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There’s nothing better than playing old-school classic games on the original hardware. Sure, software emulators, Nintendo’s Virtual Console, and Steam re-releases may make it far easier to play older games and even bring them with you, but there’s just something about using the original controllers and playing on dedicated hardware that just feels right. Problem is, when those consoles are approaching three decades old, are chunky as hell, and the cartridges likely to now be rusted-out and playable – not to mention they use the kind of outputs like coaxial cables that are practically unheard of on modern generation TVs – who really wants to go to the effort of setting up an original NES once again to play games like Castlevania the way they were meant to be played?
If you’re one of the people who agrees with everything I just said, you might find Nintendo’s newest product announcement of interest. Enter the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition, a mini replica of the original console. The NES Classic Edition is designed to give you the feel of playing on original NES Hardware – the controller even looks and feels like the original – while removing all the inconveniences. While it won’t read your cartridges, the NES Classic Edition packs in 30 of the NES’s classic titles, which together offer a well-rounded sample of the best of NES history even if there are some decidedly odd choices – SUPER C but not the original Contra? Come on, Nintendo!
The full list of included games runs as follows: Balloon Fight, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, Galaga, Ghosts’n Goblins, Gradius, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Kirby’s Adventure, Mario Bros., Mega Man 2, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Pac-Man, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream, StarTropics, SUPER C, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tecmo Bowl, The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
All this is packed into a miniaturised replica of the original NES hardware that’s small enough stand on your outstretched palm. The package also includes a HDMI cable so that the games can be played on modern HDTVs, and a single NES Classic Controller. The controllers and ports use the Firewire standard as used on the Wii Controller for its accessories – so sorry, original NES peripherals won’t work here, like they’d have much use anyway.
The system launches this November 11th for $59.99 across North America and the UK. However, it is interesting to note that the UK edition will not launch with its own AC adapter, which is included with the North American edition. Cheers for that, Nintendo. We still remember the 3DS XL…
Disney is putting an end to their Disney Infinity toy-game line and discontinuing their “self-published console games business,” the company said today. After June, Infinity will stop getting new updates.
Disney is also shutting down Avalanche Software, the Utah-based studio responsible for Infinity. As a result, around 300 people will lose their jobs.
Along with cancellation of “Infinity,” Disney is closing Avalanche studio in Utah. Close to 300 jobs will be cut.
“This was a difficult decision that we did not take lightly given the quality of Disney Infinity and its many passionate fans,” Disney said in a statement.
There will be two new Disney Infinity releases in May and June before the series ends for good: one based on Alice Through The Looking Glass, and a second from Finding Dory.
“Our goal for Disney Infinity was to bring the best of Disney storytelling to life in homes around the world, and with your support we accomplished that,” GM John Blackburn wrote on their blog. “We hope you had as much fun playing the game as we had making it.”
This news comes just two months after Disney announced that there will be no new edition of Infinity this year, as there had been since the series launched in 2013.
Disney says they plan to continue licensing their properties to other video game publishers but will no longer make their own console games.
On a call with investors this afternoon, Disney boss Bob Iger said that “the risk had caught up with” his company and that they were pleased with the success of the first Disney Infinity, but sales went downhill after that. “[The video game] business is a changing business,” Iger said of the company’s pivot out of making games. “We did not have enough confidence in the business in terms of it being stable enough.”
Pokémon fans, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for! Earlier today Nintendo released the first official footage of Pokémon Sun and Moon, confirming such details as the next generation of Starter Pokémon, the name of the next Region, the games’ release dates and more!
Pokémon Sun and Moon will be set in the Alola Region, a name that immediately springs to mind Hawaiian Islands or such similar climates, though it’s unclear as yet just where the real life basis of the new region may lie if any. Artwork of the new region was shown during the footage and appears to depict an island with various different land types, which may make for a very varied journey.
But what’s a new region without new Pokémon? As always, the next generation of Pokémon introduces a bunch of new critters to catch; and as always, you’ll start the game by choosing your starter from the standard mix of a Fire, a Water or a Grass type. Gen VII’s Water-type is known as Popplio and is based on a performing seal, who appears to like to blow bubbles and balance them on his nose. The appropriately-named Litten is your Fire-type choice, being a kitten capable of breathing fire; and the trio is completed with Rowlet, a Grass/Flying-type Bird Pokémon capable of launching its feathers like Razor Leaves, at least so the art implies. You can see all three in action in the video below. Oh, and apparently, the character who gives you your starter will be named Hala, though this may be different in other regions.
A lot of people complained about the character customisation options introduced in X and Y being taken out of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and while it has not yet been confirmed if full character customisation is to make a return in Sun and Moon, the footage appears to show the character’s shirt and shorts differing in certain scenes, hinting to a potential return. Nintendo HAVE, however, confirmed that you will be able to change your skin pigmentation, as with X and Y, so it seems some customisability is planned at least.
The very last thing revealed today was the official box-art for English-language regions, which you can see above (click them for a larger image). This artwork also offers one more tantalising new fact – a look at the Legendaries of the two new games. Sun’s legendary seems to mix Pyroar with Reshiram in the appearance stakes; while Moon’s entry seems to be a very cool anthropomorphic bat with crescent-shapes on its wings and head.
Pokémon Sun and Moon will be released on November 18th 2016 in the US, Australia and Japan; and November 23rd in Europe – WHY NO SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE, NINTENDO?!? You proved it possible with X and Y, after all… Oh well, a five-day wait doesn’t seem all that bad. Hopefully we’ll have more tantalising info to share about Pokémon Sun and Moon coming up in the remaining six months to launch, but until then, take a look at the footage below. Until next time, Pokémaniacs!
Fans have been enjoying Miitomo, Nintendo’s first mobile application, since it launched back in March; soon, a new update will improve upon the user experience for the app. According to a recent email from Nintendo, Miitomo will be receiving a new update soon that will add new ways to add friends and more.
The update will allow users to send friend requests to other users via email and “other methods”, allowing you to connect with people who you couldn’t before. It’ll also allow you to answer the same questions as your friends when viewing their answers and edit a Miifoto before posting it as comment, as well as other improvements.
You can check out a screenshot of the email below!
Over a year since it was first teased, we still don’t know what it looks like, plays like, or even what its final name will be – and Nintendo don’t plan to spill the beans until later this year. But now, thanks to a Tweet by Nintendo of America (based on information discreetly hidden in Nintendo of Japan’s annual financial report), we DO finally have one piece of concrete information about the upcoming Nintendo “NX” console – it’s launch date:
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) 27 April 2016
March 2017. Just under a year away from the date of this article’s publication. For Nintendo, however, the launch likely can’t come soon enough. The Wii U has failed to resonate with players, with the GamePad being seen as a gimmick and games such as Splatoon and Bayonetta not doing enough to pull people on side; and the console’s lack of power compared to the XBox One and PS4 has seen its third-party support dwindle into near-nothingness. That Nintendo has taken a hit for the console’s failure was apparent in the annual fiscal report, revealing that Nintendo as a whole made 45.3 billion yen less in the last 12 months than the previous financial year, though this still equates to 504.5 billion yen or roughly £3.116 billion British Pounds.
Importantly, however, Nintendo’s operating income came in at 32.8 billion yen last year, an increase of 8 billion yen. The company predicts that its move towards smartphones, combined with the launch of the NX, will pay off in the next year and aim to hit 45 billion yen in operating income by the end of the 2016/17 financial year.
Of course, Nintendo may also have another ace in the sleeve to get people back on-side – a dynamite launch title. Nintendo also announced today, in a separate announcement to the fans, that the long-awaited Zelda Wii U title has once again been delayed to 2017, for “further quality testing”; and that the game will now launch simultaneously for both the Wii U and the NX – meaning that a new Zelda title may well be a launch title for the next console as well as a swansong for the current generation, paralleling the launch of Twilight Princess for Wii and GameCube ten years ago. 2017 may well be an interesting year for Nintendo fans.
