Namco Bandai wants to get the point across that you can indeed remove saved data in Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions. I can’t blame them, since you wouldn’t want misinformation spreading around about your product!
Namco Bandai sent out this message to the press:
“It has recently been reported that PAC-MAN & Galaga DIMENSIONS for the Nintendo 3DS system lacks an option to erase data that has been saved to the game’s cartridge. I wanted to inform everyone that saved data can be reset by holding the A,B,X,Y,L and R buttons when booting up the game from the 3DS system’s home screen. We are sorry for the confusion and hope you enjoy playing PAC-MAN & Galaga DIMENSIONS.”
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata delivered a speech regarding the 3DS’ price drop at the Q&A portion of the company’s financial results briefing last week. You can read that here if you missed it.
In addition to that, though, Iwata also sent out a letter for the public to read, apologizing for those who “betrayed and criticize this decision.” That letter was written in Japanese and was not published by Nintendo of America/Europe. However, the letter has now been fully translated. Iwata comes across as being quite honest and it’s a great read overall, so I highly recommend that you guys check it out.
Head past the break for the translation.
It’s going to be a long wait for the Smash Bros. title. Not only will Masahiro Sakurai’s team be working on one version for Wii U, but they’ll also be creating the first entry in the franchise for a handheld.
Kid Icarus: Uprising, Project Sora’s current project, will be released before the end of the year. Once that’s out of the way, Sakurai’s team will likely move on to Smash Bros. soon after. Sakurai said in a recent interview that “you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is.” He also stated that the team can improve “many things” from Brawl.
“I will think about this once Kid Icarus is complete. But as it is a game of a competitive nature, I do not think that any one person should have an advantage. …There are many things that can be improved upon even in Brawl. Also, I think you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is. The director of each game is the same, but because I regularly change my team around after projects, we will be able to see how good the team is then.”
It’s much too soon to be talking about the character roster, but when he was asked which other characters can be included in Smash Bros., Sakurai said:
“That is completely undecided, but it is true that Nintendo has not created many new characters lately.”
Below are a few of the games that will be available in North America on Thursday. A couple of additional games could be added to the list – specifically Virtual Console titles.
DSiWare
Play & Learn Spanish – 800 points
Go Fetch! 2 – 500 points
B Team: Episode 2: Ice & Venom – 800 points
WiiWare
Monochrome Racing – 500 points
As it turns out, you can delete save data in Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions. All it takes is a few button presses! Simply hold the ABXYLR as the game is booting up. That should do the trick…
The graphic above comes from Namco Bandai’s Q1 financial results. Tales of the Abyss did alright based on shipping data, though I’m sure other titles in the franchise have performed better. Data is also available for Ridge Racer 3D and One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP.
Far Cry had one outing on Wii and that was probably enough. That game, Far Cry Vengeance, was pretty much terrible all around. That’s probably one of the major reasons why we never saw another game in the series on Nintendo’s console.
Interestingly though, Ubisoft was working on Far Cry 2 for Wii. The project lasted just a couple of months according to Philippe Baude’s LinkedIn profile. We’ll probably never know why the game was cancelled, but again, it could be related to the negative reception of Vengeance and perhaps the fact that the Wii was underpowered compared to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
If you ask me, Mass Effect 3 and Wii U could be a fantastic pairing. I’d argue that it’d be a better match on the platform than a game like Metro: Last Light or even Aliens: Colonial Marines. Although no game is confirmed for Wii U, you may remember that executive producer Casey Hudson said that the Mass Effect universe “feels like it’s a really nice fit.”
Hudson shared more thoughts about Wii U in an interview with NowGamer. He said that he believes the console is “interesting” and “exciting”, though has to “think more about it and spend more with with the actual hardware.”
“It’s an interesting system. One of the challenges and opportunities with that kind of device is that it takes a while to really figure out what the amazing forms of gameplay will be – but it also has enough flexibility to potentially do things that are totally unprecedented in games. It’s very exciting, but I definitely need to think more about it and spend more time with the actual hardware.”
