Even the Wii Shop is closing for a few hours. UPDATED October 16.

Nintendo has scheduled a full online maintenance for Monday North America time that will take all of the services offline for a few hours.

The maintenance is scheduled to take place from 1 p.m. Pacific (4 Eastern) to 5 p.m. Pacific (8 Eastern) on Monday, and will affect all of Nintendo's online... Read more...

Spoilers: You won't be unleashing the Kraken as much.

A major update for Splatoon is coming early next week, and it's bringing a whole host of balance changes.

The listed changes (PDF link) cover multiple weapon buffs and debuffs such as rollers needing to hit dead center for a one-hit splat, walk speed increases for the N-Zap line and adding additional Rainmaker shield damage to the Slosher line. Sub and Special weapons have come in for a nerf, most notably the Kraken.

Japan had their shot last weekend, North America's up. (UPDATE: Europe too, with a discount!)

Nintendo has begun emailing their newsletter mailing list in North America to send out codes for a private Zelda: Tri Force Heroes beta.

The beta times are scheduled for particular times this weekend, and the email gives one code to the recepient and two to give to friends to test the three-player game.

They say the News Editor’s heart grew three sizes that day.

After a head-scratching delay of an entire season and a bit, North America finally gets Yoshi’s Woolly World this week on the eShop as the headliner for Wii U. It’s also sold at a discount compared to regular Wii U titles because of the Yarn Yoshi Amiibo, which melt even this writer’s icy heart.... Read more...

One continent has a really tough call to make.

Europe and Australia might not see Yo-Kai Watch this year, but they have a new substitute.

Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of Australia have both confirmed their region's release dates for Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. The fusion RPG will release in Europe on 4 December, and Australia on 10 December.

Mostly for Japan, but there's a bunch of potential Virtual Console candidates.

The game listing that showed Twilight Princess HD also revealed a large quantity of games for the Wii U Virtual Console as well.

Some of the game titles were translated, but a translation on the NeoGAF message board shows multiple games with Japan region tags and a few with European tags. Some of the games have already come out in other territories as well.

Coincides nicely with a late night concert.

An icon has been unearthed on the eShop that doesn't point to an existing game but could be a sign of a remake coming soon to the Wii U eShop.

A hacker recently unearthed an icon on the Wii U eShop for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The icon does not point to anything downloadable on the eShop, and does not have the traditional icon used for Wii games on Virtual Console of the title screen with a white border.

Time to try your hand at Jibanyan and company on October 22. (UPDATED)

If you're curious about the Yo-Kai Watch phenomenon and live in North America, take heart that a demo has been announced..

The surprise announcement was sent out on Nintendo's Twitter feed this afternoon and claimed that the demo would be available immediately, however it was not on the eShop as of 5:15 Eastern time. Details about transfer to the full game and file size are still pending as well.

And we're talking directly, not "buy our PS4 musou game to get the RPGs you want".

It might be obvious soon just what the cost of a localization is, if SquareEnix's plans for localization come to fruition.

In an interview with Game Informer, SquareEnix Europe CEO Phil Rogers spoke of a desire to crowdfund some localizations of games. "I think that is a partnership that can be... Read more...

If you're going to go full cinematic universe you might as well go all out.

It won't just be the Avengers duology represented in LEGO Marvel's Avengers.

A panel for the title was held at New York Comic Con in which it was announced that the game would include story elements from six Marvel Studios films in the LEGO style. In addition to the Avengers films, the following movies will be represented:

Plus a Wind Waker-inspired boss fight.

Hyrule Warriors Legends has revealed a brand new playable character and a boss for the Wind Waker fans.

Newly playable for the 3DS version is Skull Kid from Majora's Mask, who will fight using an ocarina and the twin fairies Tatl and Tael. The Famitsu article also confirms that Skull Kid will be sporting Majora's Mask when in use, and also appears in a Wii U stage so it may be part of the content added to that version.

Now let's get it in North America as well as Europe.

The recently announced expansion to the Nintendo Selects lineup won't just be a retail program.

Nintendo's download PR for Europe confirmed that this Friday, the six games (counting all versions of nintendogs + cats as one game) in the 3DS Nintendo Selects program will receive permanent price drops. Previously priced at €39.99 / £34.99 or €44.99 / £39.99, all involved titles will be priced at €19.99 / £15.99.

The end of the ballot means a stream of rumors about what could be coming to Smash Bros

Multiple sources have hinted at what could future Smash Bros characters in the weeks ahead.

Last night, it was discovered that Nintendo's own Amiibo listing showed compatibility for the Shovel Knight Amiibo as a trainable fighter in Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS. The page has since been removed,... Read more...

The results are similar, but the methods were quite different

Results from the weekend's Splatfest competition:

North America: Cars 252, Planes 248 36-54, 64-46 At Port Mackerel, Cars staged a furious comeback in the battle phase after losing the popularity poll by 14 points to bring Team Callie's North American record to 4-2. Worn down by civil wars, the Planes side was picked off by a group of experienced Cars battlers enough to lose the lead at the end.

You mess with the squid, you get the splat.

Tonight's Splatoon update will see two new weapons as North America and Japan head into the Splatfest.

The Custom Range Blaster and Custom E-Liter 3K Scope will come in tonight's update. Both are modifications of existing weapons by appearance, and the Custom Range Blaster wields Splat Bombs as a sub and the Kraken for a special. The Custom E-Liter maintains the Squid Beakons as a sub and has the Kraken as well for its special.

Yacht Club gets out in front of some news about the price and date for shovelry.

The physical release of Shovel Knight has had some changes in recent weeks.

In an update on their website, Yacht Club Games announced that the Wii U and 3DS versions will release on 30 October in Europe and November 3 in North America, due to delays in getting the game pressed following the Plague of Shadows update.

Which version, how will it go, and Amiibo?

With Yo-Kai Watch releasing next month, Level-5 is already considering their options for how to handle the sequel.

Speaking to our Jared Rosenberg at the New York Comic-Con, chief operating officer Yukari Hayakawa stated that they haven't made the decision as to which of the game's versions to... Read more...

And yes, the Dreamcast one sounds like you think it does.

North American 3DS owners will be able to make their system sound like classic Sega gear in the months ahead.

Sega of America confirmed that the hardware themes that first released in today's download PR - the Genesis and Game Gear - will be joined by six other bits of Sega hardware in the months to come. The themes will come out in Europe, but the date was not announced for the first release.

North America can chase a lot, while Europe kicks it old school.

Today’s downloads have a distinct old-school bent following last week’s indie release festival. The 3DS gets the end of the 2nd wave of Sega 3D Classics with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, while the Wii U picks up the previously announced Pocky & Rocky With Becky, a curiosity of the Game Boy Advance.

Time to see if the Wii U's heaviest hitters can move systems.

Europe is about to get a loaded Wii U bundle.

The new Premium bundle launches on 30 October and will include a preloaded copy of Mario Kart 8 and an eShop download code for Splatoon. As per European pricing rules, no MSRP was given for the console.

The Mario Kart 8 preload, unlike the current North American bundle, does not appear to come with the DLC pass, but Splatoon will update in full.