It didn’t take Nintendo very long at all to develop The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. Series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed in a 4Gamer interview that it took just six months to create, give or take.

Aonuma also pointed out that he “thought it would be a waste to for this to simply be a test of the hardware,” which is one explanation as to how the Wii U release came to be. Wind Waker’s look, as well as other Zelda art styles, had been tested in HD.

Aonuma’s comments in full:

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This is perhaps the only third party game that has been as highly requested as several first party Nintendo titles, and now– courtesy of Jack– we can finally do it! Hopefully we didn’t screw up the one episode you really wanted to watch if you’re a Sonic Adventure 2: Battle fan.

Nintendo has published the first three Inazuma Eleven games in Europe. However, none of the series’ games have yet to arrive in North America.

Pocket Gamer recently asked Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino about the possibility of a US launch. Hino explained that if fans in the states show their support, “I’d love to respond to that and make preparations for their release.”

He said:

“If more people in the US start saying that they want to play the games then I’d love to respond to that and make preparations for their release.”

Source

Nintendo’s main North American website has received an overhaul for the release of Zelda: Wind Waker HD. The entire page carries a design featuring the Wii U release – you can check it out here.

Thanks to Tytygh for the tip.

Prior to Contra 4, WayForward made a demo for what the studio felt Silent Hill should be like on the DS. It never really got too far, but it’s still neat to look at!

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Because nothing spices up a relationship like a little bit of adventuring.

System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: October 1st, 2013 (NE), Q1 2014 (EU)
Developer: Neverland Co.
Publisher: XSEED Games (NA), Marvelous AQL (EU)

Author: Austin

There’s an implicit warning to the player the moment they start up Rune Factory 4, and it goes something like this:

“I really hope you like anime.”

Yes, the first thing you’ll lay eyes upon after clicking the game’s icon on the 3DS’ home menu is a fully animated music video where anime-styled characters are introduced and a Japanese woman sings a wonderfully cliché (in a good way, I might argue) tune in the background. If you had seen the video without any context, you may as well have assumed it was the theme song to a TV show or the title sequence of a film– and depending on who you are, that might be a joyous setting of stage for a game. Regardless, this opening is actually a very serviceable measuring stick for whether or not Rune Factory 4 will tickle your fancy.

Beyond that outer aesthetic layer, though, there’s a lot to Rune Factory 4: Players will be asked to tend crops, foster relationships (both romantic and platonic), tackle dungeons, learn to cook, forge items, take up chemistry– the list of activities, superficially, is extremely long. Quantity does not equate to quality though, and in the case of Rune Factory 4, the quality does prove somewhat unstable.

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A couple of months ago, 505 Games provided us with confirmation that How to Survive is heading to Wii U. The revelation was accompanied by a bit of disappointing news, however. Unlike other multiplatform versions of How to Survive, the Wii U version won’t include online play.

We recently spoke with developer Eko Software about the upcoming title and director Jules Benjamin provided us with an explanation as to why this is so.

Benjamin noted that the team decided to focus on improving How to Survive’s story mode – described as “the biggest part of the game” while also creating “specific features for the Wii U instead of doing a straight port and not taking care of the second screen.”

Benjamin said:

“Thanks a lot for this question, we were waiting the chance to explain. The Wii U has a lot of unique features and we needed to make the right choices. We preferred to improve the biggest part of the game – the story mode – and develop specific features for the Wii U instead of doing a straight port and not taking care of the second screen.”

Benjamin later added that the UI “has been fully re-designed for the Wii U and is fully tactile.” This “allows actions that are not possible on other platforms.”

We’ll have our full How to Survive interview up later this weekend.