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Nintendo is finally seeing the success they hoped for in the 3DS.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28613
Super Mario Land 3D Land for the 3DS is the top selling game in Japan for November, according to a report by Famitsu and Enterbrain.
The Mario title, released on November 3, beat out several high profile efforts including Hatsune Miku for the PlayStation Portable and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which is published in Japan by Square Enix. In November alone, the game sold 542,842 units.
The Wii's Skyward Sword also fared well in November, selling 194,894 units, landing it at the number four spot in the chart. The other top 10 release for a Nintendo system was One Piece Gigant Battle 2 New World for the 3DS, which sold 134,943 units.
The full chart of best selling games is as follows:
01. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/3): 542,842
02. [PSP] Hatsune Miku Project Diva Extend (Sega, 11/10): 234,627
03. [PS3] Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Subtitled Version (Square Enix, 11/17): 227,219
04. [WII] Zelda Skyward Sword (Nintendo, 11/23): 194,894
05. [PSP] Final Fantasy Type-0 (Square Enix, 10/27): 172,756 (total 676,144)
06. [PS3] Battle Field 3 (EA, 11/2): 157,484
07. [PS3] Uncharted 3 (Sony, 11/2): 153,363
08. [PS3] Sengoku Basara 3 Utage (Capcom, 11/10): 138,610
09. [3DS] One Piece Gigant Battle 2 New World (Namco Bandai, 11/17): 134,943
10. [PSP] Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke (Sony, 11/10): 114,548
The 3DS also sees great benefit from its release.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28611
Mario Kart 7 sold 420,000 copies since its first release, while the 3DS is close to selling 3 million units, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told Japanese newspaper Nikkei.
Iwata noted that the 3DS has seen great momentum ever since the company lowered the price of the handheld back in August, while also explaining that one of the reasons for high hardware sales and low software sales was that gamers were preparing for upcoming game releases. Nintendo expects to sell four million units by the time its first anniversary of its release approaches.
Talking about Mario Kart 7, Iwata mentioned that it sold 420,000 units in its first week in Japan, while noting that they also expect similar success in North America and Europe. The holiday sales rush was mentioned as a driving factor behind the sales.
Iwata concluded by stating that while they are expecting a loss in the current fiscal year, they expect the next year to be one of recovery.
Nintendo has already offered an official solution. UPDATE: NOA offers save data repair service, announces plans for online save patching solution.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28582
UPDATE: Nintendo has updated their official website with details on how to repair a save file suffering from this serious glitch. NOA is offering two methods of repairing player's Skyward Sword save data. Currently, you may contact NOA at 1-800-255-3700 and arrange for them to receive and repair your save data. Nintendo is also planning to release a program "that will repair save data for those who have their Wii connected to the Internet." Presumably this program would be published via the Wii Shop Channel or a similar mechanism. (Special thanks to Bryan Szollosi for the news tip!)
ORIGINAL STORY: A game-breaking glitch has been discovered in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, to which Nintendo has offered an official solution.
The glitch can be encountered when players complete the Thunder Dragon first when obtaining the Song of the Hero. After completing some unspecified tasks, the game would prevent you from completing the Water and Fire Dragon quests, forcing players to restart the game or select a prior save point.
Players have contacted Nintendo regarding the glitch. The company's response details what causes it, as well as how to prevent it from happening. The full response is as follows:
"We have been made aware of the issue that results in being unable to progress in the Song of the Hero quest. If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.
The situation is caused by performing the following sequence of events during the Song of the Hero quest:
1. At the beginning of the quest, go to Lanayru Desert to retrieve the song of the Thunder Dragon.
2. In the Lanayru Mine, speak with Golo the Goron.
3. Complete the Thunder Dragon's event, and receive his song.
4. Before heading to the forest or volcano regions, speak with Golo in the mine again.
5. At this point, the forest and volcano events will no longer occur, making it impossible to continue.
Solutions:
• This issue WILL NOT OCCUR if the Fire and Water Dragon songs have already been collected before collecting the Thunder Dragon's song. Talking to Golo in the Lanayru Caves will also NOT trigger this issue.
• If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.
I wish I had a better answer, but I'm afraid there currently is no other fix available. I can assure, however, that we are documenting all feedback we receive on this issue. Thank you for your patience and support."
It is expected that further releases of Skyward Sword will revise the game so as to avoid this glitch.
I really love how vastly people feel about different Mario Karts. While the games are all primarily similar, they each generally have enough individual differences to make them unique. It's kind of awesome.
We take a look at the innovations that have shaped the Mario Kart franchise throughout the years.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/28540
Mario Kart 7 comes out today, and everyone is really excited for it. Neal Ronaghan already played the game and gave it a favorable review. It can be hard for a franchise to have this many entries and still be relevant while inspiring nostalgia in players. Nintendo's philosophy is to re-invent their franchises (either drastically or in small doses) in a manner that makes them appealing but still familiar to players all over the world. Mario Kart is no exception. In honor of the seventh entry finally being a reality, we take a look at the innovations sprinkled throughout the Mario Kart games, and see which ones became staples of the series and which were dropped once they grew to be superflous.
As we mourn the loss (?) of our beloved anti-Luigi, we look back at his rise and mostly downfall.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/28569
Well, it doesn't make sense to ignore the elephant in the room any longer. Mario Kart 7 is coming out and outlets have confirmed that Waluigi has been left out of the competition. In his place are the EXTREMELY beloved characters Metal Mario, Queen Bee and Wiggler. This absence has made people wonder what exactly happened to Waluigi. I thought this would be a great time to look back at the character and how he went from being universally hated to genuinely missed by gamers around the world.
Waluigi was first conceived by Camelot when developing Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64. They figured that since Mario had a bizarro version in Wario, Luigi could also use a freakish clone of his own. And thus, Wario and Waluigi were introduced as partners in crime, hoping to take out Mario and Luigi for good...at tennis, at least. Mario Tennis was heavily advertised as the debut of Waluigi, who was prominently featured in the game's intro and throughout the marketing campaign, including a flash mini-game on the Mario Tennis website where you could clip Waluigi's toenails and collect the clippings in a jar. Classy marketing right there.
The most common complain people had with Waluigi is that he is a very structurally basic character. He is just Wario turned into Luigi and given a black and purple color scheme. While that may not seem like a bad thing, Wario was at least given his own personality and storyline away from Mario. Wario was originally created as a villain for Mario to defeat in Super Mario Land 2 on the Game Boy, but then Wario was so captivating that the development team decided to give him his own game. In those games, Wario was not only given a personality but his own set of powers and needs. Wario is greedy—he loves treasures —and thus goes on adventures in hopes of obtaining riches. He does so using his incredible strength, ability to take on different powers, and lots and lots of gas. This alone made him a very legit character, someone that was completely different from the character that inspired him. And that's not even taking into account that years later he was also turned into a pseudo-video game developer in his own universe, complete with other characters to interact with.
Waluigi? Well, he was never given anything to do other than being a glorified accesory to Wario. In the sports games he was Wario's partner, yes, and a well-rounded character in the other games for sure, but even the questionable storylines set throughout some of the Mario games made it look like Wario had no idea who he was and thus no real reason was given for his existence. He was designed as a rival to Luigi, but they never did anything with him to further fuel this rivalry. He was absent in both the Wario Land and WarioWare games, and ONLY made appearances in the Mario multiplayer games as a playable character. It didn't help that he too was voiced by Charles Martinet, and his performance was hardly different from Mario, Luigi and Wario.
He was similar to a Sonic the Hedgehog character in that he was created to pad out the supporting cast. But while Sega at least TRIED to convince us to give a crap about cute forest creature with an attitude #384, Nintendo just didn't bother to give Waluigi his own story. Granted, they barely give us any story behind any of their characters, but with Mario we know that he is a plucky plumber on a never ending quest to save Peach from Bowser, that Luigi is a shy, cowardly man who is unfortunately left behind his older brother's shadow, and that Wario loves money. Waluigi was just... there.
Being there, however, was apparently good enough for some players, as he gained a small cult following. Waluigi seemed to obtain nothing but universal hate for the reasons I already stated, but many players decided to give him a chance, and fell in love with his...I don't know exactly. And in the hands of some capable developers, Waluigi was given an outlandish personality that clashed heavily with the rest of the character. Such was the case with Mario Strikers Charged, a game that gave Waluigi his infamous crotch chop celebration. Camelot, the originators of the character, could also do wonders with him in terms of humor and presentation.
To put things into better perspective regarding gamers' love/hate relationship with Waluigi, he was like that one cousin you don't really know or understand but at least he was present at all the family gatherings, and you lament it when he misses one. And that is precisely what happened with Mario Kart 7. Waluigi is gone from the roster, replaced with the T-1000 version of Mario, aka Metal Mario.
The question is... why? A lot of clues seem to lead to the fact that Mario Kart 7 was a rushed game and thus the time to program him into the game was not there. Or maybe someone at *Retro hated him so much the only way they could work on the game was if he was absent from the final roster. This case becomes even more unbelievable when you realize that Waluigi Pinball from Mario Kart DS is presented as a retro track. Whatever the case may be, we feel sad that the cheaply created purple plumber is gone from this Mario Kart effort.
Things do seem bright, however, and it isn't the end of the world it seems. Not only do we have the upcoming release of Fortune Street for Wii, Mario Party 9 will be landing next year. Those are two bonafide chances for Waluigi to shine once more.
Putting aside all the sarcasm regarding Waluigi, it just goes to show how gamers actually pay attention to these characters, regardless if they like them or not. Nintendo may not be masters at storytelling, but they definitely know how to present a character, and even if Waluigi does seem to be a little too derivative of the two characters that inspired him he did have enough of a personality that his absence in Mario Kart 7 seem more jarring than usual.
Dr. House gets jolly with Christmas puzzles, and Master Higgins makes his 3DS Virtual Console debut... and still no Virtual Console game for Wii.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28575
In what seems to be a light selection this week, four new games have been added to Nintendo's downloadable game services, primarily the eShop and DSiWare.
The only Virtual Console game out this week is for the eShop: Hudson Soft's Adventure Island. Originally released for the Game Boy in 1991, it is a handheld rendition of Adventure Island II for NES. It can be downloaded for $3.99.
Dr. House returns for a fifth time to the eShop and DSiWare in House M.D. - Episode 5: Under the Big Top by Legacy Interactive. Once again, players solve health-related mysteries, with the main objective to lives. This time, though, Dr. Gregory House is taken to the circus. The game is available now for $7.99.
The other DSiWare/eShop title for the week is Double Bloob from Bloober Team. Double Bloob is a vertical shooter arcade game in which players must rescue a dolphin from the clutches of an evil alien race. The game can be downloaded for $4.99.
The lone WiiWare game for the week is Xmas Puzzle from EnjoyUp games. The 500 Wii Point title ($5) is all about solving puzzles and re-creating jolly Christmas scenes for up to four players.
Players hoping to play classic Game Boy Advance games on the 3DS might have to wait a little... UPDATE: or not.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rumor/28566
The free Game Boy Advance games promised to early adopters of the 3DS (known as Ambassadors) may be delayed into 2012, according to information from conflicting Nintendo of Europe pages.
Different language versions of the 3DS Ambassadors page on the Nintendo of Europe site give conflicting details on the arrival of the games. The Spanish and German sites say that the games will not arrive until next year, while the English, French, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese sites claim this year for delivery. The pages were all updated on October 14, so there is a good chance the later date is due to a translation mistake.
The Game Boy Advance games were promised to be released near the end of the year. The first batch of Ambassador games, the NES titles, have already been made available.
The following games have been confirmed to be part of the lineup:
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit
- Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
- Metroid Fusion
- WarioWare, Inc: Mega Micro Game$
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong
The remaining five have not yet been announced.
Update: The Spanish and German pages have been updated to match the other language versions, confirming that the original translation was a mistake. Nintendo UK also reiterated that the titles will be arriving this year.
Dance, stop and clap your way through this fun, if flawed, penguin adventure.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/28563
Penguins have been just as common in video games as they have been in feature film animation. From the penguins in Super Mario 64 to the various penguin appearances throughout Konami's games, the little guys are just too quirky and adorable, lending themselves greatly to many movies and video games. Warner Bros. Interactive knows this and decide to adapt the movie Happy Feet 2 as a video game. Despite some redundancy and pacing problems, the game is a pretty good take on the musical animated film.
Happy Feet 2 stars Mumble, the star of the original movie. Years have passed since he saved the penguins from starvation through the power of dance, and he is now the father of a young penguin named Erik. Unfortunately, Erik lacks the dancing finesse his father has, thus starting a journey of self-discovery where he must find his true talent, while Mumble and Ramon follow him. The video game version of the story is told through still frames of key scenes of plot and character development. While the absence of full motion video and clips from the movie is unfortunate, the painted stills do a good job of elaborating the story in a stylish manner. The video game, however, does spoil some key scenes of the movie, so keep that in mind before picking the game up.
Happy Feet 2 is an odd mix of adventure game ideas combined with rhythm gameplay and even some Pikmin stylings. Playing as both Mumble and Ramon, the main objective is to complete chapters based on the film's plot, each containing seven to ten levels. A great chunk of the gameplay is dedicated to exploring levels with the purpose of finding and collecting penguins. Before you can exit a level you must collect a set number of penguins. To do this, you dance in front of them in a brief rhythm mini-game. Other challenges in the levels include solving some simple puzzles, using your penguin troop to scare away enemies, and collecting musical notes that unlock songs.
Part of the gameplay is also dedicated to penguin races in which Mumble and Ramon race down an icy slope avoiding icicles and collecting musical notes. Finally, at the end of the chapter lies a boss battle. These are in the form of musical challenges in which players hit the directions on the D-pad in rhythm to the song. Despite the adventure levels being the main focus, the additional level challenges serve as a nice diversion. The inclusion of rhythm gameplay in-between the adventure levels adds a level of authenticity to the overall title, keeping the charming appeal of the Happy Feet series alive and well.
In terms of design, these levels present a few flaws such as glitches and poor pacing. The adventure levels take a while to complete, and the penguins move awfully slow, making the game at times a chore to play. It also doesn't help that the gameplay tends to repeat itself after a while, featuring the same objectives over and over again. It's a shame, as the overall game has been well designed and presents a lot of fun moments due to the inclusion of music as a main component. The other problem behind Happy Feet 2 is that it is too easy for the experienced gamer. For the target audience of children and families, this shouldn't be a problem as it allows them to enjoy the game without being too intimidated by its challenges, but for older players, levels can be easily beaten in an effortless manner.
Visually, Happy Feet 2 looks surprisingly good for a licensed title. The levels are large and very detailed, featuring everything from the sun setting in the horizon to hundreds of penguins dancing in the background. The main characters, such as Mumble, Ramon, Erik and more, greatly resemble their motion picture counterparts, adding yet another layer of familiarity to the game for fans to enjoy. But it's the music that stands out as the game's best asset. The soundtrack features an eclectic selection of original songs inspired by the movie, from Latin pop to dance and hip hop. How the soundtrack is presented, however, is what makes it shine.
Before you start a level, you are asked to pick a song. The song will then have various levels of progress. At level one, the music is at its core melody, but when you collect more and more musical notes, the song starts to feature bass and vocals for a fuller presentation. This concept is very clever, and even though it is mainly optional and not integral to the concepts behind gameplay, its inclusion in the game is greatly appreciated.
In conclusion, Happy Feet 2 is a game that tries to stand above the typical licensed game fare, and for the most part it succeeds. The inclusion of rhythm gameplay and the varied soundtrack makes it an effort that stays true to the lively spirit of the feature films, but its slow pace and repetitious nature keeps it from being a truly great title. Regardless, if you loved the movies this is worth checking out for a brief period of time.
The partnership with Retro is detailed, and a Mario Kart 7 feature was originally meant for the 3DS as a whole.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28555
The latest Iwata Asks, hosted by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, has been released, this time focusing on the upcoming Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS. This time, the roundtable discussion features the members of Nintendo EAD, which include Mario Kart 7's producer Konno, art director Morimoto, lead artists on karts and characters Ishikawa and Ichijo, coordinator between EAD and Retro.
Members of Retro Studios also join the discussion, despite the time difference between the two zones. Joining them are lead artist for Retro Ryan Powell, art director for Retro Vince Joly, and lead planner for Retro Tom Ivey. The discussion starts with how Mario Kart 7 came to be. The development team were already working on the game in 2010, but since Nintendogs + Cats took top priority, a lot of focus was placed on that title instead.
The EAD development team met up with Tom Ivey during a dinner where they discussed Retro's involvement with the title (which was originally believed to be just a couple of courses). Retro had finished Donkey Kong Country Returns when they were recruited by Nintendo to work on this title.
Ishikawa, however, expressed some confusion when Retro was announced to be working with EAD for Mario Kart 7, wondering if the team was located in Japan. The team felt very nervous since previous Mario Kart titles were developed in house. But that nervousness, according to the discussion team, turned into excitement at the possibilities this partnership would offer.
The second part of the roundtable discussion details how the karts and courses came to be, with the classic courses being the first to be designed and developed. They state that Nintendo developed half the courses while Retro handled the other half, placing emphasis on the fact that when it came time to work on the classic courses they had to add new elements to the tracks so they are varied. The Nintendo EAD team expressed that Retro's knowledge of the franchise helped them in creating the courses and tracks. They used the Luigi's Mansion track as an example of how Retro quickly worked on it and understood how to develop a great Mario Kart track. The team also explained that they had to be careful with how they updated the classic tracks as they understood that the classic tracks had to remain loyal to the original designs, but still be appealing to new players as well, using the 3Ds's graphical capabilities as a starting point in design.
The next topic in the discussion is how EAD and Retro communicated during the development of the game. Mario Kart 7 has a gliding feature, in which they explained that when they designed it they had to design the karts and characters so that their heads wouldn't bump into the glider when it was activated. Character build and weight were also considered when designing the karts.
In Volume 2 of the discussion, it is revealed that Mario Kart 7's online community features were originally meant to be part of the 3DS as a whole. In the game, players are able to create online communities without the need to exchange individual friend codes. Unfortunately, the development schedule was limited and thus they couldn't develop it into the final build of the system.
Mario Kart 7 is released later this week.
But then again, I loved Mario Kart Wii, and apparently most other people had issues with it. Everybody's favorite Mario Kart is different.For a series that, according to most, hasn't progressed much in the past few iterations it's funny how differently people feel about the games (and how vehemently they defend their personal favorites). These small changes create vast rifts in the gaming community.
Personally? Super Circuit is my favorite, followed by Double Dash (I loved the cooperative game play and clunkier vehicles). Mario Kart DS was fun but snaking ruined the online play, and the best part of Mario Kart Wii was the motion control. Mario Kart 64 has aged very well and is still more fun than the DS or Wii versions. The original is the worst.
The gold trimmed handheld will now be a reality in North American shores. UPDATE: Nintendo officially announces it with Mario 3D Land bundle.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28483
The recently announced Zelda 25th Anniversary 3DS is coming to North America, a source confirmed to Kotaku.
The special edition 3DS was first announced for Europe, with no confirmation as to whether or not other regions would receive the special edition 3DS and Ocarina of Time 3DS bundle. However, a Black Friday flyer for GameStop revealed that the bundle was coming, though it wasn't known if it was a nationwide release or a GameStop exclusive.
The bundle includes a black 3DS with Zelda themed gold decals and a a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. The GameStop flyer has the system priced at $99.99 when you trade in a DS system. The price of the bundle by itself has yet to be fully revealed.
UPDATE: Nintendo has officially confirmed the release of this bundle, as well as a Super Mario 3D Land bundle. Arriving just in time for Thanksgiving Day sales, the two bundles have been officially priced at $199.99. The Super Mario 3D Land bundle includes a Flame Red 3DS and a copy of the game.
Game Boy Advance games too small to see? GameCube has a solution for that...
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/28448
One of my all-time favorite GameCube peripherals was the Game Boy Player adapter. It was an adapter that would connect to the bottom of the GameCube using some of its ports, then, using a special GB Player disc, the adapter would run the Game Boy Advance game that was inserted into it, presenting it in glorious fullscreen.
The basic idea behind the Game Boy Player was one that Nintendo had already worked upon back in the days of the Super NES. The Super Game Boy was a special catridge that would be inserted onto the console, then it would have a separate slot where the Game Boy game could be inserted. The system would first read the Super Game Boy catridge, then load the Game Boy game. The idea was simple, but one that worked tremendously well. The GameCube's Game Boy Player did just that, but went above and beyond the call of duty when preserving the appeal of the Game Boy Advance line.
As simple as that may sound, it did wonders for many great GBA games. Early GBA adopters should remember that at launch the system lacked a backlit screen, making the games extremely hard to play. Nintendo would remedy this by releasing the GBA SP, a redesigned version of the GBA that was slicker and, most importantly, featured a backlit screen. Even with this advancement in the development of the handheld, some games were still hard to play through. Some players, on the other hand, just wanted to play their games on a bigger display screen and do justice to some of the console-worthy games available on the handheld. The Game Boy Player allowed them to do just that.
Some might feel that this defeats the purpose of the handheld line—to let players take high-quality games on the go. But let's be honest, we aren't always on the road and sometimes we just want a bigger screen than what the GBA offered at the time. Nintendo gave us the option to play our favorite games on a better screen while still promoting the accessibility of the system as a portable gaming device. In other words, everyone wins.
The Game Boy Player was a wonderful little device in terms of compatibility. Not only could you play nearly all of the GBA games available in the market, you could also play your classic Game Boy/Game Boy Color games with the GB Player! In addition, if you preferred to play your GBA games with that handheld's control scheme you could do so by connecting the GBA to the GameCube with the link cable, yet another use for the fabled connectivity of systems that was so prominent during the GameCube era.
As a whole, the Game Boy Player was a magnificent little device that further fused console gaming and handheld gaming. It is such a shame that Nintendo didn't further experiment with this with the Wii and DS. Likely, the complex nature of the two systems made it hard for Nintendo create an effective emulation program where the Wii could display DS games. Hopefully, Nintendo will implement a better concept on the Wii U with the 3DS, as this is an idea that must get revisited and improved upon.
This time, the orchestra does a number from the upcoming Skyward Sword.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28447
Nintendo has released the second video of the record of the special Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Orchestra CD. The video takes a look at the recording of Ballad of the Goddess from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
If you understand Japanese, then you will see what Mario Kart 7 is all about.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28446
Nintendo has released a Japanese overview trailer for Mario Kart 7. The video looks over some of the confirmed features for Mario Kart 7, which include some of the new characters (like Metal Mario and Wiggler), first person driving and the online features.
The full trailer follows:
Hayabusa-san's bloody journey continues on Nintendo's latest console.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28409
Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge has been confirmed as a launch title for the upcoming Wii U, based on Tecmo's marketing material.
In an earnings presentation, Tecmo Koei presented their plans for their upcoming releases. They explained their worldwide plans, which include handling systems based on regions. In a slide, they show future titles, which confirms Ninja Gaiden 3 as a launch title for the Wii U.
The presentation also confirms sales numbers for one of their first 3DS titles, Dead or Alive Dimensions. Worldwide, the game sold 310,000 units.
So if the DS did poor in its first year then is the 3DS beating it in its first year really all that impressive? One could also point out how the 3DS has slaughtered the Virtual Boy, but is that really saying much?
