Two new Virtual Console games are on track for the Japanese Wii U eShop next week. Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun and Mario Open Golf will be out on January 15. Pricing is set at 500 yen each.
Two new games have been confirmed for the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console. Front Line (Famicom), Shining Force: Final Conflict (Game Gear) will be out on January 15. Pricing is set at 500 yen each.
With The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Nintendo took a SNES classic and made it completely new again. Yet even though there’s a lot that’s new in the game – new dungeons, a new item system, and more – it also uses A Link to the Past as a base.
Could A Link Between Worlds set a new standard? What if Nintendo were to return to the core/basic elements of its other franchises and put a new spin on them?
When Game Informer asked Zelda: A Link Between Worlds director Hiromasa Shikata if he believes Nintendo is more interested in revisiting the structure/perspective of classic SNES games such as Metroid or Star Fox, he said:
It’s an honor that people consider the game to be a success. When we make a game we often start by thinking of the basic system and letting that in turn determine a suitable setting. If there’s something fitting for the basic Star Fox and Metroid formula then I think we’ll be able to develop something. On this title, if we hadn’t come up with the idea of going into the walls at the beginning and instead thought of something new which had the player curling up into a ball, we might have ended up with Metroid, not Zelda.
Monolith Soft, developer of Xenoblade and the upcoming Wii U title “X”, is on a hiring spree of sorts for its Tokyo studio.
The company’s planner/designer position is marked as “urgent” on an official recruitment page. This is split into game planner, town planner, and battle algorithm planner parts.
The game planner section welcomes those with additional experience of having made a game that requires networking. For town planners, Monolith Soft is particularly interested in those who can write scripts and have programming knowledge while battle algorithm planners require experience in writing enemy AI and putting together scripts.
Monolith Soft is also seeking motion designers – another “urgent” hiring. The position is mainly for those who can work on character motions during event and battle scenes.
ZaciSa’s Last Stand could launch on the Wii U eShop by mid-February. As of now, that’s the release window creator Greg Wiggleton is targeting.
Wiggleton wrote on Twitter yesterday that ZaciSa’s Last Stand will be submitted to Nintendo by the weekend. Assuming all goes well, we’ll hopefully see it next month.
I'll be submitting my game to Nintendo by this weekend, hopefully ZaciSa's Last Stand will be out by mid Feb.
— Greg Wiggleton (@GregWiggleton) January 6, 2014
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
Square Enix continues to support the Japanese release of Bravely Default: For the Sequel with downloadable bosses.
Next up is “Leviathan”, who will be distributed between January 7 and January 9. Players are recommended to be at level 80 before facing him.
Lucifer will follow on January 10 and will be available until January 16. Before battling Lucifer, it’d be best to be at level 70 or higher.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is Best Buy’s “Deal of the Day”. Through today only, you can pick up the game for $30. Shipping is free, though you can also opt for in-store pickup.
More Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson details have surfaced from Famitsu. Check out the latest information rounded up below.
– Co-op and tag-team multiplayer modes included
– Local co-op confirmed, unclear if there will be online co-op
– Tag-team mode is known as “Pair Battle”
– In this mode, players can fight using two paired-up characters
– They can also do special combination attacks
– New characters are Kagura and Naraku
– Murasame, the older brother of Ikaruga will also be available for players using save data from Senran Kagura Burst
– Murasame will be available as DLC later as well
– Only know of one male character as of now (original reports made note of two)
– Limited edition pack: “Nyuu Nyuu DX Pack” will be available at launch
– Pack includes five mini-figures of girls from the Homura Crimson Squad and a drama CD
– First-print copies will include the game’s entire original soundtrack
Famitsu has published a listing of the top-selling games in Japan for 2013 through data collected by Enterbrain up through December 29. The results can be found below.
01. [3DS] Pokemon X/Y – 3,976,829
02. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 – 3,293,312
03. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 1,730,182 / 4,017,159 total sales
04. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection – 1,580,067
05. [3DS] Dragon Quest VII – 1,227,377
06. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z – 1,005,697
07. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon – 982,737
08. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto V – 605,882
09. [WIU] New Super Mario Bros. U – 584,479 / 965,794 total sales
10. [WIU] Wii Party U – 518,766
Famitsu also published a listing of hardware totals for 2013:
3DS – 4,931,509 / 14,694,011 total sales
PS Vita – 1,197,980 / 2,275,139 total sales
Wii U – 880,088 / 1,518,427 total sales
PS3 – 824,167 / 9,568,500 total sales
PSP – 429,393 / 19,608,493 total sales
Wii – 77,337 / 12,738,079 total sales
Xbox 360 – 19,548 / 1,607,559 total sales
A sale was set to go live on the Japanese 3DS eShop on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, the lengthy downtime affecting Nintendo’s online services prevented this from happening.
While it isn’t New Year’s any longer, Nintendo has now rescheduled the same sale. It’ll take place between January 11 and January 13.
