Dragon Quest VIII’s North American site was in a teaser state before, but it’s now fully opened. Access it here. The site has detailed gameplay information, clips, and screenshots galore.

More: Dragon Quest VIII, Square Enix

Two 3DS games have been dated for the European 3DS eShop. First up, on January 19, Color Cubes will be available as a New 3DS-only title. Word Search 10K is due out a week later on January 26.

Here’s a look at the eShop listings:

Source 1, Source 2

More: Color Cubes, indie, Word Search 10K

North America is getting another Wii U Virtual Console game this week. Tomorrow, Nintendo will release F-Zero X.

An official listing contains the following description:

“Choose from 30 different hover-car racers, including updated versions of the Blue Falcon and other vehicles from the original F-Zero, and get ready to play one of the fastest racers ever! Race to the finish line on tracks that twist and turn through the air. However, you will have to avoid the other 29 cars on the track or else face the consequences! If you’re in a competitive mood, try to win a Grand Prix Cup, get the fastest lap time in a Time Trial, or destroy the competition in a Death Race. You can also challenge three friends in the Versus mode. With five separate play modes, hidden vehicles and courses, and an excellent sound track, F-Zero X still represents one of the best racing titles to date!”

F-Zero X will set you back $9.99.

Source

More: F-Zero, Virtual Console

Previously confirmed in the Nintendo Force magazine, the Runner3 blog now has a short post on Sadbot.

While nothing that wasn’t covered in the Nintendo Force reveal was shown off, developer Choice Provisions provides a short tease at the end about future characters and familiar faces.

In the meantime, I would like to reiterate that Runner3 will feature faces both old and new. If you fear change, stay tuned! We’ll be talking more about some familiar faces in the near future…

You can read the full post here.

More: Choice Provisions, Runner3

Two months ago we covered that early pre-orders of Dragon Quest VIII at the official Nintendo UK Store would get us a free poster, but it seems that the deal has changed for the better.

Nintendo UK’s official Twitter account has just posted that pre-ordering Dragon Quest VIII at the Nintendo UK Store will get us a poster and a Liquid Metal Slime keychain. Now that the deal is better, all UK gamers should pre-order it before Dragon Quest VIII launches on the 20th January, just 9 days away.

Pre-order @DragonQuest VIII at the #NintendoUKStore and you'll also get a poster and Liquid Metal Slime keyring! https://t.co/dKblhSL7zc pic.twitter.com/m97oc830jB

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) January 11, 2017

More: Dragon Quest VIII, pre-order, Square Enix

Nintendo has lots of streaming events centered around the unveiling of Switch this week. The Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 is up first, followed by Treehouse fun several hours later. Those aren’t the only two streams, however.

Pages are now up on Nintendo’s Japanese YouTube page for the Nintendo Switch Experience 2017, which is being hosted in Japan. Day 1 is here and day 2 is here.

They’ll be hosted at the following times:

Day 1

– 5:30 PM PT (January 13)
– 8:30 PM ET (January 13)
– 1:30 AM in the UK (January 14)
– 2:30 AM in Europe (January 14)

Day 2

– 5:30 PM PT (January 14)
– 8:30 PM ET (January 14)
– 1:30 AM in the UK (January 15)
– 2:30 AM in Europe (January 15)

The Nintendo Switch Experience 2017 allows Japanese fans to go hands-on with Switch prior to launch. Various stage events are planned, and musical performances will also be held.

We’ll put up live stream posts for both events before they begin.

More: top

This week’s Famitsu scans are now available. Highlighted games include Monster Hunter XX and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional. Scans of both titles can be found below.

More: Famitsu, scan

With Koi releasing on the North American Wii U eShop next week, Circle Entertainment prepared an introduction trailer for the game today. View it below.

More: Circle Entertainment, Koi

Square made a major change with the Final Fantasy series starting with the seventh entry. Whereas previous titles graced Nintendo hardware, Final Fantasy VII only ended up on PlayStation. Since then, Square Enix has kept the main entries off Nintendo platforms.

Earlier this week, Polygon published a massive feature on Final Fantasy VII, which includes interviews with many of the RPG’s developers. At one point, the conversation specifically focused on settling on the PlayStation over the N64. Character programmer Hiroshi Kawai said “you would get nowhere near anything like a Final Fantasy running” on Nintendo hardware, later adding that he heard from the big N to “never come back.”

Former Square president Hisashi Suzuki commented on this subject many years ago. At the time, he claimed Nintendo became frustrated when Square left, but also when when Square later helped convince others (like Enix), to leave as well.

Here’s the full excerpt:

Read More

More: Final Fantasy VII, interview, Square Enix, top

The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:

PS4 – 78,927
New 3DS LL – 54,645
Vita – 34,023
2DS – 26,214
PS4 Pro – 8,242
New 3DS – 8,019
Wii U – 3,147
PS3 – 1,156
Xbox One – 180

For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:

PS4 – 73,421
New 3DS LL – 45,809
Vita – 25,487
2DS – 20,259
PS4 Pro – 9,916
New 3DS – 4,342
Wii U – 2,589
PS3 – 1,002
Xbox One – 221
3DS – 72
3DS LL – 40

And here are the software charts:

Read More

More: charts, Japan, Media Create, sales, top