Welcome to Wrapping Up Nintendo: The Reboot Edition! This was a feature on my other blog that I want to bring back, but before today I didn’t get the chance to because Nintendo hasn’t trotted out a Nintendo Direct in 2014 whatsoever until now.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Today’s long-awaited Nintendo Direct was worldwide in scope, and it brought a fair few surprises with it!
I’ll be talking about games that were featured in the North American Direct, but I will mention a few of the neat little bonuses in other regions too.
First they started with a bang. New trailer, and it’s Smash Bros. It was immediately obvious it was Little Mac from the Punch-Out games, and Little Mac “punches in” to the Smash roster for the new Smash game. Sadly it’s still coming out just in 2014, but I really, really like what they did with his moveset and his little KO meter straight out of Super Punch-Out!
Then they started in on the Nintendo 3DS titles. First up they finally firmed up Mario Golf World Tour’s release date (May 2nd), AND they have created an RPG-like mode called Castle Club as has been the case with the handheld Mario Golf titles in the past!
Next they also firmed up Kirby Triple Deluxe’s release date (May 2nd also), and they showed just a little bit more, including new mechanics for the various copy abilities, collectibles, and 3DS-specific Streetpass features, including a friendly Waddle Dee in the background that gives you better items if you’ve Streetpassed someone who owns the game!
Next is Yoshi’s New Island. It looks really, really good and it looks eerily like the original Yoshi’s Island, except for the Mega Egg Dozers and Metal Egg Dozers. Now here is where North America deviates slightly from UK/Europe: There was no Yoshi’s New Island 3DS XL bundle announced for North America at the time this posts as far as I am aware. But I’ll be honest, even as a gigantic Yoshi fan, it looks seriously lackluster and somewhat Photoshopped, so I’ll let you lot in Europe keep that bundle there.
Next up was some 3DS eShop games. First up, a brand new Steel Diver that uses an FPS-like perspective, Steel Diver Sub Wars. It has a free version with less submarines and missions and a paid version that is the full version, and is out now.
Next in eShop land was Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball, which is the first real major Nintendo foray into “free-to-play” games and while I’ve known about this because of NWR and Daan Koopman for quite some time now, I am almost absurdly happy that this quirky game is coming Stateside.
Finally in eShop land was Pokemon Battle Trozei, which is (finally) a sequel to the very well-received and really underrated Pokemon Trozei on DS. That’s coming out March 20th.
Next they tossed it over to NoA and they first discussed Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (and the companion Emmy Altava, whise last adventure is Azran Legacy), which is coming out February 28th.
Next they talked about what little third-party support they have. First is Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for NA in early 2015. Too bad the 3DS’s Circle Pad is frankly awful for that sort of game.
Next is the final Guild.01 game (FINALLY), Weapon Shop de Omasse, coming out February 20th.
Next up is one game series I’ve been curious about for forever and five days, Inazuma Eleven. Inazuma Eleven is FINALLY coming to these shores today! Rumor has it it’s $20 so please buy this.
Next they talked about the Indie Game Showcase which they’ll talk more about on their YouTube show Nintendo Minute, and a whole slew of indie games on 3DS and Wii U.
Finally is Child of Light. It’s a puzzle platformer, a genre I totally suck at. Plus it’s from Ubisoft, they of the “we don’t believe in Nintendo so we’re killing Rayman and Watch Dogs” variety, so that’s two strikes agains them. It’s coming out in a month or two but I really don’t care.
Then they turned the presentation back over to Iwata, where they showed the latest trailer for Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, out February 21st. It essentially confirmed that that scary octopus from Donkey Kong Country Returns makes a comeback, and that was really about it. Thankfully in this case they didn’t spoil anything majorly important.
Next they followed up on NES Remix (which is a GREAT game with utterly horrendous game selections like Ice Climber and Clu Clu Land) with a brand-new volume of NES Remix, NES Remix 2, out April 25th (cannot come soon enough Nintendo). It includes a Nintendo World Championships-esque mode (awesome), Super Luigi Brothers (a Luigi version of the original Super Mario Bros. that plays like a manga, going from right to left), and quite possibly the best possible game selection (and a vast improvement over the original title). The great thing about this is it’s coming out in April and I cannot possibly be more excited about it!!
Also, slight deviation once again, this time between NA/Europe and Japan. You see, in Japan apparently they like their games on physical media, and they are getting (no joke) a physical release of both the first NES Remix AND the new NES Remix 2 (there called Famicom Remix 1 + 2). I hope Nintendo sees fit to release something similar Stateside, and maybe they’ll include the Game Center CX episode(s) with official subtitles, who knows.
The game selection for NES Remix 2 are as follows:
- Ice Hockey
- Wario’s Woods
- Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Dr. Mario
- Kirby’s Adventure
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Kid Icarus
- Punch-Out!!
- Metroid
- NES Open Tournament Golf
- Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (also known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2)
Seriously, how can that possibly be any better?! Well except for Ice Hockey and Zelda 2 and maybe Wario’s Woods, although if Wario’s Woods is anything like Wrecking Crew from the first game, it’ll come out as being a hidden gem of sorts.
Next, GBA games (FINALLY) on Wii U Virtual Console starting in April. The games they detailed in the NA/Europe Directs were Metroid Fusion, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (YES!!!), Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (YES YES YES!!!), and more.
Again Japan deviates from this ever so slightly.
In Japan they’re getting a much more locked-down release schedule. On April 3rd they’re getting:
- Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World
- WarioWare Mega Micro Games
- Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (not nearly as good as Kirby’s Adventure / Kirby’s Nightmare in Dream Land IMHO)
- Golden Sun (I am SO jealous)
- F-Zero: Maximum Velocity (a GBA launch title I specifically remember playing)
- Advance Wars 1 + 2 (which was exclusive to Japan, maybe they’ll actually break from tradition slightly and give us Americans that package dealie. I certainly would buy it as I adore Advance Wars, and Fire Emblem for that matter)
And then on April 30th, they’re getting:
- Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
- Mario Tennis Power Tour
- Wario Land 4
- Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (the superior Kirby GBA game IMO)
- Metroid Fusion
I have a sneaking suspicion that there are going to be some really fun Nintendo Channel Game Center CX challenge segments for Kacho Arino in that April timeframe.
Next is Mario Kart 8, and they showed a trailer with 8 characters that you would not expect: Bowser’s Koopalings are in fact confirmed to be playable! Which is great if you like playing as a villain, I personally might try playing as them once or twice. Certainly can’t be any worse than Mario Kart 7’s woefully bad controls on the 3DS that you cannot even so much as rebind. Launches on May 30th.
Next is some info on what is known as “X”, the new title from Monolith Soft, makers of Xenoblade Chronicles. Now we have a real name, and a glimpse of the (admittedly cool looking) battle system. The real name is Xenoblade 2, and it is coming later this year.
Finally is the most insane game of them all: Bayonetta 2. Holy crap this looks crazy, and I definitely will pick this up. I’m a huge fan of quirky games and if given an opportunity to buy a quirky game I will definitely do so. I haven’t regretted a single quirky game I have bought (even paying the piper to import Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! for DS).
This concludes the North American coverage, but I still have a few things I want to mention. First, in the Japanese Direct, there was a Monster Hunter 4 3DS XL announced to be coming out with Monster Hunter 4 in Japan. Also in the Japanese Direct, apparently there’s something cool with the Game Center CX 3 game for 3DS that is on the eShop now. And in Europe, there is one game that I am absolutely jealous we don’t have here: Nintendo Pocket Football Club (of course here we’d have to call it Nintendo Pocket Soccer Club or something). This game looks insanely cool (almost like Nintendo’s answer to Sensible Soccer and that ilk), and if Inazuma Eleven actually does well in North America, we might actually get this here.
This concludes the presentation, for realsies. Also, Nintendo, please schedule your next Nintendo Direct a touch earlier than 5:00 PM Eastern Time for us Americans. I’d love to not have to spend several hours factchecking and then putting it up after Midnight. Thanks in advance.
No comments:
Post a Comment