More photos from the 1993 Nintendo Character Manual – Wario was Mario’s childhood friend
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News | 8 Comments
Another round of photos from the 1993 Nintendo Character Manual have been posted online.
Some interesting tidbits are shared in the various scans – such as how Wario was once Mario’s childhood friend, and not his evil brother.
Did you know that Bowser “decided to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom because he could not stand the idea of happy fungi”? Or how about the fact that Toad also apparently goes by the name “Little Toadie”?
View the gallery above for all of the recently-scanned character bios.
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One newcomer was almost cut from Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 8 Comments
In this month’s issue of Nintendo Dream, Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai discussed the process of choosing characters for the game’s roster.
Sakurai confirmed that he looked into featuring characters from unreleased new games at the very beginning of development. By the time the project proposal finished – which was May 2012 – “all characters were already decided.” As production continues, the team decides which characters to cut from the proposal given their priority.
Speaking of cut characters, Sakurai revealed that there was one newcomer who was almost cut. We won’t reveal who it was just to be safe with spoilers, though most of you should know who the character is at this point.
Head past the break for the character in question plus the full excerpt from Nintendo Dream.
Sakurai explains why Bandai Namco was brought in for Smash Bros. development
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 1 Comment
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS marks the first time that Bandai Namco worked on new entries in Nintendo’s well-known series.
As for why Bandai Namco was chosen to handle development, director Masahiro Sakurai told Nintendo Dream in the magazine’s latest issue that having a single company create the games was thought to be the best option. And since Bandai Namco has the capability to create “a large-scale fighting-game, there was only this one company.” Sakurai feels that it would have been a difficult challenge for other developers to attempt.
Here are Sakurai’s full words:
Mod makes online play in New Super Mario Bros. Wii possible
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 6 Comments
New Super Mario Bros. Wii does feature multiplayer, but it’s limited to local play. It was simply impossible to play with a friend online… until now!
Fans have come up with a mod to allow for online multiplayer in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. You can see a demonstration above.
As for how it works on a technical level, YouTube user “MrBean35000vr” explains:
It works by sending a long stream of inputs over the Internet; button presses on a controller. An assigned host dictates RNG (random number generator, random elements in games like which item you get from a box in MKW for instance), and synchronises level loads so that everyone plays the game at the same speed. It also has an adjustable lag threshold, to allow smoother gameplay with people far away with you, at the cost of slight input delay.
There’s no word yet as to when the mod will be widely available. At the moment, its creator is still working through various issues. This is very neat though, and it sounds like online multiplayer could be implemented in other Wii games that have local multiplayer.
More: fan video, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, top
Reggie on Nintendo’s performance and sales, high-demand amiibo, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 15 Comments
Last week, The Seattle Times put up a few new quotes from Reggie Fils-Aime. The Nintendo of America addressed the company’s performance and talked a bit about sales, high-demand amiibo, and more.
You’ll find a roundup of Reggie’s comments below. You can find The Seattle Times’ full article here.
On whether Nintendo is now on a rebound…
“(Nintendo is) doing better this year than we did last year. The way I would frame it: Our goal is to drive an ongoing positive trajectory. Certainly with the momentum we’re seeing with our hardware, the momentum we’re seeing with our key software titles, that gives us a lot of confidence.”
More: Amiibo, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
UK software sales (Week ending 12/27)
Posted on 10 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 5 Comments
More: Chart-Track, charts, sales, top, UK
UK software sales (Week ending 12/27) – Wii U/3DS charts
Posted on 10 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 2 Comments
This week’s UK Â Wii U/3DS specific software sales are as follows;
Wii U
1. Super Smash Bros. – Nintendo
2. Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo
3. New Super Mario Bros. U – Nintendo
4. Super Mario 3D World – Nintendo
5. Just Dance 2015 – Ubisoft
6. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – Traveller’s Tales
7. Bayonetta 2 – Nintendo
8. Hyrule Warriors – Nintendo
9. Nintendoland – Nintendo
10. Disney Infinity 2.0 – Avalanche Software
3DS
1. Pokemon Omega Ruby – Nintendo
2. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire – Nintendo
3. Super Smash Bros. – Nintendo
4. Tomodachi Life – Nintendo
5. Mario Kart 7 – Nintendo
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2 – Nintendo
7. Frozen: Olaf’s Quest – 1st Playable
8. Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Nintendo
9. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – Traveller’s Tales
10. Luigi’s Mansion 2 – Nintendo
More: Chart-Track, charts, sales, top, UK
Nintendo Download (1/1/15, Europe)
Posted on 10 years ago by Jarop(@gamrah) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 2 Comments
This week’s Nintendo downloads are as follows:
Wii U
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (from January 2nd) – €39.99/£34.99
Wii U VC
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) – €6.99/£6.29
F-Zero GP Legend (GBA) – €6.99/£6.29
Wii U Special Offers
New Super Mario Bros. U & New Super Luigi U – €59.99/£49.99 (Ends January 8)*
*New Super Luigi U is a free download if you buy New Super Mario Bros. U off the eShop until January 8th
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – €29.99/£24.99 (Ends January 8)
Shovel Knight – €9.99/£8.66 (Ends January 8th)
3DS Themes
Pokémon: Slowpoke – €1.99/£1.79
NES Fire-Breathing Bowser – €1.99/£1.79
3DS Special Offers
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – €22.49/£19.99 (Ends January 8)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games) – €9.99/£8.66 (Ends January 8)
More: Europe, Nintendo Download, top
[Developer Musings] The New 3DS Dilemma: Developing around Nintendo’s hardware iterations
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings, New Nintendo 3DS | 5 Comments
Nintendo has a notorious reputation when it comes to iterating their handhelds and in the past it has created an environment with a unique set of issues to consider for developers. Whether it was the Game Boy to Game Boy Color, DS Lite to DSi and now the 3DS to New 3DS, every generation there’s always questions among fans regarding the value and longevity of each new system. You don’t have to look very far to see how fans react to mid-cycle announcements like these, but how do developers react when a new system emerges from Iwata’s coat pocket?
We reached out to developers Stuart Ryall, Brjann Sigurgeirsson, and Ken Patterson to offer their thoughts on the announcement of the New 3DS and what implications it has on each of their development processes, if any. Will focusing on the extra processing power and C-stick split their player base too thin? Do these new units put too much pressure on fans to upgrade and consequently put pressure on developers to focus on the new units? How do these iterations impact the overall life of a console generation? Our guests this week help shed some light on the impact these mid-cycle hardware announcements have on developers, and what questions they have to ask when developing with these challenges in mind.
(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)
Iwata talks hardware frustration and trying to fix things with previous systems
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News, Wii U | 47 Comments
Yet another translation has come in from 4Gamer’s interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
In this latest excerpt, Iwata discusses hardware frustration and attempting to fix things Nintendo couldn’t do on previous systems. With the Game Boy Advance SP for example, Iwata pushed for sleep functionality when the system closed. This sadly didn’t make it into the final build. However, Iwata did inform the hardware team that implementing sleep mode into Nintendo’s next system (which would end up being the DS) was a necessity.
What may be even more interesting is what Iwata said about the Wii U. Soon after the console came out, Dwango’s Nobuo Kawakami provided some feedback.
“I had a similar feeling of frustration to the GBA SP situation then,” Iwata said, as he believed that Nintendo will need to implement some of Kawakami’s suggestions in future hardware. Iwata ended by saying, “because of that frustration, not only do we want it to connect with features next time, we are actually working to fix it for next time.” Hmm…
