Demo Impressions: Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)
Demos do a lot to make or break people’s opinions about a game. They’re designed to get people excited about a new release and give you just a taste of what to expect if you buy the full version of the game. Nintendo just began offering demos for retail 3DS games as downloads through the Nintendo eShop. The first did available did a lot to make me interested in picking up Resident Evil: Revelations. How does the demo for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games do in making me want to buy that game?
Zombie Slayer Diox Trailer
UFO Interactive is currently publishing one game on the eShop called Samurai Sword Destiny, which is a side scrolling brawler similar to Muramasa: The Demon Blade. They’ve just released the trailer for another game that will be coming to the eShop later this year called Zombie Slayer Diox. (The x is silent) It’s a rhythm game where the whole point of the game is to kill as many zombies as you can. Based solely on the trailer I’m actually pretty interested in this one.
Pomona, CA (January 27th, 2012) – UFO Interactive Games, Inc., a leading publisher of interactive entertainment, proudly unveils Zombie Slayer Diox™ for the Nintendo 3DS™ eShop. Zombie Slayer Diox™ is a rhythm-action game with a side-scrolling twist! Designed and developed by UFO Interactive Games internally, Zombie Slayer Diox™ puts you into the jeans and leather boots of a samurai guitarist in the year 20xx. Zombies have taken over most major cities in the world and our hero, Diox, is on a quest to put an end to the undead. Diox lures the zombies with his sweet songs and sick guitar solos, and he cuts them down with his mighty katana when they get close. There is a rumor that deep within zombie territory, a super guitar amp exists that can be used to kill thousands of zombies at once with a strum of a simple power chord… Zombie Slayer Diox™ is set for release early 2012.
Resident Evil: Revelations Drops in Price
If you were one of the people interested in buying Resident Evil: Revelations when it launches next month you might have also been someone who was dismayed at the fact that it was going to cost you $50. Well, friend, fret no more as Capcom, after “weeks of effort,” has announced that the game will be officially dropping in price to $39.99, a full $10 less than before and on par with all of the other 3DS software available.
Much of the reason that Capcom was giving as to the increased cost was the fact that the game uses a 4GB card, which no other game to date has used. I was afraid this was going to signal the beginning of the price creep that we also saw on the DS when games slowly rose from $20-30 up to $40, but it appears that Capcom won’t the trend setter here.
Iwata Announces New 3DS Mario Game
Don’t you love game announcements that come with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever? That just happened. During all this financial talk Mr. Iwata announced a new game.
…Although there is no logo here, we are planning to release a totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D as a key title for the Nintendo 3DS in the next fiscal year.
So, new side scrolling Mario for the 3DS? With the news I just posted could this be a downloadable title, or another game in the New Super Mario Bros franchise? Could it be something else altogether? We’ll have to wait until E3 to find out.
Is Nintendo Considering Digital Distribution?
The Iwata Asks features and Mr. Iwata’s comments after investor’s meetings are always full of all kinds of information, some of which you don’t really expect to hear someone from Nintendo saying. One of the things that caught my eye in all of this talk was a comment about Nintendo and their future in the digital market.
The company has been going on and on about how they feel that the digital market is a huge place where they can expand to and they’re working very hard to establish their presence in that space and make it a viable option for Nintendo going forward. Sony is going full force into this space by making all of their retail games available day and date as digital downloads as well. That just means that any game that you want to buy you can either get a physical copy from a retail store or download it straight from the Playstation store.
The following comment shows that Nintendo is also setting themselves up to have the same thing happen for Nintendo systems, potentially the 3DS, but more likely with the Wii U.
For the digital sales of the content, we are also considering the future possibility of digital distribution of packaged software, which is often referred to as “software download sales.” This concept was built into the design of the Nintendo 3DS, and we already have the necessary infrastructure. We will prepare the same infrastructure for the Wii U. However, we have not decided the concrete timing of when we will start it. The decision must be made by taking into consideration such factors as the relationship with the wholesalers and retailers, and the best way to be embraced by consumers, as well as the environment surrounding the market and consumers, such as the required memory capacity on consumers’ SD memory cards. However, as an option for the future, the significance of this business field will increase.
So, even Nintendo realizes that the digital market is where the industry is heading and that they know if they want to be able to survive they’ve got to get into that space full force. I can imagine buying a Wii U and being able to access the Nintendo store to download games and the space options are available to do the same on the 3DS. Nintendo has said that the Wii U will be able to have external storage hooked up so the space issue won’t be a factor for that system and the games on the 3DS are still small enough that you could end up with a lot of them before needing to expand memory options in some way.
I’m glad to see that Nintendo understands the market and where things are heading. It makes one hopeful for the future.
Nintendo Increases Net Financial Loss, What Can They Do To Fix It?
Nintendo’s in a rather unusual position as of late. They’re losing money. It was announced today that the company has adjusted their financial forecast for the year which ends on March 31st from ¥20 billion to ¥56 billion. This comes after years of record profit thanks to great sales from the Wii and the DS. The 3DS didn’t get off to the start that the company wanted and that contributed to these last nine months of declining income for Nintendo. Even investors aren’t happy as Nintendo’s stock is currently trading at the lowest that it has in more than five years. So what can Nintendo do to turn things around and get them moving in the right direction?
Wii U To Launch Late 2012
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata spoke to reporters after a recent earnings report where we found out the company was expecting some big financial losses for the quarter. During that talk he mentioned a time frame for when the Wii U would be launching. Previous to now reports were sometime in 2012, followed by the second half of 2012 and now we have an even more specific time frame; “for the year-end season.”
This puts the Wii U closer to a November launch time frame than I’ve previously believed. During that talk he also mentioned that the system would be out in all four major territories of the globe around the same time. This is sounding more and more like a repeat of the Wii launch as we get closer.
Nintendo Looking At Possible Wii U Name Change
The Nintendo Wii wasn’t always called the Wii. During the console’s development cycle the system was known as, what I think was a better name, Revolution. The Wii name was implemented shortly before the system launched and took people by surprise. Eventually everyone warmed to the name and it wasn’t a big deal anymore.
Nintendo’s next console launches later this year and is currently known as the Wii U. It’s apparently causing a lot of confusion among people who don’t know if this is something completely new or an add-on for the existing console. Reports are circulating that Nintendo’s top staff are considering a name change for the system that could be unveiled at E3.
A lot of this talk stems from the confusion that has been caused among consumers over the 3DS. With that system having a name so close to its predecessor many people apparently felt that it was just another iteration of the DS that wasn’t necessary and not a completely new device altogether. Nintendo is hoping to avoid that with this talk of possibly rebranding Wii U into something else.
I personally liked Revolution and hoped Nintendo would have kept for that Wii. If you were in charge of Nintendo’s marketing department what would you name Nintendo next home console?
Go Round – Donkey Kong Country
This week we have another animal themed Go Round but instead of frogs we have monkeys. Donkey Kong Country is a great game but Will and I are not the best co-op partners. Mostly we try to kill each other and make jokes that are hopefully PG. Bananas for everyone in this jungle adventure.
Mario Party 9 Trailer
I’m a rather big fan of the Mario Party games. I’ve played all of them since Mario Party 3 on the N64 and enjoyed most of them. We’ve been waiting a while since Mario Party 8 came out to get the next game in the franchise, but it’s coming soon and this trailer makes it look like it’s going to be pretty good. I’m interested.
Top Story
Gameplay Challenge: 3-Minute Brawl
Contest
Reader Poll
Friend Code Exchange
The Great Friend Code ExchangeFind Us
