Developer cites strength of Wii U as "party platform"

Hive Jump is confirmed for amiibo support, but its multiplayer will be a party event.

The indie game, which is coming to both PC and Wii U, will have online and local play on the PC but only local play on Wii U. In an interview on the Fragoments of Silicon podcast, Matt Raither described the reason... Read more...

Europe will be musou-ing the night away for most of the year.

Nintendo's European website has announced details on how the Hyrule Warriors Legends season pass will work for both Wii U and 3DS..

Launch day (24 March in Europe, March 25 in North America) will see the 3DS season pass go on sale, as well as a 3DS and Wii U season pass. This pass includes:

Tragic circumstances take the life of a longtime Pokemon designer

A windstorm last week in the Pacific Northwest has taken a young life.

Eric Medalle, a creative director at The Pokémon Company International, was killed in the Sunday storm when a 60+ mile per hour wind gust caused a Douglas fir tree to snap and fall on his vehicle in Seattle's Seward Park. He was traveling with his young daughter, who suffered minor injuries and was pulled from the vehicle by an unidentified woman.

It’s stunning they’re letting Knuckles in the Olympics following his positive PED test in 2014.

There’s a heavy retail presence for both Wii U and 3DS this week, with two of the most prominent releases being Pokkén Tournament for Wii U and Mario and Sonic’s biannual crossover sport competition on 3DS. I reviewed Pokkén – note the day one patch, which is part of the reason why we haven’t... Read more...

Prepare to clean another fridge.

Radio Free Nintendo has predicted it for a few years, and now it's finally come to pass through My Nintendo: DS games will be available to download on 3DS.

The first applicable title is WarioWare Touched, which is in the initial batch of My Nintendo rewards at a cost of 1000 Platinum points. The DS WarioWare launched in North America in 2005, and was one of the first DS titles to be downloadable on Wii U.

Including the first set of rewards.

Miitomo has officially launched on both iOS and Android in Japan, and with it the Japanese MyNintendo website has gone live with its reward list.

Both the Gold and Platinum rewards provide different rewards, with categories including Miitomo rewards, game discounts, themes and free games. Perhaps... Read more...

The "Decision Game" is about to begin.

The final chapter in the Zero Escape saga is coming June 28.

Aksys Games posted a trailer for the game on their Youtube channel, confirming the structure of the game will see nine characters taking part in a "Decision Game" in which the fate of the world is at stake.

The trailer can be viewed below (contains extreme blood and Zero Escape spoilers):

Multiple playable characters and a potential 3DS first

Last week's edition of Famitsu contained new details about the upcoming Zero Time Dilemma in the game's first acknowledgement in Japan.

The article confirms that Zero Time Dilemma will feature three playable characters, with probable switching between different teams where you control the leaders. There will be five new characters in addition to returning cast members from the previous two Zero Escape games.

The Professor Layton series wouldn't exist if it wasn't for him.

The man whose puzzles were cited as the inspiration for the Professor Layton series has died.

Akira Tago, the "Puzzle Master" in the credits of the Professor Layton games, passed away on March 6 due to pneumonia. Tago was the author of the "Atama no Taisou" series of quiz books that sold multiple millions of copies in Japan, with the puzzles adapted into Level 5's adventure series.

Aside from taking different forks in the sky.

You'll be able to make Star Fox Zero as easy - or as hard - as you want.

In an interview with Time Magazine, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that the April 22 release will feature plenty of options for adjusting the game's difficulty. Among the options will be a challenge mode for experienced players where the Arwing takes/deals more damage, as well as a "invincibility" option for newcomers.

2.6 is bringing some major changes to the competition.

The most recent update to Splatoon promised new rules for the Splatfest, and the new rules will make their Western debut this weekend.

This weekend's competitions in North America (Snowmen v Sand Castles) and Europe/Australia (Hoverboards v Jetpacks) will replace the Vibe Meter with a Splatfest... Read more...

Since nobody else will do it, apparently.

An award winning tribute to Metroid is landing on the Wii U before the end of the year.

Axiom Verge, the famous tribute to 8 bit Metroid titles that released on PlayStation 4 and PC last year, will come to the Wii U and also the Xbox One later this year.

There was some fear that the game wouldn't... Read more...

It’s a Mii, not Mario.

Miitomo, Nintendo’s first mobile game, will launch on March 17 in Japan, according to a tweet from Nintendo.

Preregistion is still open at the Miitomo website and will earn My Nintendo Platinum Points for anyone with a Nintendo Account. Miitomo’s English website still lists a March release.

In terms of their game development focus

Nearly a year after the game's delay to 2016 was announced, Eiji Aonuma has provided a tease as to what awaits in the new land.

In a Famitsu interview (translated by Kotaku), Aonuma stated that the theme of the game was to be "something new", stating that the "secret sauce" was Ocarina of Time.... Read more...

Studio cites changing industry in desire to go out with a bang

After over 15 years of game development, Two Tribes will be going out with RIVE.

A post on the company's website yesterday confirmed that the studio would close following the release of the eShop title, which is currently slated for September of this year. The studio will continue to support existing games, but will not produce any new titles.

Hope for a quick localization.

Arc System Works is publishing a new 3DS eShop title in Japan with a great development history.

-Chase- Mikaiketsu Jiken Sousaka ~Tooi Kioku~ (-Chase- The Unsolved Cases Section – A Faraway Memory~) is being directed by Taisuke Kanasaki, who directed Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and designed characters... Read more...

Fire Emblem continues to Ragnarok up the charts.

Following a massive opening weekend, the only remaining sales question for Fire Emblem Fates in the US was how far up the charts it would land - and the NPDs have it in a medal position.

The February 19 release sold 315,000 physical units in its first nine days of sale, which covers both Birthright,... Read more...

Some different selections than North America's recent lot.

Europe's line of Nintendo Selects will be hitting the Wii U next month.

The following games will be reprinted and have their digital price adjusted to €24,99/£19.99 on the 15th of April:

A day of telling destiny to get knotted, price drops and Mario.

Probably the biggest release of the week in terms of content for North America is the 3rd path for Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation. (Not to be confused with Capcom’s Resident Evil: Revelaitons.) The final portion of the massively popular RPG answers a whole bunch of spoilery questions and basically makes it so that strategy RPG fans will be playing this bad boy until June’s Tokyo Mirage Sessions (sharp)FE.

This would really be something if it wasn't for the region locks.

Import shoppers now have a new source for Japanese titles - Amazon Japan.

Previously, the Japanese branch of the retail giant would only allow domestic shipment of video games, but a policy change has allowed for international shoppers to take advantage of the site's selection. Currently, only items sold directly by Amazon Japan are eligible.