The next Nintendo Direct starts in about 10 minutes from the time of this posting. For the first time in a while, we’ve had more than 24-hour notice of this event, which has allowed for rumor and speculation to take place among the citizens of the Internet. I won’t go over those rumors now, since the show will start before I’m done typing. Click the link below to view our live blogging of the event while you watch the above video.
Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, Nintendo put out a short video showing a comparison between a Wii U system without the new update along side a system that has the new update showing the time it takes to go from a running game back to the Wii U Menu.
The results are pretty impressive. I didn’t time them for myself, but it seems the time has been reduced to approximately a third of how long it took without the update.
I hope whatever they did to fix this also affects other menu related actions, like launching a game, which I’ve had more complaints about than the length of leaving the game. When you press a button, you expect to get some response from the system immediately showing that it received your button press. Right now, it sits there for about 2 or 3 seconds before making a ‘button press’ sound and/or taking any other action on my button press.
We’ll find out if this gets fixed with the update when it comes out sometime next month. A specific date for this system update has not yet been announced.
Speaking as someone who is interested in game development, I’m happy to announce that according to this article on IGN, Nintendo has changed some of their developer policies that will likely result in many great new games coming to the eShop.
Prior to the changes, independent game developers were required to have a designated office in order to keep their materials secure. That is no longer the case, and comes as great news because many independent developers work remotely, and constantly send files back and forth through the net.
But most importantly, the unit threshold has been eliminated. This was perhaps the worst element of Nintendo’s old policies, and required developers to sell a certain amount of copies of their game before they ever saw any revenue from it. Now that the unit threshold has been removed, developers will receive revenue from the first game they sell, which is incredible! That’s a much better business practice, and how it should have been to begin with.
Ducktales Remastered not enough for ya? Well, how about some D&D-based beat-em-up action? Over at PAX East, Capcom has just doubled up on rerelease announcements with something even more surprising, but hardly any less in demand from the dedicated throngs: Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles over Mystara, a double pack comprising Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara. Previously, the only way to play these games in the US without importing was in the arcades; the Sega Saturn collection released in 1999, a year after the system was dead stateside, and predictably became worth a pretty penny.
Both games are notable for being among the first to be developed by the team that would come to be known as Vanillaware, they of Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and the soon to be released Dragon’s Crown, the latter actually intended as a spiritual descendant. Even with their arcade origins, the two games had a surprising amount of depth, with multiple level paths, several class-based melee maneuvers and magical attacks, consumables, weapons, armor, enchanted items… basically, everything but the dungeon master (pardon the lame pun). The games also had 4-player co-op, which the new collection will not only support, but offer online via GGPO.
Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles over Mystara is set for a June release on XBox 360, Playstation 3, WiiU, and Windows PC via Steam at $14.99/1200 MSP.
Yesterday at PAX East, Capcom announced that they have partnered with Disney and WayForward, the company responsible for revamping classic games including A Boy and his Blob, Double Dragon, and Contra, to modernize the nostalgia-inducing NES DuckTales video game. The new game, DuckTales Remastered, stars Scrooge McDuck on a journey to collect valuable treasures from all around the world in order to become the world’s richest duck. DuckTales Remastered features a combination of gorgeous hand-drawn sprites and three-dimensional assets in a side-scrolling three-dimensional world. The game is set to feature all of the original voice actors from the Disney cartoon, appears to have a few new levels to explore, and will release this summer on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and the Wii U Nintendo eShop. I can’t wait to hear composer Jake Kaufmann’s version of the Moon theme!
Now all that’s left for WayForward to have the world’s best company portfolio is to unleash a new Battletoads game.
I love the Super Smash Bros. series. I still have a ton of fun playing each of the Smash Bros. games, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the only game I consistently play on my Wii. In fact, the next Super Smash Bros. game for the Wii U may well serve as the single reason I decide to buy a Wii U.
But as wonderful as the series is, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was far from perfect. What follows are some changes I would like to see in the next Super Smash Bros. game, which is currently in development by Namco Bandai with series creator Masahiro Sakurai supervising, and will be available for both the Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS upon completion.
Mega Man
The months leading up to the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl were filled with anticipation and excitement. Gamers around the world were speculating about playable characters and photo shopping dream rosters. But when the game finally arrived, I felt it was missing one character that absolutely must appear in the next Smash Bros. game: Mega Man. He was missing from Brawl, he was missing from Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and we need him in the next Smash Bros. game. Period.
Random Tripping
Eliminate the random tripping. It’s senseless and annoying, and has cost players thousands of stock lives from cheap KO’s.
I Choose You! Gulpin? Again?
The Pokéball is one of the best items in Super Smash Bros. For the next game, I would love to see some better Pokémon. There are a few decent Pokémon in Brawl that can help you out in a bind, but the majority of them were useless and unreliable.
Nintendo has announced the next Nintendo Direct to take place at 9AM EST / 6AM PST.
Since the last Nintendo Direct was mainly talking about new games announcements, I don’t expect to hear anything we’ve not heard of before this time around, but I do hope to hear release dates on games that have generically been slotted a release date by quarter. Hoping something significant for Wii U coming soon with Rayman Legends getting bumped into fall ’13.
Hit the jump for the Nintendo Direct video and our live coverage.
Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone once in a while Nintendo surprises with a cool announcement, and today just happens to be one of those days. During Nintendo’s video directs Eiji Aonuma, producer and designer on the Zelda series, announced that Nintendo has been working on a way to improve the core experience of the Zelda games. One of the many experiments where bringing past game art styles into high definition. Which they began to show various screens from Wind Waker for the GameCube in comparison to what the WiiU could do.
The surprise wasn’t that Nintendo was working on bringing other styles of Zelda to high definition, it was that this fall we would see Wind Waker in HD for WiiU. This remake comes on the 10th anniversary for the game, seeing as how the original title was released back in 2003. Not much is known about the update other than that it will feature GamePad support, off screen play, as well as MiiVerse connectivity.
To view more screens: Read the rest of this entry »
Immediately following this morning’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo uploaded a series of videos to youtube of the games announced.
Above is the trailer to the new Shin-Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem game, and after the jump will be the trailers for the new Monolith Soft game, The Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2. Click on to view them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Nintendo’s second world-wide Nintendo Direct begins at 9AM EST, 6AM PST. Based on a translation of a message that appeared in Japanese, Iwata will be talking about the games coming out for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii in the near future. Click the link below for our live coverage and join in on the conversation.
Read the rest of this entry »
