Nintendo Everything

The results are in for Splatoon’s fifth North American Splatfest. To say the least, the event was extremely close.

Just two percentage points separated the art and science sides for both popularity and wins. However, it was Team Art that managed to come out on top, though just slightly. The final count was 255 points for art and 245 points for science.

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This week, Famitsu has an interview with Pokemon president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara. Ishihara touched on Pokemon Shuffle, Pokken Tournament, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, and a bit about the future – including an extremely brief NX name-drop.

Regarding Pokemon Shuffle, Ishihara reconfirmed that the game has reached five million downloads. The title, which just recently hit smart devices, was originally intended to be released from the start on smartphones and 3DS. The 3DS demographic is more around those at middle school while smartphones users are geared more toward adults. The main message they wanted to convey is that the app can be cleared from the start with no charges.

Pokken Tournament came about from a desire to see more realistic Pokemon movements. Even though it’s made by the Tekken team, it has a different flavor and feel than that series and it does not necessarily appeal to a different demographic. Ishihara points out that it’s easy to understand fighting games, and its systems are straightforward and simple to pick up on.

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Did you know that it’s Bayonetta 2’s first anniversary today? The game came out in Japan on September 20. Developer PlatinumGames celebrated with a special cake – see below.

Bayonetta 2 director Yusuke Hashimoto also shared a message in an official PlatinumGames blog post. He spoke about the Nintendo costumes in the game, and also revealed a cut idea. He had wanted to include a costume based on Famicom Tantei Club, a game that Nintendo only brought to Japan. Unfortunately, it never made it into the final game.

You can read up on Hashimoto’s full message below.

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Xenoblade Chronicles X features something known as “Skells”. These mechs allow players to take to the sky and fly across the vast world. You won’t have access to Skells right away, however. They are made available later in the game after players receiving a license.

This month’s issue of Game Informer has a few comments from Monolith Soft executive director Tetsuya Takahashi. Takahashi told the magazine why Skells aren’t handed out at the start, explaining:

“The main reason we didn’t want players to have the Skell from the beginning of the game is that we wanted them to have the opportunity to fully explore the world on foot first. The world starts to feel quiet a bit different once you have the Skell, especially once you experience different layers of the world vertically.”

Xenoblade Chronicles X still has a few months to go before it reaches the west. The overseas release is scheduled for December 4.

Another Skylanders SuperChargers video has appeared on YouTube showing online racing gameplay. We have it below.

Update: Bumped to the top. Amazon has revealed the amiibo bundle packaging, which reveals that the three amiibo cards are special editions of Goldie, Rosie and Stitches.

Thanks to a listing on GameFly, we have an updated boxart image for Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Have a look at it above.

Here’s the original boxart image from June:

I’d definitely say that the new one looks nicer!

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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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