New Pokémon Themed Stage Announced for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

Wow, another stage announcement already? How exciting! But, this time, it’s a Pokémon themed stage! In his Miiverse post today, Sakurai coyly says that he won’t reveal the details of this stage, but only that it’s based on the “surroundings of someone’s castle”. Considering that Reshiram appears in the screenshot, it’s not too far of a stretch to assume this is, of course, N’s castle from Pokémon Black and White. And, considering N is one of my favorite Pokémon characters of all time, I’m thrilled by this announcement and I can’t wait to experience it for myself when the games come out. Sakurai states that Zekrom and Milotic will also appear on the stage. Zekrom makes sense to me, but Milotic? That’s an odd choice to me, but I’m sure it’ll make more sense once we see more of the stage. I’m so glad that the Pokémon themed stages are finally getting a little more creative than the traditional Pokémon Stadium fields. I always liked those stages, but seeing some of my favorite Pokémon locales recreated in Smash is definitely a bit more exciting to me.
Click here to see Sakurai’s Miiverse post for yourself and check back here for more Nintendo news.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Paper Mario Stage Announced for Super Smash Bros!

In Sakurai’s Miiverse post today, he announced a brand new stage coming to Super Smash Bros.! It’s a Paper Mario stage that appears to take inspiration from all of the games in the series. The first picture he posted, which you can see by clicking here, appears to draw inspiration from Sticker Star, while the second picture is stated to be from a part of the stage inspired by Thousand Year Door. As a big fan of the Paper Mario series, I’m super hyped to see these new stages and I can’t help but wonder if this means Paper Mario might get some more representation in the trophies or even the character roster. I hope so, but at the same time I’m doubtful.

Interesting, though, is that both stage screenshots are from the 3DS version of the game, but the only handheld Paper Mario game was Sticker Star. This either breaks the “rule” that Sakurai stated in the past about the stages from each version featuring games from that console, or this is an exception. Or, this stage could possibly appear in both versions, like the Mega Man stage he showed off last week. It’s hard to say at this point, but I’m definitely excited for this new stage regardless. Here’s hoping the coming week brings us even more exciting Smash Bros. news.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Watch Nintendo Live at SDCC

If you want to check up on what’s going on with Nintendo during this weekend’s San Diego Comic Con, be sure to go to Nintendo’s Twitch page to watch a live stream from the event. There’s sure to be a lot of Super Smash Bros. coverage, so if you’re interested then click here to check it out. Here’s hoping we’ll get some cool new announcements this weekend.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

New Hyrule Warriors Characters Announced!

It was revealed through some Famitsu scans and some new trailers, that joining the playable characters roster in Hyrule Warriors, will be Princess Ruto, Sheik, and Darunia! What a cool and diverse cast of playable characters. A new trailer, which I’ll link to a video of here, shows off their gameplay as well as some other new stuff like weapons, areas, and villains. It’s almost four minutes long and it’s packed full of content! Be sure to check it out.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

New Stage Announced for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Today, on Miiverse, Masahiro Sakurai announced a brand new stage coming to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. It’s the Great Fox from Star Fox: Assault! In his post, Sakurai mentions something about fighting on top of it, but no other details about the stage were given except a picture.

Check out on by clicking here!

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Five Things I Thought About the Latest Batch of Pokémon ORAS Trailers and Screenshots

Since I’m a little to the game with my thoughts and opinions on the latest Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire trailers and screenshots, I thought instead of analyzing everything in super detail I would just give this the “Five Things…” treatment instead so you can see what I took from the latest batch of reveals. If you want to check all the latest reveals out for yourself I suggest you check out the official Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire website which not only has the screenshots, but the trailer, and some select tidbits of info about each newly revealed item too that I’ll be referencing throughout this post.

5. Those Cosplaying Pikachu-

First off, I have to say that I love that their official name right now is the Cosplaying Pikachu. I think that’s so adorable and it’s so fitting because that’s exactly what they look like! Second, though, I’ve been hearing some fans say that the five Pikachu we’ve seen represent the five contests types from Hoenn—Smart, Beauty, Cool, Cute, and Tough—and as soon as I heard that I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice that right from the start. This seems to indicate that there’s almost no doubt that contests will return to ORAS in some fashion, it’s just the details that seem a little fuzzy. The screenshots/video shows you playing with the Pikachu in Amie, so you’ll probably end up with these Pikachu at some point, but how? Are they just regular Pikachu in outfits? Will all Pokémon be able to dress up or just some (like say a select few, like the ones who would typically be allowed in Amity Square or something like that). Will you be given these Pikachu as a prize for winning a contest? It’s so hard to say at this point, but I’m definitely intrigued.

4. Expressive Character Models-

When I saw the Gym Leader and Elite 4 trailer for the first time, the thing that stuck out to me the most was their expressive faces that each of them had. You can especially notice this on Flannery. When she enters into battle she has this really funny expression on her face that perfectly captures how she’s trying to act like a tough gym leader. Wattson looks super happy and Roxanne really looks like she means business when she starts the battle. X and Y had great 3D models for the characters, and their faces did show expression sometimes, but they never looked this good. Seeing how much heart is being put into these games just makes me all the more excited for their release. Is it November yet?

2014 Club Nintendo Elite Status Gifts Announced

Club Nintendo Members, If you managed to accumulate Gold or Platinum Status on your account by registering games and completing surveys, your time to claim your reward is now. The gift for both statuses is a free downloadable game for either the Wii U or the 3DS. The only difference between Gold and Platinum status is that Platinum members have a wider variety of games to choose from including Earthbound and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. Some examples of the games you can choose are shown in the screenshot above, but there are quite a few more options available on the website. You only have until before midnight on August 15th to choose your game, so hurry over to the Club Nintendo website if you want to claim your free game.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

New ORAS Trailer Featuring Mega Metagross and Gym Leaders/Elite 4

Click here to watch the video on YouTube! It mostly shows what we saw already in CoroCoro, but now in the form of actual gameplay.

Robin, Lucina, and Captain Falcon Announced for Super Smash Bros.

Wow! The announcement video introducing a brand new fighter came out today and, well, it was a bit of a shock! Click here to see it on the official website.

While many expected that Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles would be confirmed as a brand new fighter today, Nintendo surprised everyone by announcing three characters! And no Shulk among them! Our three new confirmed characters are: Lucina and Robin from Fire Emblem and “Show me your moves!” himself, the veteran Captain Falcon from F-Zero. This is, by far, the most Fire Emblem characters in a Smash Bros. game. BTW, that troll move at the end of the video was hilarious, but it left me a little confused. Is Chrom playable or not? He kind of looks like an Assist Trophy in the trailer, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that. Some confirmation on that will likely come in time.

I was definitely thinking this would be Shulk’s day, but it looks like that won’t be coming just yet. I still predict that he’ll still be joining the roster. Just not yet. Sakurai said we were reaching the bottom of the announcement trailers, which means there are likely still one or two left. So, don’t give up hope yet Xenoblade fans.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

 

The ORAS Speculation Continues- Thoughts on CoroCoro Scans

Well, it looks like we finally got some higher resolution versions of the CoroCoro scans from yesterday as well as some brand new pages. And it seems that there’s even more to this reveal than before! How crazy is that? The scans showed not only new artwork for some of the Gym Leaders and Elite 4, but it also showed some more perplexing stuff…to say the least.

First of all: be sure to check out these scans for yourself, because they’re pretty cool. Click here to look at them on Serebii.net– a great website for any Pokémon fan.

Next, let’s look at these scans in more detail. Starting with the first two we can see some images of a Pikachu dressed up in a bunch of different costumes. While this is supposedly related to contests, this is Pokémon dress up like we’ve never seen before. Is this available for all Pokémon or just Pikachu? Are there contests for Pikachu only? I honestly have no clue, but I’m intrigued. “Idol Pikachu” is my favorite. However, what might excite fans the most is that these Pikachus are shown on the Pokémon Amie interface. You can see it multiple times on these pages. That likely means that feature is back again. I know that’ll make a lot of fans happy and hopefully give people some hope that other X and Y features we loved will make a comeback too.