Nintendo of America’s headquarters in Washington has a store that’s for employees only (under most circumstances). While the company doesn’t allow for any photos/videos to be taken, IGN did purchase a few items from the store and showed them off in a new video. You can find that above.
Meme Run was taken down from the Wii U eShop last month. Once the dust settled, it was revealed that the move came about due to a copyright claim involving the trollface meme.
Kotaku reached out to trollface creator Carlos Ramirez about the situation and was told the following:
“People message me. ‘Hey, look, your trollface was used here! You oughta sue these guys.’ I just say ‘Okay, I’ll look at it.’ And I look at it. If it’s a really minor thing, I can’t be bothered with it. It’ll take too much time, and let people have their fun. If they’re not making any significant money on it, it’s like, eh, not a big deal. If you’re publishing a game on a major platform and it’s using my image, it’s kind of hard to ignore.”
“It’s really troublesome when you’re making a game comprised entirely of memes. It’s a big problem of copyright infringement, all across the board, and I guess I was the only one with enough time to go out of my way and shake it down.”
A patch for Citizens of Earth is coming very soon. Eden Industries’ Twitter account confirms that the update will be out “in the next few days” for both Wii U/3DS, and in all regions. It could be available as soon as tomorrow.
Eden Industries wrote on Twitter:
We are happy to announce that the Wiiu and 3DS patches for @CoEGame will be coming out in the next few days (hopefully tomorrow)!
— Ryan Vandendyck (@EdenIndustries) April 7, 2015
Level-5 unleashed a bunch of details about Yo-Kai Watch 3 as part of today’s announcement. You can find them rounded up below.
– Takes place in St. Peanutsburg
– This is a town located somewhere in the United States of America
– Keita moves there after his father is transferred overseas
– St. Peanutsburg has Yo-kai just like Sakura New Town
– Keita will see a number of “American Yo-kai” here
– Their looks and abilities will have an “American” feel
– Dasocks: the redundancy Yo-kai; snake, has two legs with a sock on each; when he possesses someone, they’ll always say a word too many when speaking
– Pinto Corn: never seems to understand anything that’s said to him, and his eyes are always distant; when he possesses someone, they, too, tend to say things of little importance and have a dubious grasp of what all is going on; has a habit of saying, “Huh? I don’t get it.”
– Nikuyaki: middle-aged Yo-kai who loves to eat meat; when he possesses someone, they’ll randomly begin treating people to barbecue.
– New heroine character is Inaho Misora
– Inaho’s ghost pal is USA-Pyon
– USA-Pyon (voiced by Kotori Shigemoto): Jibanyan and Koma-san-grade main Yo-kai
– USA Pyon pretends to be tough and often brags, but hates being alone in his lonely shop
– Much like Koma-san ends his phrases with “zura,” USA-Pyon has a similar “dani” phrase
– USA Pyon met with NASU (the game’s spoof of NASA) doctor Pyuri and was one of the first small animals supposed to go into space
– Inaho Misora (voiced by Aoi Yuki): acknowledges herself as “a bit of an otaku”
– Inaho is shy and does not speak to others much as school
– Inaho isn’t a particularly dark personality-wise, but has a tough time with school
– As an overly avid TV watcher, she’s also easily influenced by many things
– She loves sci-fi and is obsessed with the thought that everyone at her school might be possessed by aliens without even realizing it
– She has a mother, father, and younger brother name Riku
– Inaho has various classmates
– Yuuka Ishinomori: Inaho’s childhood friend; they have a relationship where they can discuss various things
– Yuuka is not an otaku
– Kirara Hoshikaze: girl who comes from a rich family and is always followed by her two escorts
– Inaho’s story is focused in Sakura New Town, Japan
– Inaho’s story is a Yo-kai detective team-like story, while Keita’s is about settling the trouble-making of Yo-kai in a foreign country
– Yo-Kai Watch U Prototype introduced for the game
– This has a surprise feature
– It’s compatible with “American Medals”
– At least 3 large updates for the game
– Will eventually be pushed to version 4.0
Layton 7 was first announced in 2013. At the time, it was slated for 3DS in addition to mobile platforms.
Layton 7 finally resurfaced today at Level-5 Vision 2015, but as a much different title. It’s now all about cards, a plot in which players must locate vampires among a crowd, and a 3DS is no longer planned. That being said, a Nintendo version hasn’t been ruled out.
Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has said that he would like to bring Layton 7 to Wii U. Whether that interest pans out remains to be seen.
SteamWorld Dig could have launched with a couple of additional worlds, but Image & Form ended up shelving them. The studio explained why this was done in an interview with Shigeru News.
Image & Form stated:
Yes, towards the end of the production we came under some pretty severe financial constraints – we were quickly going broke. Anthill wasn’t making much money for us anymore, and we had to be done with Dig by the end of June 2013; we would have run out of money if we had continued over summer. In Sweden, summer works like this: *everyone* goes on vacation in July, and we had to send the game for a time-consuming lotcheck process. The most economic way to do it was to let vacation and lotcheck coincide – and then pray that the game would sail smoothly through inspection.
It did, but that also meant that we had to race to finish the game by the end of June. And there were a couple of worlds that we didn’t have time to finish. It was sad in every way, but we couldn’t have finished it otherwise – we would have gone bust. In retrospect we may have benefited from including them, but we had no idea whether the game would be successful or not. It would have been ballsy to include the extra content and hoped for the best, but at the same time it would have been reckless beyond description. A lot of us have families, and it would have been harsh.
The next SteamWorld game, SteamWorld Heist, is due out this year. Look out for it on both Wii U and 3DS via the eShop.
Yo-Kai Watch protagonist Keita Amano has a new name in western territories. He now goes by “Nathan Adams”, according to VIZ Media. The company is publishing the Yo-Kai Watch manga overseas later this year.
VIZ Media shares the following story summary:
Nathan Adams is just an average kid until the mysterious Whisper gives him a device that allows him to see what others cannot, Yo-kai of all shapes and forms! Now, armed with the Yo-kai Watch, Nathan, Whisper and their new invisible friends embark on an all new supernatural adventure!
Nintendo and Level-5 finally announced localization of Yo-Kai Watch for 3DS earlier today. You can find the news here.
Best Buy is running a short sale on video game products right now. The lineup includes 3DS XL systems for $150 (save $25), Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge for $10 (save $20), and Steel Diver for $3 (save $17).
All deals can be found here. Keep in mind that the sale ends at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT.
