Can Nintendo find it in their 3DS playbook?
Author: Austin
It was a curious thing when 3DS launched. Nintendo pushed to get the handheld out within their 2010 fiscal year for the sake of pleasing their impatient investors, and as a result, the stereoscopic system squeezed through the closing gates of time onto an open market in the middle of March with no system-selling games, unfinished firmware, and a beefy $250 pricetag. It was a mistake– a huge mistake, even– and one that Nintendo quickly learned from.
And then, in holiday 2012, it turned out that they didn’t learn from it. Although backed up by a slightly more reconcilable lineup of games, Nintendo’s follow-up to the Wii– the poorly named “Wii U”– seemed to saunter slowly through the extravagant launch gates with its face obscured by confusing a marketing strategy, before tripping on its own lack of feet and face-planting into the mud. It, much like 3DS, didn’t have any truly exciting pieces of software, its operating system was unfinished, and its price point largely unjustifiable due to those things. Perhaps in order to capitalize on the situation, Nintendo delayed all of their worthwhile launch window titles into the second half of 2013. Which certainly didn’t help matters.
Given all of the parallels between 3DS and Wii U, it’s only natural that we ask the question: Can Nintendo save Wii U using the same strategies that saved 3DS?
It’s not a simple question by any means, so let’s take a look at what’s there to consider.
Gaist Crusher has been dated for Japan. The game will be available on December 5 for 4,990 yen. Capcom will also release a bundle for 5,990 yen containing the game, the special accessory we covered earlier today, and a Dark costume/gear.
Jim Gordon, the well-known police commissioner in the DC Comics, will be making an appearance in Batman: Arkham Origins.
Creative director Eric Holmes confirmed on Twitter that the character will be “encountered in the story”. Holmes hope to show him soon, but no exact date has been set.
@BENZOMOTOCROSS Gordon is encountered in the story. Hoping we will show him soon.
— Eric Holmes (@ericholmeslive) August 2, 2013
Holmes also fielded a question about Harley Quinn possibly appearing. No confirmation was made either way, but Holmes did offer up the following:
@arthdotcom @SpotOfTea15 "we do not comment on rumour and speculation", but it WOULD be fun…
— Eric Holmes (@ericholmeslive) August 2, 2013
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
Famitsu published a new feature on Super Sonico in Production, which contains a few new details. We’ve translated the information below.
– Players act as the idol girl’s producer
– Manage her schedule and communicate with her
– Live concerts, bikini modeling, and the challenge of doing so much work, you’ll have to keep yourself busy if you want to be successful
– Supervised by Nitroplus
– Georide will be in charge of song and music production
– A lot of the Georide staff joined because they are such huge fans of the series
– On various stages and in many costumes, your job is to get Sonico to dance and sing at live concerts
– Famous music as well as completely original songs
– Another aspect has Sonico wearing different outfits while you aim and take the best pictures in 2D and 3D
– Can save images to an SD card
Speaking with GameTrailers, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies producer Motohide Eshiro spoke about the series’ future. No need to worry, Ace Attorney fans – the series will likely continue sometime in the future.
Eshiro noted that he personally doesn’t want the franchise to end with Dual Destinies, and even though he isn’t sure where it will go next, “I highly doubt this will be the end of Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright.”
He said:
“I can tell you that once it’s out there and once we see what people think, we’ll have a good idea on what direction to go in next. I personally love the Ace Attorney universe. I don’t want it to end, I don’t think it will end with this. Exactly what shape it will take remains to be seen. Can’t talk too much about that now, but I highly doubt this will be the end of Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright.”
Spin the Bottle may be updated to incorporate the GamePad’s front facing camera.
KnapNok Games intends to bring future updates to Spin the Bottle. One potential idea is to take advantage of the GamePad’s camera.
According to KnapNok Games’ Lau Krosgaard:
“Right now, we are exploring… hmm… so this is kind of not official yet, but let’s say it to the world! [Laughs] I think our next update would be themed around the camera. We don’t really use that in these minigames, we have ideas of how to use the camera in some weird ways. So that is actually going to be our next update.”
Krosgaard also spoke about a desire to incorporate community features:
“I would really love to make an update which is more like a community update. I would like ideas from our fans, so that is our long term goal. Let us see what we can do. One thing I would really love to include at some point is the option of making your own extra rules. While you play, you write down an extra rule and be like ‘That is rule of this game!’ But then, maybe make an option to share those rules between players in the Miiverse. That would be really crazy.”
Update: You can also get a red/black 3DS XL for $169.99 or a red/black 3DS XL with a 16GB SD card for $179.99.
Nintendo opened up a section on its webstore for refurbished 3DS and DSi products back in April. Starting today, consumers can now pick up a refurbished 3DS XL as well.
The blue/black 3DS XL is currently available for a limited introductory price of $169.99. Once this period expires, it’ll go up to $179.99. 3DS XL systems are typically priced at $200 (and there are sales quite often), so I can’t say you’ll be saving too much.
In any case, you can find more details and place an order for the refurbished 3DS XL here.
Spin the Bottle developer KnapNok Games has teamed up with Nifflas, the man behind NightSky, for a brand new Wii U title.
KnapNok’s Lau Krosgaard shared the news with NintendoWorldReport in a recent interview. Krosgaard was coy with regard to specific details, but did say:
“What we can say is that we are actually working together with a Swedish developer called Nifflas, who did NightSky for 3DS. He has been doing all of these amazing, moody platformers also just for PC. He is a brilliant game developer and he really wanted to make a game for the Wii U. He had this idea and so now we are working with him on realizing that basically. It is basically his game, so it is not a weird party game as we like to do and it is really a Nifflas game.”
Krosgaard also said the following when asked if the new game will be similar to that of NightSky:
“You will definitely like this one, but it is very early right now. We might be able to show screenshots in a few months towards the end of the year, but the launch might be in a year or something like that.”
