New Update For Smash Bros. for Wii U Brings New 8-Player Stages

This is just a quick post to let you know that if you download the latest update for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a total of 15 8-Player versions of familiar stages will open up to you with some appearing in their “normal” form and others appearing in the Omega/Final Destination form. These new 8-player stages include, but are not limited to: Luigi’s Mansion, Town and City, Lylat Cruise, Pokemon Stadium 2, and Wii Fit Studio! Here’s hoping this is a sign of even more content in the future!

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Club Nintendo Announces its Closure

Yesterday, Club Nintendo, Nintendo’s cool customer loyalty program, announced that it is beginning the process of shutting down to make way for a brand new service. Click here to read the official statement by Club Nintendo.

The website announced that Club Nintendo members can continue to earn coins until the end of March, but that any games released after the 20^th of January 2014 will be ineligible for coin redemption. The last day to actually turn your coins in for rewards will be at the end of June and, when July rolls around, Club Nintendo members will lose all of their unused coins. And, as a thank you for member loyalty, anyone with an account will receive a download code for Flipnote Studio 3D in February.

What does this mean? Well, if you haven’t redeemed any of your coins yet, now might be the time to think about that. Additionally, if you have any unregistered games, your last chance to do so is coming up. You’ll still get coins for them for now and to become and an Elite Status member you need 300 coins and 600 coins for gold and platinum respectively. The free Elite Status gift (which was a free game last year) will be announced in April and exchanging your coins for a reward will not revoke your Elite Status, so if there’s something you’ve been wanting from the rewards center this could be the best chance to grab it. However, Club Nintendo is stating they will be adding brand new rewards in February, so it might be worth the wait to see what else pops up in the rewards section. Also, if you have a download code from Club Nintendo for a game you might want to download it soon because these codes will expire in July!

It’s a shame to see Club Nintendo go, but I’m interested to see what new possibilities are ahead for future programs. I hope that, whatever Nintendo decides to go with, it’ll involve a way to get rewards for purchasing not only games and systems but amiibos and other Nintendo products as well.

When Club Nintendo does post its new list of rewards in February expect a post detailing what all the new items are.

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Pokémon ORAS- Hoopa Has Been Revealed!

Finally! GameFreak has finally revealed the legendary Pokémon Hoopa! Though it’s been fairly widely known about since X and Y, this new Ghost and Psychic type is due to appear in some way in ORAS. In CoroCoro magazine, it was recently revealed that Hoopa will be featured in the upcoming Pokémon movie, so expect to see a lot more of this Pokémon in the upcoming months. In the meantime, click here to see Hoopa’s brand new reveal trailer.

Summary of Nintendo Direct from 1/14/15

There was a long Nintendo Direct this morning and it was packed full of information! There’s so much of it that I’ve decided to use a quick, bullet-point format in order to summarize it all. I’ve also broken up each section into small categories for the purpose of keeping everything organized. Click here if you haven’t yet seen the Direct to watch it for yourself.

The Latest Fire Emblem Title-

• The first thing we were greeted with was a trailer for the brand new Fire Emblem game for the 3DS!
• The trailer was action packed and briefly showed us some of the new characters and areas.
• It was stated that the game has some of the same team as Awakening, but features a new member to the team, an established comic book author, who helped to create this game’s story.
• The game will feel familiar to Awakening, but will have brand new challenges.
• There is no release date for this title yet.

Puzzle & Dragon: Super Mario Bros. Edition–

• The popular mobile game is joining forces with the Mario Bros. in a new title for the 3DS. The game is a mix of puzzle and RPG elements.
• The game will feature familiar Mario characters such as Luigi and Toad as well as your typical Mario enemies who will also be able to join your party.
• The game will be released together with Puzzles & Dragons Z.
• The release date for this game is sometime in May.

Limited Edition Bundle of Majora’s Mask 3D Coming to North America!

Nintendo announced on its Facebook page a few hours ago that a limited edition The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D bundle is coming to North American retailers: GameStop, Fry’s, and Amazon. Included in this bundle is an awesome looking Skull Kid figure. It’s stated to cost $49.99 and is due to be released this year. Click here to check out the post for yourself!