Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed could be seeing another delay on the 3DS. Amazon as well as GameStop are now listing the game’s release date as February 12, 2013.
This update should only be treated as a rumor for now. Officially, SEGA has yet to confirm a final date for the portable racer.
“We hope to live up to the same kind of success with the Wii. As you can see, people are really excited about it. Time will tell.” – Head of Consumer Marketing at Nintendo UK, James Honeywell
I think anyone who makes anything hopes that they’d be as successful as the Wii! Except maybe Apple. Apple wants to be way more successful than that.
Honeywell went on to briefly talk about Wii U stock in the UK:
“The US has been a fantastic launch. Obviously that’s a much bigger market, and so they’ve got more stock, but we’re hoping for the same standard of success here in the UK.”
“One of the main things– and it’s a philosophy I wish more people would take– is not trying to build your game around what the feature set of the hardware is, but analyze how your customer has interacted with the game up to that point and see if the hardware’s feature set can further enhance that. Because you’ve been successful for a reason, so to go and try and reinvent everything just because you want to use this feature doesn’t necessarily mean your customer is going to enjoy the new experience.” – NBA 2K13 producer Rob Jones
Much like what Jim Sterling said in a recent piece about Black Ops 2 on Wii U, sometimes you just have to let games be regular games, even when a console has specific features that make it stand out. Mr. Jones seems to understand that! He continued:
“For example, with the Wii you could use the remote as a pointer, but people don’t experience basketball games that way, so trying to change the game just to get the Wii pointer to work didn’t make a lot of sense. PlayStation Move probably had the same kind of effect. We tried to make a game that could be played simply with the peripheral, but the peripheral just didn’t match our core customer. So what you’ll see with the Wii U title is we only did what we thought would be an extension of what our customers were already experiencing because it makes sense that way.”
I like this guy! He understands how games are made! Of course, it’s a steady balance– if you (as a developer) pass up the opportunity to use a feature that would clearly improve gameplay just because you’re lazy, and then you try and pass it off as “not being gimmicky”, you’ll get into trouble. I have a feeling that’s not what’s happening here though.
UBoost
– Essentially a battery extension
– 2x the battery life
– Attaches to the back– no tools or modification required (which assumedly means you don’t have to remove the old battery to use it)
– Works together with the internal battery
– Adds a built-in stand to the Gamepad so you can stand it up without using a separate stand
– Still uses the charging cradle/cord that comes with the Wii U normally
– Available in Black and White, “later this year”
– $19.99
Charge Base Pro
– Charging station for up to two Wii U Pro Controllers
– Attach a magnetic charging dongle to the Pro Controller’s USB Port and set it on the charging pad
– Magnets will automatically lock the charging dongle into place
– “Artfully suspends the controller in the vertical dock”, which seems like a silly way to phrase is
– LED light indicates when fully charged
– Dock is collapsable
– Powered through an AC adapter, so it charges faster than the Pro Controller’s proprietary USB cord
– Available “holiday season”
– $29.99
Power Stand
– Sort of like a third party version of the Deluxe Bundle’s charging cradle
– “Drop n charge” functionality
– Use it to view movies and stuff
– Available “this year”
– $14.99
Charge Adapter
– Essentially a third party replacement Gamepad charging cord
– Plugs into AC wall outlet, charges Gamepad
– ‘Velcro strap’ for easy storage
– Available “in time for the Holidays”
– $14.99
Charge Link
– USB charging cable for the Gamepad
– ‘Extra long cord’ so you can play from further distances
– Velcro strap for easy storage
– Available now
– $14.99
Full game downloads:
Assassin’s Creed 3 – £54.99
Ben 10 Omniverse – £35.99
Darksiders 2 – £49.99
Family Party 30 Great Games: Obstacle Arcade – £27.99
FIFA 13 – £49.99
Just Dance 4 – £39.99
New Super Mario Bros. U – £49.99
Nintendo Land – £49.99
Rabbids Land – £39.99
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed – £39.99
Sports Connection – £39.99
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition – £37.49
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper – £49.99
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 – £39.99
ZombiU – £54.99
eShop Exclusives
Chasing Aurora – £10.79
Little Inferno – £12.99
Nano Assault Neo – £8.99
Puddle – £7.19 (Launch offer. Valid until 31/12/2012)
Trine 2: Director’s Cut – £10.99 (Launch offer. Valid until 31/12/2012)
Applications
Netflix – Free
Uplay – Free
YouTube – Free
Demos
FIFA 13
Videos
Chasing Aurora – Release Trailer
FIFA 13 – Trailer
Funky Barn – Gameplay Trailer
Little Inferno – Trailer 1
Little Inferno – Trailer 2
Nano Assault Neo – Video
New Super Mario Bros. U – Trailer
Puddle – Developer Interview
Puddle – Video
Toki Tori 2 – Video
Trine 2 Director’s Cut – Video
Wii U owners can now grab Ubisoft’s Uplay app from the eShop. It’s only a 43MB program, so it shouldn’t take long to download and install.
If you can’t locate the app on the eShop, search for “Uplay” and it should pop up in the results.
