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.

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.

Summary of Nintendo Direct- 11-5-14

There was another exciting Direct today and just like we’ve come to expect from Nintendo it was full of cool new information and a couple surprises. Click here if you want to watch the Direct for yourself before reading.

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The first surprise—though this has been long speculated—was the reveal of The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask 3D for the 3DS and 2DS. The much anticipated remake of the N64 classic is due to release in Spring of 2015. It seems to be rather faithful to the original, but it’s said that the game will be accessible to new players as well.

The next game discussed was Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. Almost all of the talk about this game was focused on the battle mechanics and explaining the depth that each fight can have. Additionally, they also highlighted four of the game’s characters: the main character Henry Fleming, the Lion from Oz, Tiger Lilly (from Peter Pan, I believe), and Tom Sawyer (from, of course, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). The game is slated for a release in Spring 2015 which is soon shaping up to be a busy time of the year for Nintendo.

New Mario Kart 8 DLC- Link, Animal Crossing, New Courses, and New Costumes!

Wow! Talk about unexpected!

We were already on track to receive the Mercedes Benz DLC for Mario Kart 8 today, but just a few hours ago it was announced that we’ll be getting even more DLC in the future!

Unbelievably we’ll be receiving some very awesome DLC in the form of 16 brand new tracks, new non-Mario characters, and alternate costumes and colors for other characters. Not to mention new karts and bikes!

Nintendo has announced a plethora of awesome DLC that will come to us in two separate packs.

The first pack, to be released in November (wow, so soon!), will include Link from the Legend of Zelda, Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, 4 new vehicles– including the Blue Falcon– and 8 new tracks (one of them appears to be Wario’s Gold Mine from Mario Kart Wii and the other seems to be based on F-Zero).

The second pack, to be released in May (which seems so far off now), will include Isabelle and the Villager from Animal Crossing, Dry Bowser, 4 vehicles, and 8 new tracks–at least one track, shown off in the promotional photos which seems to be based off Animal Crossing.

Also, anyone purchasing either pack will also be a

ble to change the colors of their Yoshi or Shy Guy characters as well. That’s not too bad, I suppose.

I’m super hyped for this DLC. Though it means Mario Kart isn’t so exclusively for Mario characters anymore, it doesn’t bother me to see some representation from other games. Mario still is the star of this game, so, to me, it’s no less his than it was before.
I’m a HUGE Animal Crossing fan, so seeing some love for that game in here makes me pretty excited. I can’t wait to see that Animal Crossing course and to race against everyone’s favorite secretary, Isabelle. And though it’s weird seeing Link driving a go-kart, I still can’t wait to play as him in the game.

If you’re excited about this DLC like me, you can already preorder them starting tomorrow in the Nintendo eShop.

I’ll be sure to post again about any updates or reveals concerning these DLC packs in the future.

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

My Top 5 Favorite Mario Kart 8 Tracks

Mario Kart 8’s been out a while now. I’ve logged a lot of hours on the game and I’ve truly had a lot of fun with the many new and returning race tracks. Of course, having raced on each track various times, some have stuck out as my favorites of the group. So, today I thought I’d share my personal favorite tracks from Mario Kart 8 and explain why I like them so much. Note: This list is not an objective list of the “best” tracks, per se, but the ones that I look forward to racing the most. Thus, this list is almost all opinion based and is just for fun. Truly, I do believe each Mario Kart 8 track has something special to offer, so if your favorite track isn’t on here it doesn’t mean it isn’t good, it just means it isn’t one of my personal favorites. This post is on the lengthy side, so I’ll wrap up the disclaimers and jump right on in. Also, you can click on the titles of the races to be taken to their respective Super Mario Wiki page. It’s one of my favorite websites and it has a lot of really good information on it about everything Mario related and its where all of the following images can be found, so check it out if you want to learn more about each track I mention.

5. Sweet Sweet Canyon

I love this track for many reasons, but what stands out most to me about Sweet Sweet Canyon is the gorgeous scenery. The entire track is made of, you guessed it, sweets. There are candies, cakes, cookies, and soda abound in this visually stunning track. It looks beautiful and the environment reeks of creativity. I love seeing all the small details that this track has packed in it and every time I race it, I feel as if I notice something I hadn’t before. It’s higher up on this list though because although the track is aesthetically one of my favorites, the actual track layout isn’t one that stands out to me much, though it does have its highlights—diving into a soda lake and driving up on either the pink and blue pathways (they’re made of taffy, aren’t they?) are my personal favorite parts of the course itself. These aspects and the overall design have helped to rank it high on my list of favorite tracks.

4. Mount Wario

This track is another stunner. It’s super beautiful and it really feels as if you’re speeding down a mountain. The intro to the race in itself shows off how exciting the track is as the helicopter door reveals the course below you. From then on its craziness as you race down the mountain. My favorite part about this course has to be all the varied environments it has to offer from the forest, to an icy cave, to a dam, and a ski slope. Many of these individual sections could have been the inspiration for a track on their own, but in Mount Wario all of these elements combine to make an exciting race. The best part of the track, for me, has to be the beginning slide down the mountain and well as the ending section down the ski slopes. The last part always seems to result in some really close races, as everyone is going full speed thanks to all of the boost pads and rings you can hit on the way down. This track is a lot of fun and I always look forward to racing it.

Mario Kart’s Mercedes Benz Style Kart Coming this Summer

So, it looks like Mario Kart 8’s going to get some new content! And, according to this tweet from Nintendo of America, it’s in the form of a brand new kart! The kart is based off of a GLA-class Mercedes Benz and looks pretty sleek, to say the least. Previously, it was reported that Japan would be receiving this surprising new kart and many speculated whether or not it would get a release outside of Japan. But now it has been confirmed that it will be coming to America this summer. I suspect this is through either DLC or a system update. The tweet says the details will be revealed soon, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Until then,
-The Nintendo Nerd

P.S. If you are a Club Nintendo member, be sure to spend your coins because they’re going to reset at the end of this month! Club Nintendo will be starting a new round on June 30th, meaning that your coin total will reset and members who have accumulated a lot of coins throughout the year will earn a reward! Here’s a link to Club Nintendo so you can check it out for yourself.