Three-volume series to launch on 12th September, with each game containing the equivalent of over 30 Oxford Reading Tree textbooks!

1st August 2014 – Millions of children have learnt to read with Biff, Chip and Kipper, Oxford University Press’ much loved series of early learning books. Parents and children alike will be excited therefore by the arrival of the three-volume series Phonics Fun with Biff, Chip & Kipper, coming to Nintendo 3DS and 2DS systems on 12th September 2014.

Many parents may already be familiar with the phonics method used in the popular textbook stories of Floppy’s Phonics from Oxford Reading Tree, but via the many fun and intuitive features of Nintendo 3DS and 2DS systems, the series is set to be presented in a more interactive way than ever before. Consisting of three volumes packed with games devised by educational experts that are both motivational and rewarding, Phonics Fun with Biff, Chip & Kipper take scenes and illustrations from the well-respected series of books, and uses the same synthetic phonics method, which introduces individual letter sounds to children before blending them together to read a word.

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The PlatinumGames blog has once again been updated, this time by background artist Shohei Kameoka. Kameoka breaks down and details one of the backgrounds that will appear in game and outlines just how many layers are involved with that process, here’s an excerpt:

One of my duties for Bayonetta 2 was to take care of all the lighting, water, air, and other indefinite objects in the world environments. Out of all those I spent the most time on lighting, so I thought I’d share a little on what kind of work I did.

In Bayonetta 2, many of the environments have a water theme, so I really wanted to make water in the game look beautiful. I tried to come up with some key concepts for water and worked off of the following: transparent, shining, clean, cool, something you would want to feel, something you would want to dive into. Then I thought about how I could use those words to choose the right lighting for water.

For the full blog post including work in progress pictures of the background in question, head on ever to the site here

More: Bayonetta 2, PlatinumGames

via Famitsu

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Following his success in designing Final Fantasy IV, Takashi Tokita went on to create a lesser known RPG called Live A Live, a Japan-only RPG that had a story that was all over the place. Described as Street Fighter imagined as a JRPG, the storylines had quite literally everything form a kung-fu tale to a western. This stowed away Super Famicon gem will be coming to the Japanese Virtual Console sometime in the near future and while Square was quite thorough with porting their more esoteric games to the Wii, Live A Live never made it to that platform making it the first time it will be released in a Virtual Console setting.

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More: Japan, live a live, squaresoft, Virtual Console

More: Denpa Ningen no RPG FREE!, Japan, marvelous

Coming from Nat Geo magazine, it looks like 2 more special events are set to be released in Pokemon X and Y in North America. First, from August 13th – September 17th, a Heracross or Pinsir will be available for download to either an X or Y cart through  the Internet Mystery Gift. Additionally, from August 18th – 31st at participating Gamestop stores, you’ll be able to receive a special code for a Hercronite or Pinsirite Mega Stone.

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More: GameStop, Pokemon X/Y

Wacky peripherals are nothing new to Nintendo titles but this latest title from SEGA is a little extra eccentric. Poochi the Robotic Dog has you interacting with a robotic toy via a 3DS game / app, which can send barks that are translated into Japanese, play rock-paper-scissors and show you how it is feeling by the color on its face. Additionally, it has the ability to sing, has a number of sensors on its back, nose and tail and is currently to be priced at around $58.

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Famitsu are reporting that Level-5’s smash hit Youkai Watch 2 has already shipped 2 million copies in Japan in it’s opening 3 weeks, with the number of sold copies  not too far behind that number. The game is currently a Japanese exclusive which makes these numbers even more impressive and poses the question of whether or not these sales are enough to incentivise Level-5 to invest in a Western localisation.

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More: Famitsu, Japan, Level-5, Youkai Watch 2

Until August 7th, a green dress will be available for Disney Magical World via all Nintendo Zone locations. Additionally, a t-shirt will be distributed via traditional DLC for free over the same time period.

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More: Disney Magical World, DLC Bandai Namco, Nintendo Zone

Today Sakurai gives us a look at the 3DS Home-Run Contest… sort of:

…It goes BOOOOOM! Not only will the blast destroy targets, but it’ll also cause a chain reaction by using shattered walls and bomb blocks–all of which contributes to you getting a high score!! This is a new activity that combines the concepts of Target Smash and the Home-run Contest–it’s called Target Blast! Your final score is the total you rack up over two rounds. Of course, your Target Blast scores contribute to your Global Smash Power, too.

More: Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, top