The petting is literally the only thing removed.

The North American version of Fire Emblem Fates has arrived in the hands of reviewers, and with it new details about the removal of a controversial feature.

There was some concern when it was revealed that the "petting" minigame was removed from My Castle mode, specifically that conversations and... Read more...

Starring the walking dead and heavily muscled fish.

The shortest of months kicks off for North America with a light round of new releases. The big releases for the Wii U are the intriguing 3D platformer FreezeME, which has a good launch discount and features an attempt to save the dogs of the world from an evil fat cat. If you prefer your adventures aquatic, check out Shütshimi, which crosses steroids (allegedly), fish and bullet hell with WarioWare. (It makes sense in context.)

Bring on the chainsaw swords!

The final DLC and updates for Super Smash Bros on 3DS and Wii U are now live.

The 3DS update is 2635 blocks/325 MB and the Wii U update is 883MB, which covers Corrin, Bayonetta, new Mii costumes and several balance changes.

As a reminder, the prices are:

Timing tied to Miitomo registration

Already live in Japan, the Nintendo Account will come west in two weeks.

Nintendo of America, Europe and Australia confirmed in separate statements today that the Nintendo Account will open with Miitomo registration on the 17th. As previously promised, existing Nintendo Network IDs, emails or social networking accounts (Twitter, Facebook) to create the account.

Following a maintenance week, we're getting some brains in this outfit.

Super Mario Maker is getting back on the event stage bandwagon following last week's maintenance.

The new event stage will launch this Thursday (North American time) and will allow players to use an 8-bit sprite of Professor E. Gadd, the assistant/inventor in the Luigi's Mansion series.

Registration to get on the train begins soon.

You'll be able to get hyped for Miitomo in a couple of weeks, but the app will be waiting a month.

During tonight's shareholder briefing, Nintendo confirmed that pre-registration for Miitomo is expected to open February 17, with a full rollout for both iOS and Android in mid-March. The application will launch in eight languages: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch and Russian.

And some new details about the expanded service.

The My Nintendo loyalty program will be launching before the end of the quarter.

Nintendo announced the details of the program at a shareholder's meeting following last night's release of their 3rd quarter financials. The program will launch in all major territories this March, and will feature two classes of points:

Thankfully, this is a standalone adventure.

For the first time ever, a 7th Dragon title will leave Japan.

SEGA has announced the turn based dungeon crawler 7th Dragon III Code: VFD will come to North America this summer for US$39.99/C$54.99. The game features dungeon crawling in three kingdoms, dating sim elements and of all things, a cat cafe.

"Two of the world's most popular brands" covers LEGO and Star Wars, presumably. *UPDATED*

UPDATED: WB has confirmed Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens for a June 28 release. As of 9:15 am Eastern, Amazon Prime members received 40% off the preorders for Wii U and 3DS, but the offer was pulled about an hour later. Original story follows.

An Amazon listing in Italy may have spoiled an announcement planned by WB Games tomorrow.

Did Nintendo's balance sheet have a happy holiday season?

Despite a less than stellar holiday lineup, Nintendo managed to maintain profitability in their 3rd fiscal quarter on the back of strong performance of evergreen titles and amiibo.

Financial Indicators

Nintendo recorded an operating profit of 33.5bn yen (approximately US$277m) in the quarter,... Read more...

"What're you buyin'? What're you sellin'?"

Following its European release in October, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition will be shooting up North American Virtual Console this week.

The 2007 re-release includes all of the content from the 2005 PlayStation 2 port of the most infamous member of the Capcom 5, in addition to supporting pointer controls for aiming. The game will launch at standard Wii download pricing: $19.99 US, $24.99 Canadian.

An early February release for the last Smash Bros characters.

Corrin and Bayonetta will arrive for Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS next week.

Producer Masahiro Sakurai appeared at the end of a demonstration of the characters that aired on the NicoNico service in Japan to confirm a February 4 release for Japan. @NintendoAmerica later Tweeted an "afternoon release" on February 3 for North America.

Someone say a prayer for Sakurai.

A noted Japan-based analyst has hinted that Bandai Namco has several titles in development for the NX platform, including a Smash Bros game.

No specifics were given beyond what was contained in the Twitter post, but the hint is that the Smash Bros game would be available at launch. Given the short... Read more...

A busy end of month for everything except the 3DS Virtual Console.

January came in quiet, but it’s going out with a bang. There’s a couple of big retail games on the 3DS with Final Fantasy Explorers, Square’s love letter/hunting action title (see Neal’s review) as well as Lego’s Marvel Avengers for both Wii U and 3DS.

The eShop has an interesting release... Read more...

Round one features experience, gold and a trip to the beach.

Nintendo has outlined the content of Map Pack 1 for Fire Emblem Fates, and some of the content may be familiar to those who went all in on Awakening's DLC.

The first map will be available for free on the game's launch day (February 19), with the remaining maps releasing on Thursdays with the eShop... Read more...

And they're keeping the price sane.

Both North America and Europe will be able to return to Ivalice tomorrow by way of Virtual Console.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - the first game published by SquareEnix in over seven years on Nintendo systems on its initial release - will be in tomorrow's eShop update. Priced at $7.99/€7.99/£7.19, FFTA will be the first appearance by SquareEnix outside of Japan.

At least 36 hours worth

A bug in the level creator for Super Mario Maker has necessitated a day and a half of online downtime.

Nintendo has sent notices on their various websites advising that an unspecified bug in the "Create" mode has necessitated a stop on all online services. The maintenance is currently slated to end at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night (1 a.m. GMT on Friday morning).

The biggest fighting game tournament in the world will feature heavy Nintendo representation.

A third of the main lineup for the world's largest fighting game tournament will be on Nintendo systems.

Pokkén Tournament will join last year's Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros for Wii U in the lineup for the EVO 2016 tournament, which will run from July 15 - 17 in Las Vegas. The other... Read more...

Touching to boost happiness in RPGs is officially confined to Pokémon.

Following the announcement of the removal of a support scene in Fire Emblem Fates, another controversial aspect of the title will not be localized.

Nintendo representatives have confirmed to Kotaku that a "petting" minigame in the game's My Castle mode, which allowed for players to use the 3DS... Read more...

"Clearly a murder most foul. This Marowak was wielding a Thick Club."

A concept first shown by the Pokémon Company nearly two and a half years ago has become a 3DS eShop title in Japan.

Detective Pikachu ~Birth of a New Combination~ will release in the Japanese eShop next week for 1200 yen and can be preloaded now. The price will increase to 1500 yen on February 29. The story stars a Pikachu capable of human speech who is working with a young man named Tim Goodman to solve various mysteries around the city.