Nintendo must sure like McDonalds. After teaming up with the fast food restaurant to bring Mario toys to Japan and the UK, Pokemon X/Y toys are now coming to the United States. This new Happy Meal licensing deal includes a card and one of 12 toys from a selection including Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Mewtwo, Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie, Helioptile, Pancham, Xerneas, and Yveltal.
ON THIS EPISODE: Some extensive talk about the Mario Kart series and why each entry isn’t just a copy-paste of the last permeates our first segment, plus some brief talk about Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Deluxe Edition and Mario Golf’s demo squeeze in later on.
PLUS: Listener mail is our last segment of the day, in which we discuss what Wii games are good for tiny baby kids, how we feel about Nintendo’s season pass for Mario Golf: World Tour (and their DLC in general), and why Skyward Sword gets so much hate.
This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin, Jack, and Laura
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During the week of April 14, Japan experienced its lowest gaming hardware sales in five years. Information provided by Media Create states that the downturn can be attributed to sluggish sales of Nintendo and PlayStation consoles.
The 3DS, for instance, dropped to 19,943 for the week, which Media Create believes could be related to Nintendo’s “monthly recommended software campaign”. This began on April 26. Consumers may have been hesitant to hold off on making a 3DS purchase until the campaign kicked off.
Media Create also has some insight into the low sales of other platforms. According to the sales tracker, this may have been due to new releases being unable to sell more than a combined total of 50,000 copies during the week.
Secrets of Raetikon is being considered for Wii U, developer Broken Rules has said.
The studio’s Felix Bohatsch wrote in a Reddit AMA:
We are talking about a Wii U port. Secrets of Raetikon uses the same tech base as Chasing Aurora: our own in-house engine Ginkgo. This means porting it to Wii U should be rather straight forward.
Elsewhere in the Reddit AMA, Bohatsch discussed why Broken Rules decided to bring the Wii U launch title Chasing Aurora to Nintendo’s console:
We had a local multiplayer prototype that was really fun. At that time Nintendo told us about the Wii U and if we were interested to develop for it. As Nintendo is still strongly pushing local multiplayer, we thought that’s a perfect match. Also who turns down an offer to be a launch title on a console, right?
Kirby tends to look “angry” more often than when shown on North American boxarts. Wondering why this is so?
Kirby Triple Deluxe director Shinya Kumazaki explained to GameSpot:
“For the Japanese versions we are, at [Kirby series developer] HAL, involved in everything throughout development, including the package design. The most powerful image of Kirby is that cute image, we think that’s the one that appeals to the widest audience.
“While it does start cute, we know there is a serious side to Kirby as well, and throughout the gameplay we see more and more of that, and the games themselves have quite a bit of depth. That being said, we recognise that Kirby’s cuteness is his biggest draw in [the Japanese] market.”
Kumazaki added that Nintendo of America handles things in North America, and provides HAL with “feedback and insight” into the market.
“What we have heard is that strong, tough Kirby that’s really battling hard is a more appealing sign of Kirby, so that’s what we feature in the US.”
Last week, a pair of GBA Wii U Virtual Console titles were outed by the OFLC: Man Battle Network 3: Blue Version and Man Battle Network 3: White Version. Capcom has since officially confirmed these games for the eShop, and also mentioned to IGN that additional GBA titles are on the way.
Capcom’s statement reads:
“We are working on bringing this and other GBA titles to the North American Virtual Console. We’ll have more information about the lineup in the coming months. For Australia and Europe, we are still in discussions about the release of Virtual Console titles for those markets.”
You may remember that, in February, Nintendo announced release windows for several Wii U/3DS eShop games. Some have been released, though several titles ended up missing their targets.
NintendoWorldReport has now obtained updated release windows for most of the eShop games that still haven’t shown up on the digital stores. We’ve rounded up that information below.
Wii U
Ittle Dew
Previous Release Window: February/March
Current Release Window: May
Ballpoint Universe: Infinite
Previous Release Window: March 18
Current Release Window: May
Armillo
Previous Release Window: March 24
Current Release Window: May 12
Nihilumbra
Previous Release Window: March
Current Release Window: “ASAP”
Scram Kitty and His Buddy on Rails
Previous Release Window: March
Current Release Window: Very Soon
Monkey Pirates
Previous Release Window: Q1
Current Release Window: May/June
Teslagrad
Previous Release Window: March/April
Current Release Window: Hopefully Soon
QUBE: Director’s Cut
Previous Release Window: April
Current Release Window: Summer (Hopefully)
Assault Android Cactus
Previous Release Window: Q2
Current Release Window: Not Q2
3DS
Siesta Fiesta
Previous Release Window: March
Current Release Window: May
Moon Chronicles
Previous Release Window: March
Current Release Window: May/June
3DS/Wii U
Squids Odyssey
Previous Release Window: March
Current Release Window: Nothing definite
