As everyone knows, the premise of Nintendo’s popular beat-em-up franchise Super Smash Bros. revolves around characters from several different Nintendo game series, who would never normally meet in their own games, coming together for an all-out brawl. But with the upcoming games Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U throwing not just more Nintendo characters into the mix such as the Wii Fit Trainer and the Animal Crossing human, but also entries from Namco (Pacman) and Capcom (Mega Man) joining too, Nintendo thinks it might be a good time for us to familiarise ourselves with the games behind the new names ahead of the official launch.

Nintendo UK and Nintendo of Europe today jointly announced a new promotion, cleverly – if lengthily – titled “Super Smash Bros. Character Sale: New Challengers“. Starting today (14th August) for one week, Nintendo gamers across the UK and Europe will be able to download select eShop titles for 3DS or Wii U featuring one of Smash’s more recent faces – from the old classics like Pac-Man and the six Mega Man NES titles, to more recent entries such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf – each at a generous discount ranging from 20% to 50% off the original eShop prices.

(Click to enlarge) These pictures, tweeted by Nintendo, show the games and discounts offered to gamers in the UK (left) and elsewhere in Europe (right).

Punch-out fighter Little Mac gets a double-billing with his two debut games, Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! both at 50% off. Mii Characters also get two seperate outings, with Wii U owners getting Wii Party U for 30% off (now £24.49 / €31.49); while 3DS owners get Tomodachi Life at 20% off (£27.99 / €31.99) – weirdly, this results in Wii Party U, which is normally five Euros more expensive than Tomodachi Life for the rest of Europe, actually becoming the better deal, now undercutting by just half a Euro.

With the surprising introduction of the Wii Fit trainer as a fighter, Wii U users exclusively get Wii Fit U for 30% off this week too (now £20.99 / €24.49). Meanwhile, 3DS owners get the double-whammy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Kid Icarus: Uprising also at 30% off each (£24.49 / €27.99 and £20.99 / €24.49 respectively). Always-hungry pill-popper Pac-Man gets his classic arcade outing reduced to 50% off for both 3DS and Wii U. Finally for all you Mega Man fans (yay!), prepare for a Mega week as all six of Mega Man’s original NES outings are 50% off on 3DS and Wii U as well.

As the new challengers prepare to square off against unfamiliar opponents in Nintendo’s arena, this week gives Nintendo fans the chance to play their histories for even less than before. Who are you backing?

Earlier today, the Korean version of the official Pokémon website uploaded a picture and screenshot confirming two hitherto unknown Mega Evolutions.

Since Generation 6 began with Pokémon X and Y, Nintendo and Game Freak have committed themselves to simultaneous worldwide releases for all main-series Pokémon titles. With the different regions speaking a total of eight different languages, naturally Nintendo have since set up a series of websites for Pokémon in each language to allow each region to know exactly what to expect in each game. Theoretically, the websites SHOULD contain the same information – just translated. So when new information is due to go up on the websites, Nintendo send them the information with instructions to not put it live until a certain date, so that each region hears about it at the same time. But on Tuesday, it appears one of them jumped the gun.

For a short while earlier today (Tuesday), the official Korean Pokémon website revealed details of two new Mega Evolutions, Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino. The website contained a series of screenshots showing both in battle; as well as official artwork on both formes and brief details. Neither Pokémon have been officially revealed by Nintendo, however, resulting in the information being removed from the website just minutes later – but not before observant fans managed to save some of the pictures for themselves.

The description of the two Pokémon, according to a subsequent translation effort by Serebii, lists Mega Audino as a Normal/Fairy-type with the ability Healer. Mega Slowbro has no typing listed – which usually happens when the Mega Evolution keeps the same type as the original Pokémon, so it can be assumed that it retains a Water/Psychic-typing. It has the ability Shell Armor.

As we continue down the road towards the eventual release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, more and more Mega Evolutions are being revealed; and it remains to be seen just how many more there could be. Also still waiting to be filled in are details of the Primal Evolution mechanic used by Groudon and Kyogre; and whether any of these forms are usable in the other Gen 6 games, Pokémon X and Y. Pokémon fans around the world continue to watch intensely for the next reveal!

The latest edition of Japan’s most popular gaming magazine, CoroCoro, has revealed three new Mega Evolutions of existing Pokémon which are apparently going to feature in the upcoming Pokémon titles, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Revealed in pictures and short descriptions in the magazine are Mega formes of Altaria, Lopunny and Salamance. According to translators, Mega Altaria will be a Dragon/Fairy with the Pixilate ability, while the decidedly odd-looking Mega Salamance does not have any typing mentioned, but will receive the Aerilate ability. Finally, Mega Lopunny completes its translation from cute bunny rabbit to serious bunny brawler, becoming a Normal/Fighting type with the Scrappy ability and also being able to now learn the move Hi Jump Kick.

      
Click images to enlarge. Images Courtesy Serebii.net

Also revealed in the magazine was more information about contests, which are already known to be returning in OR/AS. During a contest, it appears dressing up certain Pokémon in particular clothing will allow them access to unique moves specifically for use in a contest, Pikachu was confirmed to have four unique costume moves – a Rock Star costume grants it the move Meteor Mash, while a costume referred to as “Pikachu Ph.D” gives it Electric Terrain. Pikachu Pop Star knows Draining Kiss, Pikachu Belle knows Icicle Crash and Pikachu Libre knows Flying Press.

The special clothes will be made available by meeting up with a Contest Idol in the game called Lucia, though she may not be the only source of such clothing. It appears the clothing items now are more complete costumes, rather than the individual props as featured in Gen IV’s Super Contests and Gen V’s musicals – though whether such props still exist is unconfirmed. Also still unconfirmed are exactly how contests will work in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, as while signs point towards a system akin to the Gen IV Super Contests, no screenshots or information about a contest in-play have yet been shared. Surely though, it’s just a matter of time.

Four years ago, Nintendo discontinued making physical appearances at E3 in favour of digital presentations – deciding that, as trailers and video make up a large part of what gets shown off for a video game, it’s cheaper to just put the whole event on-screen than actually send people to turn up at the event and talk. This year was no different, but Nintendo DID see fit to make a joke of on-screen presentations with the intro to this year’s Digital Event, with clips of a CGI audience who would heckle Reggie Fils-Aime twice during the course of the event – and subsequently get laser-eyed or beaten up before moving on to the next presentation. It’s a charming Nintendo-isation of the realities of E3 and a perfect demonstration of what Nintendo’s about – making you smile.

Yes, Day 1 of E3 kicked off today and to kick off proceedings, Nintendo took the “stage” for its annual Digital Event. In an hour of non-stop reveals, trailers and on-screen appearances and interviews both real and digitized, over a dozen games were revealed or had further information shown off about them; and we even heard of a new Nintendo toy line coming out and how it’ll tie in with Mario Kart 8 and future Nintendo titles, plus a new character reveal for Smash Bros.!

Over the coming hours I’ll be writing articles on each game and what was revealed. But here’s a quick run-down:

• Super Smash Bros.: Mii characters become playable fighters for the first time and can be customised for three specific types of fighting.
• Amiibo: New line of NFC-enabled toys from Nintendo that will be compatible with Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros Wii/3DS and many future titles.
• Yoshi’s Wooly World: Gameplay footage, discussion of the concept, 2-player co-op revealed.
• Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker: Puzzle game featuring Toad as main character, release Winter 2014.
• Open-World plans for a future Zelda title discussed.
• Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: New Trailer launched with some game-play footage and first look at Groudon and Kyogre’s new formes.
• Bayonetta 2: will include original Bayonetta; and Zelda and Samus costumes.
• First look at Hyrule Warriors, launching September 19, 2014.
• Digmbot gets angry on Twitter following last announcement.
• First look at plans for a new, as-yet untitled Kirby game coming 2015.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: New footage.
• Mario Maker: Create-your-own-Mario-level Wii U game revealed.
• First look at Splatoon, “a 4-on-4 game about controlling territory” – by dressing as squids and shooting ink. Seriously.
• “One more thing”: Lady Palutena joins the fight in Smash Bros; two S.FM staff members go crazy at the news.

There was a lot of exciting news to be seen in the hour-long presentation; and Nintendo even ended by saying that they still have much more to reveal that they just didn’t have time for. Personally, I think the titles they focused on this time around were carefully selected and made a lot of sense – mostly big titles, a few First looks in the middle, new first-party titles being announced that aren’t anything like what you may have expected, an interesting third-party effort to round off and Smash Bros. buffering both ends. I was personally surprised to see Mario Maker announced – the ability to make your own Mario levels had been a common fan request for Mario titles from almost the beginning; but while fans have often made their own self-developed game engines to do the job themselves, or have ROM-hacked the official games to introduce their own levels (we at Sanitarium.FM do NOT condone this practice!), over the years the idea of a Nintendo-authored, official tool or feature to do this just began to felt like a pipe dream. Now it’s finally happening, my question is – what took you so long, Nintendo?!? (Admittedly, the Wii U may well be the best platform for the tool what with it’s controller with built-in touch-screen offering an excellent interface for level creation; and the large TV screen offering tons of space to work with – a DS screen may not have offered anywhere near the real estate for the game or its interface.)

However, my pick of the crop has to be the announcement of Amiibo – the idea of NFC-enabled Nintendo figures was actually discussed in the Wii U promotional material before it even launched; and with Skylanders already showing how it can be done, it’s about time Nintendo got into the game too. The idea of the figures not just representing the characters though, but also acting as storage to keep your own character’s stats and enhancements on within compatible games seems like an interesting concept though; and seeing how the figures will be cross-compatible with multiple Nintendo titles which are likely to be very different in play – Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. aren’t even in the same genre! – it may well turn out to be something quite big indeed for Nintendo. Stay tuned!