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This sucks: No Kirby for Europe or Australia until 2011
With his rotund shape and waddling gait, we would never consider Kirby to be a particularly hasty creature -- still, we never would have expected his latest adventure, Kirby's Epic Yarn, to take months to reach European and Australian territories. Nintendo Australia recently confirmed that the title, released earlier this month in the U.S. and Japan, would see 2011 launch in PAL regions. (Online retailer Play suggests that it'll only arrive in March.) In the months between, a dedicated European fan could probably recreate the game using actual yarn. Hey, why hasn't anyone done that yet? Get crafty, you guys.
Nintendo and HAL making Face Pilot, for DSi and your face
A new DSi game has shown up on Australia's OFLC ratings database, with a title that is really helpful in figuring out what the game is about. How helpful? The game is called "Face Pilot: Fly with your DSi Camera." That paints a pretty vivid picture! We look forward to finding out exactly how our faces are going to control a flying vehicle. If it's by looking forward, we're already practicing! HAL Laboratory seems to be returning to prominence. Its Picross 3D was recently released on DS; it's collaborating with Good-Feel on Kirby's Epic Yarn, starring the developer's most famous character; and now it's making a game for your face!
VC in Brief: Kirby Super Star (SNES)
Oh how good it feels to be back. After a forced hiatus, Nintendo has finally released a new Virtual Console game -- and a good one, at that. We're talking about Kirby Super Star, a content-rich SNES offering from HAL Laboratory. Check it out in the latest episode of VC in Brief above. Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer VC in Brief as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.
Review: Picross 3D
I hate picross. I've never been able to figure out the "trick" to the traditional square picross puzzle, driving myself to frustration any time I try to teach myself how to fill in the correct number of squares on a grid to draw a picture. As a result, I've had to let games like Picross DS pass me by while others raved. Picross 3D, then, seemed like something of a nightmare: the same idea as picross, but applied to three-dimensional structures, adding another layer of complexity. And that's why I was very surprised to find myself hopelessly addicted to Picross 3D. And I mean addicted, in that way that only a puzzle game can hook someone. I've been up later than intended every night since I got it, in unintentional marathons of "one more puzzle." %Gallery-86436%
Picross 3D shaping up for May 3 release
If you've been looking for a way to tease your brain into an overloaded, catatonic state while on the go, Nintendo and HAL Laboratory will soon deliver an application that should aid in your endeavor. Picross 3D, the DS puzzle game that hit Japanese retail last March, will be released on May 3 in North America. The announcement came during today's Nintendo Media Summit and added that the game would receive DLC in the form of extra puzzles, à la Professor Layton. With continued support like that, Picross 3D could be capable of frying our brains for the foreseeable future. We can't wait. %Gallery-86436%
Rumor: Picross 3D in Europe this February
Picross 3D for DS was one of the titles announced by Nintendo at E3, but not dated or mentioned again, like Line Attack Heroes, Monado: The End of the World, and, until recently, WarioWare DIY. According to posts on Cubed3 and NeoGAF, the puzzler will be out on February 5 -- in Europe. Though Nintendo UK still lists the date as "TBA", Cubed3 reports that Nintendo has confirmed the February 5 date. Picross 3D, developed by HAL Laboratory, is based on the familiar Picross puzzle, in which players make marks in squares based on clues about how many in each row or column should be numbered. But Picross 3D starts with cubes instead of squares, with each mark chipping away at the cube to reveal a voxel-based 3D object. There is no release date, rumored or otherwise, for North America, though the game was announced for release here. %Gallery-65414%
Original Smash Bros. rated by ESRB for Wii
North American Wii owners, the wait may soon be over. After years of patient, patient waiting -- and watching the game land on both the European and Japanese Virtual Console -- the original Smash Bros. should soon be winging its way to American Wiis. The evidence: The game has been rated for Wii by the ESRB, hopefully signifying that a release is imminent. In case you were wondering, the game received an E rating, ostensibly making it suitable for everyone. We'll just have to wait and see how Grandma takes it when she gets a Star Rod to the dome.
Fanswag: Kirby Super Star Ultra goes to ...
Okay, let's try this again. Our latest giveaway has come to a close, so it's about time we crowned a winner, right? Who's the lucky individual walking away with a free copy of Kirby Super Star Ultra? Well, it's none other than: Kitty, who likes it when Kirby gobbles up a UFO Thanks to everyone that entered and better luck next time! We'll be sure to start up our next giveaway real soon.%Gallery-8402%
Fanswag: Kirby Super Star Ultra goes to ... [update]
Update: Wow, we can be pretty boneheaded sometimes. We prematurely ended the contest and chose a winner, thinking it ended on Sunday night, as per our usual routine. This latest contest, however, wasn't supposed to end until the evening of Tuesday, October 28th. We apologize for the mistake and will be leaving the contest open, selecting the winner at random again, after it has officially concluded. Sorry to everyone involved, we'll do our best to avoid this mistake in the future. Please ignore all of that at the bottom.Our latest giveaway has come to a close, so it's about time we crowned a winner, right? Who's the lucky individual walking away with a free copy of Kirby Super Star Ultra? Well, it's none other than: greennoo, who likes Kirbuy's stone form Thanks to everyone that entered and better luck next time! We'll be sure to start up our next giveaway real soon.%Gallery-8402%
Fanswag: Kirby Super Star Ultra
That's right, boys and girls, we're hooking up one lucky reader with Nintendo's Kirby Super Star Ultra ($35)! What do you have to do to enter for your chance at this great game? To enter, simply leave a comment between now and Tuesday, October 28th at 11:59PM ET, telling us what your favorite Kirby form is (you know, what happens when he swallows an enemy up!). You can leave one comment per day. We'll select a winner the following day via random drawing. There are a few things you should know before entering. Entrants must be current and legal residents of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec) and at least 18 years of age or older. Read up on the rest of the official rules right here. Good luck!%Gallery-8402%
Gaming to Go: Kirby: Canvas Curse
The beach is awesome. The life of a game blogger is a difficult one, my friends, so it's nice to step away from the monitor, sink into the white sands and catch up on that glorious invention known as sleep. Such a relaxing week could only bring good things, and I'm incredibly pleased to say it did: it gave good David a chance to talk about Electroplankton, one of the DS's most eccentric titles, and it gave me a chance to give the Kirby series a go. You can imagine my delight, then, to finally gets my sandy hands on one of the DS's premiere platformers, to see how one cute and cuddly pink ball can inspire so much adoration. Kirby has made a number of appearances on everyone's favorite handheld, but this week's edition of Gaming to Go will be focusing on the first time the prolific cake eater showed his face on the portable. Kirby: Canvas Curse, in case you haven't given it a go, is all about drawing. You'll use the stylus exclusively to fling our spherical friend through many different adventures, all of which are short, colorful, and an absolute blast to play. Want to hear more? Point your stylus at the big button down there and race on to the next page! #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-34913%
Mother 3 fan translation available this week
After almost two years of hard slog, Starmen.net's Mother 3 fan translation patch has finally been completed, and will be released at the end of this week ... a whole month ahead of schedule! That's according to the latest blog entry on the project's site, in which team member Mato records that, "Testing's pretty much over now. Some bugs did turn up over the last few days, but they were all minor and quickly remedied. Some really hard-to-spot typos were also found and fixed."Joyous news indeed, though the patch will require a few other things before it's of any use: namely a slot-2 flashcart, a GBA emulator, and -- cough -- an entirely unauthorized ROM copy of the Japanese game. While we don't condone piracy, a western localization of Mother 3 doesn't exactly look likely at this stage, and we do condone passionate fan projects such as this one. Hit up this FAQ to learn more, and don't forget to check out some beautiful, Anglicized Mother 3 screens.%Gallery-34505%[Thanks, Joel!]
E308: Taking in Kirby Super Star Ultra's new minigames
The demo version of Kirby: Super Star Ultra was limited to one of the original minigames, Spring Breeze, and two new touch-based minigames, Kirby Card Swipe and Kirby on the Draw. It's not much of a revelation to say that Spring Breeze is great, because it was great on the original cartridge and it retains the same amount of greatness on the DS. The look did not need updating at all: Super Star's colorful, bright graphics hold up today. The new rendered intro scene looks awkward compared to the awesome original graphics.In case Super Star is new to you, Spring Breeze is an abbreviated Kirby platformer in the style of Kirby's Adventure. Kirby walks through a series of levels, sucking up enemies, whose powers he can absorb. The levels all tend to be full of breakable blocks and little secret health items. The main wrinkle to Spring Breeze is the partner system: in addition to stealing abilities, you can also put an enemy into service, fighting alongside you, with his own life bar.
Overlooked@E3: Kirby Super Star Ultra
You'd think for all his years of good service, Kirby would deserve a shout-out during the Nintendo E3 2008 keynote -- at least a spot in a video montage. But no, Kirb got the shaft, and if you weren't already keeping tabs on the pink puff, you'd have no idea Nintendo was releasing a (somewhat) new Kirby title for DS -- one of only five first party DS games scheduled for release during the remainder of the year. Exploring Nintendo's E3 press site, we've discovered confirmation that Kirby Super Star Ultra (a remake of the ultraless SNES game) is still on track for a September 22 release.Super Star Ultra will feature all of the original game's modes, plus "new adventures," including three, touch-controlled minigames (Kirby Card Swipe, Kirby on the Draw and Snack Tracks) that support up to 4 players via DS Download Play. With multiple cartridges, two players can play the adventure mode, with one assuming the roles of "Helpers," clones of Kirby's foes created with a new ability. %Gallery-27809%
Mother 3 translation seven months away [update]
Celebrating Mother 3's release in Japan two years ago today, Starmen.net co-founder and fan-translation project lead Tomato posted an update on the unofficial localization's outlook. With ten months of work already behind them, the team predicts that the completed English patch (GBA ROM required) still needs about seven months of hacking, script editing, and testing.While that may sound like a long time, keep in mind that some fan-driven translations can take years before they're finished, and that's if they even make it past the first months of work before dissolving. Besides, it's not like Nintendo of America is rushing to translate the RPG.To help you deal with the wait, Tomato has posted ten minutes worth of video showing the team's progress, all of which you can watch above! So close, and yet so far away![Update 1: Corrected Mother 3's age -- two years old. Thanks, ShadowX!][Update 2: Straight from the horse's mouth.]
Mother 3 battle clips snuck up from behind!
Unwilling to compromise on the quality of its project for the sake of a quick release, the Mother 3 fan translation crew has been tweaking every setting and smashing every bug in its path to releasing an English patch for the Earthbound sequel. In addition to posting regular updates on the programming process, the team has put up screenshots and videos from its work so far, like the Flint vs. Mischievous Mole movie above. We can't wait to try out that rhythm combo system ourselves!On a disappointing note, the project's FAQ now states that the translation group no longer has plans to put out the patch before Super Smash Bros. Brawl's North American release, even with the Wii game's delay to early March. It's a painful wait, we know, but at least you'll get a few bonuses* that aren't in the Japanese game, like this secret enemy in the clip after break.*provided that you have a flashcart/emulator and, uh, the Mother 3 ROM
VC Friday: Shooting rubber balloons
At the very least, this is a great week for pricing on the Virtual Console -- all three of the games are near the lower end of the pricing scheme, and for gamers trying to collect 'em all (or at least, as many as they can!), that's usually good news. Don't think that limits the choices, however; this week, you can choose your poison -- puzzle, shooter, or ... uh ... Balloon Fight. It's fighting. With balloons. Which is, of course, awesome. Adventures of Lolo - NES - 500 Wii points Balloon Fight - NES - 500 Wii points Dead Moon - TurboGrafx - 600 Wii points
Nintendo dates portable lineup, no Phantom Hourglass?
Other than teasing folk with Wii launch speculation in a recent press release, Nintendo also confirmed the following DS and GBA lineup for what appears to be year-end schedules: Oct. 9: Clubhouse Games Oct. 16: Nintendogs (Dalmatian) Oct. 23: Magical Starsign Oct. 30: Pokémon Ranger Oct. 30: Children of Mana Nov. 6: Elite Beat Agents Nov. 6: FINAL FANTASY V ADVANCE (GBA) Nov. 13: Yoshi's Island 2 Dec. 4: Custom Robo Arena Dec. 4: Kirby Squeak Squad If what we are seeing is right, Nintendo seemingly has planned not to release Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS until at least sometime in 2007. Granted, we should have a Zelda fix in the form of Twilight Princess on Wii and GC before thanksgiving, and the company might not want two Zeldas out at the same time, but you can never have too many dungeons. [via Evil Avatar]
Nintendo Briefing: announced, featured DS games
Though Wii is a big part of Nintendo's E3 campaign this year, the company made it clear today that Wii was only made possible by the commercial success and innovative development of the DS. In short, the dual screen portable has a lot going for it and is what Nintendo called the "current" leader in game innovation. Here's a full list of games that were presented at the briefing:
Pokemon Ranger commercial
Go Nintendo has posted some pictures and a Japanese commercial of the upcoming Pokemon Ranger. What's most interesting about the commercial is the way in which injured Pokemon are captured to be housed away in a small plastic ball and enslaved for all of eternity. Rather than simply lobbing a pokeball at said Pokemon, now the player is charged with circling the creature with the stylus as fast as they can, over and over, eventually ensnaring it for their own personal collection. Also, the commercial shows that the stylus will come into play in regards to solving environmental puzzles. We envision using Pikachu's electric powers to power electrical controls for gates and the like or commanding Charizard lay fiery waste to a downed tree blocking the path. These new mechanics, along with the tried-and-true formula of past Pokemon titles, is sure to excite.
