Archive for the ‘3DS’ Category


New Nintendo Wii U and 3DS Info From Financial Briefing

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Nintendo had their yearly financial briefing for their shareholders yesterday and since they’re publicly published, we can glean some precious Wii U info from it.  Here’s a summary of what Nintendo said:

  • “As I informed you before, in the first half of this fiscal term we will get out of the situation that we sell the hardware below cost. We anticipate the improvement of the product profitability of the hardware alone.”
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2 for 3DS will be launched worldwide in August
  • NSMB2 will be Nintendo’s first title available both in 3DS card and digital format.
  • Nintendo still has “some unannounced titles” that are coming out within a year
  • Nintendo plans to put a large emphasis on the digital downloads of retail games on both the 3DS and Wii U.
  • Download codes for digital games will be purchasable at physical retail outlets as well.  In addition to this, it will operate like software sales and allow individual stores to set their prices for the digital content potentially allowing for sales, promos, and price competition.
  • At the Wii U’s launch the first-party games (at least) will be available for download as well as physical purchase.
  • While Nintendo plans to sell DLC for titles, it will not be required to fully enjoy the game.  Nintendo plans to continue to make fully-realized games for release and then potentially expand upon them at a later date with DLC instead of blatantly money-grabbing with it.
  • The Wii U’s price and release dates (it will at least be before the year’s end in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia) will not be announced at E3, but it’s launch titles and other details will be.

So, at least we know a little more about Nintendo’s plans for digital distribution.  If you want to see the full transcript from the meeting, you can check it out here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/120427/index.html

Nintendo Direct April 20, 2012 Info

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Nintendo had a Nintendo Direct presentation again today and a lot of interesting info came out of it in contrast to the one we saw in February.

Here’s what we learned:

  • Pokemon Black/White Version 2 are coming out on June 23rd in Japan
  • A companion 3DS app for B/W V2 called “Pokemon AR Searcher” will launch at the same time and allow you to catch extra Pokemon in Face Raiders-style AR shooting galleries that can be transferred to the game proper.  Its price will be around $3.99 US.
  • Pokedex 3D, the free Pokedex 3DS app, is going to be removed from the eShop as of June 17th (in Japan anyways) and replaced with Pokedex Pro that has an enhanced interface and presumably covers all 649 Pokemon. The equivalent price of Pokedex Pro in Japan is about $17.99.  (I don’t know if that price will fly in North America, so time will tell)
  • Mario Tennis Open for 3DS will feature 16 characters, as well as Miis, and will have around 200 items that your character can wear that will increase their stats.
  • There is a firmware update coming out for the 3DS on April 25th that includes:
    • Folder functionality:
      • 60 apps per folder
      • Folders can be named (but only first character of name shows on folder)
    • Ability to patch games
      • First games to be patched include: Mario Kart 7, New Love Plus, Kingdom Hearts DDD
      • Mario Kart 7 to be patched in May to fix some shortcut exploits
  • Animal Crossing 3DS due out this Fall in Japan
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2 coming this August for 3DS (in Japan):
    • Tanooki ears/tail make a return with their original functionality from Super Mario Bros. 3
    • A new Golden Mario power was shown
    • Golden enemies were shown too
  • Nintendo is releasing a Kirby’s 20th Anniversary Game Collection for Wii, games included weren’t detailed
  • New Mario Tennis Open Puzzle Swap piece is now available via SpotPass on your 3DS

A very respectable Nintendo Direct indeed.  After the jump there are a couple of short Youtube clips courtesy of GoNintendo that showcase what was shown of the new 3DS menu folders, New Super Mario Bros 2, and Pokedex Pro.

(more…)

Game Usagi Pushmo Puzzle

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

We’ve been having fun with Pushmo throughout the office since triketank’s glowing recommendation and we made you a puzzle of our beautiful Game Usagi logo.  Do you have Pushmo puzzles of your own to share?  You can post them in the comments and we’ll be happy to try them out.  This is the first puzzle we constructed, so it isn’t fiendishly hard, but it should be enjoyable none-the-less, enjoy!

April Fools – Virtual Boy Games Coming To 3DS eShop

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Nintendo announced today that Virtual Boy games are finally coming to the 3DS eShop.  Due to the very limited run of the Virtual Boy not many people have been able to experience the 22 games that were available for the system.  They also announced that Nintendo Club members who reach the Platinum level in 2012 will be able to choose as their prize the Official Virtual Boy 3DS Viewer, a classic Virtual Boy-shaped shell that will allow you to slide your 3DS inside.  Far better than the hats, pins, and statuettes available to Platinum members in the past, things are looking up for Club Nintendo in North America.

I personally own a Virtual Boy and I would be very happy to be able to play Virtual Boy Wario Land or Galactic Pinball (two of my favourites) again on the 3DS.  While I understand that people had qualms with the system’s monochromatic graphics, I have enjoyed every minute of playing with the Virtual Boy and have never completely understood why it failed so terribly.  Here’s to the Virtual Boy living once again through its grown-up ancestor the 3DS.

Source

Vindicating the 3DS: How Recent Games are Exploiting Stereoscopic 3D

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
When I first heard about the 3DS, I groaned. Were Nintendo marketing executives really riding the 3D craze, forcing a gimmick into a core console mechanic? The system’s name was like a punchline to a bad joke; it was almost as bad as when the Wii or iPad were first announced. Even worse, the ergonomics of keeping your head still at a constant distance from the screen were a human factors nightmare, a throwback to the old Virtual Boy.

Now, after three months of owning a 3DS, I am a believer.

Don’t get me wrong, at this stage stereoscopic 3D is not essential to play any game on the market. I am not even sure if it will ever be essential for gameplay, but with each subsequent game that I played I could tell that there was a future here. In 10 years, supporting stereoscopic 3D properly for gaming will be as important as having decent camera mechanics and up-to-date graphics. The operative word here, though, is “properly”. We don’t yet know how to leverage 3D in a big way, but we’re learning, and here’s how.

(more…)

Top 10 Things Nintendo Should Do For 3DS Pokemon Games

Saturday, March 24th, 2012


The Pokemon Company and developer Game Freak have recently announced the upcoming Pokemon Black and White Version 2 games on Nintendo DS.  They follow the very successful Pokemon Black and White titles, which are the 5th generation of the core Pokemon RPG series.  As a dedicated fan of this series, I would surmise that these new titles are meant to satisfy our cravings while we wait patiently for the inevitable announcement of the next generation of the series on the Nintendo 3DS.  It is strange that Nintendo didn?t force them to develop for the previously struggling 3DS with a pair of titles guaranteed to sell gazillions.  Some people are rightfully disappointed that the next pair of core titles will be released on hardware less powerful than a modern graphing calculator, but as a fan I?ll play almost anything developed by Game Freak, as they consistently produce fun and addictive titles that always raise the bar in the series.

Like it or lump it, we?re going to have to wait a while longer for Pokemon Gen. 6 on 3DS.  Pokemon Black/White was an admission by Game Freak that their fans have grown up, and while these games did so many things right they didn?t take them quite far enough.  Now that the much more powerful 3DS is here, Game Freak has a huge opportunity to take Pokemon to the next level.

To get them started, I present here for the developers my top 10 suggestions of features and improvements that fans will expect to see in Pokemon Gen. 6:

(more…)

Kid Icarus: Uprising Launches Today

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

At long last the game that made a lot of people buy 3DSs when they were $250.00 comes out today.  In case you forgot about it, Kid Icarus: Uprising is now available world-wide except for in poor Australia, the Aussies have to wait an extra week to get their hands on Nintendo’s first full-blown 1st party game. 

What about Mario Kart 7 or Super Mario 3D Land you may ask.  Honestly, look in your heart and think about whether either of them felt like Nintendo put the same amount of time into them as they did for Mario Kart DS or Super Mario World (answer: of course not).

So, it was a long time coming, but you can find out for yourself today whether or not it was worth waiting more than a year for.  We’ll have a review up for it once we’ve tackled most of its content to let you know where it registers on the Usagi spectrum too.

Page 7 of 12
1 5 6 7 8 9 12