In its first week, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe climbed to the top of the UK charts. It was the first Nintendo game to reach that mark since Pokemon White in 2011.
An additional piece of information has now come in about the racer’s performance. It not only had a bigger week than Mario Kart 8 on Wii U, but also 3DS’ Mario Kart 7.
We should be receiving sales data for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in Japan later this week. For North America, it’s unclear when Nintendo will make any numbers known.
In 2011, RecogniCorp filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo. The company claimed that Mii characters used the same techniques described in the patent for making police sketches of suspects.
But on Friday, a federal appeals court determined that the patent asserted against Nintendo by RecogniCorp should never have been granted. The lawsuit has come to a close as a result.
Ajay Singh, Nintendo of America’s director of litigation and compliance said of the verdict:
“We are very pleased with the court’s decision. The decision marks another case in which Nintendo’s unique ideas overcame unjustified threats of patent infringement. Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products and we will continue to vigorously defend all our products from meritless patent lawsuits.”
Source: Nintendo PR
System3 shared new details about its upcoming Switch game Constructor today. Specifically, we have information about the undesirables, “colorful characters, who you’ll send to terrorize rival builders.”
The lineup is as follows:
The Hippy – They hold street parties, squat, or picket an opponent building.
Killer Clown – All round dangerous individuals that cause damage all over the place.
The Ghost – Scares tenants to within an inch of their lives and sends them packing.
Mr Fixit – The repairman you should never hire – he’ll bodge the whole job.
The Phsyco – Stay away from him, because he’s just plain crazy!
The Thugs – These give Phil Mitchell a run for his money as the nastiest piece of work around.
The Thief – Lock up your valuables, because these guys steal everything.
The Gangster – Your chosen hitman. Need someone silenced, buildings burned to the ground? He’s your man.
Constructor is in development to launch in 2017, to commemorate 20th Anniversary of the multi-million-selling city builder’s original release, sharing a dark and wonderful world with feverish fans and a whole new audience.
Constructor will be out on Switch sometime this summer.
Source: System3 PR
A couple of days ago, apparent news leaked out about Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga DX. Data for the game was said to be found sitting on the 3DS eShop through some nontraditional means.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga DX is starting to look even more likely, as SciresM – who claimed to have found the data initially – now says he’s located the game’s icon as well. Here’s a rough look:
At this point, I’d be pretty surprised if Nintendo didn’t end up announcing this game. News at E3 would be expected.
Nintendo is back at it with maintenance, this time specifically for Switch. Using credit cards on the eShop will be unavailable today, while general maintenance is planned for next week.
The schedule is as follows:
Switch online play, rankings, etc.
– 5:50 PM PT (May 1) – 7:30 PM PT (May 1)
– 8:50 PM ET (May 1) – 10:30 PM ET (May 1)
– 1:50 AM in the UK (May 2) – 3:30 AM in the UK (May 2)
– 2:50 AM in Europe (May 2) – 4:30 AM in Europe (May 2)
Switch eShop (using credit cards)
– 3:30 PM PT (May 8) – 6 PM PT (May 8)
– 6:30 PM ET (May 8) – 9 PM ET (May 8)
– 11:30 PM in the UK (May 8) – 2 AM in the UK (May 9)
– 12:30 AM in Europe (May 9) – 3 AM in Europe (May 9)
It’s the start of a new month, which means new rewards are now available on My Nintendo. In Europe, five new rewards have gone live, and the big theme this month seems to be Street Fighter.
For 20 Gold Points, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting and Street Fighter Alpha 2 on Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS are all 30% off. Also for 20 Gold Points, Etrian Odyssey IV on 3DS is 20% off.
Finally, you can get a Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers phone wallpaper for 50 Platinum Points.
Fire Emblem Heroes will be getting its next major update, 1.3.0, next Monday, May 8th. In order to implement it, the game will undergo maintenance and be unavailable to play for 2 1/2 hours before the daily reset time.
Also, because of this update, the upcoming Arena season will be one day shorter than usual. It will run from May 2nd to May 8th. The official Fire Emblem Heroes Twitter account already announced the characters that will give you bonus points when used in the Arena during that season. They are Ike, Soren, Mist, Titania, Zephiel, Barst, Clarine, Hana, Felicia and Anna.
Following Famitsu’s coverage, Koei Tecmo published the first official screenshots from Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi. Find them below.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Nintendo used aircraft to ship Switch consoles to North America and Europe in March in order to replenish stock in stores as quickly as possible, according to a company spokesperson. This is noteworthy because shipping units this way is a lot more expensive than the usual method of sea freight, which Nintendo has gone back to since April. According to Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda, air freight could add a cost of about ¥5,000 per unit. Still, it seems like Nintendo was willing to take that hit in profit in order to ship out as many Switch units as possible. In Nintendo’s recent financial results meeting, the company revealed that 2.74 million Switch units were sold in March – sounds like that number would’ve been quite a bit lower had they gone with the conventional shipping method of sea freight throughout the month.
This week, Ever Oasis director and producer Koichi Ishii put up a new blog post on Nintendo’s website. Various characters were introduced, and we also have new screenshots and art.
Ishii started out by saying how he was glad to receive many positive comments about the characters when Ever Oasis was shown during the latest Nintendo Direct. People were mentioning things like Tethu and Esna looking cute as well as some wanting a Penkrow plushie.
In this developer blog, Ishii introduced these characters. They are designed by famed illustrator Yoshinori Shizuma. The post covers what things the team were thinking of when making the characters, and how they ultimately ended up.
