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Nintendo World Report's Year in Review

January 2013

by Justin Berube - December 20, 2013, 4:51 pm EST

Nintendo laid the foundation for 2013 in January. Sadly, we are still waiting for some of that month's reveals to be released.

Staff Thoughts

Justin Berube, Features Editor -

Looking back on it, January 2013 was fairly exciting. The news coming out of the two different Nintendo Directs this month were insane. We learned about the new Pokémon games, X and Y, and were given a ton of details for upcoming Wii U titles.

The only downside to this is that some of the Wii U titles announced last January still aren't out, and won't be out for a while. It may have been better for Nintendo to announce these titles at E3 to make a bigger splash at the biggest event in the industry.

Nicholas Bray, Australia Correspondent -

This month saw the release of a little game for the Nintendo 3DS eShop, Gunman Clive. The game was a surprise hit for me and many others, with its inventive art style and throwback gameplay mechanics, it quickly stood out amongst the releases for the month.

The other cool little nugget was the announcement for the Yarn Yoshi game. While we still don't really know all that much about the title, its art style is something I look forward to seeing in glorious HD very much.

Tom Malina, UK Correspondent -

As is often the case with the new year, January 2013 did not have much in the way of new releases, but being just over a month into the Wii U's life, launch fever had settled down as we began to properly reflect and enjoy Nintendo's new console (with my personal highlight being the polarizing ZombiU, which I spent much of the month delving into.)

January was also the time where Nintendo Direct finally came into its own as a communication avenue, effectively supplanting the annual media exhibitions we are used to following for big announcements. Normally such a quiet time for news, January's Direct showcase, which featured Yarn Yoshi, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, and Monolith's new game, gave us a look into the distant future of Wii U in a way that was both exciting and somewhat perplexing. Now we wait to see how these games turn out in the end...

Features

Can Skylanders and Disney Infinity Co-Exist? - Two companies are attacking the toys-in-video-games market in different ways.

Pokémon Trailer Breakdown Theories - The obvious and not-so-obvious details of the X and Y trailer.

Spun Up in Yoshi's Yarn - As one of the folks charmed by Kirby's Epic Yarn, Neal is super-hyped for the new Yarn Yoshi game.

High School Economics: Fire Emblem - For reals, Neal beat Fire Emblem on Game Boy Advance during a high school class.

How Nintendo of America Severed Direct Two-Way Communication With Its Fans - In 2007, Nintendo outsourced Nintendo Power and destroyed NSider.

Reviews

Fluidity: Spin Cycle (3DS)

Gunman Clive (3DS)

Tokyo Crash Mobs (3DS)

Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

Events

Nintendo Direct Wii U Games

News

Pokémon X any Y Revealed - It's new Pokémon, dammit!

Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC and Demo Details Revealed - Nintendo will be launching the game with a steady stream of DLC ready to go.

Limited Edition Fire Emblem: Awakening 3DS Hardware Bundle Headed to North America - This 3DS will make a great collectors item.

Pandora's Tower Is Coming to North America - The final Operation Rainfall title will indeed be published by Xseed Games.

Yoshi Cleaning Cloth Is a New Club Nintendo Reward - This collectable cloth can be yours for a whopping 400 coins.

Wii U Direct Nintendo Games Broadcasting Your Way Tomorrow - For a global audience!

New Game from Monolith Soft Revealed -It looks like a Xenoblade sequel! It really does!

New Mario 3D Adventure, Mario Kart in Development - New Mario games are in the pipeline, we'll see more this year.

New Wii U Game in Development from Wii Party Team - Wii U Party?

New Yoshi Platformer Developed by Good-Feel Announced for Wii U - The first home console Yoshi game in 16 years is in a world of textiles.

New Smash Bros. Screens to be Shown at E3 2013 - The anticipation is killing every Smash Bros. fan.

Two New Updates, Smartphone App Announced for Wii U - Who's ready for faster start screen loading times?

Wii U Virtual Console Detailed - Nintendo's classic download service will return with some new surprises.

Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei Crossover Game Coming to Wii U - Nintendo and Atlus team up to mash together their strategy RPG franchises.

Miiverse Functionality for Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U Detailed - Close-up photography and weight loss discussions...the future of Miiverse has arrived.

Two Zelda Titles Are Coming to Wii U - An HD remake of Wind Waker and a "brand-new" title are in development.

Wii U Virtual Console Trial Campaign Announced - Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Famicom with 30-cent Virtual Console games!

Miyamoto Changing His Gaming Style, Developers Have Yet to Add Uniqueness to Wii U Games - Wii U is revolutionizing the way Shigeru Miyamoto plays games.

Images

Talkback

ShyGuyDecember 19, 2013

The most complaint filled yearbook EVER. Let me sign your copy...

Yo Mario, keep it real bro!

-ShyGuy

nickmitchDecember 20, 2013

Hey, Luigi! Remember when I said it was your year?

I think I may have been a bit mistaken.

2014 is all yours though!

-nickmitch

azekeDecember 20, 2013

Will not comment on the hoopla around the console this year, because i am that weirdo who thinks console are about games so my report is ALL about games.

I skipped most of the hot stuff 3DS was getting this year:
passed on Fire Emblem
skipped Animal Crossing
shrugged at Pokemon
picked Mario over Zelda: Link Between Worlds
didn't get Luigi's Mansion 2 due to shipping shenanigans on Amazon's side (i eventually got it much, much later, but still haven't even started playing).

The biggest highlight on the 3DS for me this year was me starting to play Kid Icarus: Uprising again. Finished the story and dumped some serious hours into it. And still feel like playing it even more. Also played a few DS and GBA games. Otherwise, most of my Nintendo gaming time went on Wii U.

I haven't actually started gaming on consoles until three years ago so as you can guess i have decades old backlog worth of series that are completely unknown to me. That's why i rarely play games that actually came this year and most of it is just me catching up to general western audience who grew up with this stuff i was missing by surviving through post USSR 90s.

This is more or less what i played on Wii U this year:
New Super Mario Bros U -- alone and with friends
La Mulana on WiiWare
Majora's Mask
A few random matches in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 with friends
Toki Tori 2+ -- what a great game!
DuckTales: Remastered
Wonderful 101 -- one of the best gaming experiences i ever had in my life. I was both laughing and crying during game's many finale climaxes. Easily best game across any platform. No, "we want cinematic audience" bullshit, just pure gaming in distilled form. As it should be.
Assassin's Creed III -- this was my first AC on consoles (played through entirety of Ezio trilogy this year on PC and became an addict for this kind of game).
Super Mario 3D World -- second best game i played this year after Wonderful 101. Third best game if you count Bayonetta which of course came out long time ago.
Lots of semi random Wii stuff:
Punch-Out!!
Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands
both Super Mario Galaxy games
both Pikmin games
Rayman Origins (unfortunately Legends was somewhat a disappointment in terms of content compared to Origins)
probably something else i forgot

So with my favorite top three games for this year all being on Wii U (W101, Mario, TT 2), i say it was a great year.

"great Pokemon Mystery Dungeon"

Paging Mr Jones...

Quote from: Shaymin

"great Pokemon Mystery Dungeon"

Paging Mr Jones...

Don't even regret scoring it similarly to X/Y  :cool; . Game was awesome.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterDecember 28, 2013

Quote from: Webmalfunction

Quote from: Shaymin

"great Pokemon Mystery Dungeon"

Paging Mr Jones...

Don't even regret scoring it similarly to X/Y  :cool; . Game was awesome.

the second one at least had a decent story going in from start to finish along with some neat imagery made using both screens. Based on the demo the third one just feels like they forgot what they did so well before.

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