When Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara will be launching on the Wii U eShop has been a mystery. Although Capcom has been able to confirm dates for other platforms, the publisher hasn’t had much luck getting a concrete answer from Nintendo.
A listing on the Big N’s own website suggests that Chronicles of Mystara is coming out tomorrow. Whether it can be trusted remains to be seen, but I guess we’ll know if it’s valid in a few hours.
At E3 2013 last week, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies producer Motohide Eshiro made comments in a Polygon interview that left the door open for a physical release of the game. Capcom USA senior vice-president Christian Svensson has now followed up with some additional remarks, outlining steps fans can take to help make this a reality.
Svensson’s words are below. Remember: nothing is guaranteed!
Nintendo’s Hideki Konno and Kosuke Yabuki divulged a number of intriguing tidbits about Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart in general while speaking with MTV Multiplayer. The two discussed the origins of the anti-gravity idea, how Shigeru Miyamoto was very reluctant to make Miis playable, an abandoned idea for drills on karts, and more.
As always, you can find the full responses after the break.
The developers behind the new StreetPass Mii Plaza games may surprise you. Each was made by a developer with quite the pedigree, and most have significant experience working on Nintendo titles.
Here’s the full roundup:
StreetPass Garden – Grezzo (Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition)
StreetPass Mansion – Prope (Let’s Tap, Ivy the Kiwi?, Fishing Resort)
StreetPass Squad – Good-Feel (Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Wario Land: Shake It!)
StreetPass Battle – Spike Chunsoft (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward)
A slew of new StreetPass Mii Plaza features have arrived in Europe and Japan with today’s 3DS update. This content isn’t up in North America yet, but it should be coming soon.
An overview of the new Mii Plaza elements can be found below. It sounds like there are quite a few new games, though you’ll need to fork over some cash to play.
- Two kinds of games in a “bigger” Mii Plaza – ones you’ve already, plus ones to purchase.
- We’ve now got a Shop, and Exchange Booth, a Check for Updates button and a new Play icon, along with a new second screen menu.
- New games – Streetpass Squad, Streetpass Garden, Streetpass Battle, Streetpass Mansion.
- New game selection section.
- Games are bought with real money, as in eShop purchases.
- Streetpass Squad is like Streetpass Quest. Takes place in space. Battle the Gold Bone Gang. Costs £4.49.
- Streetpass Garden. You move in to a house in Leafington and try to become a Master Gardener, under the tutelage of Mr Mendel. Grow flowers and decorate your garden. Costs £4.49.
- Streetpass Battle. Game of strategy and luck. Rule a remote country in a wartorn land. Your butler, Wentworth, helps you build an army via Streetpass to battle other generals. Ultimate goal to conquer the world! Costs £4.49.
- Streetpass Mansion. Spooky paranormal investigation. You’re a detective trying to solve the mystery of a haunted house, helped by your assistant Ella Mentree. You work to uncover truth with the help of people you meet inside. Battle enemies to reach the top floor. Costs £4.49.
- Combo pack is only available for your first purchase and costs £13.49 (saving of £4.47). Deal only available if you buy all four at first. If you buy one on its own, the rest cost full price.
- Exchange booth is locked. Clicking on it doesn’t do anything yet. You’ll need to earn tickets (see below) to use it.
- New puzzles include Skyward Sword and Xenoblade
- Playing games wins you hats and plaza tickets for achieving certain goals. Exchange these for new Mii accessories. Not available in the StreetPass Quest/Quest II or Puzzle Swap.
- Get a Pixel Mario hat to commemorate.
3DS owners can now download a new system update. Your device will be upgraded to version version 6.0.0-11 once applied.
In North America, the update adds the ability to back up and save data for 3DS download software and “most” Virtual Console titles. Nintendo also says that the firmware improves system stability and makes minor adjustments.
We’re hearing that new Mii Plaza features are made available in the European and Japanese update.
Choosing the roster for the Super Smash Bros. games isn’t easy. Director Masahiro Sakurai describes the stress put on him as coming close “to the brink of death.”
“The amount of stress I feel, it’s almost to the brink of death. Because it’s not just a matter of me personally thinking this character or that character is going to be in the game; it’s that we also have the game balance, animation, graphics and sound to think about in order to make that character fully fleshed out in that universe. I have to think about all of that when I go through this decision-making process.”
In Sakurai’s opinion, Smash Bros. is all about the character roster. Not having characters such as Mario, Kirby, Samus, or Link playable would make some feel that “it might not be Smash Bros.”
Metroid isn’t happening on Wii U… for now anyway. But Nintendo developers have no problem discussing hypothetical in which the GamePad could be taken advantage of.
First up is Kensuke Tanabe, the producer of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Island:
“Samus obviously has a lot of features [in her space suit]. There’s a lot you can do with that thing — once she pulls her arm up and pulls out that [metal flap] and does some of this stuff [Tabata pretends to punch buttons on her forearm]. I can see mapping some of that to the GamePad. I think that would be really cool.”
Nintendo project leader Risa Tabata also has a few ideas:
“I [told Tanabe], ‘What, you want to hook a GamePad on a Zapper [gun peripheral]?’ He said: ‘No, that’d be too heavy. Maybe something more streamlined. But like a Zapper-style thing with a GamePad feature on it or some device like that. I’d love to do some shooting stuff with something like that! Maybe some day.’”
And here’s the strangest thing of all: an idea from Tanabe to bring back Tingle.
“There’s no definitive plan or anything. It’s just me off the top of my head.”
“I know how hated the character of Tingle is in the U.S. I know that people cannot stand Tingle. But to me that challenge is: Could I take this character that is so reviled in the West and just [do] a complete turnaround and make him a beloved, fun character? The idea of that really just gets me going. I know we have made a Tingle game in the past, but maybe at some point down the road. …”
“It’s like love. It’s like romance: You meet someone and you’re like, ‘Oh god, I can’t stand that person.’ And then three weeks later, you’re madly in love — it’s that turn, that quick whip, that motivates [me] a little bit.”
“If we we ever get a really successful Tingle game, maybe we will have like a big Tingle statue out there [points to Nintendo’s E3 booth outside the room’s walls].”
