Nintendo is launching a pair of transparent 2DS systems in Europe tomorrow. It appears that there are plans to bring the same handheld to North America, but only in blue.
A leaked ad from Target confirms that the “2DS Crystal” will be available on November 16. You’ll be able to purchase it on release day for $100 ($30 in savings).
Although an official announcement about the new 2DS variation has yet to be made for North America, we’ll probably hear something within the next few days.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse won’t be a full-priced game in Japan. During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that the Wii U title will cost only 3,700 yen, which would probably come to around $40 in the states. It’ll be interesting to see how Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is priced overseas!
Bandai Namco announced Lost Heroes 2 during yesterday’s Nintendo Direct. The publisher has since issued first screenshots and details, which we’ve rounded up below.
– Out on February 5
– 5,690 yen
– Standard and limited editions
– 9,500 yen for the limited edition
– Limited edition includes:
A port of the Super Nintendo game Hero Senki: Project Olympus accessible from the title screen
If you use a Hero Technique during a battle, the game will play one of over 20 theme songs from the hero TV shows
Lost Heroes series 300-page art book. (Package edition only.)
– The game includes a download code for an updated version of the original Lost Heroes
– Lost Heroes: Bonus Edition features additional voices and balance adjustments to make the game easier to play
– Lost Heroes 2 brings together the heroes of the Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Gundam series
– Make a party of 4 characters before heading into dungeons
– New story set after the first game where players must face against a new despair concerning the “Fragments of Regis”
– New heroes: Ultraman Ginga, Kamen Rider Wizard, Unicorn Gunam, and more
– In battle, the scope of attack affinities and weaknesses has been expanded, granting the game additional layers of new depth
– New character voices
– Cut-scenes designed to enhance immersion during combat
– “Rush System”: trigger “Hero Rush” for a powerful attack
– While players are able to trigger it at their discretion, timing is key for making the most of it
Based on recent comments from Shigeru Miyamoto, it sounds like we can look forward to another Pikmin game in the future.
Last week, Miyamoto mentioned the Pikmin shorts and Pikmin 3 demo, which just released yesterday. He said that these types of campaigns “will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of ‘Pikmin’ in the future.”
Miyamoto stated:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called “Pikmin Short Movies” on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. If you have not seen it yet, I hope you will check out the information on the Internet. The short film is only about 20 minutes, but this is our very first animated movie that uses “Pikmin” as its theme. We’re planning to make this 3D movie available on Nintendo 3DS and make the HD version of the movie available on Wii U in the near future. At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of “Pikmin 3” so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of “Pikmin” in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U. We are making a variety of different efforts.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata opened up about what Nintendo’s plans are for smart devices during the company’s financial results briefing last week. We covered some of this a few days ago, such as the Mii-focused app. In any case, read on below for Iwata’s comments in full.
Basically, Nintendo’s utilization of smart devices means to “make a stronger bond with our consumers through the use of smart devices,” instead of to “do business directly on smart devices.” We are continuously considering what we should do and what we can do to achieve that goal. Although this is not directly related to the application (for smart devices) you are referring to, even now if you access Nintendo’s Japanese website from a smart device, it is not in a layout for smart devices. It is rather embarrassing that we are so behind on this compatibility, but we plan to optimize our Japanese website for smart devices within 2014. In addition, we opened a website called “Play Nintendo” in the U.S. this month that introduces Nintendo characters to children and their parents, assuming that many of them will access it from their smart devices. This website is available at play.nintendo.com (please use the newest browser), so please take a look if you are interested. This service is currently only available in the U.S., but Mr. Miyamoto and I would like to make this kind of service available on a global scale.
Nintendo isn’t planning on supporting its Quality of Life platform alone. President Satoru Iwata confirmed last week that there is an interest in partnerships. Nintendo may approach other companies, and companies may come to Nintendo with proposals.
Iwata said:
By using the term “platform” for our QOL business, we expressed, to some extent, that our QOL business will not be only between us and our consumers. Instead, we would like various partners to join us if they have some ideas to propose to our consumers. For those who have been watching Nintendo for a long time, it would appear quite unusual to clarify the core elements of our new business ideas at such an early stage as this, way before the actual service begins to operate and the actual products are shown. This time we dare to clarify that Nintendo is working on a new platform with “sleep” and “fatigue” as the themes, because it would be very beneficial to openly start talks with potential partners. There might be cases in which we approach other companies. Conversely, there might also be cases where, following our announcement, companies come to us and propose something using their techniques or something that they would be able to achieve. Nintendo will not implement this business alone. Today, I explained future services and the development of the business by referring to our way of thinking. We did so specifically this time because, considering future business development, it‘s advantageous for us to talk about it at this early stage.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata brought up the “Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire Same-Generation Hypothesis” at the company’s financial results briefing last week. Essentially, there is the thought that those who played Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire back in the day will also be interested in Smash Bros. 3DS and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata commented on this further during the Q&A portion of the latest financial briefing and brought up another interesting topic as well. Next year, Nintendo will attempt to launch some sort of feature with Nintendo Network IDs involving “options tailored to individual consumers based on the fact that they’ve played game A and game B, and so the probability they’ll enjoy game C is very high.”
Continue on below for Iwata’s full comments!
