Nintendo rose a fair few eyebrows in technology circles, as well as here at Sanitarium Towers, when it announced the 3D Classics line – classic games from older consoles such as the NES and Game Boy with a 3D graphic upgrade, offering a unique way to show of the power of the Nintendo 3DS handheld. While the idea has its merits, with a number of classic Nintendo titles getting the 3D Treatment – and persuading SEGA to join in and do the same to some classic SEGA titles – it has to be said that there are actually very few titles that have had the 3D Classic treatment.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could take a NES game of your own choosing, and add 3D? If you’ve found yourself thinking that, you may want to check out Geod Studio’s new project, 3DNes – a work-in-progress Unity-based emulator that, as the name suggests, converts NES games into 3D.

Considering the simplicity of NES games, translating them into 3D is actually a difficult task. Unlike SNES games, which have four background layers, NES games have a single layer for the entire background. Imagine a diorama or a board game – everything in the background is printed on one board, while all the sprites – like your character the ground, enemies, items – are all just pieces on top. To allow the entire game to look 3D, 3DNes uses an algorithm that analyses the flat background and cuts it up into the pieces that make it up, then attempts to turn each piece into a 3D Object. The software is even clever enough to turn round objects into spheres or tubes, so for example, a ball will actually look like a ball instead of just a circle.

Exactly how well this works depends on the game in question, with things getting messier as the backgrounds get more complex. Games like my favourite franchise, Mega Man are translated well and benefit greatly from the effect, but games such as Contra or Castlevania somewhat struggle. Perhaps the best-emulated game is the original Super Mario Bros., which the developer admits was the main focus of the emulator and the most tested, which may explain the gap in quality between it and other games.

This having been said, Geod Studio hopes to improve the number of games that work well through subsequent beta releases, with head of the project Trần Vũ Trúc aiming for one-tenth of the entire NES library as his marker for success. He also suggests that there might be the potential for users to individually tailor the emulator for certain games, but is quick to state this is not currently the case, as he wants to ensure there’s “a strong emulation engine as the backbone” first.

At the moment, the emulator exists only online, as a WebGL game playable through the Unity Player. This means it only properly supports Mozilla-based browsers, such as Firefox or Seamonkey. It’s also extremely unstable, particularly when not using a AMD Graphics card, and may fail to go beyond loading the ROM, or even fail to work at all. However, Trần states that future releases of the emulator will be made available as software downloads, so it should only be a matter of time before we all get to try it properly.

This article originally appeared on Technically Motivated.

Nintendo just wrapped up their latest Nintendo Direct, and as usual there was a lot of information included in the 40 minute presentation. One of the main themes of this Nintendo Direct was Amiibo, but we’ll talk about that as we hit each individual highlight. Ready? Lets go!

Right out of the gate Shigeru Miyamoto brought us some new information about Star Fox Zero. The title is ready to go, and is going to be very similar to Star Fox 64. It will have branching paths both in levels and across the system map. Teleporters were indicated to be a big part of both the story and the branching paths. The game looks nice visually, but the most interesting ideas were in the way that the Arwing can transform and how that allows you to access the multiple paths. It was also indicated that when you beat the game, it will open up even more paths. Star Wolf returns, and there will be special tactics employed to battle his team throughout the game.

Two player mode was also shown off, allowing one player to move and another to shoot.

Of course, Nintendo loves Amiibos, and the Smash Bros. Star Fox Amiibo will unlock the classic SNES Arwing, as well as “some other bonuses.” After that, Project Guard was revealed to now be complete and is actually Star Fox Guard. Players will take the roll of Slippy’s uncle Grippy (ughh) and set up cameras to protect their mining site from enemy robots. Its a tower defense games from what was shown, but with a unique asymetrical twist. You can edit the placement of enemies in levels and them upload them for players around the world to take on.

Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard will come as a bundle, or can be purchased seperately on the eShop (or at the bundle price digitally). The games will release on April 22, 2016.

• Next up was Splatoon. They are making changes to matchmaking and weapons. The theme here was to get items and abilities that aren’t currently used into a more frequent rotation. There will be weapons picked by Sheldon, and  Nintendo seems to be hoping to shake up the multiplayer of Splatoon. Given the game’s success, trying to shake up the meta can only be a good thing.

• Nintendo also showed off Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. MOVING ON.

Did you know that over 6.2 million courses have been created? Nintendo does, and they’re expanding the game again. Now you can shake Thwomps and they will turn into skewers. Shake a p-switch and it will turn into a key. Similarly, shaking a door will turn it into a key door. This means that creators can now expand their devious creations even more. You can place special coins that will summon a key when all are found, forcing exploration.

As if all of that wasn’t sadistic enough in the hands of the collective internet, Nintendo is launching a new 100 Mario Challenge Super Expert Mode, giving you 6 fiendishly hard levels to beat. Beating the mode will add new Mystery Mushroom costumes. The update will be available on March 9th.

• Next up was Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, now known as Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. We didn’t get to hear much about this game other than it is a super stylish JRPG.
• Lost Reavers, Namco Bandai’s free to play online shooter is still coming, and its look pretty good. Team up with players, kill bosses and loot things. I’m in if it’s not pay to win. Open beta comes April 14.

Paper Mario is getting some more love this year with Paper Mario Color Splash. Mario and co will set off to restore color to a tropical island paradise with his paint hammer. You can splash Toads to revive them, or splash a whole house to free a ton of them. Combat will see you painting and using cards in keeping with the theme of the game. The game is currently set for 2016 release.

• Pokken Tournament is still coming out on Wii U. It looks gorgeous and the showed off Machamp getting a 900 hit combo. The fighting looks fast, fluid and fun. Pokken Tournament comes out on March 18, 2016.
• March also sees the introduction of the new rewards program, My Nintendo. Little information was given, but it starts this month.
• Mini Mario & Friends Amiibo Challenge was shown off. Its basically March of the Minis with Amiibo and is a free game for Wii U and  3DS, with the catch being that levels are locked to specific Amiibo.
• The NEW Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console is getting some serious love in the form of SNES games. A special mode will be available called perfect Pixel, which displays the games in their original resolution. Games are available starting today, including Pilotwings and more.
• Game Freak has made a horse racing solitaire game called Pocket Card Jockey. Thats a thing. Coming in May.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is coming, with new features and new playable characters. From March 2nd- June 1st, the original will be offered at a discount, with the sequel coming out this summer.
• Fire Emblem Fates Revelations comes out on March 10th, and Nintendo is ramping up the DLC releases with new maps coming regularly.

Hyrule Warriors is coming out on 3DS, and the new game sees a plethora of new characters, including Linkle. Hyrule Warriors Legends will have new content available as well, including a season pass that includes 4 DLCS and a bonus costume for Ganondorf. On launch day, anyone who gets a physical copy of the game will get a download code for a free Hyrule Warriors 3DS theme. Plus, you can transfer Hyrule Warriors Legends characters into the Wii U version. Also revealed was Medli. The harp wielder from Wind Waker is a free download available when the first DLC releases.

• Disney is making an art game called Disney Art Academy. It will teach players how to draw in a variety of styles.
• Bravely Second was show briefly, including the new caster variations that allow you to combine spells. There will be a demo available for the game that includes an exclusive side story that will allow you to carry rewards into the main game. Oh, and theres a Catmancer. A Cat…mancer. The demo will be available on March 10th with the game launching on April 15th.

Dragon Quest 7 is coming to the 3DS in America. Regarded by many as a classic, the game has been totally remastered, giving characters updated looks and bringing the world into 3D. The story has also been completely retranslated. Nintendo promises it will feel like a new game. The game comes out later this year.

• Monster Hunter X is coming to the west as Monster Hunter Generations in Summer 2016. If you play on a system with Monster Hunter 4 save data present, you will get special bonus content. There will also be a special collaboration that lets you dress your hunter as Marth from Fire Emblem.
• Metroid Prime: Federation Force was shown off. Nintendo tried very very hard to convince us that it belongs in the Metroid universe. We here at the station were NOT convinced.
• Rhythm Heaven MegaMix is coming to 3DS. It offers 100 games from the series past and 30 new ones.

The final big announcement was Kirby: Planet Robobot.  In this new adventure, Kirby still copies abilities like always. But he also has a robobot armor that can destroy pieces of the environment as well as copy abilities of it’s own. There is also a new four player co-operative quest mode that has you and friends fighting bosses. Along the way, you can collect pieces of tablets to unleash a massive team attack. And you can level up your Kirby’s and become stronger and take on tougher bosses. The game is also Amiibo compatible. Certain Amiibos will give Kirby character specific abilites, such as Mario giving Kirby the UFO ability. The game will also launch a new line of Kirby Amiibo when it comes out on June 10th. These Amiibos will grant Kirby a copy ability and a costume. And the new Kirby grants an exclusive UFO power.

After speculation on it yesterday, we finally have confirmation – Pokemon Sun & Moon are real and they’re coming some time this year.

In a Nintendo Direct that recounted the last 20 years of Pokemon game releases and showed video of games from all the generations in all languages that they were available in, it was announced that the new games Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon are going to have a worldwide release in late 2016. In addition, both games will be available in the previous seven languages that games have had as well as two new ones – regular and simplified Chinese.

It was also announced that the first Pokemon games – Red, Yellow and Blue – are going to be released to the Nintendo eShop tomorrow as paid digital downloads. It was explained that while Nintendo had always endeavored to have two different generations backwards compatible, they’d never been able to make the connectivity link between the Game Boy and DS hardware work. So therefore with these new digital download versions, it’s now possible for you to get Pokemon from the original generation games into Sun & Moon (and possibly the other modern Pokemon games, but that wasn’t stated so we’ll have to see).

Speculation about the new games started when the logos for both games were leaked, as well as trademark filings for “Pokemon Sun” and “Pokemon Moon” in Europe being revealed. Domain names were also registered for both games that directed back to the main Pokemon website.

Obviously right now, little more is known about the games but as news emerges we’ll update you. Stay tuned for more!

Pokemon Direct will take place tomorrow, during which Nintendo will celebrate 20 years of one of its most popular franchises.

One day ahead of this, a trademark request was filed in Europe for the titles, “Pokemon Moon” and “Pokemon Sun”, which are speculated to be the next games in the franchise.

If so, they will be the first non-remake main series Pokemon games since X & Y were released in October 2013, over 2 years ago.  Trademarks for the logos have also been filed.

Station Manager’s Edit: As these are unconfirmed title names, we will be following closely and will update any information related to these games. But Lone really wanted us to cover it, so we made k1ng0fspades write three lines of text whilst being waterboarded by maniacal hamsters.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for several months, you might be aware that 2016 has been declared the “Year of Pokémon” by Nintendo in honour of the franchise’s 20th Anniversary. Nintendo are definitely the kind to celebrate in style, with plenty of Pokémon-themed treats announced for the year, such as a Tekken-Pokémon Cross co-developed by Namco Bandai themselves (Pokkén Tournament); and new 2DS and “New 3DS XL” Designs with the original Pokémon Red and Blue built in – but what could be sweeter than to get some free Pokémon for your games?

Following the Announcement that download codes for Mew are being made available and can be picked up from any GAME store in the UK until the end of February, Nintendo have now announced that for the rest of 2016, there will be another Legendary Pokémon given away every month for the first four weeks of the month. Some of the Pokémon will be made available in-game for download via Mystery Gift; others will be in-store promotions with Nintendo’s retail partners.

Which retailers? Our sources reliably inform us that American distribution of the Pokémon we’ve marked as “Retailer” below will take place at most GameStop stores. And for the UK? Well, Nintendo typically partner with GAME for promotions such as these; and with Mew already available there until the end of the month, it’s a pretty safe bet we’ll see the others hit there too.

So here it is – the full list of Pokémon being given away, when and where:

• Celebi: March 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Jirachi: April 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Darkrai: May 1 – 24 (Retailer)
• Manaphy: June 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Shaymin: July 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Arceus: August 1 – 24 (Retailer)
• Victini: September 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Keldeo: October 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
• Genesect: November 1 – 24 (Retailer)
• Meloetta: December 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)

With every generation having a legendary represented, never has there been a better time to catch them all!