In its issue last month, Retro Gamer published a large feature on Pokemon which takes a look back at the series’ earliest days up to the present. It included a number of comments from people with big connections to the franchise, including Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Ken Sugimori. Masuda is well-known as the producer at Game Freak while Sugimori drew the original 151 Pokemon.
Masuda in particular shared some interesting comments about the process in which Game Freak went to work on the original games, how the team was limited by the Game Boy hardware, and localization overseas. Sugimori talked about why each new Pokemon generation tends to see no more than 100 creatures.
We’ve included these statements from both Masuda and Sugimori below.
While playing Super Mario 64, have you ever wondered what the text says on the statue pictured above? You can find it in the courtyard inside the castle.
Fans had long debated about what the text on that statue had said. “Eternal Star” was one possibility. “L is Real” – or “L(uigi) is real February 4, 2001 in Paper M(ario)” – was another.
Reddit user b0nd18t shared a photo of a response letter received from Nintendo Game Counselor Michael D. Chandler way back in 1998. The staffer who wrote back apparently revealed the “meaning” of the mystery. You can read it in full below.
With just a month to go before the Nintendo Switch presentation, the rumor mill has been in full force. One topic of speculation this week concerns the Virtual Console.
A report emerged that Nintendo is planning on bringing GameCube into the fold on Switch’s Virtual Console. Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, and Luigi’s Mansion are apparently the titles Nintendo is looking at first. The original Animal Crossing is also being looked into.
GameCube is the only one of Nintendo’s consoles that never saw digital re-releases. So assuming the new rumors are true, which titles from the system would you like to see on Switch? I’d personally go with Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins. Those two games were made by Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft, and are criminally overlooked. Let us know which games you’d be interested in downloading in the comments below!
Highlights from last week’s topic: What are you playing? – December 2016
HullBreach Studios announced at the start of this month that SDK Spriter would be available beginning December 8 on the North American Wii U eShop. Strangely though, it was absent from this week’s Nintendo Download report.
There was some sort of mixup, but we can confirm that SDK Spriter is live in North America. It will set you back $12.50.
It’s been well over a year since the last Picross e game graced the western eShop. Next week, Jupiter is fixing that with Picross e7. It’s set for launch on December 15 in North America, an eShop listing reveals.
Picross e7 contains a number of features, such as the new Mark function that allows players to leave indicators on squares they are unsure about without risking a penalty. It’s also possible to switch input modes by simply pressing the Circle Pad or d-pad once. Finally, it’s the first game with 20×15-size Mega Picross puzzles.
Picross will cost $5.99 upon release. While we don’t have any news for Europe yet, it wouldn’t be surprising if Jupiter had something to share soon.
Universal Studios filed a series of patents between October and November. Five in total were secured, but we’re interesting in two of them in particular, as they could be connected to the company’s partnership with Nintendo.
Orlando Business Journal discovered the various patents. The drift racers and boom coaster filings have potential of being related to Mario Kart and Donkey Kong respectively.
Orlando Business Journal writes:
Drift racers: A two-rider, car-based amusement racing attraction with the ability to simulate drifting sensations. Two passengers, who could be in time/points competition with another car, will have control over some aspect of their ride vehicle: The driver would have a steering wheel and an acceleration and brake pedal to control the turning/drifting of the vehicle and speed; the rear passenger would have a control interface with buttons that could control the vehicle or bounce the ride vehicle, provide a boost to the vehicle during the race or affect the performance of another ride vehicle on the track, said the patent. For any Nintendo fan, that description brings to mind the video game company’s popular Mario Kart game series. In one version of the series, called Mario Kart: Double Dash, each car had two racers — including a driver and a rear passenger — who controlled the use of items during the race that could impact their car or others in the race.
Boom coaster: This is a unique arm that would attach to a ride vehicle to help enhance rides that appear to be on a track system, but are actually controlled by a separate arm. For example, the arm could be C-shaped connected to a secondary hidden track underneath the track guests see. As a result, rides that have story element breaks in the track — say like an upcoming jump from one track to another — could cause suspense. “Because the passenger may believe that the simulated ride surface controls a path of the passenger vehicle, the passenger may fear or anticipate that the passenger vehicle may crash or otherwise incur damage as a result of the elevated gap,” said the patent. This has many fans thinking it could also be related to Nintendo via the Donkey Kong Country video game series, which features areas with cars traveling through dangerous mines filled with jumps, dips and turns.
Puyo Puyo Chronicle has released in Japan, and a ton of footage from the game is now available. Over an hour of footage is posted below.
Pokemon GO players are encountering a new glitch that only seems to affect buddy Pokemon. If encountered, you’ll see creatures that are huge on the map. It’s likely something Niantic will look to address soon.
In other Pokemon GO news, Niantic is “actively working on a fix for a bug that causes incorrect vibration notifications related to the Nearby Pokemon feature.” The company posted on Twitter last night:
We are aware of and actively working on a fix for a bug that causes incorrect vibration notifications related to the Nearby Pokémon feature.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 10, 2016
