Despite being announced during a Nintendo Direct broadcast earlier this year, Yarn Yoshi was missing in action at E3 2013. According to longtime developer Takashi Tezuka, the Wii U title didn’t appear this week since it wasn’t ready to be shown yet.
Tezuka also commented on the decision to approach Good Feel for a new Yoshi project that is reminiscent of Kirby’s Epic Yarn:
“I looked at [Epic Yarn] and thought it was really beautiful. It seemed like it would be a good fit for Yoshi as well. We found that the Wii U would be able to make it a much more expressive game. It looked like it would be a lot of fun.”
Later in the interview, Tezuka hinted that we could see some increased difficulty in Yarn Yoshi. The team may look to include different modes, or some other ways to offer a challenge for core players.
Ubisoft announced The Division for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One earlier this week. Some fans have been wondering if the game could be heading to additional systems, however.
The game’s official Twitter account tweeted that Ubisoft is “not ruling out any platforms for the future.” While the comment was made in response to a request for a PC version, perhaps we could see The Division on Wii U as well.
@schanihbg We are optimizing the experience for next gen consoles. However, we are not ruling out any platforms for the future.
— TheDivision (@TheDivisionGame) June 12, 2013
System: Nintendo Wii U
Release Date: October 13th, 2013
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA/Nintendo
Author: Jack
I must say, I don’t think I’ve felt this much buzz surrounding the (we’re far past much-)maligned Sonic franchise since the release of Sonic Unleashed back in 2008. While that iteration ended up as all of the others have in the post-Adventure scrap heap, something feels different about this. It felt like in the trailer as though an emphasis was placed on technical gameplay as opposed to a return to something: speed, the 90’s, etc. The last title in the 3D Sonic series, 2011’s Sonic Colors, was surprisingly solid, and although it fundamentally lacked enough to be considered a triple-A title, it showed finally that Sega team, behind director Morio Kishimoto, was willing to look behind the confines the original trilogy on Genesis imposed upon the series.
Sir Kishimoto is back at it this time, and golly was I interested in giving Sonic yet another last go at this year’s E3.
As the second day of E3 2013 came to a close, Austin showed me an interesting bit of swag he acquired from his booth tour of Namco-Bandai, and I’d like to share it with you all, as this could be pretty big. As the story goes, as he was leaving, he noticed a box marked “Do Not Open– Day 3” next to the exitway of the tour. Curiosity proved too much, and after sneaking under a barricade and opening the box, he found it filled with these:
System: Nintendo Wii U
Release Date: November, 2013
Developer: Unknown
Publisher: Nintendo
Author: Laura
Alright, alright so I know you all have been DYING to know more about Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (phew), so here’s the scoop: Unless the frame rate and controls are improved– or the other mini games available in the full version are more fun than what I played– it will not be worth $60.
System: Nintendo Wii U
Release Date: August 4th, 2013
Developer: Nintendo EAD Group No. 4
Publisher: Nintendo
Author: Jack
Were you to ask me what I’d be excited for the most coming into Nintendo’s first E3 with the Wii U on the-stocking-shelves a few days ago, I’d probably have a fully mindful answer for each finger-on-the-hand. Given the somewhat sparse industry-wide response to Nintendo’s follow-up to the successful Wii, and with two competitor consoles set to drop in five months, I was fully expecting Nintendo to arrive at the Los Angeles Convention Center guns a-blazing, ready to duke it out with Sony and Microsoft the way they do best: releasing can’t miss first-party Nintendo gaming experiences that no other platform really has an equal for.
I took this picture. It was glorious.
The second of our E3 2013 podcast specials is slightly more focused… but still a little odd. We give our impressions of Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies, Killer is Dead, Bayonetta 2, and Batman: Arkham Origins (which we liked), as well as some thoughts on Mario 3D World, LEGO: Friends, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution , (which we were more tepid towards). Your listener mail rounds out this one.
This Week’s Podcast Crew: Jack, Austin, and Laura
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I included the Virtual Photo Booth shots of Reggie, Miyamoto, and Iwata just because they’re different.
