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Did You Know Gaming digs into the history of Fire Emblem
The latest episode of Did You Know Gaming - an examination of Nintendo's long-running, turn-based strategy series Fire Emblem - is dedicated to anyone who still thinks of Marth as "that sword jerk from Super Smash Bros." You know who you are. [Image: Nintendo]
Captain Falcon joins Fire Emblem: Awakening heroes in Super Smash Bros.
No need to worry about percentages, this news is 100% true: Nintendo's just revealed Lucina and Robin from Fire Emblem: Awakening are in the Super Smash Bros. roster, along with the familiar returning face of good ol' Captain Falcon. If you're wondering who Robin is, that's the default name for your playable avatar in Fire Emblem: Awakening. As per the 3DS tactics RPG, you can play as either the male or female Robin in Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo 3DS software sales increased in 2013, sold 11.5 million hardware units in US
Avoiding a conversation about its other child, Nintendo announced this morning that the lifetime hardware sales for the 3DS have surpassed 11.5 million units in the US. The 3DS family includes the original system, along with 3DS XL and 2DS. The company plans to announce its third quarter earnings on January 29, which should help bring global context to the hardware sales number. Nintendo also stated this morning it had more than 16 million software sales (both retail and digital) in 2013 for 3DS, which is a 45 percent increase from 2012. It also pointed out that two of its Nintendo 3DS games in 2013 had over a 90+ Metacrtic. Coincidentally, both of those games made our Joystiq Best of 2013: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Fire Emblem Awakening.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2013: Fire Emblem: Awakening
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. The last time I fell so deeply in love with a strategy-RPG was with Shining Force on the Sega Genesis, so Fire Emblem: Awakening was one of this year's most pleasant surprises. It rekindled an addiction I'd long thought dead, and its deep mechanics kept me hooked through several playthroughs. Previously, the Fire Emblem games scared me away with their brutal permadeath mechanics; earlier series entries kill off major characters for good if they fall in battle, often leaving players with a gaping hole in their ranks if an enemy should land a lucky critical strike. Awakening allays these fears with its new "Casual" mode, which mercifully allows characters to retreat after being defeated, instead of croaking on the spot. Casual mode is a boon for fretful players (and obsessed micro-managers), and it allows both casual fans and hardcore veterans to customize their experience to a degree never before seen in the series. For instance, if you want to sample Fire Emblem's traditional high-stakes gameplay but don't want to risk losing several units during each battle, you may want to set the game's difficulty to Easy while opting out of Casual mode. During my second playthrough, I chose to play on "Hard Casual," a seemingly oxymoronic combination that provides a satisfying level of difficulty without the stomach-churning risk of permanent character loss. It proved to be an ideal solution for me, emphasizing everything I like about the genre while downplaying the elements I didn't especially enjoy.
Nintendo offers $30 in eShop credit for Fire Emblem, SMT4 purchase
As part of a newly launched promotional offer, Club Nintendo members are eligible to receive $30 in eShop credit for buying and registering both Nintendo's Fire Emblem: Awakening and Atlus' upcoming Shin Megami Tensei 4 for the Nintendo 3DS. Club Nintendo members have the option of buying both games either at retail or via Nintendo's eShop in order to be eligible for the offer. Shin Megami Tensei 4 launches in North America on July 16 as an eShop download and as a retail-exclusive Limited Edition Box Set. Nintendo announced an upcoming Wii U crossover game featuring Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei characters back in January, though no further details have been revealed.
Amazon sale on 3DS games: Fire Emblem: Awakening, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and more
Whew! E3, huh? Right? Y'all remember when that guy said that stuff, and then all the things happened? What a crazy week! We don't know about you, but we're feeling like it might be time to unwind from this week's insanity by catching up on our gaming backlogs while we wait for all these sick-looking next-gen jams to drop. Fire Emblem: Awakening, Mario Kart 7, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, Super Mario 3D Land and a mess of other great 3DS games have all been dropped to around $30 on Amazon, which is convenient since we were just saying how we need to catch up on our backlog. Weird! Head past the break for the full list of games and their pertinent purchasing links.
Nintendo: 30% of Fire Emblem sales on eShop, Luigi does better at retail
Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing, Scott Moffit, revealed during a Nintendo event in San Francisco that Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has sold 415,000 copies in the US, while 3DS RPG Fire Emblem: Awakening has sold 240,000. This data will be reflected in tomorrow's NPD report.According to Moffit, "the vast majority" of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sales have come through retail. More than a third of Fire Emblem's sales (80,000) have been through the eShop, with over half of those individuals coming back to purchase a map pack. Moffitt says nine more map packs are planned for Fire Emblem: Awakening, with three of those nine due later this month.
Intelligent Systems divided over Fire Emblem: Awakening's casual mode
Unlike most other games in the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening includes an optional "casual mode" that lets you use characters in future battles even after they're killed. It's surprisingly controversial, even within developer Intelligent Systems."I was on the side that said we shouldn't include Casual mode to the end," project manager Masahiro Higuchi said in an interview with localization team 8-4. "It's that nuance ... If someone dies, you can't just go and resurrect them like in other games. You need to think more carefully about the value of the lives you're controlling in the game. It connects with the difficulty level, too – it makes you work your way through the game very carefully, which I think makes each victory all the more exhilarating."Higuchi admitted that permadeath also had the effect of keeping people from trying the game, and so its inclusion is important. "But I still play in Classic mode myself.""Personally, the first time I heard about [the idea of Casual mode], I was like 'no way,'" said Genki Yokota, director. "My boss brought up the idea, and just like Higuchi-san, I was angry at the thought of going too casual. But in the end, we figured giving players a choice would help expand the appeal of the game." Yokota now plays in casual mode, partly because he likes Awakening's characters and doesn't want to see them die. He's "pretty sure" casual mode will carry on in future games.
Fire Emblem Awakening posts 180K first month sales, 63K downloads
Fire Emblem Awakening shifted 180,000 units across its debut month at North American retail, Nintendo of America tells us. In a statement sent to Joystiq, the company said the tactical 3DS RPG enjoyed best ever first month sales in the franchise's nearly 23-year history. No doubt that was helped by a strong eShop uptake of 63,000 units, which comes in at 35 percent of total sales.Considering the series' last entry, Shadow Dragon, sold just over 250,000 units in North America to date, Awakening's sales bump over here is impressive, much as we thought the game was in our review. We awarded Awakening four and a half stars, deeming it "the best soap opera since CBS canceled Guiding Light," which is certainly saying something.
Capture free Fire Emblem: Awakening maps through SpotPass
Fire Emblem: Awakening has DLC maps available through its "Outrealm Gate." But there's also extra content coming to the strategy game for free, through the 3DS' SpotPass download service.Today, you can get a map called "A Hard Miracle," about Prince Chrom rescuing a group of villagers, by going into the "bonus box" found in the "wireless" area of the main menu. You'll find other stuff there too, including free weapons and extra battles, with recruitable enemies.More SpotPass maps will be distributed soon. "Ghost of Blade" on March 28 is about "a ghost and the ultimate sacrifice," "The Wellspring of Trust" on April 11 offers tough enemies to fight, and "The Radiant Hero" on April 25 brings your Fire Emblem Crew in contact with a "legendary hero."
See where Fire Emblem: Awakening's DLC takes you
This trailer gives you a good idea of what you get when you buy Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC. Depending on the map or map pack you buy, you'll get vintage Fire Emblem characters, tons of money, rare items, or even items that let you change your characters' classes to the "Dread Fighter" or "Bride." Sometimes you also get really weird dialogue.Many of these maps, including the Golden Gaffe and the free Champions of Yore 1, are already available; others are yet to be released. Some can be pre-purchased as part of packs with existing maps.
Fire Emblem: Awakening 'Lost Bloodlines' DLC brings back another old character
This week's new Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC is "The Lost Bloodlines 1," available alone for $3 or as a $6 bundle that also grants you two more maps when they're released.Successful completion of this map unlocks a card to summon Leif from past Fire Emblems. If you're a Fire Emblem fan, this may be exciting to you; as someone who has jumped into the series with Awakening, all I can say is that his sword has been pretty good when my other characters have found it.Other DLC available include three "Champions of Yore" maps and a bundle, and the "Golden Pack," led by the "Golden Gaffe" pack, which promises to earn you lots of in-game cash. It's not like paying for in-game currency because thankfully there's a Fire Emblem map between your expenditure and the virtual money.
MH3 Ultimate, Fire Emblem Awakening EU bundles unveiled, Circle Pad Pro too
Nintendo revealed European hardware bundles for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Fire Emblem Awakening in this morning's Direct broadcast, along with a release date of April 19 for Awakening.The Wii U MH3U bundle includes the black Premium edition of the console, a black Pro Controller, and the game. Meanwhile, the 3DS bundle brings the black XL console to the continent for the first time, along with a pre-installed copy of MH3U. The Circle Pad Pro 3DS XL launches in Europe on the same day the game does, which is March 22.As for Fire Emblem Awakening, it gets a Europe-exclusive blue 3DS XL, as pictured below the break, which includes a pre-installed copy of the game. This morning's Direct presentation also confirmed all of the strategy game's DLC is headed to the continent, but didn't provide any release dates for the add-on content.
Report: Fire Emblem Awakening retail shipments delayed [Update: Nintendo responds]
Amazon is warning of a "potential shipping delay" for Fire Emblem: Awakening, and GameStop marks it "currently unavailable online" – despite today being the official release date for the 3DS strategy game. Best Buy also shows it as unavailable.Game Informer spoke to a few stores, and found Best Buys expecting copies on February 6, and GameStops expecting them on February 8. We've checked in with Nintendo for more information on the supply issues.In the meantime, there are no supply issues on the 3DS eShop, where Fire Emblem: Awakening launched this morning.Update: A Nintendo spokesperson provided the following statement to Joystiq: "Nintendo makes every effort to make sure its games and systems are available at retail stores nationwide on launch day. Sometimes, because of the variables of shipping, different retailers receive their shipments on different days. Fire Emblem Awakening can be purchased right now from the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS."
GBA's Fire Emblem is a great strategy RPG for beginners
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. In 2001, Nintendo of America had a decision to make that would have a huge impact on what at the time was one of its least known properties in the U.S.: Fire Emblem.Super Smash Bros. Melee was set for release that fall, and among its cast were Marth and Roy, whom most westerners had never heard of before. Nintendo of America weighed cutting them for a time, but eventually relented and decided to leave them in. In the early going, I had no clue who they were; soon enough, I grew to like them, just like everyone else. The stage was set for Fire Emblem to make a surprise leap to the U.S.
Fire Emblem - Awakening review: One life to live
Fire Emblem: Awakening is the best soap opera since CBS cancelled Guiding Light.If you've never played a Fire Emblem before, imagine Final Fantasy Tactics from an overhead perspective, or a particularly bloated derivation of chess. Nintendo's stalwart helped establish the turn-based tactical RPG genre, and Fire Emblem: Awakening features everything you expect from the series. Dozens of warriors team up to protect the magical Fire Emblem from an ever expanding army of evil miscreants. Each chapter is a different battle fought on a square grid, with your small army of various combat classes fanning out across the terrain to wipe out the opposing forces. The standard array of RPG unit types are present – warriors deal heavy damage with axes or lances, wizards hurl bolts of fire and lightning from afar, archers arch and thieves thieve.Forget the standard medieval fantasy trappings, though. Forget the swords and arrows, the burly warriors and lithe Pegasus knights, the pointy-hatted mages and high-hatting nobles. Forget the vast array of combat tactics permissible by the game's open-ended approach to strategy. Forget the experience points earned with every attack. Forget the more powerful unit types unlocked once characters hit level ten, and the forges that upgrade your weapons, and the Paralogue missions that provide a secondary story to explore. Those are all vital to Awakening's compulsive allure, but what elevates Fire Emblem above other turn-based tactical RPGs are the deep roster of characters and the relationships that flower between them. You'll get as wrapped up in their stories as your grandmother did with the vengeful harridans and scheming suits of a soap opera.%Gallery-175932%
The Fire Emblem special edition 3DS in pictures
Nintendo sent us a special-edition Fire Emblem: Awakening 3DS, and in the course of staring at it, we decided to take some pictures and share them with you. We can now confirm two things: It's definitely a standard 3DS, and not a 3DS XL It's really prettyThe 3DS bundle includes a 4GB memory card with Fire Emblem: Awakening pre-loaded, for $199.99. This is the first North American release for the "Cobalt Blue" 3DS color scheme.%Gallery-177085%
Fire Emblem: Awakening US TV spot asks you to think about your choices
While the decisions you make in Fire Emblem: Awakening may "last forever," you can take comfort in knowing this television spot won't take you the rest of your life to watch.
Fire Emblem: Awakening teaches the value of friendship
You might have thought the best part of friendship was a sense of camaraderie and togetherness. As this Fire Emblem: Awakening trailer proves, the real boon of friendship is sweet combat boosts.
NintendoWare Weekly: Fire Emblem demo, Tokyo Crash Mobs
Fire Emblem: Awakening has strategically issued a demo in advance of its February 4 release date. You can engage with its forces and then make the tactical decision of whether or not to enter the battle in earnest.Also available on 3DS today: Tokyo Crash Mobs, the puzzle game about lining up people dressed in the same color (by throwing them at one another).
