Nintendo Everything

Fans have been on a Nintendo patent hunt over the past few days. A filing for clickable scroll wheel shoulder buttons was found on Thursday, followed shortly after by one involving haptic feedback.

The latest patent we have is for a handheld with outward-facing linear image sensors. This one was filed for in February as well and was published this month. While Nintendo isn’t behind the patent directly, it was assigned to Fumihiko Inoue. Inoue is absolutely connected to the company and is listed as one of the inventors of the Big N’s older patents.

Here’s the abstract from the latest patent:

“An example system includes a housing having at least one surface provided with a display, a linear image sensor located, facing outside the housing, at a side part or a corner part of the housing when the surface provided with the display is viewed as a front surface, and an information processing unit performing information processing based on an image obtained by the linear image sensor.”

Here are some other tidbits from the filing:

– Linear image sensors on all four sides of a handheld device
– Space Pointer Function – For example if the device is positioned on a desk, these sensors can detect location/distance of finger (sliding on desk on side of device) and move cursor/character accordingly
– Side Surface Touching Operation – When holding the device in hands, these sensors can detect touch (e.g slide finger up/down to zoom)
– Figure Detection Function – Sensors can read barcodes (e.g on Amiibos) and detect rotation/distance
– Use Mode Determining Function – Sensors can help with accuracy of acceleration sensor e.g when rotating device to/from landscape/portrait orientation while device is horizontal
– Pulse Detecting Function – Detect user’s pulse rate (based on the reflection/intensity of skin)

You can find more information and images pertaining to the patent here.

Nintendo has published its fourth indie interview coming from PAX Prime 2015. In the latest one, the company’s Damon Baker talks with Oddworld Inhabitants about Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. Check it out below.

Splatoon’s fifth European Splatfest is now up and running. This time around, the two sides are Team Messy and Team Tidy.

Those of you in Europe will have until this time tomorrow to compete in the new Splatfest. Expect the results shortly after it ends.

The Wii U version of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will be patched on Monday, Nicalis’ Tyrone Rodriguez has confirmed via Twitter. This update should address some bugs players have been experiencing.

Rodriguez also recently noted on his Twitter account that another New 3DS update is planned. However, there’s no timetable for its release since Nintendo needs to approve it.

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Those who purchase a select Mario game from the Nintendo UK store can receive a free T-shirt. The selection includes Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, and more. You can check out the full lineup here.

During the 2015 Tokyo Game Show a few hours ago, Bandai Namco unveiled a few new characters for Project X Zone 2. Chrom and Lucina from Fire Emblem, Fiora from Xenoblade, and KOS-MOS were all confirmed for the game.

We now have several images from the official site showing the new characters. All of the shots are attached to this post.

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Earlier today, Capcom held a stage event for Monster Hunter Stories at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show. The full recording is below. Be sure to give it a look, as it features the first direct-feed gameplay from Stories.

If you were on the site in 2008, you may recall that there were quite a few rumors surrounding Factor 5 developing a Kid Icarus game for Wii. Of course, we all know now that such a project never came to be.

Liam Robertson has been doing some investigative work as of late in hopes of finding out more about Factor 5’s plans for Kid Icarus on Nintendo’s old console. You can listen to his findings in the video below.

Hyrule Warriors Legends will have stereoscopic 3D support – sort of. In an interview with 4Gamer, producer Yosuke Hayashi confirmed that the game will only make use of 3D on the New 3DS.

Naturally, the 3DS is not as powerful as the Wii U. Koei Tecmo worked hard to balance the enemy count, and displaying as many enemies as possible on screen was important. The New 3DS gave Hyrule Warriors Legends that extra boost to make stereoscopic 3D possible.

Hayashi also talked about things we’ve heard in the past: the 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors came about due to fan interest, more characters are coming, amiibo will be supported, DLC characters from the Wii U version will be immediately available on 3DS, and DLC is possible. We’ll also mention that a code will be included with all copies of the game so that players can unlock Toon Link, Tetra, and the King of Hyrule in the Wii U version.

Koei Tecmo is nearly done with the development of Hyrule Warriors Legends, and they’re currently working on polishing things. That makes sense, as the game is launching on January 21 in Japan.

For the original release of Hyrule Warriors, Koei Tecmo brought out special “Premium Box” and “Treasure Box” Editions. The 3DS version, Hyrule Warriors Legends, is receiving the same treatment as well.

The Premium Box will include a compass-style pendant watch and art book. These items are also in the Premium Box, which also contains a gold ocarina and a fairy plushie.

Koei Tecmo recently showed off the pendant and ocarina during a stage event at Tokyo Game Show. You can get a look at both below.