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Nintendo holding 3DS event in Tokyo September 13
Nintendo will host a 3DS-focused media event in Tokyo on September 13, Bloomberg Japan reports. That's two days before the start of the Tokyo Game Show, which Nintendo typically does not attend officially. The Nintendo event will not let consumers in, but will be open to investors and analysts. Nintendo customarily has a fall event every year, like last year's "Nintendo Conference," in which new games are unveiled and plans for upcoming hardware are detailed. It would be easy to use this new event as evidence that Nintendo really is planning to announce that crazy stuff that's been rumored, but really, all we have is a rumor and a press event that happen to come up around the same time. It's safe to expect new game announcements, but it's still a stretch to think we'll see new hardware. Not impossible, but a stretch.
This just in: people like Super Mario Galaxy
"Every hundred years, a comet appears in the skies above Mushroom Kingdom. The comet was so large one year, it filled the skies and sent countless shooting stars raining down. The Toads brought the shooting stars to the castle, where they became a great Power Star. It should have been a very happy time for the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. That was the night of the Star Festival, held once every hundred years to celebrate the comet."So begins the intro to Super Mario Galaxy, as transcribed by IGN's Matt Casamassina. If he's quoting the game, you know he must have played it recently, and he's not the only one. Impressions are finally coming in from the Nintendo summit held last week, and they're-- gasp-- positive. Chris Kohler said that SMG "Might Save Christmas"; Kotaku's Michael McWhertor said that "Galaxy reinstates faith in Mario platforming where Sunshine disappointed." In short, bloggers and journalists like the game. Since these impressions were all posted simultaneously as the NDA's evaporated, we thought that rather than report on them individually, we'd link to them en masse. So there you go. Plenty of reading on the subject of whether bloggers think Super Mario Galaxy is a good game or not.We've also embedded a new trailer, which proves that not only do writers enjoy Super Mario Galaxy, but paid actors do as well (as long as they are paid to)!Read - 1upRead - KotakuRead - Game|LifeRead - IGNRead - MTV Multiplayer
Iwata: Monster Hunter acquired to attract core gamers
In the U.S., Monster Hunter doesn't seem like much of a big deal, but it's serious business in Japan. It's not exactly Japan's Halo-- Halo 3 is actually doing a pretty good job of that right now-- but Famitsu and the other Japanese gaming sites manage to post about a Monster Hunter game nearly every single day. Such serious business is Monster Hunter that Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata celebrated Capcom's move of Monster Hunter 3 to the Wii as a strategic play on Nintendo's part to attract more hardcore gamers.In a statement made during Wednesday's Nintendo Conference, Iwata said "I understand that some experts argue that our success is short-lived and temporary. So, now we need to make efforts to [offer] services and titles that can appeal not only to those who have never played games but also to those who play them hard."In a delightfully hilarious understatement, publisher Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura declared that "The transfer of the platform is a positive surprise for Nintendo and negative news for Sony." Yes, we'd say that a series that has sold 4.5 million copies on your systems moving toward the competitors is negative news. We think that there's almost no reason for Capcom to release a big game like Monster Hunter 3 on the PS3 when they could do so on the Wii. It costs less to develop Wii games, and there are more Wii owners to sell to. Oh, plus it sounds like Nintendo made them a very attractive deal, which doesn't hurt.The Wii's relatively lacking online integration is the only thing that could hurt Monster Hunter, and we imagine that Nintendo will bend over backwards to help out in this case.[Via Game|Life]
American Nintendo Media Summit reveals Crossbow Training details
IGN editors and other not-us members of the press are at the American equivalent to yesterday's crazy megaton-tastic Nintendo conference, and they thoughtfully liveblogged the presentation for the rest of us. It sounds like they're embargoed against revealing too much or publishing detailed videos, which means that, for now, we've got textual reports of the news. Luckily, most of the event consists of a Smash Bros. gameplay demo, which we don't really need to talk about in detail. Guys are playing Brawl! UPDATE: They are enjoying themselves! There's also a short demo of Super Mario Galaxy in much the same vein. The newest news is about the Zapper pack-in Link's Crossbow Training, about which we formerly knew almost nothing, and now know some things. Matt Casamassina mentions in passing that the game will feature "Score attack. Multiplayer, etc." though it isn't known if this is true for all of the game's modes or only for certain exercises. One gametype is based on the Ordon Target Training sequence in Twilight Princess, and rewards you for shooting targets while penalizing you for shooting chickens. The "Defender" mode is actually called Stalfos defenders, and has Link defending against skeletal Stalfoses by, well, shooting them with a crossbow.
Nintendo conference screenshot roundup
We posted a lot of DS screens revealed at or to coincide with yesterday's Nintendo conference, but there's no way we could do an individual post on them all. Three screens of something we've already seen tons of screens of doesn't exactly warrant its own post. Some of the screens listed have been previously released. Some of the games, we just didn't get to. But we can link to a Japanese roundup post that's loaded with screens, and list the games shown within by title! We promise that as soon as we get more information on this stuff beyond a few screens in a roundup, we'll post it. Until then, check after the break for every game in the roundup, organized in order of appearance on the GAME Watch page.
Mystery trademark revealed: Monolith Soft's Soma Bringer
Last month, Nintendo registered a bunch of trademarks in Japan that were primarily Wii-related (which led to some confusion when we spotted Nintendo Magic on the list). One of the more mysterious trademarks was something called "Soma Bringer." Along with about a billion other things, the identity of Soma Bringer was revealed today in a Nintendo conference. It's a new strategy RPG (from the looks of it, at least) developed by Nintendo's newest acquisition, Xenosaga developers Monolith Soft. Just from looking at the screens, we see attacks mapped to the face buttons, and multiple camera angles. As a new Nintendo-published SRPG, we're sure we'll be hearing more about Soma Bringer soon.%Gallery-8412%
Kirby Super Star returns on the DS
Kirby Super Star on the SNES (Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe in Japan) is one of the few minigame compilations that can be called "beloved." In a move that is only shocking in regards to how long it took, Nintendo has announced a sequel, called Hoshi no Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe. The few screenshots we have reveal the return of the "Gourmet Race" event from the previous game (race against King Dedede in both speed and amount of food eaten), the "Spring Breeze" adventure mode, and what looks like a "Great Cave Offensive" style treasure-collecting game. In addition, a wireless connection icon is visible, meaning that wireless multiplayer (though not necessarily Wi-Fi) will be enabled.%Gallery-8402%
Monster Hunter 3 moved from PS3 to Wii
Nintendo's going to have to divert every Wii shipment straight to Japan for this one. The Monster Hunter series, while certainly doing decent business in the U.S., is an absolute sales monster in Japan. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd on the PSP sold half a million copies on its first day and became the first million-selling PSP game in Japan.Monster Hunter 3 was previously announced for the PS3, but Capcom has now changed their plan and announced it as a Wii exclusive. Without the barrier of having to buy a new $500+ system, Monster Hunter 3 (tri-) (that's the official title-- we don't know either!) should be quite the hit. An important part of the Monster Hunter experience is online play. We expect such a feature will appear on the Wii, though we don't look forward to seeing how the game will integrate friend codes.
The Smash Bros. MEGATON that is a surprise to nobody: Sonic confirmed
A lot of really cool stuff is coming out of the Nintendo conference that's going on in Japan right now, but this is the most immediately satisfying: Sonic the Hedgehog will be a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and he'll have his Super Sonic transformation. We've all been expecting this announcement, so it's not a huge surprise, but it's still a big deal.This brings up so many questions! Like, will Sonic be able to pick up rings to regain health? Will both attack buttons just make Sonic jump? Most importantly, will he be bringing Tails, Knuckles, Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose, Mecha Sonic, Metal Sonic, Cream the Rabbit, Big the Cat, Bean the Dynamite, and all of his other friends along?In less happy Brawl news, the game has been delayed until January 24th for Japan. No word on whether the release date has changed for other regions, but we doubt it.
