Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments

When Nintendo officially unveiled Pikmin 3 at E3 2012, Shigeru Miyamoto originally teased four heroes for the game. The final product ended up having three.

According to Miyamoto, the fourth character was shelved because of complications involving swapping with the controls.

Miyamoto said the following in an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer:

“When we were making it, we solidified a lot of things. One of which was that it was fun to have three heroes. … To tell the truth, for last year’s E3 presentation, there were actually four heroes. However, when it came to the controls of swapping between four, there were points where it got complicated and in the end, we dropped down to three.”

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 1 Comment

The Mario & Luigi series has always been exclusive to Nintendo’s handhelds. Might that change anytime soon? Don’t count on it!

Nintendo producer Akira Otani, speaking with CVG, said that he’s personally interested on the console, but the company has “no plans for a Wii U version.” Otani believes that sticking with portables may be the best option “to convey the amusement and fun of the character animations and reactions using AlphaDream’s pixel art”.

“As a developer I am interested, but we currently have no plans for a Wii U version. If we want to convey the amusement and fun of the character animations and reactions using AlphaDream’s pixel art, I think handheld consoles are the best for doing this.”

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

Shigeru Miyamoto recently conducted an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer. A portion of the talk was unofficially translated a few days ago, and now the second piece has appeared – it’s all about Pikmin 3 this time. You can find the full thing here.

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 3 Comments

Sonic has made a transition over the years. The series has always offered a mix of platforming with some sense of speed, but the more-recent games have placed a greater emphasis on the latter gameplay element.

This is something that Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka is aware of. And so with Sonic Lost World, SEGA hopes to “win back the platform fans” – not just longtime Sonic fans, but also “Mario players and other platform gamers”.

Iizuka told ONM in its August issue:

“Sonic started out as a platform title but, as we got to the more recent ones, it changed to be a more speed-based game. Recent fans will be familiar with that speed-based gaming, but with Lost World, we wanted to win back the platform fans. We don’t just want old Sonic fans to come back, though: we want Mario players and other platform gamers to enjoy the new game, too.”

Thanks to joclo for the tip.

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment

Wii Party U may be getting a budget release – at least on Amazon.

Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Amazon is listing a lower price for Wii Party U compared to other retailers. Best Buy and GameStop have the game for $60, but you can get it over at Amazon for $40.

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Podcast Stories, Wii, Wii U | 5 Comments

Based on information provided by reliable NPD leaker “Creamsugar” and others, hardware sales for unannounced June 2013 figures are now available. We previously knew about the 3DS and Xbox 360 thanks to official statements, but data for other systems are now in as well.

Here’s the full lineup:

1. 3DS – 225,000
2. 360 – 140,000
3. PS3 – ~108,000
4. DS – 54,000
4. Wii – 53,000
5. Wii U – 42,000
6. Vita – ~27,000
8. PSP – ~8,000
9. PSP Go – 34

Creamsugar was also able to share the following software details:

Animal Crossing: New Leaf retail sales (standalone, bundle) account for 80% of total sales
Game & Wario – about 12,000 units
Project X Zone – less than 54,000 units

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii | 0 comments

Thanks to an interview published by 4Gamer a few days ago, it was revealed that Rodea: The Sky Soldier is still in development. We now have some direct quotes that may make the game’s development status even clearer.

First, 4Gamer shared concern for the game since nothing has been mentioned since its announcement in 2011.

To this, Kadokawa’s Yoshimi Yasuda expressed that everyone in the media has been asking about Rodea, but that he hasn’t heard much himself. But in concern over it being forgotten, he accepts to talk about it for a little bit. Yasuda then expressed that when it was initially announced for both the 3DS and Wii, the project was originally in development just for Wii.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

The name “TNT Racers” may sound familiar – that’s because the game was released on WiiWare last year. A souped-up version is now heading to the Wii U eShop, and it should be out in Europe in the very near future.

Keen Games has confirmed to us that TNT Racers’ Wii U version will be called “Nitro Machines Edition” and includes a few exclusive elements. It features new cars, tracks, and pickups, along with a touch-input interface and off-TV play.

TNT Racers: Nitro Machines Edition is planned for release on the European eShop on August 8 (or maybe a week later). A North American date hasn’t been confirmed due to a few difficulties in the submission process, but there is a possibility of an August launch in the states as well. We’ll hopefully have some media to share with you soon.

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 6 Comments

Both of Nintendo’s latest systems came slowly out of the gate. For the 3DS, this led to a price drop just a few months after the hardware launched. The Wii U has also performed under expectations thus far, which has been attributed to a lack of strong software.

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan may be one reason for the Wii U and 3DS’ slow starts. Speaking with Japanese monthly magazine SAPIO, Nintendo discussed how the natural disaster impacted both systems:

We launched the Nintendo 3DS on February 2011 and sales were strong. Two weeks later we were hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake (Editor’s note: that’s how the Japanese call the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake) and that stopped the momentum. In august of the same year we lowered the price from the initial 25,000 Yen to 15,000 Yen, and enhanced software development at the same time, to enrich the game line-up.

That paid off and we regained momentum in Japan, but due to that we could not spare many developers for the Wii U (released in November 2012), and that led to the slow start of the console.

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