In this month’s issue of EDGE, the magazine handed out one of the first western verdicts for Bayonetta 2. PlatinumGames’ newest title earned a perfect 10 / 10 mark, making it one of only 17 games to have been awarded with a perfect score.

EDGE said in its review that “Bayonetta 2 is in many ways a perfect fit for Nintendo, with its bright blue skies, its easy charm, its relentless procession of ideas and its immaculately tuned controls.”

Other tidbits from the publication’s review:

Read More

More: Bayonetta 2, PlatinumGames

Satoru Okada, the director of Metroid, Kid Icarus and Super Mario Land, is retired from Nintendo. Author Erik Voskuil confirms this in his new book “Before Mario”.

Aside from working on some of Nintendo’s earliest games, Okada created the Game Boy alongside Gunpei Yokoi. He later became the general manager of Nintendo Research & Engineering that was responsible for developing handhelds. Okada was ultimately the chief developer of the Game Boy Color, Advance, Advance SP and Nintendo DS.

It’s unclear when exactly Okada retired. However, it’s likely that he continued to supervise Nintendo’s handheld development up until his departure.

Source

More: Satoru Okada

Here’s something a bit interesting for you: the cover plates featuring the different Mario items (Fire Flower, Goomba, etc.) are made of actual wood!

Source

More: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

More: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

More: commercial, Hero Bank 2, Japan, SEGA

More: commercial, Italy, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

Arachnid Games recently revealed that Ballpoint Universe is finally heading to the Wii U eShop next Thursday. The company didn’t say, however, if the news applied to both North America and Europe.

Well, now we have an answer! Arachnid told one gamer on Twitter that the European launch of Ballpoint Universe will be taking place “a few months” after the North American release. This is because of the “separate publishing process for each region”.

Arachnid’s tweet in full:

Source

More: Arachnid Games, Ballpoint Universe, Europe, indie

In an interview with Siliconera, Shantae director Matt Bozon touched on the different prototypes that the studio experimented with in the past but never saw the day of light. Among the projects include “a polygonal Shantae that could be run around in three distinct gameplay ‘gyms’”.

Bozon’s full comments:

“We had a polygonal Shantae that could be run around in three distinct gameplay ‘gyms’. One was a spline-scroller (like Namco’s Klonoa), one was a free-range 3D like Mario 64, and the last was an isometric 3D platformer. We’ve done a lot of exploration in this area… Shantae was a sprite/3D hybrid for PlayStation and PC, and was free-roaming on the PlayStation 2. She even rode a river raft on the GameCube. It’s possible that we’ll see a polygonal Shantae down the line, but only if it serves the style of gameplay we want to create at the time.”

Bozon also spoke with Siliconera about WayForward’s upcoming Shantae games. Speaking about the differences between Pirate’s Curse and Half-Genie Hero, he said:

“The games are fairly different. The teams have no real crossover besides me and Jake (Virt) Kaufman. Half-Genie Hero is more about dancing, over-the-top spectacle, arcade action, and some light quest elements to keep it true to the series (and it’s still in development, so anything can happen!). It’s like a Shantae TV show come to life!”

“Pirate’s Curse has a deeper narrative and is more rooted in 16-bit stylings, even though it has higher resolution paintings and occasional voice over. Pirate’s Curse expands the original gameplay and takes into new territory. Half-Genie Hero goes back to belly dancing and magic, but adds a ton of variety with more playable characters and HD visual design.”

Source

More: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, top, WayForward

More: Capcom, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate