Nintendo Everything

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U launched in Japan last week. As such, Japanese magazine Famitsu sat down with director Masahiro Sakurai for a chat about the latest entry in Nintendo’s successful series. Some very interesting tidbits were shared, to say the least.

One of the topics Famitsu brings up is the inclusion of Duck Hunt. “The original Duck Hunt is a quite major game,” Sakurai said. He notes that the title could be the best-selling shooter game in the world since it was included with the NES in America.

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Nintendo of America has sent us an updated statement about the amiibo stock situation in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. What the company says is actually encouraging, as the Big N notes: “Certain sold-out amiibo may return to these markets at a later stage.” Perhaps there’s some hope for Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, and/or Marth returning to retailers in the future.

In any case, here’s the full statement:

“Some amiibo were very popular at launch, and it is possible that some amiibo in the United States, Canada and Latin America may not be available right now due to high demand and our efforts to manage shelf space during the launch period. Certain sold-out amiibo may return to these markets at a later stage. We are continually aiming to always have a regular supply of amiibo in the marketplace and there are many waves of amiibo to come.”

Keep in mind that these comments do not come from a customer service representative. Rather, they’re from Nintendo directly.

An internal notice from GameStop provides some insight into the retailer’s handling of amiibo figures.

Regarding wave 2, Diddy Kong, Zelda, and Little Mac should be released over the next few days. However, Luigi, Pit, and Captain Falcon “have experienced a shipping delay and will not be available until late December.” Pre-orders for all wave 2 figures are now closed.

We’re also seeing more talk of discontinuations for wave 1 amiibo. Marth, Villager, and Wii Fit Trainer appear to be gone – as expected.

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Two new titles are coming to the North American Virtual Console tomorrow. On Wii U, Crash ‘n the Boys Street Challenge will be released for $4.99. Harvest Moon 3 GBC is planned for 3DS at a $4.99 price point.

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In a recent interview with USgamer, Koji Kondo was asked about what soundtrack/piece of music gave him the most difficulty. Kondo pointed to one game: Super Mario Bros. 3.

As he explained:

The most challenging [piece] was the main theme for Super Mario Bros. 3. The [original] Super Mario theme itself was almost a little too empowering. That indelible impression it left in the user’s mind with how it matched up with what Mario was doing on the screen—that was a big mountain to climb when we started working on the music to Super Mario 3. I remember creating lots of different music in different styles, trying to come up with something that would match that game and be different enough from the original Super Mario theme. It was tough. It took me a long time to come up with something I thought would work, and it was really me and Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Tezuka—the three of us—right up until the very last stages of development, listening to all of these different music pieces that I created, before we finally settled on what we ended up using.

Any time you’re working off of existing music, and you’re revamping it for the next title, that’s just always a tough gig. And that’s true for every title, starting from the first [one]. It’s tough for me, of course, but maybe even more so for the people on my staff, who are working on different arrangements of music they didn’t even compose. They’re working on music that I composed, and now they’re having to go back and do some rearranging to match [music from] current games. So if it’s tough for me, I think it’s even tougher for them.

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This year’s Game Awards were watched by 1.93 million viewers, according to Geoff Keighley. That’s more than a 75 percent increase over the number of viewers who tuned in for Spike TV’s Video Game Awards last year.

Keighley told Polygon:

“I was really happy with how things turned out. Certainly the audience numbers were well beyond my wildest dreams, and creatively I’m proud of what we put on the screen. Moments like the tribute to Ken and Roberta Williams and the Koji Kondo/Imagine Dragons performance were once in a lifetime experiences.”

Despite The Game Awards’ successful viewership, the event wasn’t exactly a financial success for Keighley. Only about 3,000 of the 4,000 available seats were filled, and only about half of attendees paid for tickets. If there are future Game Awards, costs for the show would likely be much less due to the elimination of start-up fees such as having WETA design the trophy, recording the show’s theme with Marty O’Donnell and building the show’s website.

As for the future, Keighley would only say:

“I’d definitely like to see it continue on if publishers and fans want to keep it going. But yeah, no idea what shape it will take.”

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Unseen64’s Liam Robertson is teasing a cancelled Metroid project that was apparently in the works for the 3DS. For those unaware, Unseen64 often publishes articles about canned games and other noteworthy gaming secrets.

Robertson teased on Twitter today:

It also seems that we can look forward to some news about a cancelled Wii game from High Voltage Software that was tied into a popular TV show:

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