Summary of the Latest Nintendo Headlines-End of July 2015

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS

The biggest news coming out of Nintendo last week was the reveal of a big Super Smash Bros. update available now that includes Tournament Mode, new stages, and new Mii Fighter Costumes! By purchasing some of the latest DLC, you will now be able to play on the classic N64 Stages Hyrule Castle and Peach’s Castle. Finally, the new Mii Fighter Costumes available for purchase in eShop include outfits of some beloved characters such as King K. Rool, Chrom, Lloyd, Black Knight, and the Flying Man in addition to a few others.

Splatoon

Splatoon is set to receive its long awaited August update on the fifth of next week. In this update are two new modes: Squad Battle and Private Battle. Both of these modes will make it easier for players to join their friends in battle and ensure that they can play on a team with them. The game is also set to receive an increase to its Turf War level cap (from 20 to 50) and an increase to the maximum rank in Ranked  Battle (S and S+). 40 new gear items will also be made available to unlock. Finally, this update will also include two new weapon types: the bucket-like Sloshers and the Splatling. They also released on the official Splatoon U.S. tumblr that the update will come with new music as well.

Additionally, the official tumblr page has also announced that two new weapons will be made available at 7 p.m. PST tonight. These weapons are the Inkbrush Nouveau and the Ranged Blaster. The tumblr page also mentioned last week that the stage Urchin Underpass will be going offline from the 2^nd of August to the 5^th in order to be updated.

From “Squid Research Lab”- The Splatoon U.S. Tumblr

Amiibo

The Dark Pit amiibo is available for purchase today from Best Buy. Additionally, it’s been stated that Animal Crossing will be receiving 400 (whoa!) amiibo cards. Finally, there’s also a rumor circulating that GameStop will be soon hosting an amiibo event in which a special 3-pack of amiibo (rumored to contain R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, and Duck Hunt) will be available for purchase.

Additionally, in amiibo related news, it’s been said that 99 amiibo costumes will available in Super Mario Maker ranging from Isabelle to Marth. However, it’s been stated that you might not necessarily need the amiibo in order to unlock the costumes.

That about covers it for now. I’ll be back next week with another news summary much like this one.

Until Then,

The Nintendo Nerd

Summary of Nintendo’s E3 Digital Event- 6-16-2015

Here we go! Here’s a summary of Nintendo’s Digital Event from E3 2015. Click here to watch the Digital Event for yourself or continue reading to see what it was all about.

• The first announcement of the Direct was a new StarFox game with a world premiere trailer for the game. The game is titled StarFox Zero and will be debuting during the holiday season of this year. The trailer was an overview that transitioned into a developer interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in which he discussed his inspiration for the series. The game will take advantage of the Wii U Gamepad’s gyroscope to control the camera and provide a cockpit view of the action. So, the game has both a first and third person perspective. The Arwing will also be able to transform into a Walker, a feature from Starfox 2. The Arwing can also become the Landmaster as well as a Gyrowing, which looks like a helicopter drone that can explore small areas.
• Next was a presentation from Reggie Fils-Aime. He explained that the theme of E3 was “transformation”. He also confirmed they will talk about the Nintendo NX next year.
• Super Mario Bros. is having its 30^th anniversary this year. Reggie explained how Mario has transformed himself and the face of gaming. After giving a brief overview of Mario Maker, Reggie explained ways that amiibo are going to impact Nintendo’s games.
• In a surprise announcement, Donkey Kong and Bowser will be making an appearance in the Skylanders franchise alongside their own vehicles in the next game Skylanders: Superchargers. Bowser and Donkey Kong will be fully playable and will given “turbo” figurines. The figurines will be both a Skylander figure and an amiibo via a turn of a dial on the bottom of the figure. The Skylanders team created “Magma Bowser” who will be able to set himself on fire and breathe fire onto Koopas to create Dry Bones that he can use to fight for him.

Summary of Nintendo Direct – 4/1/15

It may be April Fool’s Day, but Nintendo wasn’t kidding around with this Direct. It was a long one, so keep on reading if you want to find out about the highlights from the Direct. Click here if you want to watch it for yourself. Without any further ado, here’s the summary:

• To start off, Mewtwo is on his way to Smash Bros.! An awesome new trailer showed off the Mewtwo DLC in Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and 3DS and even featured his brand new Final Smash attack! It was also revealed he will be available on the 28^th of April! If you registered both versions of Smash Bros. you will receive the download code on the 15^th.
• Smash Bros. will also be getting brand new Mii costumes, even some inspired by video game characters including Dunban, Link, and Proto Man which will be available on April 15^th as well!
• But there’s more! In a surprising announcement coupled with the tag “Lucas Comes Out of Nowhere”! Mother 3 protagonist Lucas will be coming back to the Smash Bros. series! He will be available via DLC in June!
• And a brand new Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot will be open to help submit ideas for new Smash Bros. fighters! They will not be able to listen to all requests, of course, but they will take suggestions into consideration.
• In amiibo news, the Wave 3 of amiibos will be released on May 29^th, and the next wave of Smash Bros. figures was also announced! These include: Dark Pit and Palutena (due for release in July) and Olimar, Bowser Jr. Dr. Mario, Zero Suit Samus, and Ganondorf (due for release in September). Some of these amiibos will also be retailer-exclusive. And, as a bonus, Mewtwo and Lucas figures are stated to be on their way in the future as well.

Gold Edition Mario amiibo Announced as Walmart Exclusive

Nintendo of America just posted a tweet that states that a special variant of the Mario amiibo from the Super Mario Bros. collection will be available at Walmart on March 20th! Click here to see the official post. Sadly, checking the Walmart website listing reveals them to be already out of stock online, but Nintendo’s tweet seems to be a reassurance to collectors that there will be figures available in-store as well–just be sure to get there early as they’re likely to sell out quickly.
With this announcement, one can only wonder if more variant amiibos will be released in the future. Regardless, I’ll be sure to post again when any new amiibos are announced.

On another note, I’m going to do my best to post some review style posts for Hyrule Warriors (which I am very, very late on doing) and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in the following weeks. Both should be up soon though, due to my current schedule, I’m not sure when exactly. I can say I have enjoyed both games quite a bit, however, and the reviews will likely be positive ones.

Until Then,
-The Nintendo Nerd

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.

Five Things I Thought About Super Smash Bros for Wii U.

Well, it’s been about a month now since Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was released and I finally feel like I’ve finally played enough of the game to be able to write my style of review for it. As you can probably expect, I am a fan of the series and I really enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, this new Smash Bros. game. The following are just some of the things that stuck out to me the most while playing the new game.

1. The Graphics Are Spectacular

Not very surprisingly, the first thing that stuck out to me about this new installment was just how beautiful it was. The graphics in this game are wonderful. The characters are expressive and are modeled well, the stages are all expansive and detailed, and the additions of some visual cues during the fights really help make this game both amazing to look at while not being too hard on the eyes. Though in Smash Bros. for 3DS I would once in a while lose track of my character, I didn’t have this happen during any of my fights on the Wii U version despite the amount of detail present in every stage and the sheer size of some of them. Simply put, the game is just beautiful all around.

2. There’s So Much To Do!

There are a lot of things to do in this game. Aside from doing matches with your friends in local and online multiplayer, you can take on challenges, collect trophies, take on Master or Crazy orders, play Classic, Event, and All Star mode, and so much more. My personal favorite mode of the bunch is Event Mode as most of the challenges are fun and some are kind of difficult, especially if you go for the special reward on all of them. Regardless, clearing each Event feels like an accomplishment and it’s nice to get a little reward (whether it is equipment or a trophy) after each one. I also like that you can play many different modes with two players, which only doubles the fun. Though the 3DS version left you with a lot to do, this version really seems to top its portable predecessor in all the various ways you can play.

Next Wave of Amiibos Announced!

Here’s a short post to let you know that Nintendo has just announced what characters will be included in the next wave of amiibo figures in this trailer.

We already know that Luigi, Pitt, Little Mac, Diddy Kong, Zelda, and Captain Falcon were slated for a December release just in time for the holiday season. But now we know who will be released after them.

In February in North America, Toon Link, Sheik, Ike, Shulk, Lucario, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Rosalina and Luma, Bowser, Sonic, and Mega Man amiibos will be released. It was also revealed some of these figures will only be available in certain stores. Though they were vague on which figures were exclusive to where, I have to guess that some will only be available at stores like GameStop and ToysRUs, though that’s just a guess.
I hope these figures look just as good as they do in the trailer. Some people have been claiming they aren’t as high quality as they looked when they were first introduced and that disappoints me, but I still have yet to see for myself how true these claims are.

Regardless, this next wave of figures is my favorite one thus far and I’ll likely pick up quite a few of these for my collection.

That’s it for now, but check back later for more Nintendo news and reviews.

Until then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Edit: GameStop’s website revealed that Shulk will be one of their exclusive amiibo figures.