Have you ever heard of a project called Mario Takes America? Probably not, as it ended up as a cancelled title for the CD-i.
Mario Takes America would have been an action-platformer from Cigam Entertainment. Nintendo’s famous plumber would have traveled across the country, and players would find themselves in levels based on real life locations like New York.
Mario Takes America was in development between 1992 and 1994, but was cancelled due to the ambitious nature of the project and failure of the CD-i. Unseen 64 has plenty of additional information here.
In this week’s issue of Famitsu, Masahiro Sakurai published his latest bi-weekly column. The Smash Bros. director goes into a number of topics in his piece.
First, regarding the roster, Sakurai mentioned that even though many characters are included, there are some who worry about those who didn’t make the cut. He specifically addresses the absence of the Ice Climbers as well. It seems they were running in the Wii U version, but due to the required hardware power, the team couldn’t make them work in the 3DS game. There wasn’t as high a priority given to series that are unlikely to have another installment at this time.
On the topic of different release dates for Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS, Sakurai mentions that this was for debugging, which was necessary to avoid there being considerable differences between the two versions. If both games had a shared release date, a launch in 2015 may have occurred.
Finally, Sakurai shared a tidbit about the trophies in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 3DS. Akihiro Toda – known for the texts in the Mother series – wrote the descriptions.
Disney Interactive revealed that Ninja Theory had been brought on as a development partner for Disney Infinity 2.0 at PAX Prime a few weeks ago. However, this is just the start of the company’s collaborations.
Speaking with GameSpot, Disney Infinity executive producer John Vignocchi teased additional partners that will be announced in the future.
He said:
“It’s an interesting collaboration, and one that I don’t think people saw coming. They’re really great at what they do and we’ve designed Infinity to be a platform, not only for players to expand content, but for developers to join and create content based on the amazing catalog of IP we have at Disney.”
“Over time, we’ll be announcing more developers that are joining the platform, but for right now we’re thrilled that [Ninja Theory] is a part of this. It will make sense over time why we’ve chosen these developers to help us. The thing that we cared most about was bringing on developers that would raise our game.”
There is one thing for certain: one of those partners is not Nintendo. Vignocchi noted that “no official discussions have happened, as of yet.”
“Nintendo has presented Amiibo to us and I think they have a very interesting strategy. We’re always interested in talking with partners–whether it’s first-party or independent developers–on ways we can integrate their content inside of the platform. But no official discussions have happened, as of yet.”
Renegade Kid has regained the rights to the Dementium IP. That means, going forward, the studio can choose to make additional sequels.
Renegade Kid co-founder Jools Watsham passed along the news on Twitter a few minutes ago. He wrote:
I am ecstatic to announce that Renegade Kid now has the rights to create Dementium sequels! EXCITE!!
— Jools Watsham (@JoolsWatsham) September 16, 2014
Dementium sequels were tied up with previous publisher. But, no more! 🙂
— Jools Watsham (@JoolsWatsham) September 16, 2014
Moving Player has announced “Wizdom” for the 3DS eShop. A release is planned within the next few months.
Wizdom is a match 3 game featuring a total of four realms. Moving Player says the title will feature “a fairy world with its endearing characters and cameos” and “a dozen hours of fun and challenge.”
Source: Moving Player PR
Curve Studios has four games coming to Wii U. The company previously announced Stealth Inc 2, The Swapper, and Lone Survivor for the eShop. Thanks to a listing on the USK, we now know what the fourth game is.
The German ratings board has outed Thomas Was Alone for Wii U. It’s unclear when the game will be available, but I imagine it could arrive before the end of this year.
