The latest installment of Nintendo's "Inside the Treehouse" series continues yesterday's chat with the Animal Crossing localization team, discussing player connectivity in the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
For many players, showing off their little towns to friends is at the core of Animal Crossing. In New Leaf, players who have already exchanged 3DS friend codes will be able to easily become Animal Crossing friends; Nintendo isn't using additional software-specific codes. New Leaf features more content for players connecting over wi-fi — previous installments had often ended up with players creating their own minigames.
The members of the roundtable also discuss the SpotPass system, which Nintendo has developed for North America and Europe to augment the existing StreetPass...
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is more than a nostalgia trip.
Originally released on the Wii in 2010, Retro's game was a sequel/reboot of the mid-90s Donkey Kong Country series, recreating the feel of the older games' manic level designs and goofy themes. It was also considerably harder than the SNES games, and the faster pace led to far more insta-death scenarios.
The 3DS version is tighter, with the option to play with a new challenge setting and the ability to finally play the game with an analog pad. These tweaks may sound small, but they make for smoother control and a better game as a result.
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D begins with a familiar scenario — Donkey Kong's banana horde has been stolen. The culprits are a gang of animated Tiki gods who hypnotize the local...
The partnership between Nintendo and Sega granting the former exclusive publishing rights for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise covers the next three titles in the series, one of which is still unannounced, Sega confirmed to Polygon.
The agreement was announced today in a Nintendo Direct presentation and will bring the next three Sonic the Hedgehog games exclusively to Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS.
The first two titles, Sonic: Lost World and Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, were announced in the same presentation today. More details on these games will be released in the coming weeks.
When reached for comment on the third unannounced title, a representative for Sega declined to provide more details.
Vocaloid rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 will hit Nintendo 3DS in Japan this fall with more content than its predecessor, Satoru Iwata announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation today.
The game will feature brand new songs and additional features that were not present in Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai, which launched for 3DS in March 2012. Songs will be playable two ways: using the 3DS buttons and tapping the 3DS' bottom touchscreen.
The game will also include new costumes for playable characters, and the nendoroid design — which makes characters look like small toy figures — has also been given a graphical overhaul.
All songs used will also be the full-length recordings. Currently confirmed songs include "Koneko no Payapaya" by One-cup P and...
A new trailer out from Nintendo following this morning's Nintendo Direct shows off the new items and levels coming to the Nintendo 3DS version of Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Nintendo has previously discussed the new items in question, which provide second, third and fourth chances when screwing up. Green balloons allow DK and Diddy Kong to float back up after falling to their deaths, a crash guard provides protection in the side-scrolling chase levels, and extra DK barrels allow the player to spawn the character's partner at will. Players who wish to preserve the challenge of the original game may turn these items off.
The items may be necessary, because the new levels appear appropriately punishing, with proper timing and platforming work a necessity to avoid razor blades and...
Today's Nintendo Direct is live and you can watch it here along with the rest of us.
Nintendo of America announced that today's Nintendo Direct would be focused on what's in store for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS this summer. So expect discussion about games like Pikmin 3, Games & Wario, Wii Party U and who knows, maybe we'll even get some dates for some still undated big titles like The Wonderful 101.
Hang out and watch along here for all of the news as it breaks.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, two Zelda games originally released on the Game Boy Color, will launch May 30 on the 3DS Virtual Console on sale for a limited time and offer additional content for those who own both copies, Nintendo announced today during a Nintendo Direct event.
Both games will retail for $5.99, but from May 30 through June 20, the games will be discounted to $4.99 each because Nintendo wants "as many players as possible to experience all of this great additional content."
The games will also include a "link system" that allows players who own both versions to unlock additional content, like a new final boss.
You can check out new trailers for Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons below.
Sonic: Lost World, the next installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, will launch on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, Satoru Iwata announced today in a Nintendo Direct presentation.
Iwata announced that Nintendo has entered into a worldwide partnership with Sega regarding the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic: Lost World will be a brand new action adventure platforming game, and will launch exclusively on Nintendo's consoles.
Iwata said more information on Sonic: Lost World will be shared closer to E3.
"The one time rivalry between Mario and Sonic has grown into a friendship that has never been closer," Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, said in a prepared statement. "These announcements in conjunction with SEGA demonstrate the commitment we have to bringing...
Nintendo sold 2.1 million first-party Nintendo 3DS software units in the U.S. during the first 18 weeks of 2013, an increase of 52 percent over the same time period last year, Nintendo reports.
Since its launch on April 24, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold almost 94,000 physical and digital copies. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sold more than 140,000 physical and digital units in April in the U.S.. The game sold more than 530,000 units in the U.S. since its launch on March 24.
New Super Mario Bros. U for the Wii U, which launched in November last year, shifted 770,000 physical and digital units in the U.S. to date.
Nintendo notes that data of physical sales of games in April are sourced from the NPD Group and digital downloads of games data is from Nintendo's internal sales...
Nintendo's latest "Inside the Treehouse" discussion speaks with members of the teams charged with bringing the original Animal Crossing and the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Leaf to Western shores.
"Especially with this franchise, it needs to feel close. It needs to feel warm and familiar," says Nintendo's Reiko Ninomiya, who worked on New Leaf. Because of that, Nintendo's Japanese developers understand that they need to work closely with the Western localization team from the very beginning on these games; the team began work in 2010 and only just finished in advance of the game's June release.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf hits Nintendo 3DS on June 9 in North America.
Nintendo will host a Nintendo Direct broadcast on Friday, May 17, to discuss what's in store for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS this summer, according to a post on the company's official Facebook page.
The Nintendo Direct, which will contain "updates on upcoming summer Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games," begins at 10 a.m. ET and will be available to watch on Nintendo.com. The company's most recent Nintendo Direct focused on the 3DS handheld and revealed the upcoming sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Nintendo announced last month that it would forgo its traditional E3 press conference in favor of smaller, more focused events. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto told Polygon in March that the company is looking at E3 differently and that we'd see "more regular announcements from...
Nintendo is now claiming ad revenue on user-generated "Let's Play" videos that feature the game company's content, according to YouTube user Zack Scott who received a "content ID match claim" issued by Nintendo.
As a result, Let's Play videos using Nintendo content will be bookended by ads while content-creators will not receive any revenue for the videos.
Nintendo has since issued a statement to GameFront, asserting its right to protect and monetize its own IP.
"As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database," the company writes.
"For most fan videos this will not result in any changes,...
Nintendo is hosting a family event at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the launch of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D for Nintendo 3DS on May 24.
The event, which will run from May 24 to 27, will feature activities such as Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D demo stations and $5 GameStop coupon giveaways for the game.
The gorilla reserve will be temporarily renamed the "Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D at Campo Gorilla Reserve" for the weekend. Attendees can also take part in the Donkey Kong Interactive Experience at the gorilla reserve, which entails watching staff feed gorillas from giant game-inspired cardboard barrels. Families will have the chance to get their photo taken with a "costumed Donkey Kong character."
"Fans will get a chance to...
The latest trailer for the North American version of Nintendo 3DS role-playing title Shin Megami Tensei 4 showcases the responsibilities and powers of a samurai.
According to the video, the samurai has two duties; "to quell the demons" and "to preserve peace in the kingdom." The trailer shows the protagonist being accepted by an AI gauntlet to be its owner, thereby beginning his path to become a samurai.
The trailer also features gameplay footage and highlights attacks such as Riot Gun and Heat Wave, and abilities such as healing water. See the previous trailer that proclaims your in-game choices will "create a world."
Shin Megami Tensei 4 launches May 23 in Japan, July 16 in North America and a few days later in Europe. Those who pre-order the game through Amazon will get...
Video game concept artist and indie developer Pierre-Etienne Travers has created fan-art of the monsters featured in Capcom's action adventure series, Monster Hunter.
Travers artistically captured the monsters Baroth, Rathalos and Rathian. Another piece, titled "Lost In Translation," depicts a hero conversing with some in-game characters and was the last of Travers' Monster Hunter fan-art.
"I hope all MH fans will enjoy it, and maybe push people to play this fantastic game sadly underestimated in Europe," he wrote in the piece's description.
All of Travers' Monster Hunter artwork was created in Photoshop and took him between one to two hours to complete, except for Lost In Translation which took 12 hours.
The Paris-based artist previously worked at Quantic Dream, Sony Liverpool and...
London-based System 3 is planning to bring back its Putty series from the early '90s with Putty Squad, a side-scrolling 2D platformer set for release this summer on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Wii U, Windows 8 and Nintendo 3DS.
The studio released the original Putty on Amiga in 1992, and a Super Nintendo version of that game was released in 1993 as Super Putty. The sequel, Putty Squad, launched on Super NES in 1994, but the Amiga and MS-DOS versions were never released.
System 3 released a teaser trailer today for Putty Squad that shows off the platforming action featuring the series' pliable blue ball; you can watch it above. The company originally planned to release the game as a PlayStation Vita launch title, but said today the game won't be available until this...
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are teaming up for an Eevee-themed Nintendo 3DS XL that will be available exclusively in Japan starting June 22, the companies announced today.
The unit's availability will truly be limited: It will be sold only at Pokémon Centers, the Japanese retail stores for Pokémon merchandise, and Pokémon fans looking to buy it will have to enter into a lottery from today through June 3 in order to have a chance. Pokémon Centers will be selling the Eevee 3DS XL for 18,900 yen ($184).
This 3DS XL is part of The Pokémon Company's celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Pokémon Center retail establishments, the first of which opened in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, in April and November 1998, respectively. Eevee is one of the original 151 Pokémon. You can check...
Developed by 5th Cell, the game is structured around the story of Maxwell and his sister Lily, who travel into the DC universe with Maxwell's magic notebook and summon DC-specific characters and objects to solve puzzles.
Speaking to Polygon, Scribblenauts Unmasked's senior producer, Caleb Arseneaux said the game contains every character who has ever appeared in a DC comic book, from the Justice League, to all the variations of Batman and Superman, to the most obscure characters who have only had brief cameos in the comics. He said that Scribblenauts is all about letting players have "whatever they want," and the DC universe is so rich with characters who have so many superpowers and abilities, that blending the two franchises made sense to the development team.
"Initially we had 1,200...
A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:
- Resident Evil: Revelations HD (9/9/10/8, 36 out of 40 points): Famitsu's editors gave the same score to the Wii U, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of this game, a souped-up port of the 3DS original. "The portable version was pretty," editor Reona Ebihara wrote, "but having this on the big screen results in a totally different experience. Each section is just the right length, making it easy to play. The volume to explore is already beyond what you'd expect from a portable title, and they've now added a new difficulty level for experts to get into. There's also new characters and parts in Raid Mode, too, giving you more to play around with."
The review crew...
The Nintendo 3DS will be available in Japan in a new metallic red color as of June 13, according to the company's website.
The model will sell for 15,000 yen (approximately $146), and will come with a 4 GB SD card — 3DS units usually come with 2 GB SD cards — stylus, AC Adapter and a cradle.
In April, Nintendo revealed two new minty color schemes and a Luigi-theme for the Nintendo 3DS XL in Japan. An Animal Crossing: New Leaf bundle featuring a themed Nintendo 3DS XL will be released in North America on June 9.
We've reached out to Nintendo to ask if the metallic red color will be made available stateside.
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