Tag Archives: nintendo

Did A Wii Virtual Console Game Release With Online Play? Yes, Yes It Did.

The game? Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers for the SEGA Genesis. Wow. Y’know, I gotta give props to Capcom for this. They managed to do something that not even Nintendo thought of doing with their own games. Since the start of the Wii’s Virtual Console service, many had hoped that many of those old classics would have online multiplayer; Super Mario Bros., Joe & Mac, F-ZERO X, Bubble Bobble, Secret of Mana, and many other games with great multiplayer. But the games released would just be straight ports with no new bells and whistles added. But Capcom sought to fix this and added online multiplayer for the Genesis version Super Street Fighter II:The New Challengers. Makes a bit of sense though since the original had XBAND support. Unfortunately they may not be able to add it for the SNES version since they’ve long since released it. It may not mean much since the Wii’s life is close to the end. But hopefully sends a message to Nintendo and other companies that it’d be awesome for these old games to have online multiplayer. If Nintendo continues VC service on the 3DS and resumes the line on the Wii U, this feature would be more than a welcome addition.

So big ups Capcom, big ups.

Genesis version of Super SFII now on US Virtual Console – with online play [Capcom Unity]

U.S. Copies of Xenoblade Outsell Japan’s Total Lifetime Sales[EDIT]

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Well it’s already been a month since Xenoblade went on sale in the U.S. So far I’ve been thoroughly impressed with this game with each gaming session unintentionally becoming a marathon session. But how has Xenoblade done in terms of sales? According to VGChartz* the game has sold a total of 220,503 copies in the U.S. Compare that to Japan’s totals sales of 159,000 copies sold, and Europe’s 176,000 copies sold, and you’ll see that the U.S. was the biggest contributor to the total sales of the game. Keep in mind, Nintendo did next to no advertising for the game, producing one trailer (that they sent to publications twice for some odd reason), making a crappy internet banner ad, and made the game a retailer exclusive. A whole lot of super-safe steps were made by NoA to make sure next to no money was spent in advertising this game. It was up to the fans to spread the word. Operational Rainfall was the primary hub for this, with others joining in to help out in spreading the word (myself included). Not only that, it was up against Mass Effect 3, The Witcher 2, and Nintendo’s own Mario Party 9 (which sells freakishly high numbers). And look, the game sold better than anyone expected considering the circumstances. All territories combined, Xenoblade has sold a grand total of 623,000 copies. Good job people!

Now if only there was a cake to celebrate this occasion.

*VGChartz uses speculative data for its sales numbers. [Edit] Unfortunately, VG Chartz is the only one reporting this since NPD won’t list Xenoblade due to its retail exclusivity. So Neogaf users, quote us with caution.

Wii U Titles Leaked By BlockBuster UK

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As we come closer to E3 and the Wii U’s holiday launch, Joystiq reports that BlockBuster UK has leaked a picture of what appears to be launch titles for the Wii U. Besides the 10 in the picture up there, the lists goes deeper, showing titles in the Splinter Cell, Tekken, and Aliens franchises. For now, most of these names look like placeholders. Joystiq had updated their article stating that a former Blockuster employee on NeoGaf says that the titles upthere now are placeholders and that the list was formulated by the sales team. So far what we’re not sure of is which of these titles are launch titles and which aren’t. Some are pretty obvious, like Rayman Legends, Metro: Last Light, and Just Dance 4.

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Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale – A Little Competition Didn’t Hurt Anyone

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There sure are a lot of crossovers going on. And I do love me some crossovers. A crossover between all of Sony’s characters was something I’ve been waiting for for the longest. After the success of Marvel vs. Capcom and Super Smash Bros., I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen. Back then though, there wasn’t a lot of characters to go around in the Sony department. But now, that roster has grown and a game like this is now possible. From the outset you can see that this game is heavily, heavily inspired by the Smash Bros. series, right down to the color and arrangement of the HUD (except for the timer, which is at the bottom). Even the physics seem to resemble that of Smash Bros. Brawl. But Sony seems to be doing a few things differently to make it stand out a bit.

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Nintendo Posts Its First Annual Loss In 30 Years

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While Nintendo did expect to lose a little over half-billion dollars in the past year, its still quite a kick in the face for the company. To put this in perspective, Nintendo has never reported an annual loss since going public, essentially when it went to the videogames business. Throughout those years, we’ve seen Nintendo stumble couple of times with the N64, Gamecube, and a few other excursions. But it never dragged Nintendo down that much… until now.

With Wii sales dropping as a new console looms on the horizon and the shaky (but much improved) launch of the 3DS, this could be the jolt that Nintendo needs to finally get back in the game. During this generation, you can see that Nintendo got pretty arrogant with their consoles, even going as far as charging $250 for the 3DS based on people really liking the 3DS with it was first shown at E3 2010. But hey, maybe things might be looking up. There’s a new Super Mario game coming out for the 3DS, and development on the new Super Smash Bros. is finally underway for both the Wii U and 3DS, and sales for the 3DS are on the rise as well. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Wii U crucial as Nintendo posts first loss in 30 years [techradar]

Project X Zone Site Updated, Has Music, Hints At Resonance of Fate and Viewtiful Joe

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Last week Capcom, Namco, and Sega revealed Project X Zone, the sequel to Namco X Capcom that now adds Sega into the mix. I briefly mentioned in the reveal article that the site was still barren, only showing just the logo. Well, the site got a rather significant update. The first thing you’ll notice is the music. I will say it sounds pretty cool. Doesn’t sound tied to any one company; could be the theme song for the game, like for the intro. Then you’ll see a panorama behind the logo. Almost immediately you’ll notice Les Chattes Noires, which was a location in Sega’s Resonance of Fate. Looking in the background, that large tower looks suspiciously like the Tower of Basel from Resonance of Fate as well. If you look below it Les Chattes Noire, you’ll see a place called MovieLand, which was the world Joe would go to become Viewtiful Joe in Capcom’s… err, Viewtiful Jow. There are a few more things that might suggest something, particularly that ornate area to the far left, or the three movie posters above MovieLand

Looking at how these locales are arranged, maybe this is how the player will interact with the different game worlds, like Kingdom Hearts and the Disney Worlds, or like Smash Bros Brawl and those world orbs Tabuu seizes. Or maybe their worlds have clashed and are being melded into one. And so, the plot thickens…

Project X Zone Offiicial Website

[Rumor] Nintendo To Use Square Enix Characters For A New Project

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Oh? Well then. There’s seems to be a rumor going around stating that Square Enix has licensed off their older characters to Nintendo for them to use. Nintendo has not stated what this project is (nor if any of this is true for the matter). Since these are the older characters, and not necessarily from Final Fantasy, this opens up large opportunities for other characters to be used. Could it be Crono? The boy from Secret of Mana? Fan favorite Geno from Super Mario RPG? The god from ActRaiser? Slime from Dragon Quest? Last time we saw collaboration between the two countries, besides Fortune Street, a basketball game was released. Well, if nothing comes out of Nintendo now about this rumor, then it’ll probably come out at E3. We’ll update you on this if anything arises.

RUMOR – Square-Enix licenses characters to Nintendo for undisclosed project? [GoNintendo]

What Could Super Mario 4 Possibly Be?

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Before I begin the speculation, let me bring everyone up to speed. Not too long ago, gamers discovered that Nintendo had registered supermario4.com. When you go there, it redirects you to Nintendo’s country selector. Now normally when you enter some bonkers domain name, either you’ll go to a “domain not found” page, or a page from a domain squatter. But here, you can see that Super Mario 4 is most certainly Nintendo’s. Then in an interview with Korean site Betanews, Miyamoto confirmed that his team was in fact making Super Mario 4 for the Wii U. However, he didn’t specify what exactly this new Mario game would be: a 3D or 2D platformer. Here’s where we start guessing what this could be.

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While We Enjoyed Xenoblade, Europe Got This…

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I want to cry. So… so much. While Nintendo of Europe has shown how awesome they are by being the bigger man by localizing the three games and giving them awesome collectors editions, they went one step further and created this. Exclusive to HMV, the box came with an artbook depicting concept art for all three games and left extra room to store your three games, Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. Note that the box does not come with the actual games themselves, nor is this the Limited Edition box for Pandora’s Tower (it has its own LE).

You got this if you pre-ordered any version of Pandora’s Tower. Prota tipped me on this during a Spring Break hangout at the ol’ campus. I couldn’t believe it. Then he showed me it on Facebook. My jaw dropped into the pits of Tartarus. For a while, both links lead to missing pages on HMV. But the Limited Edition on has since returned (though whether or not you get the box with the game is still a mystery). While I thought that image you see up there was fake, this video proves that it does exists and that NoE are the kings of trolling the hell out of us American gamers. But hey, if you got the disposable income to get the box somehow, you can still put your NTSC games in there. I probably would.

Again, thanks to Prota for the tip.

Retro Weekends – Mega Man II

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And here we are, the last Mega Man game for Mega March (sorta). This weekend, we go back in time to talk about the game that many Mega Man fans herald as the best of the series; the pebble that started the avalanche. Whether it was for its gameplay, its music, or its weapons, Mega Man II has found its way into many top ten lists, music remixes, and tons of fan art. And so, we end off Mega March with the last game I’ve played so far, Mega Man II. Why is it the last so far? Well, hit the jump to find out.

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Xenoblade OK for Retail Buying, The Last Story Not So Much

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I wondered about this since the beginning of March if people would be able to buy Xenoblade without having to Preorder. I already preordered the game, but I’m just curious since since Nintendo’s lack of faith in the game selling made it seem like one of those preorder exclusive deals. Thankfully GoNintendo had the answer, and the official word from Nintendo is that they “…can confirm the Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively for purchase through U.S. Gamestop retail locations…Nintendo never stated that it will only be available to those who preorder it.” So going by their word, you don’t necessarily need to preorder to score a copy of the game. But then again, it’s best to preorder anyways to make the numbers look good ahead of time.

Now The Last Story, that’s a different… err story. While you can probably get away with not pre-ordering Xenoblade and pick up on-the-spot, XSEED will be practicing the Niche Publisher Limited Run scheme that has been successful so far for publishers like NIS America, Atlus, and XSEED themselves. In other words, The Last Story will have a limited run in the U.S. and XSEED will print copies close to the number of pre-orders that they get. So if you want to score yourself a copy of The Last Story, you’re better off preordering. Thankfully the game will be stocked “at any retailer that wishes to stock it.” So if you hate Gamestop, you can get it at another store, like Game Champ!

No worries, Xenoblade Chronicles available for those that don’t preorder [GoNintendo]

The Last Story will probably get a limited run in NA [GameZone]

[FAKE] Mega Man Legends 3 Revived, Ditching 3DS for Wii U

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In a shocking turn of events (this is Capcom after all), Capcom has confirmed that they’ll be resuming development of Mega Man Legends 3. After evaluating what they had so far before the cancellation and what was left to still develop, they realized that the 3DS may not have the space required for what they want to implement. Weighing the options, they decided to move this game to the Wii U. When asked why they decided on the Wii U, a representative replied “We felt that as a company, we want to appeal to a many consumers as possible, and we feel that the Wii U and its Tablet Controller has the potential for that.” Typical canned response, though they probably want to make nice with Nintendo after nixing their initial plans with the 3DS version.

As for why they revived the project, another rep responded “We didn’t quite meet the quota that was expected with some of our recent releases.” And what about Inafune? And the work that the fans submitted to the DevRoom last year. “We haven’t heard anything from him. But I’m certain he wishes the dev team the best of luck. As for the DevRoom submissions, we will bring those back but on a more limited basis. We want to be careful and not displease any fans in the event another cancellation, or something similar, happens.”

So far Capcom is keeping mum on how they will use the tablet controller of the Wii U. But they were nice enough to give us a few screenshots. There’s no specific release date, but Capcom has said that they’re aiming for an early April 2013 release.

Screenshots after the break.

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Use These Xenoblade Commercials in Your Youtube Videos

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[UPDATE: 3o second version of ~Action~ now up. View after the break]

Ahoy!

After seeing that Operation Rainfall made their own trailer for Xenoblade, I decided to jump in and create my own videos for it. But instead of a trailer, I decided to make TV commercials! Three 15 second ones to be exact (with a 30 sec one coming soon). You can read up on the process of how these videos were made in the video descriptions on YT. Now I could’ve made another trailer, but I feel that commercials, particularly the ones for videogames, don’t get as much love. Plus fan-made trailers tend to lean dangerously close to AMV territory. Sure they pop up every freaking time on TV and before a video. But when you sit down and look at a commercial (especially the older ones), you sort of begin to appreciate how the video was made and who it was made for. That and how far we’ve gone in the art of advertising.

But enough about that. We’re here about using them. After the break, the other two commercials and what to do.
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Did The Last Story U.S. Release Date Get Leaked?

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Looks like it. A User by the name of Conegamer at gamrConnect noticed that The Last Story‘s Metacritic page has posted a release date of June 19, 2012. Conegamer does point out that Metacritic has been wrong before, but with many signs pointing to an ambiguous Summer release for the game, Metacritic may not be too far off.

Remember kiddos, Xenoblade gets release on April 6, a Friday. Those that pre-ordered get a snazzy artbook. Though I’ll have to confirm with Gamestop if those artbooks apply to those that preodered before or after they said it. And to U.K. gamers, GAME doesn’t have The Last Story in stock. So you might have to look elsewhere for your TLS fix.

Nintendo Ad Campaigns Retrospective

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[This retrospective has been updated to include new info, broken videos restored, and the addition of the Wii U campaign. If you wish to see it, click here.]

You have an idea for a product. You make the product. And now it’s time to sell the product. So what’s the one thing you’ll do to sell your product? Advertise it of course. This is pretty much the pattern that most product makers follow. In the game industry it’s no different. With catchy slogans, flashy graphics, and some off-the-wall shenanigans, an ad is supposed to convince you to buy the product they are selling. But ignoring all of the attempts to sell and actually looking at the ad, they always seem to be a product of the era that they were released in. So for this retrospective, we’re going to look at one of the longest living game companies, Nintendo, from when we played with power to two guys asking us if Wii would like to play.

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