

On whether he foresees a future where something like eShop products are sold through Humble in different ways…

I don’t want to speak for Nintendo directly, but if we take the Steam example, that’s pretty progressive-minded in that a if a developer wants to produce and distribute keys, Steam is pretty awesome about getting them into developer’s hands to use as they see fit. I think an open-door policy can only strengthen your platform long term, instead of building a walled garden to keep people out you can do things to bring people in.

As crowded and noisy as the internet and online connected world is, it’s critical to be thinking about that long term strategy instead of just “oh, we do things this way, and this is how we wall the garden”. So kudos to Nintendo for even trying this experiment with us, and I do hope it leads to other things and that it’s smart business to be open to the world instead of trying to close yourself off.

On the region issue…

Of course we always try to be as inclusive as we can be, and region-locking is not ideal. This is a case where we – and Nintendo – pushed as hard as we could to be inclusive, we got as far as we got for this promotion. I sincerely believe it was the right call to run the promotion, and help as many gamers as we could in getting this initial experiment out of the door. I do hope it leads to big things in the future. I have seen blog posts around in the news where Nintendo execs have been considering whether they want region-locking to be a thing in future iterations of consoles. The way things are currently designed it just wasn’t possible for this promotion, but we’re nevertheless really excited to be doing it.

On the average purchase price ($9 or so) in comparison to other current bundles or PC promotions…

I think this is a higher average than many, and we tend to see that when we’ve struck a chord with a vigorous community that can galvanise in one direction. I think we saw that, for example, with the Sid Meier bundle – if you’re really into Civilisation games you’re really into the promotion, and you don’t want to just get a small piece, you want the whole thing. I think that’s what we’re seeing with the Nindie bundle.

On the choice of Code.org as the charity…

It’s always collaborative, but Nintendo gets credit for pushing to have that awesome organisation as part of its promotion.

Overall thoughts…

This is a big deal, a new frontier, and we’re really excited not only to have this initial experiment out of the door and being successful, but to look into the future and see what doors it may open next.

On the definitive factor driving buzz for the Nindie Bundle…

Well, we’re doing something new, as I said it’s a new frontier. But also the content is awesome. These are fantastic Indie games, and I guess we have a platformer theme going on here, but if you look at it each game is different and emphasizing a different aspect. We’ve got puzzle platformers, some stealth platformers, world crafting platformers, skateboarding platforming. Whoever you are as a gamer, there’s at least one or two – or maybe all – of the games that can get you excited.

Source

More: Humble Bundle, interview, John Graham

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

Update: Bumped to the top. The official announcement is in, and we have the first details.

Here’s the full overview:

Go back to the roots of Harvest Moon in the latest installment of the series! Inspired by the old-school gameplay of the very first games, Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories will bring players a sense of nostalgia, along with exciting gameplay twists.

Tasked with the job of revitalizing a farm, players will need to befriend the villagers in town to unlock the titular “Seeds of Memories”! Seeds can be unlocked in many ways, such as giving a villager their favorite item, catching a giant fish, or by raising their first cow. Players will need to be up to the challenge of collecting all of the Seeds of Memories!

Old favorites return in the animal department with cows, sheep, and chickens, along with a horse to ride, and a dog to keep as a pet! Farmers will also have a new pet to take care of, but it isn’t what they’d expect… It’s a bobcat! The bobcat starts out wild, but as players befriend the animal, can they convince the bobcat to become their loyal friend?

Featuring cooking, fishing, foraging, and mining, players will need to upgrade their tools to find the highest-quality items. Players will also be able to participate in contests and festivals like the Cooking Contest and Starry Night Festival! Woo one of the ten marriage candidates – 5 bachelors and 5 bachelorettes – and find that special someone to make their farming life complete!

Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories launches this winter.

Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories is in development for Wii U, Natsume has announced. The game will also be released for PC and mobile platforms.

Natsume made today’s announcement on Twitter. Actual gameplay details are unknown at present.

Harvest Moon: Seed of Memories will be the first entry in the Harvest Moon series for Wii U. Last year, Natsume made Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley for 3DS.

Source

More: Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories, Natsume, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News | 0 comments

Xeodrifter’s PAL launch is just on the horizon. Developer Renegade Kid has said that it’s targeting a release on June 18 in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It’s not 100% set just yet, but it’s looking extremely likely. The game will cost €8.99 / £7.99 when it releases.

Source

More: Europe, indie, Renegade Kid, Xeodrifter

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News | 15 Comments

Dentsu Entertainment USA has partnered with Man of Action Entertainment for a new Mega Man animated series, Deadline reports.

Man of Action Entertainment is in charge of creating, writing, and executing producing the animated series. Dentsu Entertainment holds the worldwide broadcast and licensing rights.

A total of 26 episodes are in the works out thus far. According to Deadline, the Mega Man TV series should debut in 2017 – just in time for the franchise’s 30th anniversary.

Source

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Images | 0 comments

A new wave of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is now available for viewing. Check out the full set below.

More: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

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

The folks over on the amiibo subreddit have posted rumored information about the performance of the Jigglypuff figure – supposedly from a verified source – as well as a tease for the future.

Regarding Jigglypuff, the amiibo’s product page on Target.com apparently received a million views when pre-orders went live. The second-highest viewed item in the site’s history only has 20,000 views.

It’s also being said that Jigglypuff pre-orders sold at 500 per minute, which makes it the fastest-selling item in Target.com history.

Last but not least, the same source claims that Target will have yet another exclusive amiibo for wave 5. This has not been revealed to members of the Target team at present.

Source

More: Amiibo, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Screenshots, Wii U | 0 comments

Warner Bros. Interactive prepared a fresh back of screenshots from LEGO Dimensions today. You’ll find them in the gallery below, along with the latest pack images.

More: LEGO Dimensions, TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive

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

Nintendo has shared additional details about how amiibo work in Yoshi’s Woolly World.

The company previously announced that you’ll be able to unlock Yoshi patterns based on characters like Mario and Donkey Kong. Although not every amiibo can unlock a pattern relating to the character, you’ll still be able to dress up Yoshi in new styles. That means Pikachu, Charizard, Greninja, Jigglypuff, and Lucario do work with the game after all. They just won’t unlock patterns based on the Pokemon.

All three Yarn Yoshi amiibo can be used to save your favorite pattern. The two Yoshi amiibo from the Smash Bros. and Super Mario series unlock Double Yoshi (just not one made of yarn).

Source

More: Amiibo, Yoshi's Woolly World

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

Flying Warriors was another title that arrived on the European Wii U Virtual Console last week. For those that are interested, footage from the classic game is posted below.

More: Flying Warriors, Virtual Console

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

A new preview from Game Informer contains the latest details about LEGO Dimensions. You can find the information rounded up below, though you can read up on the site’s full piece here as well.

– 14 different licenses
– Ghostbusters, Portal, Back to the Future, The Wizard of Oz, DC Comics, Scooby Doo, Doctor Who, Lego Chima, The Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, The Lego Movie, Jurassic World, Midway Games, and Lego Ninjago are the featured IPs
– Warner Bros. not talking about Midway Games’ representation yet
– 14 levels in total
– Each has four different areas
– TT Games wants to please children and adults
– DC Comics’ Batman, The Lego Movie’s Wyldstyle, and The Lord of the Rings’ Gandalf star in LEGO Dimensions
– The three need to stop Lord Vortec, who is making the dimensions collide
– Plenty of humor in the game
– When Batman steps into the Wizard of Oz world, he says “We’re not in Gotham anymore. It’s so…colorful.”
– When meeting the Wizard of Oz gang, Batman says “The Scarecrow…I knew it!”
– Can beat the full game with the Starter Pack
– Extra characters, vehicles, weapons can be purchased
– This also opens up additional content in the levels.
– TT Games teased that you may see ghosts flying around a level and need the Ghostbusters to take them out
– You can use Scooby to dig and open up a new are
– Basic gameplay of collecting studs, building and rebuilding within the world, and switching between characters to get past obstacles remains in tact
– Use Batman’s grapple hook to tear down big obstacles
– Drive the Batmobile to run over poppies (flowers that put characters to sleep if they’re near them)
– When fighting the Wicked Witch of the West, throw the batarang to injure her while she flies through the air
– More emphasis on using the plastic LEGO Gateway outside of the game to avoid obstacles
– Ex: when the Wicked Witch casts a magic spell to lock you in position, the LEGO Gateway flashes red, save for one white safe area; physically move the figure over to it to break the spell
– The team didn’t want the pad to just be a spawning device
– Every vehicle has three different forms
– Need to build and rebuild vehicles throughout the adventure to get by
– Starter Packs: $99.99, contains Batman, Wyldstyle, Gandalf, Batmobile, and Lego Gateway
– Level Packs: $29.99, contains an additional new mission-based game level along with a minifigure, a vehicle, and a weapon
– Team Packs: $24.99, provide two minifigures and two vehicles or weapons, all with their own unique abilities
– Fun Packs: $14.99, provide a new minifigure and a vehicle or weapon

LEGO Dimensions is coming to Wii U on September 27.

Source

More: details roundup, LEGO Dimensions, TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive