Feb. 15 to 21 Nintendo News Roundup

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD can now be pre-loaded on the North American Wii U eShop, with the game costing $49.99.

The new week also brings us another batch of development related tweets for Twilight Princess from the official Japanese account for The Legend of Zelda. You can find their contents compiled below (translations by Nintendo Everything):

“…It’s Malo. This is the battle mask worn by the Zora tribe… but there are more variations than I thought. Were they in bad terms against the Goron tribe in the past…? Many of them were used specifically for raids, but on the contrary I think they look more conspicuous…”

“..It’s Malo. These clothes were specially made by the king of the Zora tribe, if you wear it you’ll be able to breathe underwater as well… You’ll understand it when you try to wear it, but you must have also known that you can now swim easier than before…”

“…It’s Malo. The Goron tribe has skin that’s tough like a rock, and a strong body that can even break rocks… If you look down of them because they look elderly, you’ll be in a world of hurt… So proceed with caution…”

Besides the new info above, Nintendo of America has also released a new Game Features trailer and a GameCube and Wii U comparison video. You can find both of them below:

GameXplain also put together a new video showcasing the amiibo functionality in the game. Check it out:

Finally, Nintendo has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD’s Sound Selection CD doesn’t simply take music from the original game, but instead features various tunes that have been remastered.

The soundtrack team posted a message about the CD on the official Zelda Facebook page too, which you can find below:

“The core concepts for Twilight Princess’ score are melancholy, pathos, a sensation of speed, and how through it all you can feel a ray of hope. We were really happy to remaster the soundtrack so that everyone can appreciate all the distinctive qualities of each track.”

Here’s an image containing a list of all the tracks available in the CD.

Pokkén Tournament

Lots of new information on Pokkén Tournament was revealed during the week by official sources, interview and other people now that review copies have been sent to them.

First, here’s Nintendo of Europe’s official announcement, which covers most of the features available in the game, and some extra information from the official site. This is followed by a new trailer and a batch of screenshots too.

Take on all challengers, experience single-player and multiplayer battles and unlock the mysteries of Shadow Mewtwo when Pokkén Tournament launches for Wii U on 18th March

17th February, 2016 – Pokémon fans wanting to be the very best will need to conquer the new region of Ferrum, take on all-comers in a variety of game modes including single-player and multiplayer battles, and defeat powerful Pokémon such as Shadow Mewtwo when Pokkén Tournament launches for Wii U on 18th March.

Developed with Tekken franchise developers BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Pokkén Tournament brings versus fighting action to the world of Pokémon for the very first time, along with a roster of fan-favourite Pokémon to play as. For the first time ever prepare to do battle in the region of Ferrum, a new region introduced in Pokkén Tournament that is the stage for a battle style unique to this region, where Pokémon and their Battle Trainers compete to see who is the strongest in the Ferrum League.

The Ferrum League is the new single-player game mode exclusive to the Wii U version of Pokkén Tournament. As players win their way through the league, new Pokémon will be unlocked to be used as Support Pokémon and the number of selectable stages will also increase. Players can also go head to head as two players can take on each other in local or online multiplayer. In Local Battles, one player will use the Wii U GamePad while the other uses a Pokkén Tournament-compatible controller*.

Online Battles consist of Rank or Friendly Matches. In Rank Matches, players will take on the world and rise through the global rankings based on the points collected from their wins. Friendly Matches allow quick battles with others, even friends who have exchanged VS codes or Nintendo Network IDs. Pokkén Tournament also features a LAN Battle mode that allows players to connect two Wii U consoles together to experience local head-to-head action at a full 60 frames per second on separate TVs. In this mode each player can use any compatible controller.

For the first time players will be able to play with the powerful Shadow Mewtwo, a Pokémon shrouded in mystery and possessing overwhelming strength. As players win their way through the Ferrum League, Shadow Mewtwo will suddenly appear, and only successful players will finally bring the secrets of this mysterious Pokémon to light. Fans who purchase a first-run version of the game at retail will receive a limited edition Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card that immediately unlocks the character in the game after tapping it to the Wii U GamePad.

By winning through the Ferrum League players will earn Poké Gold (PG), which can be spent on customising their Battle Trainer. By going to the My Town section of the game, players can use their hard-earned PG to purchase and equip new customisation items such as hair styles, outfits and accessories. Pokkén Tournament is also compatible with all amiibo accessories to unlock in-game items.

Pokkén Tournament also features a deep Practice Mode that will allow players to practice battling as much as they like without worrying about time limits or HP. In addition to the open practice of Free Training, the Combo Dojo will introduce powerful combos for each Pokémon and let players try them out. With a playable cast of Pokémon and dozens of additional support Pokémon to unlock, there are hundreds of combos to learn and take into battle.

With the new Ferrum League, a variety of multiplayer options, new battle and support Pokémon, and the mysteries of Shadow Mewtwo finally revealed, there is plenty to excite Pokémon and versus fighting game fans alike on 18th March when Pokkén Tournament launches for Wii U.

– New support Pokémon sets includes Espeon and Umbreon, Cubone and Digglet, and Magneton and Quagsire;
– Espeon uses Morning Sun which removes status conditions and restores Hit Points. The less time on the clock, the more HP is restored;
– Umbreon uses Snarl which sucks up the opponent’s Resonance Gauge and prevents them from landing critical hits;
– Cubone uses Bonemerang, which is a quick long range attack that hits multiple times and brings opponents towards you;
– Diglett uses Dig making it easier to land combos when the opponent has been hit;
– Magneton uses Tri Attack which aims upward. It lowers opponents’ Speed & Attack and is good against jumping opponents;
– Quagsire uses Mud Bomb, which is effective against grounded opponents and damages them even if guarded against;

Nintendo Life’s stream also confirmed Yveltal and Latios, and Reshiram and Cresselia, as support Pokémon sets, as you can see in the screenshot below:

During the week, a couple interviews about Pokkén Tournament popped up, covering various topics. We have Polygon’s article on Shadow Mewtwo and how canon it’s to the Pokémon Company, and a piece by The Verge on the origin’s of the game and how it was first a Taiko Drum Master proposal.

GameXplain also interviewed Katsuhiro Harada and Masaaki Hoshino from Bandai Namco about the game’s origins, the roster, challenges in making Pokémon look realistic, working with the Pokémon Company and Shadow Mewtwo’s creation, among other things. You can watch the interview in the video below:

Finally, we have a bunch of gameplay footage from different sources, check it out below:

Pokémon Rumble World

Pokémon Rumble World will be seeing a retail release in North America, just like in Europe and Japan, on April 29.

Here’s the official announcement by the Pokémon Company:

Pokémon GO

It has been revealed that the Pokémon GO panel scheduled for this year’s Game Developers Conference in March is to be held at the following times:

• Europe: 12AM (March 15th)
• UK: 11PM (March 14th)
• North America (ET): 6PM (March 14th)
• North America (PT): 3PM (March 14th)
• Japan: 8AM (March 15th)

Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper also published an interview with the Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara, where he shared that Pokémon GO would first launch in Japan, Europe, and North America, and then South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East at a later date. In addition to this, he revealed that the Pokémon Company is working on another big project besides Pokémon GO, but he did not share what platform it was for.

Junichi Masuda to attend E3 2016

Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda recently tweeted that he will be attending E3 2016.

This happened while organizers of Desucon from Finland contacted him because they wanted to invite Masuda to their event. However, considering that it’s very close to E3, after discussing it with The Pokémon Company International, he won’t be able to attend.

In other words, E3 seems to be a priority for Masuda over Desucon, which means that Game Freak and the Pokémon Company will probably have an important presence at the event. What they will be there for, no one knows for now…

Fire Emblem Fates

Last week we got some final promotional material for Fire Emblem Fates, right before the North American release on the 19th.

Nintendo released a new launch trailer for the game, featuring some of the review scores it got from the press. You can find it below:

Moreover, a new video that briefly explains the purchaseable options available in the game was also released. Check it out:

Nintendo also posted a couple of tweets with images during the week, one introducing the members of each royal family you encounter in the game, and the other is a flowchart to help players decide which game to pick up first. You can find them below:

Last week’s Nintendo Minute also focused on Fire Emblem Fates once again, but this time Kit and Krysta showcased the multiplayer aspect of the game. You can find the latest episode below:

Next up, we have an interview by USGamer with Fire Emblem Fates director Kouhei Maeda, producer Masahiro Higuchi, and Nintendo director Genki Yokota. In it, they talk about the process of developing two different games at once, the characters they had their protagonist marry, what the series needs to continue its recent success, and the useful input they got from novelist/manga writer Shin Kibyahashi while planning the games. It’s an interesting read and you can find it over here.

Finally, you can find some more gameplay footage in the videos below:

Genei Ibun Roku #FE

The March edition of Nintendo Dream magazine has another interview with the Genei Ibun Roku #FE team, including producer Hitoshi Yamagami (Nintendo), director Kaori Ando (Nintendo), producer Shinjiro Takata (Atlus), director Eiji Ishida (Atlus), chief director Wataru Hirata (Atlus), and art director Fumitaka Yano (Atlus).

In this interview, the developers talk about reproducing Shibuya in-game, the creation of the game structure, and an idea they had for battle intros that was ultimately scrapped.

You can find a translation of the interview over here, at Nintendo Everything.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS

The issue of Nintendo Dream mentioned above also featured a 7 page interview with Masahiro Sakurai about Super Smash Bros.’ DLC.

In it, Sakurai talks about the end of DLC in the Wii U and 3DS games, including how development differed in comparison to the main title and why now is an appropriate time to stop adding characters to the game. It is also discussed how he wants Smash Bros. to appeal to all types of players.

Furthermore, he mentions how he considered adding Geno to the game as a playable character in the last two entries in the franchise, and even gives readers a breakdown of how Mewtwo, Lucas and Roy were conceived as playable characters in Smash, in addition to how the DLC stages were made.

Once again, you can find a good chunk of the translation over here, at Nintendo Everything. And Source Gaming is currently translating the full interview, which you can find in these three pages so far, with part 2 coming soon: part 1; part 3; Geno.

Splatoon

The results of the latest Splatfest, in which the original Pokémon game versions were pitted against each other, are now in.

Here are the results for each region:

North America (11th Splatfest) – Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue

– Votes – 55% / 45%

– Wins – 41% / 59%

– Final Results – 301 / 399 – Pokémon Blue Wins

Europe (11th Splatfest) – Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue

– Votes – 64% / 36%

– Wins – 43% / 57%

– Final Results – 322 / 378 – Pokémon Blue Wins

Europe (11th Splatfest) – Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue

– Votes – 61% / 39%

– Wins – 36% / 64%

– Final Results – 277 / 423 – Pokémon Blue Wins

(I was surprised by these results because I thought Red would win. Very interesting.)

Mario Party: Mysterious Challenge World

Famitsu has published some screenshots from the upcoming arcade game Mario Party: Mysterious Challenge World. Check them out in the gallery below:

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for the 3DS is now out in Japan, so various gamers have started recording footage of it. You can check some of those videos below:

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker received another Event Course to add to its collection this week, with the “Nisekoi: Chitoge & Kosaki” level, that lets players unlock the Chitoge Kirisaki costume, based on Chitoge from the popular manga Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi.

Below you can find a an overview of the game, the usual costume showcase and a look at the level itself.

“This course was created by Naoshi Komi, the author of Nisekoi, a popular manga comic series in the Japanese magazine WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP.

It’s divided into two routes, each based on a different Nisekoi character. Will you choose Chitoge Kirisaki or Kosaki Onodera?”

Super Mario Maker also won the Family Game of the Year at the DICE Awards.

DICE Awards honors Satoru Iwata with Lifetime Achievement

Nintendo Account and MiiTomo Pre-registration Open

It’s now possible to register for a Nintendo Account by visiting the following link.

You can sign up with your Nintendo Network ID, Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter login. Alternatively, users can make a Nintendo Account entirely from scratch.

The pre-registration period for Miitomo has also begun, and you can do so by visiting this page, and then clicking the “Preregister here” button. You can then create or logging in to your Nintendo Account to complete the process.

All users who pre-register a Nintendo Account to Miitomo will automatically receive My Nintendo Platinum points.

My Nintendo and Miitomo will both launch sometime during next month.

Miitomo will work with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads that have iOS 7.0 or newer, while Android devices will need to have version 4.0.3 or newer. Nintendo also warns that some Android devices may not be supported.

It was also uncovered due to these pre-registration pages that the Nintendo Account system stores various types of data, including an interesting “Mission Status”, that will be gone once you delete the account. You can find in the image below all the data that is lost in such a case.

Finally, we have a bunch of screenshots from the mobile app MiiTomo in the gallery below:

Nintendo NYC Reopening

Nintendo World has been closed for several weeks of renovation to turn it into Nintendo NYC. The grand reopening was held on February 19th, and below you can find several videos and photos of the event.

Virtual Console Trailers

Below you can find some trailers for upcoming Virtual Console titles.

Pokémon Red, Blue, Green and Yellow (Japan, Gameboy)

Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow (Europe, Gameboy)

Yoshi’s Story (Japan, N64)

Rumour: Nintendo NX, Wii U and 3DS Lineups

MetalDave, from the website NintenGen, has once again spread some new information on the internet via two new posts. You can find them here and here.

This time, he claims to have been contacted by an employee of Nintendo of America’s Marketing division, and managed to get some new information regarding the upcoming software lineup for Nintendo consoles.

First, he was able to confirm that Nintendo NX will launch this holiday season, and Zelda NX will launch within its launch window. Apparently, Nintendo is trying to release both Zelda Wii U and Zelda NX by holiday 2016.

Other Wii U games coming soon include:

– A new Minecraft collaboration involving Nintendo IP, which is likely to be DLC for Minecraft: Wii U Edition, as it was mentioned by Nintendo during the game’s launch that Nintendo exclusive content would be added later.
– Star Fox Zero is still on track for an April release.
– Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is a Summer release.
– The second half of 2016 will see a new wave of Nintendo Selects, the Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem crossover, Zelda Wii U and another as of yet unnanounced game.

The list of upcoming 3DS titles is as follows:

Spring-Early Summer

– Mario and Sonic at Rio 2016 Olympic Games
– Nintendo Selects Wave 1
– Hyrule Warriors Legends
– Disney Art Academy
– Bravely Second
– Code Name: “Caviar F” (casual friendly smaller budget game)
– Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Summer

– Code name: “Torte City” (big budget unannounced game for all gamers core/all ages)
– Dragon Quest VII
– Code name: “Cadillac” (casual friendly smaller budget game late summer)

Fall-Holiday

– 3DS Hardware Price Cut
– Code name: “N-Stars” (big budget game for all ages)
– Nintendo Selects Wave 2
– Code name: “DMW2” (possibly Disney Magical World 2)
– Dragon Quest VIII
– Pokémon 20th Anniversary game, Code Name: “Niji”, Japanese translation: “Rainbow”

This information has since gained a bit more credibility, since Disney Art Academy has been listed in some online retailers.