Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 23 Comments
Another piece of significant information has been reported stemming from the April 2017 NPD report. According to Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the company, Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling game in the U.S. last month despite being on the market for just two days. In that short period, over 460,000 physical units sold. With digital sales included, the total exceeds 550,000 units.
More: Mario Kart, NPD, sales, top
Series producer talks about the cancelled Fire Emblem real-time strategy game for Wii
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 30 Comments
Awhile back, we heard about an unreleased Fire Emblem game for Wii. Fire Emblem series veteran Toru Narihiro noted how “you would take a large group of people with you much like Pikmin” – in other words, it sounded a heck of a lot like a real-time strategy game.
Nintendo series producer Hitoshi Yamagami elaborated on the cancelled project with Dengeki Nintendo this month. It was planned following the completion of Radiant Dawn, but never saw the day of light.
Yamagami said the following about the game, as translated by Kantopia:
“It had me as the producer, and Mr. Kusakihara as the director. It was going to be a real time strategy Fire Emblem game with all sorts of interesting departures from the norm. But, as we approached a finished product, the incredibly picky Mr. Kusahara was not content with it as it didn’t fit the image he had in mind when he played it. While it was incredibly amusing watching him try the product, I don’t think I could’ve reached such a decision so quickly based on that alone. It did show just how passionate he was about the real time system though, but, in my experience, Fire Emblem was always about minimizing casualties as much as possible and thinking about things carefully by the turn. To put together a real time experience in a short time without these considerations and make a judgement based on that was a little premature in my opinion. So, in the end, development froze.”
More: Fire Emblem, Hitoshi Yamagami, interview
Owners of Dragon Quest X on Wii can get Switch version for free
Posted on 7 years ago by Zack in News, Switch, Wii | 6 Comments
After previously announcing that services for Dragon Quest X on Wii will be discontinued soon, Square Enix has now announced that owners of the Wii version of Dragon Quest X will have access to a free upgrade to the Switch version of the game.
When Dragon Quest X is upgraded to version 4.0 sometime this fall, services for the Wii version (not Wii U) of the title will be discontinued. While unfortunate news, Square Enix has stated that they’ll provide every registered Dragon Quest X player on Wii with a download code for the Switch version of the title.
Those who prefer a physical copy will still have to purchase the title themselves, but this undoubtedly will please some of the Dragon Quest X players who still played on the Wii version.
Square Enix said more details about the upgrade program will be provided in the future.
More: Dragon Quest X, Japan, Square Enix
Amazon: Mario games discounted by $10, $20 off Skylanders Imaginators on Switch
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii | 2 Comments
Amazon is offering discounts on various games. A few Mario titles are $10 off, though a couple are limited to Prime members. The Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack on Switch has also been discounted by $20.
UK software sales for March 2017 – Switch sells 137,000 units
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 25 Comments
The latest issue of MCV has a listing of the best-selling games in the UK for the month of March. The results are posted below, based on data collected between February 26 and April 1.
As far as physical software sales by platform goes, here are the results:
01 (01) PlayStation 4 – 824,781 (+13.79%)
02 (02) Xbox One – 513,606 (-12.00%)
03 (NE) Nintendo Switch – 137,185
04 (03) Nintendo 3DS – 71,938 (-14.73%)
05 (06) Nintendo Wii U – 50,189 (-35.22%)
06 (04) Xbox 360 – 28,441 (-76.40%)
07 (07) PC Software – 21,749 (-51.42%)
08 (05) PlayStation 3 – 15,057 (-77.58%)
09 (08) Nintendo Wii – 5,019 (-41.70%)
10 (09) PlayStation Vita – 1,673 (-75.71%)
11 (10) Nintendo DS – 1,673 (-51.42%)
More: Chart-Track, sales, UK
Former Nintendo dev on working at the company, Miyamoto wanting Pikmin to be the next Mario, Mario 64 DS, scrapped Wii Play games
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii | 6 Comments
Today, Gamasutra published a big interview with Motoi Okamoto. Okamoto spent a decade at Nintendo beginning in 1998, and contributed to games like Pikmin, Super Mario 64 DS, Wii Play, and Wii Fit.
Gamasutra spoke with Okamoto about his experiences at the company in its interview. He touched on Shigeru Miyamoto’s high aspirations for Pikmin, rejected Wii Play games, and more.
Head past the break for notable excerpts from the interview. You can read the full thing here.
More: interview, Motoi Okamoto, top
Aonuma shares his top three Zelda games, most underrated entry
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 92 Comments
In conjunction with its month-long coverage on Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Game Informer asked series producer Eiji Aonuma about his three favorite games in the series.
He ranked Twilight Princess third “because I wanted to create something better than Ocarina.” Ocarina of Time was next, which he says “is a game that gave me the opportunity to create a 3D world.” Finally, he picked Phantom Hourglass as his top choice.
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, The Legend of Zelda, top
Dragon Quest X launches for Switch in Japan between summer and fall, Wii service ending
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii | 6 Comments
Square Enix has announced that Dragon Quest X will launch in Japan between roughly summer and fall.
Square Enix also intends to end service for the Wii version of Dragon Quest X. With the Version 3 period of the game, service is coming to a close in order to update the game to levels that cannot be done on the old system.
More: Dragon Quest X, Dragon Quest XI, Japan, Square Enix, top
Nintendo considered making Link 25-30 years old in Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wolf Link design talk
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii, Wii U | 11 Comments
A few years ago, Nintendo and Dark Horse brought out The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. The book showed a bunch of concept art from the series, including Twilight Princess. There were many interesting designs depicted for characters such as Link. In some of the drawings, Link looked quite a bit older than his final version in the game. Now we have an idea about the potential age Nintendo was thinking about.
Nintendo artists Yusuke Nakano and Satoru Takizawa spoke about designing Link for Twilight Princess in the new Zelda: Art & Artifacts book. Nakano touched on how Nintendo considered making the character “twenty-five… maybe even thirty.” The intent was “making him quite sturdy”
Also worth mentioning, when designing Wolf Link, Takizawa noted how Nintendo thought about giving him a wolf cut hairstyle, “which would have given him a more wolfish look.”
Here’s the full transcript about Link’s design in Twilight Princess:
THQ was once working on FUUB for Wii
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments
Unseen64 has dug up some information about FUUB, an abandoned peripheral device from THQ Digital Warrington. It was in the works at some point between 2006 and 2010 for Wii and other platforms. The entire project was scrapped after THQ shifted its priorities.
Here’s how Unseen64 describes FUUB:
“Acting like a set of four individual dice, which were to be bundled together as one purchase, the FUUB was predominantly aimed towards local group play. Each player would interact with one or more of the dice when playing one of the FUUB specific games designed for the device. The devices themselves were fitted with some physical sensors, though it’s not exactly clear what each device was actually able to monitor. We also believe that the FUUBs required a separate, external camera to track the their movement in 3d space, though this cannot be 100% confirmed.”
The aptly-named “FUUB” was one game planned for the device. Not much is known, though it seemed to be somewhat similar to Mario Party.
Another title early in development was “Quest for the Magic Stones”, which a developer describes as targeted at “fans of the Harry Potter series”. It would have featured a mystical narrative theme, set inside a magical dungeon.
